[LINK] NBN fault maintenance

Tom Worthington tom.worthington at tomw.net.au
Sat Dec 7 11:02:28 AEDT 2019


On 5/12/19 6:25 pm, Stephen Loosley wrote:

> ... households and businesses not using the NBN will be hit with a 
> $7.10 monthly fee ...

This fee will be charged for NBN connections, as well as non-NBN, 
according to the Telecommunications (Regional Broadband Scheme) Charge 
Bill 2018: 
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_LEGislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r5916.

This is only for a "... fixed-line superfast broadband service ...". 
But, "superfast" is defined as at least 25 Mbps, which doesn't seem fast 
in 2019: 
https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/legislation/ems/r5916_ems_99547b80-0b65-4818-aff5-57a336c2c22e/upload_pdf/636284a.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf

Unfortunately, I could not find a definition of what "fixed-line" is: 
are wireless connections via the mobile networks included? An extra 
$7.10 a month would increase the cost of a mobile data service considerably.

> ... replacing the company’s opaque internal cross-subsidy from its
> fixed line networks ...

I am happy to a pay tax, or cross subsidy, to provide network access to 
low income households. But not everyone in regional and remote areas is 
in that category. Why should I subsidize network access for a foreign 
owned agribusiness, or a profitable mining company?


-- 
Tom Worthington, MEd FHEA FACS CP http://www.tomw.net.au +61(0)419496150
TomW Communications Pty Ltd. PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia
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Honorary Lecturer, Computer Science, Australian National University
https://cecs.anu.edu.au/research/profile/tom-worthington



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