[LINK] Broadband for a Broad Land

[Kim Holburn]

On 2011/Jan/04, at 10:11 AM, David Boxall wrote:

> On 3/01/2011 10:21 PM, Kim Holburn wrote:
>> 
>> ...
>> Wireless seems like a great idea until you travel in the country.   In the last week or so, we drove from Canberra to Adelaide and back.  The Sturt highway was closed due to flooding at Narrandera so we had to go through Deniliquin and along the Malley highway.  Once out of Deniliquin we had no Vodafone network until we got to Tailem Bend, 574 km.   There was Optus and Telstra sometimes but no Vodafone. ...
>> 
>> ...  We have a long way to go to get mobile wireless coverage in Australia.  Having all this duplication of mobile coverage in cities has not helped the bush all that much so far.
>> 
> So why didn't the government of the day choose a better way?

Is that a rhetorical question?

> It seems to 
> me that a single coordinated mobile 'phone network, making optimum use 
> of available spectrum, would serve us best. Was it lack of imagination 
> or lack of talent?

Hanlon's Razor would indicate incompetence.  I wouldn't rule out: "complete lack of technical understanding of the issues" but perhaps that falls under "incompetence" too.   Pressure from large corporate interests can't be left out either.

> Or did they just want the money from selling 
> spectrum, so they could buy our votes?

Not to forget self interest.  And lastly, if a company does it, it is not transparent, not subject to FOI, the government isn't to blame if things go pear shaped.

ie, mobile phones have flakey service, unclear connections, possible health issues of sticking a transmitter next to your brain, rapidly changing technology - all reasons the government doesn't want any liability.

Lastly if the government can't even get the sale of spectrum right would you trust it any more than the telcos who forked out huge sums of money to buy said spectrum to do it all right?  It's Morton's fork.

-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
T: +61 2 61402408  M: +61 404072753
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