[LINK] Govt to tax broadband

[Frank O'Connor]

Terrific.

First they take a well designed state of the art broadband network and turn it into an expensive, tardily built, hodge podge of obsolete and inappropriate technologies, slowest in the world, debacle that they pity us for in other countries.

Then they FINALLY realise that the satellite/bush bit of the ‘mixed technologies’ wasn’t gonna work given natural limitations of satellite, and the penny pinching they indulged in when they decided how many satellites and with what carrying capacity would be whacked up there. I mean, all anybody was gonna need by their estimates was 15Mbs on fixed line NBN, and hey all the bush needed was an asynchronous 12/1Mbs … and who cares about latency anyway?

Then they force people onto that laughingly named network (no choice after 18 months availability).

Then the majority, who are not on fibre, are invited to go for NBN ‘plans’ that typically only yield 40% of the bandwidth that the subscribers are paying for - but its OK to charge for the 100% that they’re not getting. Hey, it’s better than than ADSL.

And as Australia’s Internet bandwidth availability rating sinks to the low 60th in the world, and looks like dropping like a stone over the next few years to the point that we will simply be utterly uncompetitive in the booming digital economy … our politicians want to tax us for the privilege of supporting an MTM network that was built with politics and penny pinching in mind, which relied on market usage assumptions that were complete rubbish, which networking experts and scientists said would not work, and which a few relatively simple science based calculations would have proved could not possibly work … 

My response … no! 

First sue the people responsible for this debacle. The people who made the decision to build a ‘mixed technology’ … a blend of fibre and the low bandwidth obsolete (hey, what could go wrong!)… ‘broadband' network with no possible resale value, The people who have built a network that is plagued by high fixed costs and risk, by maintenance and repair problems, by 60-80,000 above ground, exposed to the elements, possible points of failure that didn’t have to be there. The network that was obsolete and unworkeable even as it was designed. Using a ‘Star’ topography of all things … I mean - are these people incapable of reading up on basic networking limitations? Are they capable of reading?

Sue Tony Abbott.
Sue Malcolm Turnbull.
Sue Mitch Fifield.
Sue Henry Ergas.
Sue Ziggy Switkowski.
Sue Bill Morrow.

And after these dishonest technical troglodytes are left stewing in their own juices, then we’ll talk about how to fix the situation … and second time around we’ll do it right. With the right people making the decisions. (Those who know a little about networking, and who are cognizant about where the rest of the world is going with networking.) 

I mean, hey … if Kazakhstan can guarantee its citizens at least 100 Mbs today, perhaps we should employ a few Kazakh politicians and economists from there, rather than the hopeless losers we currently support on the public payroll.

Just my (ranting) 2 cents worth.       :)
----
> On 14 May 2017, at 3:56 pm, Stephen Loosley <stephenloosley at outlook.com> wrote:
> 
> Govt to introduce legislation for broadband tax
> 
> 
> By Ry Crozier May 8 2017  https://www.itnews.com.au/news/govt-to-introduce-legislation-for-broadband-tax-460847
> 
> Minimum $7.10 monthly charge
> 
> The government is pushing to introduce a $7.10 minimum monthly broadband tax for fixed-line NBN users to pay for the future cost of the fixed wireless and satellite portions of the NBN.
> 
> It plans to both introduce and pass the regional broadband scheme (RBS) charge bill, alongside a package of telecommunications changes, in parliament's winter sitting, which wraps up on June 22.
> 
> The Communications department began consulting on the tax in December last year, and took industry submissions until February 3.
> 
> However, the result of the consultation has not been released, and at the time of publication was still listed as being “under review” despite the government’s intention to pass the tax law by mid-year.
> 
> Users of “superfast” fixed-line services will pay the tax, which starts at $7.10 a month. The tax will be charged to retail service providers, who the government has admitted will pass on the cost to customers.
> 
> About 95 percent of those taxed will be NBN fixed-line customers, while the remainder will come from operators such as TPG, which has been deploying fibre-to-the-basement services in metro areas.
> 
> Lawmakers have acknowledged the charge will make broadband prices more expensive.
> 
> However, they argue the tax is needed because of an expected shortfall in funds from a cross-subsidy that – until now – has been embedded in NBN Co’s wholesale prices.
> 
> The original NBN model intended that metro users would cross-subsidise the connections of regional and remote users.
> However, with 80 percent of the NBN rollout occurring in regional and rural areas to date, it is likely that very few NBN users today are contributing to the cross-subsidy.
> 
> In addition, as NBN Co faces competition from the likes of TPG, the government claims NBN Co is under pressure to drop its wholesale prices to remain competitive. In that situation, it would no longer be able to house a cross-subsidy in rates, if they were no longer uniform.
> 
> Questions remain on the efficacy of the broadband tax, including whether it would collect enough to cover the future costs of fixed wireless and satellite and prevent any future calls on the budget to help NBN Co.
> 
> --
> Cheers,
> Stephen
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