John Linton
....and would eliminate the Telstra monopoly for ever.
I mentioned that while I was in Sri Lanka last week I was impressed by the fact that there were three mobile networks offering HSPA services at speeds of up to 7.2 mbps x 1.1 mbps at lower costs than were currently available in Australia - I was particularly impressed by the 1 cent per megabyte excess charges that compared to Australian mobile carrier's offerings of around 15 cents per megabyte. Since returning to Australia we have decided to trial one of these services (there are three to choose from including the one from Sri Lanka Telecom - the 'local' equivalent of Telstra).
If this test is successful we will replace the current ADSL services we use for the four 'work from home' support engineers in Colombo and use the faster, and cheaper, HSPA services. We will also order the same services for the new central office in Colombo as a back up to the main Ethernet links.
Telstra already offers HSPA to a large part of Australia and I see from this article:
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/18089/127/
that Optus is going to extend its HSPA network to 98% of Australia and will increase speeds to 7.2 mbps and then to whatever the technology can sensibly deliver (certainly much faster than the 12 mbps stipulated in the current national broadband tender fiasco).
I realise I have made this point before (that HSPA is a far more sensible approach to true competition in the country wide Australian broadband marketplaces) but I continue to fail to understand why the current 'government' is so Hell bent on restoring Telstra's monopoly by giving it $A4.7 billion to take five years to build a slower network than already exists from three major carriers. Once built it will almost certainly never be kept upgraded by Telstra and will become obsolete before it's completed.
There are approximately 4.7 million ADSL users in Australia at the moment and assuming that the true end need is to provide a fast broadband connection to every Australian household there would be around 9.4 million households (probably about right and it keeps the math easy).
A usable 5 gb of traffic now costs around $A50 per month with a zero activation fee and the purchase of an HSPA device (in bulk the carriers would be happy to sell it for $A80.00 rather than 'giving it away' on a two year contract).
So my proposal to Crazy Kevin and Stupid Stephen is this:
1) Withdraw the current 'tender' immediately
2) Offer 9.4 million households in Australia (via the carriers that meet the criteria):
a) A one off payment of $A100 to pay for an HSPA 'modem'
b) A subsidy of $15.00 a month to pay for an HSPA service
c) Make the accounting and actual payment direct to the mobile carriers
d) Have the mobile carriers display the credits on the end user's monthly bill
There you go - every Australian has 7.2 mbps broadband - quickly moving to 20 mbps+ 'immediately' without any tender and three major carriers in Australia get their share of the government's $A4.7 billion to ensure they extend their networks and upgrade the speed to above 12 mbps as a condition of participating.
It also costs the 'government the same $A4.7 billion to subsidise each Australian household for two years after which the massive take up in HSPA will have driven the monthly price down so that further subsidy would be unnecessary. Plus it gives three mobile carriers an extra 3,000,000 users to make deployment of additional capacities a piece of cake.
AND THE END USERS GET IT FAR CHEAPER THAN TELSTRA HAS SAID IT WILL HAVE TO BE PRICED AT - $A35.00 per month with no activation charge.
Someone should elect me prime minister - I'd clearly do a much better job because I have a sensible knowledge of reality and technology and no vested interest.
Who loses from such a scheme?
No-one of any importance.
Who gains from such a scheme?
Every Australian and the three (perhaps four) mobile carriers who have invested over $A40 billion into building true Australia wide voice and data networks in Australia.
Better than that - there would be no need for the ACCC to be constantly involved controlling a rapacious privately owned monopoly that would make everything in Australia much more expensive and would never have any reason to introduce new and better technology.
Will it happen?
No.
Why?
Make your own mind up.
(you could try starting with - "because the Labor 'government'.....")