Vodafone calls for National Broadband Network rethink

WHAT if you could pay just one bill for your home internet and mobile phone? Vodafone wants the government to make the NBN available to mobile phone operators to make this dream a reality.

Bill Morrow says the NBN should be made available to mobile phone suppliers.

VODAFONE has called for the government to make the National Broadband Network available to mobile network operators.

At the release of a report commissioned by the telco, CEO Bill Morrow said the NBN lacked a strategy for delivering mobile internet but said that could easily be rectified without making any major changes to the way the NBN operates.

The report from independent think tank the McKell Institute recommended the NBN deploy "micro-cells" - mini mobile phone towers or base stations that could be placed around major metropolitan areas such as shopping centres and schools - in order to draw traffic away from cell towers and decrease the traffic burden on networks.

In regional areas, Vodafone recommended the NBN use its fixed wireless towers to deploy mobile phone and data signals.

Deployed correctly, Mr Morrow told news.com.au that there was no reason Australian customers should continue to pay separate bills for their home internet and mobile service.

He said that the technology already exists to extend your home internet connection to your suburb, work and potentially the entire city you live in.

"I could buy one service for everything in my house from my over-the-top applications on my TV, to the portability I need for moving a tablet around, to the mobility I have with my smartphone going across multiple networks and locations," Mr Morrow told news.com.au. "That's how we need to think about the applications of the future.

"It's going to be applications that ride over the top of that, that stitch everything together, machine to machine."

Mr Morrow said it's time for the NBN and telecommunications industry to stop thinking of fixed line and wireless broadband as separate entities.

Mobile broadband is more important than ever he said, especially considering that 47 per cent of Australians accessed the internet via a mobile phone in 2012. Another 23 per cent accessed the web via a mobile broadband device such as a tablet or laptop.

More importantly, making the NBN available to mobile providers would bring much needed funds to the economy.

More than 50 per cent of retail, finance and property businesses are expected to offer customers mobile websites within the next three to five years, the report claimed.

And 48 per cent of businesses will allow for mobile transactions over the next 3-5 years.

A report by Deloitte predicted that mobile phone technologies would deliver $11.8 billion in productivity benefit between 2011-2025.

Cisco recently estimated that demand for mobile data in Australia would grow by a factor of 14 between 2011 and 2016.

"Australia has yet to capitalise on its investment in broadband infrastructure," Vodafone stated in the report. "This investment has the potential to drive a series of consumer, business and public benefits. To receive the full benefits we need to get the policy settings right.

"To unlock the potential we need to embrace mobility and deliver better competition, improved coverage and consumer choice. If we do this, we will have realised the full benefit of the investment."

Mr Morrow said the report's recommendations would put an end to the monopoly being run by Telstra in rural areas.

"The very fact that Telstra has a lock on fixed-line business in the same way it has a lock on rural areas in Australia and that's what's inhibiting us from being able to expand into other areas and give in-depth coverage out there," he said.
"Equally as important is providing consumers with choice so they can choose what service they want to use. The NBN could solve all of that if done the right way."