Government to form Broadband Advisory Group

Prime Minister John Howard announced plans for a Broadband Advisory Group at the World Congress on IT yesterday morning. According to Mr Howard, the group's membership will be jointly comprised of Government and Industry representatives.

Prime Minister John Howard announced plans for a Broadband Advisory Group at the World Congress on IT yesterday morning. According to Mr Howard, the group's membership will be jointly comprised of Government and Industry representatives.

Unfortunately, the Broadband Advisory Group is currently all talk. Membership in the group is yet to be decided and several large Industry bodies were not aware of proposal until it was announced by Howard to the Congress. Also undetermined is what broadband issues BAG would be responsible for – such as pricing, provisioning, terms of service issues or minimum service standards – as well as what powers the proposed BAG would have to enforce its decisions.

While details on BAG are sketchy, it is known that BAG will be chaired by current Communications and IT Minister, Senator Richard Alston.