John Linton
....everything they do in areas that I understand (NBN, Internet 'Filtering') makes absolutely no sense and makes running a small Australian communications business more difficult.....God knows what is happening in the other million areas I don't understand....I assume the same level of crazy ineptitude is destroying every other area in Australian life.
I received this email, via the suggestion box, earlier this morning:
"I suggest you cancel your trial of internet censorship. I am writing to let you know that if you proceed with your trial of internet censorship I am going to find a new ISP.
I appreciate the fact that you let me know. I understand that it might have been motivated by technical research. However I cannot support an ISP that voluntarily censors my internet.
I have been a long term customer and apart from this I am very happy with the Exetel service. So I am very sad that you have taken this course.
I am going to start searching for an new ISP tonight. I sincerely hope you will reconsider the trial before I find my new ISP so I do not have to churn.
I hope you appreciate the feedback from a long term customer who befroe this has recommended you and referred many clients to your services.
I look forward to your response."
To which I responded:
"Dear Sir,
You must, of course, do whatever you consider to be in your own best interests.
Exetel must do what it considers to be in its, and its almost 100,000 customers, including you, best interests.
We are NOT Censoring the Internet and for you to describe our five day trial of a piece of technology to mitigate any subsequent actions by the Australian Labor party in such terms is ridiculous.
Neither you, nor any other customer's internet can be "censored" by Exetel - and it never will be. It can be censored by the Australian Labor Party and if that comes about then Exetel must comply with Australian law but, and this is the point of the trial, we will comply with the Australian law in a way that technically imposes the least performance burden on our customers.
For you to change suppliers has not changed, in any way, what will happen to your internet service should the Australian Labor Party proceed with its current insane policies on "internet filtering" - all you will do is to disadvantage yourself by ceasing to use a service that has, apparently, suited you very well for some time.
John Linton"
Now, I think I can be reasonably described as 'fairly scathing' in my opinions of the Labor Party's various ludicrous and lunatic 'initiatives' so to be put in a position of losing long term customers because of their more phantasmagorical stupidities is 'annoying'. It's obvious that this ALP nonsense was forced on them by the Religious Loony in the Senate but that is no excuse for potentially screwing up a major service because they need to get their more contentious legislation passed.
The NBN1 and now NBN2 (NBN = No Broadband - Never) 'back of a bus ticket' election winning sound byte "policies" have ensured ADSL2 roll outs stopped dead and are unlikely to be re-started in any meaningful way in the near future (despite the generalistic mutterings of a couple of the companies who have committed to this technology).
As everybody with more than one brain cell knows - "internet filtering" can never work and it MUST have some, as yet unknown, impact on the performance of any internet network which is mealy mouth speak for making the service more expensive to deliver. While the Labor Party is already bankrupting, more accurately has already bankrupted, the country and will shortly raise taxes to try and keep itself marginally solvent, the twin lunacies of the NBN2 and the IF are bringing the residential data service industry to a halt.
It's obvious that the IF is so ridiculously stupid and unworkable that it would have had to be abandoned by now if it was going to be abandoned (and I suppose it still might be). However the humiliating back down by Krudd and Stupid Stephen on their NBN1 election promise has made that very much more difficult. Can Krudd get away with two "key" election promise back downs without even the dumb Australian electorate noticing? Just how dumb is the Australian electorate and the also not so bright Australian media?...pretty dumb based on the reaction to their acceptance of Krudd's "I knew NBN1 was never going to work but here's my back of half a bus ticket grand eight year vision for NBN2 designed to get me re-elected at least once and if you're really as dumb as you've proved to be so far - it could be good for twice".
Why did no media 'interviewer ever ask him why, if he always knew it would never work did he:
a) Propose it in the first place in March 2007?
b) let a pointless and expensive evaluation process go on until April 2009 before admitting it was pointless?
There is no credible answer to either of those questions except one.
So when a small company like Exetel try's to mitigate any future damage caused to our customers by the actual go ahead of the IF lunacy (in the most understated and non-impacting way possible) we run the risk of losing long term customers....just as we have we have already lost thousands of customers due to the NBN1 ending the Optus ADSL2 roll outs.What is the most feared comment you can ever hear? Some thing like - "We're from the government and we're here to help you".
...and if the Australian electorate votes Labor again in the next election (after the current disastrous three year period it's hard to see how that could be possible but as Ms Gump once observed - "Stupid is as Stupid does") - then it may not be worthwhile continuing to run a communications business in Australia
........"Where did you put those truck drivers school applications, Mav?"