We have had the enthusiastic announcements all day about the NBN / Telstra / Optus agreement.
What a self-congratulatory joke!
Can I ask one question?
If $36 Billion is being spent on this folly - how can internet services to you and me get cheaper?
The infrastructure that I and 30% + of the community use - the HFC cable - is to be replaced by the monster and I bet my internet access, at the speeds I get, will cost a lot more than $60 per month.
Where is the access price for what speeds before we agree? We have no idea and the floor price is being set by a monopoly - and this is meant to be ‘free enterprise’! The concept is just like the PCEHR - just utterly flawed!
Why do I need to lose a good link I already have? I have a price and a connection that is very fast - so just why am I forced to migrate? What guarantee do I get it will be cheaper? I bet it won’t be to get a 7% or so return on $36 Billion! (I am with Optus Cable btw - a fabulous fast service with about 1 day of downtime in a decade!)
Mark McDonnell, a really quality telecoms analyst, speaking on Sky News tonight, makes it quite clear we don’t even really have a deal here. We have just ½ deal! We know what Telstra will be paid, but we have no idea what it will cost them - or anyone else - to connect to the Government NBN Monopoly. (We also have no service level agreements made public) Thanks heavens I have no investments in the now dropping Telstra (2.3% today after the announcement) share price! It will go down further I reckon.
Ask yourself another question? Where is the pressure on NBN Co to reduce its prices to the ISP’s it is serving so we consumers will get benefits over time? We will have no idea who to even ask! Worse it won’t be sold to the private sector - as another monopoly - for 15 years or so.
Tell me, will you the name, of a properly accountable Government monopoly. I can’t think of one I have ever seen work in my interest! Remember the old Telstra!
This is getting rid of one monopoly and getting another even more powerful one in my view.
And by the way - given the 10 year roll out of the NBN - any e-Health benefits are a fair while away.
This can be done better, cheaper and without creating Telstra II. The Government are just policy clowns I reckon.
---- Sorry if this seems political - it really could be done better and cheaper without creating a monster monopoly just to kick the hated Telstra - just look closely at what has happened in NZ.
David.
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