John Linton
I didn't quite know what to make of the ACCC's recent 'announcement':
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/153809,telstra-local-loop-access-prices-tipped-to-rise.aspx
which seems to make no sense in one major way (The ACCC was adamant throughout El Sol's assaults that their declared pricing of ULL was exactly right and through the many Telstra challenges and law suits they maintained their position and prevailed against all argument. Now that El Sol and his ultra combative approaches are a fading national embarrassment I am surprised that the ACCC has suggested these changes which while not affecting the majority of ADSL users will certainly annoy those users who live in CBD apartments and will devastate country users - assuming the current proposals come in to effect.
I was amused by Telstra's CEO saying they were disappointed that the increases weren't even higher. You can't help but wonder whether this sudden volte face isn't somehow connected to the fact that those morons posing as a Federal government are beginning to realise that their election winning 'NBN2' really is financially non-viable and this is simply their first attempt to make ADSL progressively more expensive to make 'NBN2' marginally more appealing. Closing the gap between some future 'NBN2' price and a future ADSL price would be a double whammy because, of course, Telstra will reap the enormous cash windfalls of al other companies having to pay it much more for the services that are already in place. So maybe this is also part of the 'deal' to make Telstra more willing to 'co-operate' in Krudd's crazy RMS Titanic Mk 2.
All speculation aside, because at the end of the day it's pointless as we, and everyone else, has to deal with today's costs and problems it again highlights how the current dependence on one company's monopoly of a basic infrastructure determines pricing and eliminates competition in any sense of the word. Replacing it with a government owned monopoly is simply an Alice in Wonderland, back to the future insanity. What is improved by replacing the rapacity of a privately owned monopoly with the slothful inefficiency of a publicly owned monopoly? Perhaps someone can think of an example any where and any time in human history but nothing comes to mind for me.
I suppose it is a benefit to HSPA in that as VoIP gradually becomes seen as a true replacement for a wire line telephone service the possible increased cost of a telephone line will be seen as an even bigger waste of money that it is seen now. If more people looked at the around $30.00 'dead money' they pay for the privilege of having a telephone line (especially when they need it for a 'naked' ADSL service) the cost advantages of HSPA begin to become more compelling.
The cost of HSPA data is the major negative in promoting HSPA services as a true replacement for ADSL to the low end part of the ADSL user base (speed is not really an issue for this marketplace sector) and if more current users could see that paying for a telephone line is 'dead money' it would solve that negative. The argument that "what happens in an emergency when the internet is 'down' is as stupid as it always was - use your mobile. So with a saving of $30.00 on the line rental plus whatever saving there is on 10 cent calls versus the tariffs charged by the wire line suppliers, HSPA gets a huge financial boost in the cost comparison.
Unfortunately Exetel hasn't found it's 'magic box' that will allow an end user to cancel their phone line rental when they activate their HSPA service but we have at least found a box that will do what is required (Sim socket, sockets and software for two analogue telephone hand sets, wireless networking) we just have to get the price down to a level where we can either afford to lease it over two years or low enough for an end user to see the advantage of buying it. I think that end user price needs to be around $195.00 (inc sim, shipping etc) and we are a long way away from it at the moment - but at least one of our sources says that it may be possible "in the near future".
Before Christmas we HAVE to have the 'magic box' in place and deliverable at that sub $A200.00 level and we can then, finally, do what we planned to do almost twelve months ago:
- One off set up cost for HSPA including delivery, sim, wireless router and two ATAs - $195.00
- Full VoIP capability with 100 free calls
- Full Fax capability with 30 free faxes per month
- Full 'PC' SMS capability with 30 free SMS per month (then 5 cents per SM - 5 gigabytes of downloaded data
- Monthly charge $40.00 per month
In the mean time the ACCC's proposals on ULL future pricing can't do any harm in making more people realise that a PSTN line in the 21st century is one of technology's great anachronisms.