[LINK] how we got Aussat [was: Re: Link Digest, Vol 175, Issue 41

[Adam Todd]

But did you see Howard on TV in the special "Network the Nation" ad that ran.

My wife, although she has a very basic knowledge of networking 
because of me, was laughing in hysterics making all kinds of comments 
about all the usual obvious issues.

I was rather impressed. I hope others realise that this white 
elephant is probably going to be a "Elephantstra" rather than a 
solution to a problem.

See for some reason people keep forgetting the one thing that 
differed between Australia and the USA/Europe geography/demographics.

Unlike the USA which populated it's desert regions and turned some 
into thriving cities, Australia seems to do the opposite and build 
huge concrete jungles along the coast line forgetting all the 
benefits of the inlands.

Fundamentally there isn't a lot of difference between Aus and Nth 
America other than the fact that Australia only has a population of 
21 million mostly on the easy coast, whereas the USA has 240 million 
all over the entire land.

So when there is talk about bringing broadband WiMax to the rural 
sector, it's really a joke.  Because whereas in the USA a link from 
say the equivalent of Adelaide to Alice Springs, would have a dozen 
thriving cities between it.

I was having a bit of a dig at an Amercan director recently.  She was 
telling me how her car broke down in the State to the South and she 
had to drive to the State to the north to get her shots done.  It 
took her three hours.

I told her that three hours might just put me from one side of Sydney 
to the other, or that it would be like driving from Sydney to 
Canberra, but to get to Victoria or Queensland the nearest States 
North or South would take about 12 hours driving.

Even funnier, I added, was to Drive from Victoria to Queensland, 
passing through NSW would take a good 18 hours.

She was like "Hey what?  18 hours to drive across state?"

I stopped short of counting the cities with populations over 20,000 
that one might drive through.




At 03:37 PM 21/06/2007, Jan Whitaker wrote:
>At 01:32 PM 21/06/2007, Stewart Fist wrote:
>>Free said about $10 million -- thinking, in terms of hiring a single channel
>>from an international operator, on an annual basis.
>
>And *that's* why debate is required: establishment of the goal 
>posts. Right now, this talk about extended ADSL2+ installations is 
>nuts. There's nothing magic in that. That part of the PLAN is 
>corporate welfare by another name. People are just waiting for a 
>cost effective extension of competition before they buy it. I know I 
>am. With only one choice in my exchange because of the Tel$tra 
>shenanigans, I'll wait, thank you very much.
>
>But back to my point - the current situation involves a lot of 
>people spinning out tales of "plans" who don't have a real 
>understanding of what they're saying or else have such a tangential 
>agenda that the whole thing is going to be another fiasco. And as 
>David I think pointed out, the "vision", what little there is, is so 
>near-sighted that it's worthless. Either that or the vision is so 
>mixed as to what is intended that it's useless. What is it about 
>this country and its 'supposed' leaders? Is it something in the water?
>
>Jan
>
>
>Jan Whitaker
>JLWhitaker Associates, Melbourne Victoria
>jwhit at janwhitaker.com
>business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
>personal: http://www.janwhitaker.com/personal/
>commentary: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
>
>Writing Lesson #54:
>Learn to love revision. Think of it as polishing the silver for 
>guests. - JW, May, 2007
>
>'Seed planting is often the most important step. Without the seed, 
>there is no plant.' - JW, April 2005
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