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December 2, 2006
Telstra has little credibility. Sol Trujillo talks big about Australia needing to make the shift to high speed broadband to remain competitive, national prosperity, that the current speeds are holding Australia back, and the state of broadband services are a disgrace. They sure are. Even Rupert Murdoch and James Packer agree on the national interest requiring high speed broadband services.
Yet it is Telstra who has 44% of the broadband market, and it is it's competitors who have made the shift to ADSL2+ not Telstra. It is Telstra who refuses to turn on highspeed broadband in areas where it does not face competition. The technology for ADSL2+ has already been installed. So it is Telstra who is deliberately stifling broadband speeds.
What Telstra is doing is to using competition laws as a subterfuge to delay the roll-out of fast broadband services. Telstra is using this delay to pressure politicians to remove regulations poor service very high. Yet it is competition that will deliver faster broadband services.
The delay is resulting in the state Labor governments (eg., NSW, Queensland and Western Australia) proposing to roll out internet infrastructure by planning their own open access broadband networks.
Telstra bangs on and on about regulation --the ACCC is deemed to be a rogue regulator. Yet the ACCC uses the Trade Practices Act when Telstra acts to impede competition. Telstra cannot stand regulation in the public interest.
It would be best if the infrastructure is controlled by the federal government and the states creating their own infrastructure is contrary to creating national markets and infrastructure. But Telstra's intransigence has led to this. If Telstra refuses to 'flick the switch ', then the states should act as direct competitors to Telstra's national network.
What will Canberra do now that T3 is out of the way?
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I tell everyone who will listen: Telstra is the problem, not the solution.