Communications in Australia

Communications in Australia is dominated by the telecommunications provider, Telstra (short for Telecom Australia) which is 51% government-owned and 49% market controlled. Other telephone carriers include Optus (owned by SingTel), AAPT (owned by Telecom New Zealand) and Vodafone.

Telephony

Australia relies mainly on a dominant GSM network, augmented by CDMA in regional areas. 3G cellular phone services were introduced into major centers in 2003. The telephone system generally provides good domestic and international service.

• domestic: domestic satellite system
• international: submarine cables to New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia; satellite earth stations - 10 Intelsat (4 Indian Ocean and 6 Pacific Ocean), 2 Inmarsat (Indian and Pacific Ocean regions)

Ownership statistics:

• Telephones - main lines in use: 10.05 million (2000)
• Telephones - mobile cellular: 8.6 million (2000)

Radio, television, cable and Internet

Australia is transitioning to digital free-to-air broadcasting and will phase out analogue broadcasts from 2008. Australian digital TV regulations call for SD broadcasts in 576i and a required amount of HD content in at least 576p format. HD quota is currently set at 1040 hours annually. State media (ABC and SBS) are able to offer multi-channel services, however commercial networks are restricted in this area until 2008 in deference to the Pay-TV satellite and cable networks. Datacasting is also restricted.

• Radio broadcast stations: AM 262, FM 345, shortwave 1 (1998)
• Radios: 25.5 million (1997)
• Television broadcast stations: 104 (1997)
• Television broadcast networks (metropolitan): 5 (ABC, 7, 9, 10 & SBS)

As of June 2004, there were 409,000 installed digital set-top boxes in Australia (roughly 4% of televisions).

• Cable & Satellite Television Companies 4 (Foxtel, Optus, Austar and TransACT)
• Televisions: 10.15 million (1997)
• Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 571 (2002)

Country code: AU

External links and references

• Much of the material in this article comes from the CIA World Factbook 2003.
• Digital Broadcasting Australia (http://www.dba.org.au)

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