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April 08, 2006
Broadband is a joke in Australia. As David Crowe points out in this weekends Australian Financial Review broadband is slow, expensive and has many hidden metering charges. So affordibility is very low. Little is being done to address this, even though various studies show that communities with broadband created more jobs, enjoyed higher property values and formed more businesses than communities without broadband.
The Howard Government's response is to rely on quarrying Australia, drafting broadband plans for regional Australia, identifying Broadband with Telstra whilst ensuring an enfeebled regulator, and saying that things are working well. Australia does not have a national telecomunications policy, and it has put off developing one since the 1990s.
Now Telstra may have a hip telecomunications website, and it understands the significance of the emerging digital world, but it continues to cap the speed of the digital subscriber network, and won't invest in higher speed infrastructure until there is lighter regulation about opening its DSL network to its competitors. As things stand now, Telstra is stifling the market by restricting both the speed and the amount of data that can be downloaded, so that it does not have to invest in extra network capacity.
Update: 9th April
The United States Trade Representative has sharply criticized Telstra for its anti-competitive practices and attempts tio undermine the authority of the ACCC in its 2006 annual review of the operation and effectiveness of telecommunications trade agreements, the "Section 1377 Review."The Review says:
Telstra has also unilaterally set a high, nationally averaged rate, arguing that it needs to cross-subsidize rural services with above-cost urban rates. The likely effect of this new tariff, if Telstra’s appeal to the DCITA succeeds, will be to preclude competition based on unbundled loops in the geographic areas that competitors want to serve. Given the effects on competition of Telstra’s proposed average rate, Australia should consider other mechanisms to address rural service issues, such as expanded use of a competitively-neutral universal service fund.
More pressure on the Howard Government to ensure competition in the telecommunications industry. Harry Clarke says that:
Providing close to universal access to high speed, low cost broadband would give the Australian economy a long-term boost and overcome disadvantages of being a large, sparsely-populated country. The Australian Government should bite the bullet and negotiate the minimum transfers necessary to drive this investment in our long-term future.
That implies a national telecommunications polcy doesn't it?
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Think your're right about this. I have two family members who work for telcos. One for Telstra, the other for Optus.
There is no doubt that Optus are better value but throttled by Telstar's lack of imagination.
Every year I get an update from one of the big wigs in Telstra inviting comment on their service delivery. I reply and tell them it is crap, and expensive crap at that.
Haven't had a reply yet!
My source in the big T tells me that they have instructions to do what ever they can to retain customers. I think they are in panic mode.
I tell my source "Tell them their broadband is crap, and expensive crap at that." I don't think they want that sort of feedback!!