Thursday, April 1. 2010Too Much Just Plain Wrong InformationJohn Linton One of the problems in reading the communications industry media diligently is that you notice, over the past few years, the drift from useful factual reporting to less factual reporting to simply reporting fantasy and speculation to eventually reporting the fantasy and speculation reported by other 'reporters'. This isn't true of the major communications media in the US or the EU which, for the most part, remains pretty solidly reporting facts and figures and competent pieces on technologies and implementations. I don't make these statements as disparagements of any Australian communications reporter in particular but just as a general observation of my own reading habits which have progressively reduced in terms of the number of Australian media outlets I either subscribe to or book mark on my own personal daily reading list. To illustrate this view - think back over the past year and try and estimate how many hundreds of thousands of words have been written in the Australian media about the 'NBN2' and then estimate the same for the 'Internet Filter'. Depending on the view you reach you will come up with a number that almost certainly exceeds several hundreds of thousands and may well far exceed that. My own estimate is North of 8,000,000 for the 'NBN2' and far in excess of 5,000,000 for the 'Internet Filter'. Now try and think of any other topic of either Australian or World concern that has had anything like those two subjects media coverage including the totally worthless topics of the shenanigans of trivial 'personalities' apologies for lives that get saturation comment for a day or a week or two . Get the point? Nothing has changed since the announcement yet so much has been written about......... absolutely nothing. Neither the 'NBN2' nor the 'Internet filter' have any reality (at least as yet) and there is really nothing to say about either of those topics other than to note them as bad political 'stunts' that, on the one hand (the filter) is demonstrably ridiculous and on the other hand (the 'NBN2') is demonstrably non-viable. As neither concepts can be made to work in my opinion (but by all means assume that as stated by the current government they actually could) you have a de facto reason to report briefly on the topic by stating the known facts and then waiting for something to happen. There is really nothing to say about the amount of money being spent on either stunt. If governments wasting money on useless projects the nonsense of funding the 100s of billions of dollars building 12 "Australian designed" submarines or 24 or whatever the number is F22s or.......but the list is endless. All governments uselessly waste tax payers money to enrich themselves and always have done - it's called democracy where the privileged few get rich by ensuring the overwhelming majority remain poorer than they otherwise would. It might well be true that this scenario is true for all Australian general media, or even for all 'specialised media' - I wouldn't know because, apart from a few pages of the Financial Review and a sporadic viewing of the on line Business section of the SMH - I seldom if ever read/listen to/watch Australian media and haven't done for several decades - the triviality and inaccuracy coupled with more often than not juvenile reporting associated with those forms of entertainment bores me rigid. It isn't true for the US and EU communications media that I use to provide information on current and new communications technology and its implementations. Perhaps the multiplicity of Australian communications industry 'outlets' needs to be consolidated in to 2 or 3 competent 'agencies' and a recognition by such agencies that there just isn't any point in endlessly speculating on issues that haven't changed since yesterday's speculations? Communications technologies just don't change daily. PS: Our April recurrent billing run showed that, despite the problems in the ADSL2 market places, Exetel's growth hasn't really slowed with a 22% increase in recurrent revenue over April 2009 with a very strong growth in VoIP, mobile and SMS revenues. Our non-recurrent revenue (activation fees and other one off charges) in March was also up 28% compared to 2009. A pleasing start to the month.
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John,
TPG have officially launched it's Unlimited ADSL2 product, only for limited exchanges (Im assuming where they have direct backhaul). http://www.tpg.com.au/products_services/adsl2plus_pricing.php Comment (1)
Thank you - it's a the best plan so far - I was quietly amused by the price and the dropping of the previously proposed telephone "line" based on the old Comindico network for $10.00 requirement. I'm not sure how good a deall it is, even at this stage, if it requires a $30.00 plus telephone line.
Maybe that will come later after the unlimited announcements by the various providers spiral downwards. Comments (3)
shame I can't use TPG.
None of the 7 computers here fit their 'System Requirements'. Not only do I have to run Windows(this is and will remain a Linux environment) but I need to have a Floppy drive as well.. bummer... Funny I need a floppy but not a cd-rom... As long as Exetel exists as it is, preferably with JL at the helm, "I ain't going nowhere" Thank You John. Comment (1)
You talk about 'System Requirements' that were made in 1995. I have a Linux setup here. 2 Linux servers and one windows game machine... TPG don't care what you run as for an operating system. Just the 'System Requirements' is based on what they will support or help you with. And given that you have 7 Linux desktops... You should be smart enough to understand that. Even my own mother who hates computers can understand that.
As for the NBN I hope it dose happen. Not only it will put a kink on Telstra’s monopoly it will de-crease data charges and in-crease services. As for wireless... If you on the go or a home user who barely touches the internet then wireless would be ideal for them however. For high end gamming, and or servers wireless is unstable to support that. Yes I have tried wireless 3G with Telstra recently. And found it to be unstable couldn't support the required bandwidth for most games. And to take into account the amount of Lag wireless is on games it’s pointless. I think wireless should be used for people who are very light users and or, use internet on there mobile phone. All I can say is if u think wireless 3G is better then any ADSL or cable net. Then run your data center or critical systems off it and just see how reliable it will be... Comment (1)
Though I would much rather a fibre connection than a wireless one for home use, I think it is a little silly to confuse 3G with 4G - or even 5G by the time the NBN is rolled out.
Connection speed, reliability and lag will all get better over the next few years as newer wireless technologies are rolled out. LTE is a significant step forward. Comments (2)
OK John I will take the bait on this. One of the reasons we write about the NBN so much at Communications Day is because our subscribers want us too. I think about 90% of our new subscribers have indicated NBN as a top topic they want to read about. To be honest, given the amount of skin I've lost providing critiques of government broadband plans over the years I must admit I resent your comments a touch. I certainly don't think CommsDay deals with fantasy, and even though I'm sympathetic to your comments re NBN it is certainly influencing the behaviour of the entire industry and to my mind is relevant. I know you didn't specifically cite us but when you slur communications industry media we would be the most obvious example in terms of business focus.
Comment (1)
You would nearly be reaching 2 million sms a month now wouldn't you?
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When it comes to the media, I'm a cynic. It is simply market driven like everything else and it reflects a non-critical largely ignorant readership. They write what their readers want to read. They can recycle articles because people forget or think things are new.
So it isn't much of a surprise that there are no quality publications in the area of communications. There aren't enough readers and so no money is to be made. It isn't just communication. Aviation, science, medicine... just about anything that requires some specialist knowledge has this problem. So if you just want a general "vibe" to a story, read the Australian papers. Beyond that, it will be fiction! Comment (1)
"it will put a kink on Telstra’s monopoly "
To be replaced by the NBNco monopoly. I understand that there will be a lot of users that will be benefit from the NBN, but I'm pretty sure none of them want to pay the likely cost of the services, so if it actually happens, not only will the build be paid for by taxpayer dollars, the monthly charges will be subsidised by taxpayer dollars. "Yes I have tried wireless 3G with Telstra recently. And found it to be unstable couldn't support the required bandwidth for most games" LTE will probably solve a lot of the issues that make 3G not as suitable for data intensive applications. Comment (1)
Grahame,
No personal offence is ever intended. The simple 'fact' is that absolutely nothing has been made public since the original 'back of a bus ticket' announcement. Nothing has been released by the government and nothing has been released by any one else. So there is nothing to report apart from endless and totally groundless speculation - yet look at the column inches! There is very little doubt in my mind, as an assiduous reader of Australia's communications media over more years than I care to remember that the current level of reporting is inaccurate, sloppy and minus any credible citations of real sources. I'm of the opinion that much of what I have read lately, where I don't know for a fact that it's wrong, seems to be simply invented....or uninformed and useless opinion. Comments (3)
I was hoping today would be an April fool's joke and have the blog do a 180 turn
Or maybe Exetel announcing a $50 ADSL2+ unlimited product Comment (1)
John,
Internet Filter and NBN were brought to us by the same people who dreamed up Supermarket Price Watch, on-line petrol price watch and the ETS. The fate of these last 3 examples of fuzzy thinking guide us to the future of the first 2. Comment (1)
It just illustrates the naive stupidity of the current Labor government - Whitlam revisited.
Comments (3)
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