[AusNOG] background radiation was: "i want a pony!"(wasRe:Longlive the NBN. The NBN is dead?! [personal])

[Tim McCullagh]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matthew Moyle-Croft" <mmc at internode.com.au


> Brilliant Roland.
>
> PMG built the PSTN with regulatory certainty for more than 80 years. 
> Money was invested and built out for the good of all, then it was sold 
> off.
>
> So, the Government is just following a proven business model.
>
> What's not to like?
>
The PMG was renamed to Telecom Australia as a response to community critism 
of the PMG
Then it was sold because the community said it was to inflexible expensive 
and those in power said  that we needed competition to fix it.
Competition reduced prices which was considered good

Then Optus rolled out a cable network and Telstra rolled out the same 
network.  None of them made money.  Optus made a deal with Telstra to reduce 
its exposure to some costs.  Everyone then said don't invest we will resell 
Telstras network.  Telstra said fine but the wholesale price will be similar 
to telstras retail price.  The industry complained to the government and the 
ACCC.  Governments on both sides with the ACCC tried to level the pricing, 
some services were declared and the ACCC stuck its nose into the market 
which resulted in less competitive infrastructure
.......
......
then
we ended up where we are today.  Noone investing in fixed line 
infrastructure other than Telstra other than greenfield estates.   I still 
fail to see why Telstra should have to spend the capital to get small 
returns on investment in what is a risky business, especially with 
governments forever sticking their nose in without understanding the 
consequences.

I often wonder what a difference we would be seeing today if the conduit 
network was open access at inexpensive rates, yes something as simple as 
that may have revoltionised fixed line networks.  It would have resulted in 
multiple networks ................perhaps

I will be as brave as to state that the reason we are in the situation we 
are today is because of governement interference in the market without 
addressing the structural ramifications of such interference.  Eg    the 
megapop dial deal done with Telstra before one election and labors NBN which 
has basically put all development on hold for 3 years to give 2 of many 
examples

Going down the NBN path will take competition back 30 years.   As for those 
that say that the new model will be about service, yeh right.  If there is a 
fault we will all have to report it to NBN (monopoly tell someone who cares 
network) and wait for them to test and fix as opposed to logging into our 
own systems and determining what the problem is and just fixing it.  I can 
see vividly the case of storm damage and massive delays, unless NBN has 
staff sitting around, not likely

The more I think about this the more I see it as a back to the future dumb 
idea.  I am not into the wank factor of having fibre like some.  I just want 
something that works and that I can afford and this is what my customers 
tell me as well

regards

Tim