[LINK] Labor commits to $4.5b high-speed Internet network

[Jan Whitaker]

At 01:36 PM 23/03/2007, Stewart Fist wrote:
>I'd like to see street ducting and power-poles put under local government
>control, like suburban roads - with the main inter-exchange trunk-pipes
>placed under state government control.
>
>That's the only way to get real competitive access, if they are going to
>allow multiple infrastructure suppliers.  And this is possibly the way it
>might go.  Everything is far too vague to come to any conclusions, other
>than to say that Labor has a proposal which is better than the non-proposals
>of the Liberals.
>
>However. The unnecessary duplication of primary infrastructure now appears
>to be accepted by both sides of politics.

It might be worth revisiting the US approach to this re cable TV 
rollouts in metro areas at least. In the Phoenix area, the access was 
licensed to single providers with requirements for services that were 
of public benefit, the PEG channels: public, education, government. 
The cabling was owned by the companies with the licenses (I think; it 
was about 20 years ago when I was involved in all this), but they 
paid fees for the 'right of way', either underground or on poles.

I don't have a problem with them selling the government interest at 
some specific time and then using the capital to build the next 
generation (gee, where have I heard that expression before?)

If a state government can underwrite a weekend car race for 
$millions, why can't a federal government underwrite a capital 
investment where at least there is something to use 365 days/year 
instead of just 2.

Jan


Jan Whitaker
JLWhitaker Associates, Melbourne Victoria
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
personal: http://www.janwhitaker.com/personal/
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'Seed planting is often the most important step. Without the seed, 
there is no plant.' - JW, April 2005
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