The government has announced its plan to wire Australia up for broadband by constructing a national fibre network. Prime Minister Rudd announced the plan this week after rejecting tenders from private companies bidding for the project. The implications for radio are significant because better broadband, combined with WiFi internet will bring the kind of audio streaming available in cities to all of regional Australia.

The federal government will set up its own company to build the national broadband network after none of the five bidders which tendered for the huge infrastructure project met requirements. It will cost $43 billion and is the single largest infrastructure project in this country’s history.

Mr Rudd says it will boost long-term economic growth and set a path for Australia’s economic recovery from the global financial crisis.

When fast WiFi hits small towns, consumers will be able to pick it up on their phones, PDAs or laptops and will be able to tap into audio streaming at viable speeds for reasonable costs.

The advent of digital radio in the bush will give regional networks some means to fight back against WiFi audio offerings, but by the time the broadband network gets up and running WiFi will be common in most portable audio devices and free WiFi hotspots will be plentiful.

The most annoying draw back of listening to streamed audio via internet at the moment is buffering and dropouts in the signal. With a broadband network this will be overcome.

While broadband will never be free like radio, as the capacity of the service increases around Australia costs will decrease to commodity pricing levels.

Radio managers will have to stay across the implications of PM Rudd’s broadband rollout and ensure they stay ahead of the curve in consumer offerings as the final stages of implementation take place.