[LINK] Fwd: How expensive are Australian NBN services?
stephen at melbpc.org.au
stephen at melbpc.org.au
Tue Aug 16 01:48:48 AEST 2011
How expensive are Australian NBN services?
(Depends on how you measure it)
By Richard Chirgwin. (Article found via main page, Google News)
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/15/nbn_service_prices>
Posted in Telecoms, 15th August 2011 01:00 GMT
Get more from this author:
<http://search.theregister.co.uk/?author=Richard%20Chirgwin>
One of the things people like to toss into the broadband debate is to
grab a price thats cheaper than what Australias National Broadband
Network seems to offer, and complain about it.
Usually, that involves grabbing a price in a currency other than our own,
grabbing todays exchange rate, and converting the foreign price. And
theres always something wrong with this: it ignores factors external to
the exchange rate.
To pick a nearby example: while we can easily convert Australian dollars
to American so long as our calculator runs faster than current
fluctuations in the exchange rate! that conversion ignores the
different average wage (about $AU1,300 here, $US800 there). Twenty
dollars makes a bigger hole in the American than the Australian pocket,
right now.
So Im going to compare a few fibre broadband offerings in different
countries based on a more complex measure, that of purchasing power
parity (PPP). A table of broadband prices adjudged this way is below...
(SNIP)
Australia is paying over the median price for a 100 Mbps broadband
service (recalling that to put us at the greatest possible disadvantage,
I have picked a premium service provider). There are seven services
offered cheaper than Internode; only three are more expensive.
But is it really so bad? Here are a few points.
1. All of the countries offering lower prices than Australia for a 100
Mbps service are much smaller than Australia, with consequent geographic
advantages.
2. Two services more expensive than Internodes are not 100 Mbps, but 50
Mbps, because thats what the carriers offer.
3. The Slovak Republic gets 100 Mbps services (upload speeds not
mentioned), but for more than double the Australian price.
4. Internode is explicitly a premium provider. I selected its price
because I dont know who rates as premium providers in other countries
I didnt want to compare the cheapest price from Australia with the most
expensive overseas. The cheapest NBN-delivered offering today is from
Exetel which, at $AU49.50, is below the international median by any
measure.
And finally, I dont remember anybody ever promising that Australia would
get the cheapest broadband in the world. Such a promise would be
completely incompatible with at least three characteristics that are
specific to Australia:
1. Our size and population density. If we want to get even close to
equitable access to broadband, a city-country subsidy is inevitable.
2. Unlike non-English-speaking countries, most of the content we consume
comes from overseas, so our network builds in a premium for international
links.
3. Were charged heavily for US Internet transit.
All things considered, the prices dont compare too badly on an
international basis.
Methodological notes (SNIP)
So yes: our fibre broadband (at the top of the market) is more than
triple the cost of South Koreas. Our wages are also higher, our country
bigger, our houses bigger, and we dont have a nervous, paranoid,
starving, unstable, dangerous neighbour within artillery distance of our
border.
--
Cheers Richard
Stephen Loosley
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