As proof that Rudd’s
“We either spend 40 billion or we do nothing” line is working is this letter in
The Australian this morning.
THIS week I went to my local supermarket and purchased goods worth less than $50 which I paid for with my EFTPOS card. I live less than 200 kilometres from the Sydney CBD in a major tourist town. As I stood there, my EFTPOS card failed to function due to a “modem error”. To my great surprise, I was told that the local store uses dial-up modem! This is horse-and-buggy technology. What a national disgrace that, in 2009, business is still relying on dial-up modem.
Australia needs the Government’s proposed broadband network and we need it now. If the critics can’t comprehend the need for high-speed broadband, then they just don’t understand technology and the massive benefits that the proposed new broadband network could deliver to the national economy. It is best that the Government ignores the Luddites and proceeds with all haste to bring our economy into the 21st century.
Adrian Bishop
If your local store in the area that you describe has dial-up it is because they have made a commercial decision to do so – it’s cheaper. These same people, small businesses, will make similar decisions after Rudd has thrown 40 Billion at the problem.
If you can’t comprehend that the debate is not about the need for high speed broadband but about the method of attaining same then you should keep quiet until you do some more reading on the matter.
My mate Google tellls me Adrian is a serial commenter and letter write extolling the talents of the ALP and the shortcomings of the Coalition. All well and good but his letter and comments elswhere in the media suggest he is an ALP stooge who accepts everything Rudd says as gospel and when interested parties question the method he fails to see the question and thus is a long way from providing any sort of answer.
I am getting jaded with Rudd’s “
We intend to spend X billion on X problem, the alternative is to do nothing”
No it isn’t! The alternative could be do something less grandiose which in the case of Broadband doesn’t depend on punters paying for a Rolls Royce when a Commodore solution may well do the job.
Henry Ergas touches on the subject in
The Australian
No business case has been developed, yet ministers promise both low prices and (as required by the Competition Principles Agreement) a fully commercial rate of return. However, even with high take-up rates, breaking even requires national retail prices of $160 a month; to break even with lower take-up rates would require retail prices higher than $200 a month. Given those prices, the network will struggle in metropolitan areas, where it will face strong competition, while bearing large losses in the country (where costs per line will be more than $300 a month).
I think I’ll be sticking with the Commodore plan for a while yet. By the time Rudd’s plan undergoes full scrutiny the
“spend $40 billion or do nothing” quote will have morphed into another throw away line.
You just wait and see
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I’m also weary of Rudd’s mantra – every time he opens his mouth it costs this country another few billion.
The $43 billion for this latest blue sky project is just a guess by Rudd – no business plan, no industry consultation, just Rudd and his ‘team’ chatting about it on various VIP flights around the country.
A 100 megabits ‘fibre to the premises’ network is a technology gamble and we’ve yet to be told what we are going to need to attach to the bit of fishing line dangling out of our wall sockets in order to convert pulses of light to something useable by our computers and other domestic technology.
We are also being kept in the dark regarding what, if any, future capacity to increase its bandwidth the next step to 1000 megabits will be included or if this is a system with built in obsolescence.
As I live out of town and have quite a long haul from the PMG pit (still has the logo) on the main road I wonder if Rudd is going to trench my property and run the fibre to my house or will I be expected to do it myself at my expense?
Will I have to purchase and install my own fibre to copper media converter or is that part of the RuddNet bill.
If Telstra or another carrier offers me a similar wireless connection will I still be required to connect to RuddNet or will Rudd prohibit competing networks from being established using new technology and copper or wireless?
Currently I have an ADSL landline and a slightly slower NextG wireless connection. However I use the wireless connection most of the time because it allows me to sit outside on my veranda and work, to sit in a café at the beach and work and work in a caravan in the Kimberly as I did recently all with ‘no strings attached’ and more than fast enough for my purposes.
I also download video every day in real time and watch it on a large plasma screen – it’s called television.
Surely you were able to afford to pay $50 instead of using your card. I think it is a great pity that supermarkets are allow people to use credit cards.
Taxpayer,
It’s not me who used the card it was the letter writer to the editor however I must say that I seldom carry cash on me these days. I use the card all the time. And that’s an EFPOS card, not a credit card.
Sign of the times.