[LINK] Farmers lament Universal Service Obligation deficit

[David Boxall]

The USG was John Howard's way of conning the electorate into allowing 
him to privatise our telecommunications infrastructure. In that, it 
worked. In maintaining equitable access to services, it failed.

Government is responsible for ensuring equity of access to services. 
Government has shown conclusively that it can't enforce that obligation 
if the private sector is involved. It's now time to take back our 
infrastructure.

<http://www.theland.com.au/story/4423539/wishing-for-telco-guarantees/>
> Ask any farmer what they want and near the top of every list is a 
> reliable connection to the outside world.
>
> For a long time that connection has come in the form of a landline 
> service, delivered under the Universal Service Obligation (USO), a 
> $300-million-a-year agreement between the Federal Government and Telstra.
>
> Now we are in the 21st century, farming businesses and families need 
> more than just a landline. They also need an internet service that’s 
> reliable.
>
> Without a reliable internet connection, there is no access to finance, 
> health and education services, or to the markets and consumers that 
> are vital to farm businesses.
>
> That is why it is time to create a new USO that guarantees access to 
> both landline and internet services, including modern safeguards and 
> performance standards.
>
> Ironically, as the NBN rolls out, it is the future of voice services 
> that has become uncertain. A recent Productivity Commission draft 
> report highlighted the NBN satellite and fixed wireless networks were 
> not designed to deliver a universal voice service.
>
> If the current USO is ended, there is no certainty about what sort of 
> voice services rural and remote Australians would have access to.
>
> As the Productivity Commission considers the future of the USO, 
> farmers need to know what the future holds for their voice services.
>
> We need a new USO, but we also need a plan for voice services in 
> Australia’s most-isolated parts.
>
> There must be no gap between the current agreement and its replacement.
>
> NSW Farmers will appear at the Productivity Commission’s hearings 
> about the USO next month to make sure farmers will have a voice well 
> into the future.
>
> We are also partnering with the Regional, Rural and Remote 
> Communications Coalition to make sure our political representatives 
> hear loud and clear that the bush needs better telecommunications to 
> overcome the #datadrought.

-- 
David Boxall                    |  All that is required
                                 |  for evil to prevail is
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  for good men to do nothing.
                                 |     -- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)