[LINK] Telstra sell-out

[Marghanita da Cruz]

rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au wrote:
> Quoting Marghanita da Cruz <marghanita at ramin.com.au>:
> 
>> Look I live in inner Sydney (lines have probably been in for a very long
>> time). Not sure - nor do I care whether it will support ADSL (they 
>> didn't when I checked a while back when they were pushing cable) - I 
>> am well served with competitive
>> wireless services. They do come and fiddle with the junction boxes and
>> subsequently my line was out for hours on several occassions.
> 
> 
> Well, the DSL works fine and dandy in Leichhardt ... I'm about 100 metres
> outside the BigAir footprint, 
Checked http://www.bigair.com.au/ I am in the footprint.

That means a choice of three wireless service - unwired, bigair and i-burst

>already had a connection before Unwired 
> arrived
> so didn't bother...

As you are in the neighbourhood, when Telstra was rolling out the cable, 
Leichhardt Council along with other councils ran this campaign to get 
the telcos to put cables underground. They charge rental on this as 
opposed to the powerlines - which I think are owned by the electricity 
people At the time, they consulted residents and I wrote back saying I 
did not want any cable in my street and that my view was Telstra should 
be providing the infrastructure for wireless...

The council wrote back to say I should be please that telstra had agreed 
to put the cable underground! Telstra has subsequently offered free 
connection to the building and then had the nerve to write to me as an 
owner ( I also happen to be secretary of the body corporate) claiming 
that my stupid body corporate refused this fantastic offer!

> 
> But I think I want to take issue with this point:
> 
>>
>> There is cable in my street - did anyone mention white elephants.
>> Australia being left behind technologically - we even installed a legacy
>> system!
> 
> 
> Yes, HFC has been a commercial white elephant. But not because of the 
> technology
> involved.
> 
> One of the biggest problems in the "private" telecomms market is that 
> people
> keep insisting on applying "IT" life-cycles to the infrastructure. HFC
> certainly wasn't a legacy system at the time of design - say, mid-1990s 
> - or
> installation.   It was, in technology terms, "fit for purpose".
cable was installed circa 1998 - because we didn't have cable tv! If 
Australia had chosen to go the wireless rather than cable pay tv model 
we would all be better off!
> 
> What makes it look like a legacy system is that rollout cycles for "big
> infrastructure" are far longer than technology life cycles.
> 
> It's an "impedance mismatch" between stock markets and telecomms. The 25 
> year
> system lifecycle is gone - but it's not killed by viability or suitability,
> it's killed by the rules of investment, depreciation, and so on.
<snip>
What is wrong with a 25 year lifecycle - we are talking superannuation 
funds here! Also, I think you will find the IT lifecycle isn't quite as 
short as the vendors promote.
If the implementation takes 2-4 years shouldn't you expect at least 5 if 
not more return? We have a technology governance problem which people 
are trying to solve with accounting.

Marghanita
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: 0414-869202
Email: marghanita at ramin.com.au