[LINK] Telstra's FttN a NoGoNetwork

[Chris Maltby]

On Tue, Oct 10, 2006 at 09:34:51AM +1000, Howard Lowndes wrote:
> IMO, and from a purely business consideration, I think that Telstra's 
> launch of G3 is the correct move for them.

It's probably the only area where they could make any kind of good-news
announcement. The timing would be coincidental I'm sure.

> The rollout of G3 has got to be a quantum factor cheaper than a full 
> rollout of FttN, add to which it enables them to compete in a market 
> where they already have competition that they would not want to allow to 
> gain an upper hand.  FttN, as Budde points out, has not got competition 
> at the moment (perhaps in urban areas, but not elsewhere), so why spend 
> capital on it if there isn't the need.

FttN is a last-ditch monopoly play - if Telstra really cared about
satisfying the demand for faster broadband they would remove the
1.5Mbps cap on their ADSL1 services and start an ADSL2 rollout with
wholesale prices competitive with current ADSL2 providers. They wave
around a very misleading carrot of next generation broadband only so
they can reclaim their monopoly on access to the "last mile" copper.
Even the government was smart enough to see through that scam...

On the G3 announcement, did anyone hear what the pricing plans were
going to be? Anyone willing to bet they undercut ADSL?

> The gummint wanted Telstra to be independent and now that they haven't 
> got (or won't have unless they buy up the float) a controlling interest, 
> then IMO Telstra have a good case to say that the gummint can't regulate 
> them inequitably.

The (almost) exit of the government from the share register might
allow the ACCC to get stuck into Telstra's attempts to protect and
extend its monopoly without having to look over their shoulder at
the Finance Ministry all the time.

The current government has failed as spectacularly as the previous
one to deliver a competitive communications market in Australia.
Their failure has been due to their ideological belief in privatisation
and their need for cash to fund electoral pork barrels.

> Basically the gummint is allowing Telstra to screw the voters.

In the time honoured fashion...