Colin Contessa

Digital Economy - no such thing in my book. We have the economy, and you have people that form communities that influence the economy with a range of mechanisms and tools, and one such tool happens to be electronic communications pipes and systems that data and knowledge get transferred by at increasing speeds.

If Australia is to become the nation built on knowledge that allows maximum participation from all Australians then it needs a digital network that in order of importance is:

- reliable, ie 99.99% up time
- accessible, ie to all Australians
- low cost, ie $20 per month, no caps
- fast, ie greater than 20MB/s
- publically owned

This network then needs to be available to enterprises who pay the same price to access it who then build value adding services such as online business applications, entertainment offerings, education etc. It is pointless having a national network that is also owned by a service provider who does not equitably wholesale price access to that network.

The free market economy and the greed of corporations makes such a model unworkable. The priority will always be to the shareholders and the share price. With public ownership of the network this problem disappears.

Of course, the government must not get in its mind that a national broadband network once implemented is "mission accomplished". The network will require continual upgrading and maintenance, and no doubt yet to be invented technologies will supplant current ideas of what a national network should be capable of achieving.

Further, small business in particular needs a government funded education program to impart knowledge, ie, actionable information, as to how the electronic connectivity to the rest of the world can improve productivity, access to markets and profitability.