<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On 13/08/2010, at 2:27 PM, John Edwards wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On 13/08/2010, at 2:11 PM, Matthew Moyle-Croft wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite"><div><font class="Apple-style-span"><br></font>I really want, given I have some kids, to have a broadband future here in Oz. I'd like to not have bandaid after bandaid that is the current suggestions. I'd REALLY like to have a vibrant communications industry with a lot of options for local loops/backhaul etc. <br></div></blockquote></div><br><div>Time will solve that problem for you - given another change of government it is unlikely that they'll still be kids by the time any broadband plan is fully executed.</div></div></blockquote><div><br></div>Awesome - so you're saying we're stuck with what we've got? Bravo John, very forward looking.</div><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br></div><div>Keep in mind that there were kids in regional areas starting high-school in 2007 (when the government of the day announced the previous national broadband plan) who may be leaving school soon never having had access to a broadband connection at home. Ask them whether they care if it's 12 megs or 100.</div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>So, we've failed so far, so we should continue to fail? </div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br></div><div>The wrong solution may not be better than no solution at all, but it's still a better result than the wasteful flip-flopping between different plans that stifle other investment.</div></div></blockquote><div><br></div></div><div><br></div><div>Come on John, I've been in or around this industry for the best part of two decades. I spend my time dealing with Telstra and getting DSLAMs installed, so I'm intimately familiar with the industry, regulation, it's successes and failures.</div><div><br></div><div>At the moment, I'm so deeply disappointed that, on this list, no one can articulate a way forward other than "NBN is bad for me and so I don't want it", so let's not change the familiar status quo.</div><div><br></div><div>Even Mark resorted to "well, let's just wait and see, because we've been waiting and seeing for 2 decades".</div><div><br></div><div>If _we_ the industry can't articulate what the future looks like, then we'll end up with it being decided for us or having nothing change (because we can't explain why or what) and so we end up grumbling for another few decades and be no better off.</div><div><br></div><div>Come on. What does the future look like? If we want regulations changed, then how would that happen to be fair? How we would setup things so that we could improve region by region, area by area in a way that makes more sense?</div><div><br></div><div>Can we devolve telecommunications local loops to councils with some national standards to the builds can be done when roads are upgraded by the local councils and thus have relevancy to the people in the area? (eg. like Austria and other countries)?</div><div><br></div><div>Surely there are some people with ideas? I'm interested in more than just "well, we bandaid a bit for a few years and hope that "technology fixes it for us"!</div><div><br></div><div>MMC</div></body></html>