Telstra made an announcement in late 2005 regarding its plan to roll out a Fibre-to-the-Node (FttN) network. However Telstra’s aim had more to do with limiting competition by obtaining a regulatory holiday. The government did not give in and a year later in 2006 Telstra withdrew its plans. Previously the rollout of pay TV had gone through some very destructive periods. Optus rolled out its own infrastructure utilising an HFC infrastructure and Telstra reacted by rolling out its own pay TV network. Some $7 billion later they were both bruised and a rationalisation process was launched. Both Foxtel and Austar upgraded their infrastructure to digital and launched their new digital services in 2004 and Optus began reselling Foxtel’s digital service in late 2005. By 2007 the vast majority of subscribers were already on digital services. This report provides roll out statistics as well as analyses on the infrastructure developments and an overview of all the pay TV providers in the Australian market.
