Success of National AI Plan depends on Telecommunications Infrastructure Investment

The success of the National AI Plan will depend on investment in new high-capacity telecommunications infrastructure, according to industry peak body the Australian Telecommunications Alliance (ATA).

“Australia will only unlock the productivity-enhancing benefits of AI if we have the digital infrastructure in place to enable it – and that means more investment in fibre and 5G,” said ATA CEO Luke Coleman.

“The National AI Plan recognises that AI is dependent on two critical components: data centres and high-speed telecommunications networks. Data centres rely on connectivity to submarine cables, fibre-optic networks, and 5G networks to deliver AI services to businesses and consumers.”

“AI is dependent on digital infrastructure – but archaic planning laws and red tape are a dead-weight on investment in fibre and 5G networks. We need reforms that unleash investment in the digital infrastructure that is fundamental to enabling AI,” he said.

In submissions to the Economic Reform Roundtable process, the ATA highlighted three key roadblocks to digital infrastructure investment: regulatory cost and complexity, prohibitive planning laws, and high spectrum costs.

To deliver the investment required in new digital networks, the ATA has called for a national digital infrastructure strategy that includes:

1. Coordinated and strategic regulatory reform
2. Harmonised planning laws to accelerate infrastructure builds
3. Spectrum policy that delivers world-class connectivity
4. Government support for productivity-enhancing digital infrastructure investments

“Telcos are tied up in red tape when they should be focussed on delivering the digital infrastructure Australia desperately needs,” Mr Coleman said. “The ATA is calling on the Government to work with industry to develop a digital infrastructure strategy that removes these roadblocks and unleashes investment in new networks.”

“Duplicative and dysfunctional planning laws are holding back better connectivity in Australia. One major telco had to submit more than 3,000 land access notices, 1,000 construction certificates, 1,700 land access surveys, and 170 cultural heritage and environmental assessments to build a single new intercapital fibre route. If Australia is going to make the most of the AI opportunity, we have to make it easier to deploy critical digital infrastructure.”