Australia's distant cloud

The National Broadband Network (NBN) will provide fat pipes into our homes, creating an appetite for more content, more quickly. Yet, 80 per cent of what we consume resides in the US. Won't we hit capacity problems?

This week's Twisted Wire looks at the growth of the datacentre industry in Australia, and asks: is it enough?

International capacity will always be a bottleneck, unless more of the content we access is hosted locally. Caching and other network solutions can be part of the answer, but they are less relevant with the increasing use of real-time applications.

All of this may be good news for datacentre providers. Right now, there is more than $2 billion invested in building new centres. The downside for consumers is the relatively high cost of local hosting — electricity is expensive, and we don't have the economies of scale enjoyed in larger markets. There's also a local competitor who is greener, cheaper and well connected, and situated just over the Tasman.

In this week's program, you'll hear from:

• Sean O'Halloran, CEO at Alcatel-Lucent Australia

• James Spencely, CEO at Vocus

• Mark Rushworth, CEO at Pacific Fibre.

Do you think datacentres are the next big opportunity for the Australian telecommunications industry? Is the current investment just the start of something much larger? Call the Twisted Wire feedback line on 02 9304 5198 to air your views.

Running time: 29 minutes, 30 seconds