Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Abbott's Slowband network

Elizabeth Knight: SMH Buisness News

"What Tony Abbott laid out yesterday as an alternative was not a real alternative. It was the equivalent of a jerry-built renovation that will not address Australia's future communications needs.

The coalition is proposing to spend $6 billion to patch up what we have today. In his own words this communications policy is about filling in the gaps to give Australians uniform broadband availability at reasonable speeds.

The policy sounded all too familiar. Not surprising, really, because it is almost a carbon copy of the Coalition policy promoted by his predecessor, John Howard. As such it is not a forward-thinking strategy - just one that appears to be aimed at saving money.

Most importantly, it does not involve taking broadband fibre to the home. It will continue to rely on the existing Telstra copper network. That's the biggest saving. The other is increased use of wireless technology - whose effectiveness at producing super-speed services is less certain.

It addresses the important fibre backhaul bottleneck but it also relies on private enterprise taking responsibility for a service that is of vital community importance. History shows leaving the private sector in charge leads to ad hoc solutions and a regulatory nightmare."

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