[LINK] Fairfax press looks at broadband around the world; Australia not doing well; govt intervention needed

[David Goldstein]

This article is in the Fairfax press today... the hard copy version has a graph 
with the numbers of different types of broadband in about 20 or 30 countries. 
And yes, reading the report shows the government's NBN is the only way to get 
high speed broadband around the country and the private sector is inept at 
providing it.

David

Waiting on a missed connection
Government intervention will be required to give Australian households 
super-fast fibre, writes Lucy Battersby.
...
''The lowest prices and highest speeds are almost all offered by firms in 
markets where, in addition to an incumbent telephone company and a cable 
company, there are also competitors who entered the market, and built their 
presence, through use of open access facilities,'' the report's authors found.
...
The researchers were particularly impressed with France's approach to 
telecommunications, and not just the ideological judgments. The French regulator 
cracked down on anti-competitive behaviour by the incumbent, France Telecom, in 
2002, such as predatory pricing, discriminating against competitors' access to 
local exchanges and charging competitors excessive labor costs.
 
Since then the average monthly access price in France has fallen from 17€ to 8€ 
and broadband subscriptions have increased from 3.7 million to 18.7 million.
 
The French government has not directly invested in broadband infrastructure, but 
is set to raise between €80 to €100 billion for municipal governments to spend 
on communications infrastructure.
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/waiting-on-a-missed-connection-20100830-13y07.html