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AUSTRALIA
• Population: 20.5 million*
• 16 million Internet users**
• 4.4 million broadband subs**
• 2.1 million pay-TV subs**
Major operators:
• Austar – Second-largest pay-TV operator; offers satellite TV, Internet and mobile telephony services; 679,000 pay-TV subs.**
• Foxtel – Largest pay-TV operator; offers satellite TV services; 1.5 million pay-TV subs**; by January 2007,100 percent of subs received digital services.
• Optus – Offers broadband and fixed and mobile telephony services; 1.2 million mobile subs**; 350,000 broadband subs**; upgraded cable network offers
speeds of up to 20 Mbps in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
• Telstra – Offers broadband, satellite TV, and fixed and mobile telephony services; 3.3 million mobile subs**;390,000 pay-TV bundling subs (via Foxtel and Austar)*; 336,000 cable broadband subs**; in early 2007, trialed a DOCSIS 3.0 HFC upgrade in Melbourne and Sydney; current network offers two-way transmission for interactive services; upgrading its network to a next-generation network (NGN) and has started rolling out fiber-to-the-node (FTTN); NGN will combine current voice, data, IP and DSL networks into a single IP/MPLS core network.
• TransACT – Offers triple-play services; in January, acquired Neighbourhood Cable (NC); network mostly uses existing electricity poles.
Country facts:
• DSL dominates the market with a nearly 70 percent market share.
• Networks are based on fiber optic backbones; both HFC networks and copper-based cable (DSL) are used.
• Network upgrades in the next decade will lead to fiber supplying clusters of around 50 to 200 houses; from that time onward, full fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) will take over; by 2018, 90 percent of Australia’s national network could be upgraded with an FTTN rollout.
• Pay TV penetration at the end of 2007 stood at 24 percent.
• Free-to-Air (FTA) TV as a mass communications medium has been unsurpassed for many decades, but the industry now faces challenges from incumbent broadcasters.
• Digital FTA TV has been held up in a vicious cycle since it was launched in 2001; available content, beyond simply offering better picture quality, has been insufficient to help drive digital TV; in March 2007, digital TV penetration stood at 28 percent.
• In order to gain more market share, service providers need to either offer more affordable, attractive packages or include a broadband offering within an affordably priced package.
• Foxtel plans to implement a new interactive platform that will enable Foxtel and Austar viewers to receive ads based on their viewer profile and viewing habits.
• In November, Telstra announced plans to launch a hybrid pay-TV and broadband home gateway with Foxtel; work has been undertaken to create a simplified entertainment and telco services box for the home market.
SINGAPORE
• Population: 4.6 million***
• 5.8 million mobile subs***
• 3.5 million broadband subs***
• 488,400 DSL subs
• 399,200 cable modem subs
• 1.9 million fixed telephone lines in service***
• 505,000 cable TV subs**
• 400,000 digital subs
Major operators:
• MobileOne – Offers mobile telephony service; 1.5 million mobile subs.**
• Pacific Internet (PacNet) – Second-largest ISP.
• Singapore Cable Vision (SCV) – Offers cable TV, iTV, telephony and broadband services; 499,000 cable TV subs*; 395,600 broadband subs.**
• SingTel – Offers broadband, fixed and mobile telephony, and fixed/mobile convergence (FMC) services, as well as VOD content; 2.3 million mobile subs**; first operator to offer an FMC service; SingNet, the company’s Internet arm,is the largest ISP.
• StarHub – Offers cable TV, broadband and telephony services; 1.8 million mobile subs**; 346,000 broadband subs**; in May, announced the successful testing of DOCSIS 3.0 services with speeds exceeding 145 Mbps.
Country facts:
• First country in the world to deploy DSL broadband commercially – SingTel launched
it in 1997.
• Nearly 80 percent of Internet households had broadband access by early 2008; penetration, as of February, stood at 79.5 percent.
* As of September 2007 | ** As of December 2007 | *** As of February 2008 | Source: BuddeComm
