[LINK] NBN pricing may dull broadband benefits: economist

[Richard]

Jan -

Having worked with John De Ridder, the Telstra angle isn't much to worry 
about. He's been out of there for a long time; and it wasn't possible to 
train up in telecoms in the 1980s without passing through Telstra.

I don't entirely agree with him on this one - because it seems to me 
that, counter-intuitively, more people are taking up higher speeds than 
expected. But I'm not economist enough to challenge his analysis.

Cheers,
Richard

On 9/03/13 2:32 PM, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> At 02:16 PM 9/03/2013, Kim Holburn wrote:
>>> NBN Co is offering five different speeds at different prices,
>> which telecommunications consultant and former Telstra chief
>> economist John de Ridder says is artificial because, once the
>> network is built, it does not cost more to deliver 100 mbps over
>> the NBN than it does the slower speeds.
>>> "They could offer the same speed, unlimited speed basically, to
>> everybody but they choose to ration it out, charging more for
>> higher speeds," he said.
> I heard this story on the radio and my ears perked up in 'danger Will
> Robinson' mode as soon as I heard this: "former Telstra chief economist".
>
> The argument he is posing is exactly what Telstra could do as well
> (take off the top and charge the same), and I guess some might argue
> that the do on their HFC cable service is you can get that, assuming
> you aren't sharing it with everyone else in the neighbourhood. I
> haven't look at their data quotas, if any, though. *Surely* he isn't
> criticising the NBN for presenting a business model decision that
> might recoup some costs of the investment? Surely he wouldn't say that.
>
> I would gladly pay $50/month for the fastest speed because that is
> equivalent to the cost for my current 'can only get' 8Mbps speed on
> ADSL (not 2+ mind you because TELSTRA won't upgrade the local switch
> from shared RIM service so I have a choice). I wonder if de Ridder
> advised Telstra on that little decision......
>
> Jan
>
>
>
> Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
> jwhit at janwhitaker.com
> blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
> business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
>
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