John Linton …….but the scenery is as spectacular as I remember it.
We left Mull via the midday ferry and continued to make our way North driving the length of Loch Ness in the process. There were plenty of tourists and countless “Nessie” shops but no sign of the mythical plesiosaur rumored to inhabit Loch Ness since the middle of the 19th century (at least).
We made our way through the increasingly remoter areas of the UK but the HSPA service soldiered on at ever decreasing speeds and retained 50 – 75 kbps right up to the outskirts of Ullapool before we lost it somewhere on the way to Lochinver where we hope to get some close sightings of Golden Eagles than we did on Mull.
North of us is only Cape Wrath and the most northerly point of the UK – John O’Groats - so I think we can safely conclude that 3G (2.4 – 3.6 mbps services) are only available in major cities while for the rest of the country there is coverage practically everywhere but that coverage is often of dial up speeds – at least at this stage of the roll out in these countries.
No problem, our hotel in Lochinver has wifi and in any case we are here to do other things.
So I’m writing this in my hotel room facing a window that has a fantastic view down the loch with mountains on either side so it is a ready distraction as I try to re-engage my mind with the issues of the Australian communications markets and ‘politics’.
I see that Even Stupider Steven has, yet again, pushed back the close date for Crazy Kev’s sound bite grand communications strategy for a national broadband service – I’m soooooo glad I pointed out this idiocy and how it would play out over seven months ago so that I can continue to underline how inadequate this apology for a ‘government’ is without sounding opportunistic.
From what I read over the past hour or so it is beginning to dawn on Crazy Kev that he in major, major dog doo doo and he is going to confirm himself as a total fool before he can wriggle out of his idiotic pre and post election statements about how “Almighty Kev” is going to ensure that “NO Australian is going to live in broadband poverty by December 2009” – what a total f***wit; – his ‘tender’ may not have closed by then.
So……..ADSL2 lives on for a while, much to the relief of the people who invested in it (including Telstra), and Even Stupider Steven will have to fall on his sword before the end of the calendar year……Crazy Kev will limp on a sadder, but unlikely to be wiser, dimwit while continuing to mouth his nothing platitudes and pretending he never really believed in …….well…..let’s just move on…..inane Cheshire cat grin and inane tone of voice mumblings.
Another advantage of this room is that as well as its great view it’s mini bar has 11 different single malts to choose from which makes flicking through the Australian comms industry press less painful that it normally would be.
I don’t see anything of much interest that’s happened in the last week but maybe I’m just not in the mood to read as carefully as I normally would. Exetel has had a record week (– good to see – must go away more often) – and from I read of what other ISPs are doing it seems that the internet business is booming for them even better than it is for Exetel.
I was puzzled by the strange comments from AAPT about not offering naked ADSL2 because it’s too expensive to support and other ISPs are selling it too cheaply. Maybe I’ve misunderstood what was actually being said but it was beyond my ability to sort out those contradictory concepts.
Otherwise I think it might be better for me when (maybe that should be ‘if’) I get back to working in the industry to not spend as much time reading the comms industry press because I’ve just scanned a week’s worth and they say almost nothing - and “almost” is probably an exaggeration.
Why are so many words published, from so many different people that provide so little in the way of factual information?