[LINK] NBN widening digital divide in bush

[Birch, Jim]

David Boxall wrote:

> OK, there probably will always be some disparity. The more remote the
location, the lower probably will be the achievable bandwidth.

That's right.  It doesn't make economic sense to take a fibre to every
anthill in central Australia.  There's a cost/benefit trade off.  City
people will be subsidising remote users to some extent.  In Australia,
we accept this, but we also expect some loss of service quality in
sparsely populated areas, just like you get with snail mail, phone
services, hospitals, shops, entertainment, etc.  Living in the bush has
its benefits too.

The NBN is a great deal for city dwellers mainly because it creates an
open medium where competition will occur rather than a hodgepodge of
private networks that facilitate price gouging.  For country people it's
a great deal, period.
 
> What really disadvantages remote telecom's users is parsimonious
providers. Whether the provider be government or private enterprise 
makes no difference.

Except that the universal service of the NBN requires aims to meet basic
standards for everyone.  If it were a pure commercial decision,
(typically) the cost would be greater and the level of service would be
less for remote users.

- Jim


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