[AusNOG] Internet Filter Action Forum-Malcolm Turnbull organised event (Sydney) (IMPORTANT PLEASE READ)

[Tim McCullagh]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrew Oskam" <percy at th3interw3bs.net>
>
> Turnbull... We want fibre dammit.
>
> Sent from my iPhone


Hows the irony in this.    "we want more fibre" but we send the message from 
a wireless device.

Maybe the liberals are in tune with the broader communities needs.

As someone that signs the front of cheques and someone that talks to 
customers everyday about what they want, need and have the capacity to pay 
for it amazes me when I see the statements above or the statement that we 
should build the best most expensive option now.  It is like saying we 
should "all" be driving the latest model flashest car (rolls royce) on the 
market, because at the ends of the day this technology will be the only 
technology customers can choose.(for fixed services)......  Talk about 
limiting the options and that is before we consider how much it will cost 
each of us and whether we have the capacity to pay for it.   My pensioner 
customers want something around the $30 mark and they make up 20% of 'the 
customers....   You don't need to be to cleaver to work out that spending 
$7000 on a customer ot get a $30 monthly gross income doesn't stack up. 
Has anyone got the latest $ per customer connected figure for Tasmania?  The 
last one I saw was $20K+ .

The bottom line is none of us are in a position to comment about whether all 
australians can afford afford the roll royce ftth solution.   Personally I 
think that it should be left to the market to provide solutions that 
customers are prepared to and have the capacity to pay for.

If you want ftth ask your telco to provide it.   I would suggest most of us 
won't want it after all. I am in that situation myself and I deploy ftth to 
some of my customers, but I can't justify the build cost to my home at this 
time, that doesn't mean I won't happen, it means I will wait until there is 
enough demand to justify it.   There is one other very interesting issue. 
Believe it on not customers don't want us to dig up their yards to install 
the lead in.  I have had 2 customers is a short period of time that have 
elected to go for a wireless device instead of the fibre which is right at 
their front door.   An 8 meter lead in in one case a 4 meter lead in in the 
other.  In fact it is worse than that I have lost customers becasue I was 
digging up someone elses footpath to install the backbone conduit and fibre, 
because they didn't want me to dig up their foot path  and they told me so. 
This all leads me to think, that it really is not as sort after as some on 
this list would indicate.  It is all worth considering from the point of 
view of those that have to sign the front of the cheques.  The governments 
money is yours and mine so saying the government can afford it without 
determining what the community will need to forgo, is a little off the mark 
as well.   Funds / money is a limited resource and we should all think 
carefully before demanding that we want everything when we don't have the 
ability to pay for everything.  It is one thing to have a wish list, but at 
the end of the day we all need to priorities what is most important for each 
and everyone of us.


regards

Tim