The Angry Dieter

I mentioned that I work for one of the G9 companies which are putting forward a proposal for broadband network which would give users high speeds, which are closer to what the US and Europe currently gets nows. I read a whirlpool article last night, and today read another article found on Australian IT. I am outraged at Telstra’s proposal.

Telstra want us to pay a minimum of $59 per month to access broadband at a basic speed of 512k. Plus, they are giving the government a month to decide. Un-believable.Why should I have to pay that kind of money, when right now, I pay $59 per month to access up to 24Mbps through an Amnet Dslam? For those who are non technical.. think of paying $300AUD for a pair of decent rollerblades, and then being reduced to paying $300 for rollerskates, and the rollerblade prices have increased to $500. (Let’s hope you get that analogy) Basically, we are going to be ripped off.

In a briefing to journalists yesterday, Telstra executives said the company would charge $59 a month to its rivals for access to a basic service.

But this would give users relatively slow speeds of 512kbps — only double the current basic model and just 1 per cent ofthe maximum speeds of 50Mbps possible with Telstra’s proposed new fibre network. Customers wanting higher speeds would have to pay much more and Telstra is understood to have plans to withdraw its $59-a-month price after two years.

We are being held hostage by an increasingly hostile national Telco that has been turned into a money hungry company thanks to the share sell off. Telstra needs to be broken up so it’s monopoly over the telephone network can be broken. This is what happens when you have only one company which controls the entire telephone network, you have to pay the price that they set, and you as a consumer have no choice.

Telstra has rubbished the G9’s proposal and pricing as totally unrealistic, particularly as the plan depends on Telstra’s traffic and co-operation — which Telstra insists it will not provide.

On the flip side, Telstra now has share holders and must make money, it has an obligation to it’s investors. Why should it provide access to a network, which has been paid for over and again by generations of Australians when it was a government owned entity? Now as a private company, it is taking advantage of the fact that it did not need to fork out money to build this enormous network, but it owns it, lock stock and barrel. Perhaps the only way for Australians to get real broadband is for the G9 consortium to build an alternative network, and get subsidised by the Govt (read that to be Australian Taxpayers). Why should we have to pay for something again, already built. Why does Telstra get the financial benefit from a century of government and tax payer support, and no one else?

I am pointing the finger of blame at the Howard Government. Privatising the only National Telephone company with sole access to the copper network has to be the most idiotic move the man has ever made. Well no, there are others, but right now looking at this debacle, I don’t see how Australians are going to have access to decent broadband anytime soon.

June 9th, 2007 | Category: Thoughts | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL