John Linton
....and with indecent and totally cynical haste...
So, how surprising:
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/16490/1103/
"Suddenly - Telstra finds itself able to deliver ADSL2 in another 900 exchanges" after Mr Trujillo goes to Canberra to pick up his 'get out of gaol free' card from the 'Prime Minister' in person. I guess that partially explains the loss of so many Exetel ADSL1 customers to Telstra BigPond over the past 2 - 3 months - they were getting a 'trial offer' of free and immediate/no down time 'churn' from Exetel's (and presumably other ISP's) ADSL1 services to BigPond's ADSL2 services at 'promotional rates'.
As I stated (several times prior to the election much to the ire of those Labor voters who read my comments) a Labor 'government' would make it very easy for Telstra to get whatever it wanted and it's taken a blink of an eye for Rudd to start paying off Telstra for their vehement and tens of millions of dollars of election support in Telstra's anti Helen Coonan/Coalition campaigning. True to their USA backgrounds - the 'new' Telstra senior management know its easier to buy politicians than to operate with annoying regulation.
Happy now all you communications users who voted Labor? Well done - perfectly thought through decision on your part. Makes you look back with almost affection to the time that Helen Coonan put up some token resistance to letting Telstra's US senior (temporary) managers progressively tear up the Australian Telecommunications Act.
You can kiss goodbye to the other Labor smoke and mirrors illusion that the $A8.0 billion for Rudd's crazy FTTN money is going anywhere but straight to Telstra to ensure that it remains as hard as ever, will probably get more difficult, to reduce the Telstra monopolistic control of pricing for basic communication services in Australia.
Well that bit of reading has got the day off to a really good start as I try to get a day's work done in the few hours available to me before getting on a plane for 9 hours with no communications to the local situation in Australia - a small mercy.
Ignoring what some people may see as my prejudice and paranoia (and yes, Telstra and Labour really are out to 'get' competitors to Telstra) it becomes even more obvious that any thoughts of investing in DSLAMs/MSANs or 'add ons' to the currrent or any other wire line network in Australia for a small company like Exetel is so fraught with risk it can't be considered. Again, I've been expressing these views ever since those twinks got elected but I've retained some hope that my views of just how stupid Rudd and co are wouldn't turn out as negatively as I had thought possible. Any remaining illusion in that direction has been snuffed out. Those twinks really are a dumb as their pre-election promises made them appear and they are just as easily purchased as has just been proven.
Oh well - thank goodness they are devoting so much time to apologising to God knows who for God knows what on behalf of someone or other and reaping whatever that financial whirlwind then engulfs them. Maybe I will just tick the immigration statement at the airport this morning "Australian resident leaving permanently" rather than watching as those morons destroy a perfectly good country in a few inept months.
Earlier this morning I have formally written to the three companies that we were dealing with to buy several million dollars worth of infrastructure apologising for wasting so much of their time but saying we coud no longer consider risking so much money given the clear indications of the accommodations the new 'government' as now and would continue to give to Telstra.
For Exetel, and perhaps for other communications companies in Australia, 2008 is now, very definitely, looking like being even harder than my most pessimistic estimates. I think the Commander lay offs and the Mitsubishi plant closure are indicative of the general outlook for 2008 and it will take some very bloody minded strength of purpose and incredibly hard work to make any progress until there is a change of government - not something to look forward to.
For those kind people who regularly read my meandering daily rants - I apologise in advance that I may not have the facilities to write regularly over the coming ten days but I'll do my best.