John Linton .......appears to be the question that isn't going to be answered all that quickly.
I read the various current 'positioning statements by Telstra and Terria (the renamed G9 for those who don't bother reading about these sorts of things) this morning and everything is going predictably - almost laughably if it wasn't so serious.
(By the way 'Terria' isn't a mis-spelling of a type of small yapping dog - its a cringe inducing shortening of 'Terra Australis' - you just have to hope their technical resources have more ability than the marketing moron who came up with that name)
I particularly liked the new head of the Terria's statement that:
"I'd be as happy as Larry" if a bidder other than Telstra or Terria won the $4.7 billion tender to build the national fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) network" which was reported in The Age:
http://business.theage.com.au/g9-boss-attacks-telstra-tender-20080521-2gxm.html
.......nothing quite like saying you really don't want to win a competitive bid before you put 'pen to paper' on the opening words of your tender document - sort of statement made most often in primary school playgrounds rather than in corporate board rooms - though come to think about it......
Not to be outdone on the "let's make a complete dog's breakfast of the whole process before it gets started" stakes El Trujillo joined in the 'I'm not going to play nicely' game by saying:
"When you look at 98 per cent of the nation - we have already said publicly that it would cost us about $4.5-5 billion to do the five big cities of Australia, and we all know that the first 50 per cent is a lot more cost-effective than the last 50 per cent. Assuming that the cost of the last 50 per cent was roughly twice as high, the total could quickly run up to $15billion." Mr Trujillo told a Reuters conference in Paris yesterday - according to this morning's Australian:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23738471-2702,00.html
Crazy Kevin and Stupid Stephen should have double checked with their Telstra buddies before making their grandstanding election 'promises' and then opening their even crazier tender process it would seem as Telstra, at least in the pre submission chest thumping appears to be positioning itself for an opt out pressure play on Labor based on, what will clearly be seen as, ridiculous and completely undeliverable economic assumptions made by politicians during an election campaign.
You can be sure that Labor will be desperate to meet with El Sol on his return to Australia and will make even more under the table concessions than are already in place based on that overt threat that Telstra will bid at a cost that Labor can't accept forcing them to accept another bid that just can't be delivered.
I mean - what a fiasco; the only two parties that could, just, make it happen are saying 'we'll bid but don't want to win' while the other is saying "we'll bid but it'll cost at least 50% more than you've budgeted and we'll have to charge end users twice as much as they currently pay."
Oh dear oh dear....we'll all be rooned - again - it doesn't sound, at least during the chest thumping phase, that Australia is going to get a FTTN 'solution' any time soon. Yet another Labor triumph of show over substance and sound bite over actuality.
Perhaps the DSLAM manufacturers that Exetel dealt with last year had pre-knowledge of this scenario. I say that because, out of the blue, I had calls from both of them yesterday enquiring whether there was any change to Exetel's decision to put our decision on building out a small DSLAM network on 'indefinite hold'. I said that nothing had changed but did agree to meet with both of them before the end of the month to 'consider some interesting developments'.
Time will tell - but I think that the best solution, assuming there is sufficient spectrum is for remote areas of Australia to use an HSDPA solution as I've said so many times before. It doesn't require billions of taxpayers dollars and it will always be provided at competitive pricing.
Doubtless the dummies in Canberra will be forced to extend the tender deadline and then they'll be forced to change the conditions and then they'll............ and the chances of there ever being a FTTN within the life of however long this Labor 'government' lasts recede each day. The only upside is there's every chance that Telstra will make such an unholy brouhaha that they'll manage to bring on themselves their worst nightmare - separation in to wholesale and retail - now that would be truly ironic - turning a slam dunk win into the end of life as they know it and wish it.
Ditch the bitch - don't give her aging carcass a make over and pretend mutton is lamb or that it's better to keep attempting to hold back technology because (if you're Crazy Kevin and Stupid Stephen) you don't understand the first thing about it; or (if you're Telstra) you want to re-build a telecommunications monopoly, collect an obscene amount of money and get the hell out of this Godforsaken country as quickly as possible.