[LINK] The market for wireless [WAS: Work on Next Generation Wireless in Canberra]

[David Boxall]

On 29/11/2010 9:32 AM, Kim Holburn wrote:
>
> On 2010/Nov/29, at 9:10 AM, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> ...
>> As for the mobile networks: we now have intense competition between
>> three carriers, all of which are responsible for their own decisions
>> about coverage. Where's the benefit in subsuming this into the NBN?
>
> Don't get me started.  We, the public gave them use of three separate parts of the wireless spectrum, our public asset,  and what do we get for all that competition?  Can we roam, can we use all that coverage in the country and all that duplication in the more populated places?  What do we really get for all that competition?  Different contracts and plans that no-one can understand or compare?  Networks that don't play together.  "We" made them pay so much for the spectrum that they will never interoperate.  "We" did well with that, I don't think.
>
If all wireless infrastructure was government-controlled, couldn't the 
integrated network thus created sell wholesale capacity to retailers? 
Assuming all phones could use all frequencies, wouldn't that promote 
retail competition?

What am I missing here?

-- 
David Boxall                         | ignorance more frequently
                                     | begets confidence than does
http://david.boxall.id.au            | knowledge
                                     | --Charles Darwin (introduction
                                     |  to 'The Descent of Man' 1871)