[MLB-WIRELESS] [OT] 1.5Mbit/sec DSL providers - further OT

[Tim Hogard]

> this is part of what is wrong with privatising telstra.  as a public service,
> telecom had a responsibility to provide reliable phone service to the
> australian public.  as a private company, telstra has a responsibility to
> maximise return to shareholders WITHOUT REGARD TO THE NEEDS OF THE PUBLIC

Thats is why palces that have had private telcos forever have things
like Public Utilities Commissions.

In most places they set the min and max rates for services to 
balance stockolder value with essential services.  Since you have
to have investors to get anythign done, many of them allow
for a profit of 10% per year on investments and no more.

In many places PUC's can alos take over exchanges and lines from
a bad telco and arrange a sale of thouse assests to another telco.
That keeps the rural telcos working.

Rural Australia is screwed no matter if Telstra is sold or not.
Too bad they don't understand the issues and keep delaying the
inevitable and are doing it in such a way that it won't be fixable
for decades.

What needs to happen is Telstra needs to be split into a companies that
owns the lines between exchanges, regional based copper owners and
all the other fluff (like the phone books, web hosting, newspapers)
and sold off.  If the local councils want to buy the copper, fine,
let them. 

That HiBIS grant should have all gone into providing fixed rate E1
circuts to any fiber equiped exchange in the country then WISPs
would be springing up in every rural town in the country.  What it
was used for was to give Telstra an edge over the few regional ISPs
and is going to knock them out of business.

-tim
http://web.abnormal.com

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