Just how much optical fibre does Australia have and where is it - know one seems to know.

The following is from a release by Robert Brand director of the Rural BASH company and RuralComms newsletter:

At the recent ATUG 2005 conference we took the opportunity to talk to several key industry players about the state of fibre penetration in Australia. It became obvious that there was no definitive source of information and this at a time when it is critical to our decisions about the sale of Telstra and the use of money following the sale.

The Rural BASH believes that full disclosure of this information by all carriers is critical before Telstra can be sold. Before we sell off a major asset, we need to get some visibility of what we are selling!

The Rural BASH spoke with Senator Coonan's office today and discovered that although the Minister has some visibility of the extent of fibre through resources at DCITA, it is by no means complete and it is not clear what percentage of the total picture it represents.

So who does have a complete picture of this country from a fibre perspective? No one is the simple answer.

Robert Brand, Director of Rural BASH and editor of RuralComms newsletter said: "If you tried to run the country without knowing what you had in the bank, you'd be kicked out of office soon enough or send the country bankrupt. This is no different. Selling Telstra without knowing the fibre assets of all carriers is about the same from the Rural BASH perspective".

The National Party through Page Research are suggesting that one way to protect rural Australia is with a national fibre network. The only problem with this is that we do not know the extent of the current network and that fact is not explored in the report.

It would seem that a logical way forward is to use the current regulatory powers to ensure visibility of what we are selling and, failing that, a government mandate to get a clear picture of the whole country. This would not only give us a clear picture of what we are selling, but also a clear picture of what needs to be done to get country Australia into good shape for the future.