Telekomunikasi di Australia

Telekomunikasi di Australia dikuasai oleh penyedia telekomunikasi, Telstra. Pembekal perkhidmatan telefon lain termasuk Optus (dimilik oleh Singapore Telecommunications), AAPT dan Powertel (kedua-duanya dimiliki oleh Telecom New Zealand), Soul (SP Telemedia), Vodafone dan Hutchison 3G (3 Mobile)

Telefon 

Rangakaian talian telefon Australia utama bergantung asasnya pada suatu rangkaian gentian optik, dengan talian tembaga menghubungkan rumah tangga ke penukaran tempatan. Untuk telefon bimbit, Australia bergantung pada sebuah rangkaian GSM yang berpengaruh. Perkhidmatan telefon bimbit 3G telah diperkenalkan ke pusat-pusat utama pada 2003. 
Sistem telefon biasanya memberikan perkhidmatan dalam negeri dan antarabangsa yang baik.

Dalam negeri:

Sistem satelit dalam negeri dalam negeri untuk digunakan di kawasan-kawasan yang sangat terpencil, pada asasnya satelit Optus C1 D1 dan D2. 

Kabel gentian-optik dalam negeri

Telstra, Optus, Nextgen Networks, PowerTel dan AAPT adalah Rangkaian Intercity utama dengan suatu pengumpulan pemberi lain yang ada rangkaian serantau atau pautan Pantai Timur. 

Pautan mikro gelombang dalam negeri

Telstra adalah pengguna utama paut mikrogelombang di kawasan-kawasan terpencil; WIN Television memberikan suatu rangkaian menara mikrogelombang untuk pengedaran Televisyen, dan memberikan perkhidmatan pembawa umum.  Pemberi-pemberi lain seperti Agile Communications memberi perkhidmatan backhaul di Australia Selatan.

Antarabangsa: 

Kabel gentian-optik ke:

 New Zealand (Southern Cross Cables ke NZ, Hawaii, Tanah besar US) dengan suatu keupayaan 240Gbit/s, dengan suatu ketambahan ke 1.2 Tbit/s dirancang untuk 2007/2008 

 Fiji (Southern Cross Cables ke Fiji, Hawaii, US Mainland); Keupayaan 240Gbit/s dengan ketambahan pada keupayaan atas ke 1.2 Tbit/s Upgrade pada 2007/2008 

 Jepun (kabel Australia-Jepun ke Guam & Jepun); secara asas digunakan sebagai suatu jalan alternative ke Amerika Syarikat dengan suatu keupayaan 2 pasangan gentian 320GB/s.

 Indonesia  (Sea-Me-We3) ke Indonesia dan pada Asia, Middle East, AS & Senarai Negara Komprehensif (Sea-Me-We3); keupayaan 40GB/s.

 Papua New Guinea (APNG2 Terdahulunya sebahagian daripada Pac Rim West); Keupayaan 2x565Mbit/s. 

 Indonesia (Jasaraus Berpautan ke APCN Asia Pacific); Keupayaan 5 GB/s 

Tambahan pula, tiga kabel baru telah dirancang:

 PPC-1, suatu usaha sama PIPE Networks dan Videsh Sanchar Nigam berkaitan ke Guam 
 Telstra-owned cable ke Hawaii 
 Gondwana-1 memberikan suatu pautan dari New Caledonia ke Australia .

Stesen bumi satelit - 10 Intelsat (4 Lautan Hindi dan 6 Lautan Pasifik), 2 Inmarsat (rantau Lautan Hindi dan Teduh) + Several Singtel Optus Earth Stations untuk Satelit terletak di bandar-bandar utama 

Statistik kemilikan:
Telefon - talian utama digunakan: 9.76 juta (2007)
Telefon - telefon bimbit selular: 21.26 juta (2007)

Australia's first telephone service (connecting the Melbourne and South Melbourne offices of Robinson Brothers) was launched in 1879, with the first telephone exchange opened in Melbourne in 1880. Around 7,757 calls were handled in 1884.

The Australian networks were government assets operating under colonial legislation modelled on that of Britain. The UK Telegraph Act 1868 for example empowered the Postmaster General to "acquire, maintain and work electric telegraphs" and foreshadowed the 1870 nationalisation of competing British telegraph companies. 

The nature of the networks meant that regulation in Australia was undemanding: network personnel were government employees or agents, legislation was enhanced on an incremental basis and restrictions could be achieved through infrastructure. All the colonies ran their telegraph networks at a deficit through investment in infrastructure and subsidisation of regional access, generally with bipartisan support.

Government-operated post office and telegraph networks - the largest parts of the bureaucracy - were combined into a single department in each colony on the model of the UK Post Office: South Australia in 1869, Victoria in 1870, Queensland in 1880 and New South Wales in 1893.

Seksyen 51(v) Perlembagaan Australia gave the new national government power over all postal, telegraphic, telephonic and 'other like services'. The latter encompassed future developments such as radio, television and the internet.

The colonial networks (staff, switches, wires, handsets, buildings etc) were transferred to the Commonwealth and became the responsibility of the first Postmaster-General (PMG), a federal Minister overseeing the Postmaster-General's Department that managed all domestic telephone, telegraph and postal services. With 16,000 staff (and assets of over £6 million) it accounted for 90% of the new federal bureaucracy. That figure climbed to over 120,000 staff (around 50% of the federal bureaucracy) by the late sixties.

Public phones were available in a handful of post offices and otherwise restricted to major businesses, government agencies, institutions and wealthier residences. Eight million telegrams were sent that year (?) over 43,000 miles of line. 

There were around 33,000 phones across Australia, with 7,502 telephone subscribers in inner Sydney and 4,800 in the Melbourne central business district. A trunk line between Melbourne (headquarters of the PMG Department) and Sydney was established in 1907, with extension to Adelaide in 1914, Brisbane in 1923, Perth in 1930 and Hobart in 1935.

Overseas cable links to Australia remained in private hands, reflecting the realities of imperial politics, demands on the new government's resources and perceptions of its responsibilities. The PMG department became responsible for some international shortwave services - particularly from the 1920s - and for a new Coastal Radio Service in 1911, with the first of a network of stations operational in February 1912. Australia and New Zealand had ratified the 1906 Berlin Radio-telegraph Convention in 1907.

During the 1930s the PMG became responsible for the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC). Its management of the telecommunications network echoed the values enshrined by the ABC and the BBC. 

In the era of privatization is has been fashionable to backtrack to a time when the PMG was supposedly operated by enlightened technocrats in the national interest and without concerns of profit. That vision is problematical, as it is clear that decisions about the location and management of facilities (switches and service centers) reflected local political demands and the 'Australian Settlement' first articulated by Alfred Deakin. 

The PMG was, after all, a major employer in rural areas, the Minister generally came from the Country Party and there was an emphasis on in-house development and local manufacturing. Governments of whatever persuasion used the organisation as a cash cow; it was not a discrete statutory body or company and faced problems in preventing profits from being absorbed by the national consolidated revenue account.

Pembatalan kawal selia 

In Australia the 1982 Davidson Enquiry regarding private sector involvement in delivery of existing/proposed telecommunications services recommended ending Telecom Australia's monopoly. In the preceding year Aussat Pty Ltd, another government agency, had been established to operate domestic satellite telecommunication and broadcasting services. 

In practice Aussat's charter restricted it from acting as a competitor to Telecom, including a prohibition on interconnecting public switched traffic with Telecom's network. Aussat's viability was undermined through restrictions on raising capital, of critical importance given tepid government support and increasing costs. It wasn't until 1985 that Australia's first geostationary communications satellite was operational; by late 1990 it had debts of about $400 million. 

The Australian Telecommunications Commission was restructured as the Australian Telecommunications Corporation, trading as Telecom Australia, in 1989. That year saw the last domestic telegram handled by Telecom, with responsibility for telegram operations handed over to Australia Post.

Proposals for a merger of Aussat and OTC (thereby permitting national delivery of telecommunication services in competition with Telecom) were rejected in favor of disposal of the satellite operator to a non-government entity that would be allowed to compete with Telecom.

Immediately following the decision that Optus Communications - a private sector entity owned by a consortium that included BellSouth - would be given Australia's second general carrier licence purchased the Satellite assets with many of the Non Satellite Assets remaining with the Government as part of Telstra. 

Cable & Wireless, privatised after several decades of UK government ownership, took a controlling stake in Optus in 1998 (under the banner Cable & Wireless Optus) before control passed to SingTel in 2001.

Optus was initially allowed to enter the Australian telecommunications marketplace for national long distance and international telephone calls, with other players prevented from entering the general telephone market until 1997 and 'pro-competition' mechanisms under the Trade Practices Act 1974- such as guaranteed access to Telecom's existing infrastructure on reasonable terms - meant to ensure its viability. 

Telstra also faced competition in market niches such as long distance corporate voice and data services, with AAPT (a spinoff of the local AAP financial data/news service) active from 1991. MCI Communications, later absorbed by the ill-fated WorldCom, was an early major shareholder of AAPT but departed in 1994. New Zealand's Todd Corporation took a 24.5% stake in AAPT in 1992. In 1995 AAPT launched a mobile phone service, using Vodafone as its network supplier, acquired a 50% of Australian ISP connect.com.au Pty Ltd and bought NewsNet ITN. In the same year SingTel acquired a 24.5% shareholding in AAPT.

In 1996 AAPT bought 40% of Cellular One Communications, followed by QNET Communications. In that year it gained a carrier licence, offering long distance services to the residential market and building communications networks for the South Australian and Victorian governments. It subsequently moved to 100% of CorpTEL Communications, its AAPT Sat-Tel satellite joint venture, connect.com.au and Cellular One. US operator Primus acquired Axicorp (rebadged as Primus Telecom) in 1997, gaining a carriers license and expanding into internet services.

Telstra dan di luar

AOTC was rebadged as Telstra Corporation in 1993, trading internationally as Telstra from that year and domestically as Telstra from 1995. Expansion into Indonesia and other Asian markets was not strikingly successful, with the group winding back overseas involvements in 1997-98. In 1996 Telstra recorded the largest profit in Australian corporate history, some $3.8 billion and was partly privatised in November 1997 through sale by the Commonwealth of around 33.3% of its shareholding. 

The Australia's telecommunications market was formal opened to full competition in July 1997, with removal of restrictions on the number of licensed operators and anti-competition mechanisms (replaced by general competition law under the oversight of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission). The new regime featured a single national phone numbering scheme and any-to-any connectivity requirements, with the expectation that mobile phones, fixed-line phones and other devices would be able to communicate with each other irrespective of whether the service was provided by Telstra or one of its competitors.

A further 16.6% was sold by the Commonwealth in September 1999; but the sale of the government's remaining 50.1% stake required legislation.  In November 2006, after many allegations of conflicts of interest, the government sold an additional 33% stake, with the remaining 17% being placed in a Future Fund, of which the Commonwealth is the primary shareholder.

At the end of 1998 there were over 20 licensed telecommunications carriers controlling facilities in Australia, with several hundred other entities using those facilities to provide services to consumers. That number had climbed to 99 by May 2002 (with 11 licences surrendered); the Australian Communications Authority estimated that the benefits to consumers of telecommunications services from competition in 2000/1 were between $5.5 billion and $12 billion. 

Telstra's recurrent overseas ventures had proved unsuccessful, with withdrawal from some South East Asian markets and major writedowns of joint venture investments such as the $2.7bn Reach undersea cable with Hong Kong-based PCCW. Recurrent takeovers in the software/services sector (eg Solution 6 Holdings, Sausage Software) have proved disappointing, with Telstra buying KAZ Group in 2004 for over $250 million. In 2004 Telstra paid $636 million for the Australian operations of Trader Classified Media NV: two classified ad print publications, five complementary online sites, two automotive inserts and the Trading Post brand.

Cabaran polisi

Telstra meskipun kekal menjadi suatu kedudukan yang berpengaruh - khususnya dalam pasaran perumahan, melalui kemilikan infrastruktur - dan banyak debat awam berpusat pada 
kenasihatan dan kewaktuan untuk penggunaan stek peninggalan kerajaan Komanwel 
takrif 'khidmat asas' (untuk diberikan oleh Telstra dan para pesaing, dalam sesetengah circumstances on a subsidised basis). 
Pengurusan Telstra mengalakkan jualan, yang lain memanggil penahanan stek (atau juga pembelian pegangan swasta), masih yang lain memanggil untuk pelbagai pemisahan khidmat dan aset (dengan misalnya kemilikan awam infrastruktur, dengan banyak menambah untuk membawa broadband ke semua warga Australia - tidak terkiranya kos).

Pakar industri menyatakan kesusahan menghadapi para pesaing lebih kecil Telstra, sering dianggap tidak cukup biaya, atau dengan sokongan yang tidak tentu dari ibu bapa luar negeri yang uzur.

Radio

Stesen radio di Australia termasuk stesen radio komersial, penyiaran dana kebangsaan, (yang utamanya ABC dan SBS) dan stesen radio masyarakat.  Perlesenan diluluskan oleh Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

Pada Februari 2006, Commercial Radio Australia mengumumkan sebuah rangkaian radio digital. 

Stesen siaran radio: AM 262, FM 345, shortwave 1 (1998)
Radio: 25.5 juta (1997)

Televisyen

Stesen siaran percuma di Australia termasuk tiga rangkaian komersial, memancar di pelbagai bahagian negara dengan beberapa stesen, dua siaran dana kebangsaan  ABC dan SBS), suatu bilangan kecil stesen televisyen masyarakat, dan sesetengah perkhidmatan siaran data digital.

Australia sedang beralih ke siaran percuma digital dan akan memfasakan keluar siaran analog tidak awal daripada 2010. Peraturan TV digital Australian memanggil untuk siaran definisi biasa (SD) di 576i dan suatu jumlah diperlukan kandungan definisi tinggi (HD) pada sekurang-kurangya 576p format.  Kuota HD terkini dimuatkan di 1040 jam setiap tahun.  Media kebangsaan (ABC dan SBS) dapat memberikan perkhidmatan pelbagai saluran, meskipun rangkaain komersial dihadkan pada bidang ini hingga 2008 in deference to the Pay-TV satellite and cable networks. Datacasting is also restricted.

Pada September 2005, ada sekurang-kurangnya 1,824,000 kotak set-top dipasang digital di  Australia (sekira-kiranya 12% dari televisyen). 

Stesen siaran televisyen: 104 (1997)
Rangkaian siaran televisyen: 5 dalam kebanyakan tempat
Syarikat Televisyen Kabel & Satelit: 6 (Foxtel, Optus TV, Austar, SelecTV, TransACT and Neighbourhood Cable)
Televisyen: 15.2 juta (2005)

Internet

Rujukan dan nota

Pautan luar
 The Telegraph Era in Australia from 1854 and in Brisbane from 1861

 
Australia