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April 06, 2006
Australia: "broadband" tragic
Yet more shameful evidence of the absolute disgrace that is Australia's communications policy - you know, the one that was almost exclusively centred around flogging Telstra off for as much as possible? At yesterday's Netherlands-Australia Broadband Roundtable organised in Sydney by communications analyst Paul Budde, we discovered that Australia, with around 10 per cent of the population connected to broadband Internet, sadly trails the Dutch, at 22 per cent.
That, however, isn't the half of it. The Dutch don't count anything less than 1mbps as broadband. (Neither does anyone else, by the way.) Only Australia - make that Telstra - dares to claim that those pathetic 256kb services which probably represent the majority of Australian connections are "broadband".
And while Telstra tries to hold the Government to ransom over its yes-we-will/no-we-won't fibre-to-the-node network plan, the city of Amsterdam is already at work on delivering FTTN to every household. The first 40,000 houses are being connected right now, at a cost of 60 million Euros - 10 per cent funded by the city council, and the remainder by industry.
Why are we putting up with this? Why isn't Australian industry jumping up and down, emitting specks of foam? Why are we rudderless and pathetically adrift, while the Howard Government and Telstra hold the entire country to ransom, and fritter away its future? Are we alone in thinking that this is a major public scandal?
Posted by cw at April 6, 2006 09:47 AM
Comments
Amen! Like every former expat who has experienced the cheaper, faster, unlimited connections available in other first-world countries, I'm embarrased by the service available to most of us here.
I'm not sure comparison with the Netherlands is entirely fair, though - technically and financially the challenges of wiring such a densely populated country are much easier to handle, compared to the nation-continent we live on.
CW: The challenges of wiring Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane/Adelaide/Perth etc surely couldn't be all that much different from wiring Amsterdam though, could they?
Posted by: Colin J at April 6, 2006 12:01 PM
I don't think there's point comparing Australia with (probably) most of the European countries when it comes to any social services. We just lag so far behind Europe that it's pointless to even hope that we will ever catch up.
What we have here is "wannabe broadband" at best but because of effective marketing propaganda and our own apathy we have just accepted our fate, like the lemmings most of us are.
Posted by: Ivan at April 6, 2006 02:45 PM
This is embarrising. The information economy has left the building... It was too slow here in OZ.
Posted by: Stephen at April 6, 2006 02:49 PM
Frankly, I just want Telstra to get off their backsides and connect me to broadband so I can find out what all the whinging is about. Even slow broadband has got to be better than dial-up!
Posted by: Wizzby at April 7, 2006 12:15 AM
Re: comparing the Netherlands and Australia - CW: You might be right, I was just referring to the overall statistic. Even the density of our capital cities is very low compared to Holland, though - 16 million peuple in a country barely more than one sixth the size of Victoria! (Thanks, wikipedia).
The Age today claims 54% of the Dutch have broadband! http://tinyurl.com/jnge4
Posted by: Colin J at April 7, 2006 08:12 AM
Yep the infrastructure in Australia is appalling and yes its got a lot to do with telecommunications policy being hostage to ideology on the one hand (axioms supported by little evidence, such as the private sector is always more efficient)and let's not forget vested interest either. The government with oversight that gave us the Wheat Board, HIH etc is also one that is about to once again, look after big media. What do you think would happen to Free to air shares if we could all get 1MB or better as a matter of course.
However it must be admitted that the Dutch, while an admirable benchmark, do have an advantage of density. They are certainly the most densely populated country in the developed world, and I believe they may even be the most densely populated in the entire world if one takes out city states like Hong Kong. Amsterdam is a great city but if it sprawled like Melbourne or Sydney parts of it would be in Belgium or Germany!
Posted by: tflip at April 7, 2006 07:02 PM