[LINK] Coonan's statement -- correct or not?

Richard Chirgwin rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au
Sun Oct 21 07:59:40 AEST 2007


Rick Welykochy wrote:
> Jan Whitaker wrote:
>
>> http://www.theage.com.au/news/federalelection2007/australia-in-digital-dark-age/2007/10/20/1192301086691.html 
>>
>>
>> Coonan:
>> She said Australia is ahead of the US, Canada, United Kingdom, 
>> Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and many other developed countries.
>> Internet prices are competitive because the coalition government's 
>> telecommunications policy has licensed 167 internet carriers, more 
>> than the three licensed carriers under the previous Labor government, 
>> she said.
>>
>> -=-=
>> The bit I don't believe is that they 'licence' internet carriers. 
>> Huh? Does the government licence ANY internet carriers? How does one 
>> set up an ISP? Aren't many of the 167 resellers?
>
> ISPs have never been licenced. Being a member of TIO is not a licencing
> scheme. Silly Helen should know this. Or is she learning how to spin
> from the Lying Rat?
>
> Let me see now on price.
>
> Shaw Cable in Canada offers 5 Mb/s, 60 GB for about AUD $33/month.
> <http://www.shaw.ca/en-ca/ProductsServices/Internet/>
OK. BigPond Cable is 8M and 12G for $60, which is more expensive. Then 
again, in Au you have to get Foxtel first, at $38 a month. Shaw's 
entry-level cable TV is $US30 a month. Swings and roundabouts, a little. 
I'm not going to  run down all the providers.

What makes me grind my teeth together on things like this is that 
analysts - like ITIF - know that bundle analysis is very, very complex, 
and that stripping out the "headline" price of a service means you don't 
get a like-for-like comparison.

RC
>
> Rogers Telecom in Canada offers similar for about AUD $38/month.
> <http://www.rogers.com/>
>
> Even Telus (the Telstra of Canada) can do similar for AUD $44/month.
> <http://telus.ca/>
>
> These prices are considerably cheaper (about 1/2) of the equivalent
> service in Aus.
>
> Five years ago I was downloading a full Debian ISO CD image in Canada
> in minutes by cable Internet, which might have cost an extra $20/mon
> on top of the cable TV rental.
>
> I would hazard a guess that USA prices are even cheaper.
>
> cheers
> rick
>
>
>
>



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