Broadband: Towards a universal service

Australia needs a fundamental re-think of its USO policy in view of the 10 years of experience with competition policy in telecommunications and the need to ensure equity for consumers in national broadband policy. The changes proposed here would provided benefits for consumers, supplies and government. A new USO policy could be financed from the annual interest accrued by the Future Fund, currently estimated to be of the order of $3.8 billion. Such interest returns would be transferred to fund two major components of a new USO policy -- continuation of the existing obligations related to voice and pay phones, as well as the provision of capital towards new infrastructure commitments for new high speed broadband services. Australia simply cannot afford NOT to have an imaginative national high speed broadband policy including workable policies to ensure access and affordability for all Australians.