Department scrutinises Optus' 3G

The bad press surrounding Optus' 3G mobile network problems has caused the federal broadband department to investigate whether or not its network and that of Vodafone qualify as real broadband in terms of government subsidies.

Simon Cobcroft speaking today
(Credit: Suzanne Tindal/ZDNet.com.au)

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy had needed to determine whether or not those using the network had "metro-comparable" broadband access, acting assistant secretary Simon Cobcroft told the Broadband World conference in Sydney today.

"On paper at least they seem to be offering metro-comparable services, to, when they're fully deployed, up to 98 per cent of the country," he said.

If this were the case, anyone in range wouldn't be able to apply for the government subsidy, because a metro-comparable service would be available from a commercial operator.

However, Cobcroft wasn't sure that the services matched up to the operators' claims. "We really want to make sure that, because there's been a lot of press about the quality of the services on that network, to make sure that that network is robust — those networks are robust," he said.

Cobcroft said the department had even delayed the deadline for internet service providers putting in applications for providing services in order to assess the coverage and performance.

Optus has born the brunt of bad press in recent months after experiencing some outages on its 3G network which Andrew Buay, Optus managing director of products and delivery recently said were due to its recent network expansion requiring frequent software upgrades which have not always been glitch-free.

The deadline passed on 31 October, however the department has not yet made the decision. "We're looking at that at the moment and I think probably only a few weeks away we'll make a determination on whether we consider those networks to be metro-comparable," Cobcroft said.

In an applications deadline update, the department did not mention the investigation into coverage being due to bad press, making it it seem more a routine process for carriers claiming to offer metro-comparable services.

In the update, the department said it had undertaken a detailed assessment of the coverage and performance of Optus and was continuing to work with the carrier "to resolve some outstanding matters". On Vodafone it said only that investigation had commenced.