Australia - 2007 - the year ahead

Synopsis

2007 will be a year of acceleration in the telecommunications industry. With the advent of higher-speed broadband infrastructure more applications will be developed. Federal and state government funding will increase overall investment to above $5 billion. The federal election will motivate both the government and the opposition to focus on some of our telco issues, as they are of national significance, visionary and attract the attention of both the public and the media. In the meantime we keep chipping away in the regulatory arena and margins are slowly starting to improve for the competitors. The focus will further shift from mobile to fixed telecom developments. Overall growth of 3%, but double-digit growth in some of the emerging technology markets. And we will pass the 4 million broadband mark in the first part of the year.