[LINK] World's biggest luddite strikes again!

[Chirgwin, Richard]

<hanging my head in shame>
Rick, the hell of it is that I almost agree with Alston about bband. In
part. A little.

Price is not the only reason consumers pass it up. Cars are expensive too,
after all.

Straw men:
a) The broadband "pitch" probably doesn't cut the mustard with most
consumers: "But I've got fast Internet access at the office and the Web
pages still take hours to load!"
b) Exactly what do I get for my money that's worth the premium? 
c) Aren't all those hackers going to take over my PC if I use broadband?
d) How do I know I'm getting what I paid for.

<serious>
If I use a phone line I pay for a phone call - the billing model is
something the consumer understands. If I use cable Internet I pay X per
month and Y per megabyte in excess of Z download limit under conditions (a,
b and c). Some of the T&Cs sound like Warner Bros scripts, circa 1948... 

[Oh, and most of the faith in broadband seemed to derive from the belief
that people would soon start crowding around the PC like 1950s families
crowded around the TV...

OK, so the cognoscenti likes broadband. Fine. The media likes it as a
Pavlovian response - we're conditioned to hyperventilate anytime someone
says "faster". Vendors like it for the obvious reason.

But if it's a dead duck in the market, I don't see why Alston's statements
about it are ludditism. Hell, there are much better reasons to call him
>that<...

Richard Chirgwin


-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Welykochy [mailto:rick@praxis.com.au]
Sent: Thursday, 25 October 2001 0:33
To: link@www.anu.edu.au
Subject: [LINK] World's biggest luddite strikes again!


In case it was missed:

<http://theregister.co.uk/content/6/22372.html>

"The world's biggest luddite, Senator Richard Alston - who unfortunately is
also the
 minister for Communications, Information Technology and The Arts for the
Australian
 government - has struck again. "

This time broadband is under attack.


_____________________________________________
Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services Pty Limited

Maybe you well excitement when you read the mail.
Maybe you well consider that the E-mail is borbage.
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