The Australian Broadband Disaster 432
David Gerard writes "Monopolies are bad, mmmkay? Robert Clark of TelecomAsia discusses the disaster that is broadband in Australia - its 2% takeup putting Australia behind such dynamic economies as Estonia. 'Telstra controls the local loop, is the largest mobile carrier with two digital networks, is the largest retail ISP, the largest wholesale data and Internet provider, and is a 50% shareholder in the biggest pay TV company.'"
More Info (Score:5, Informative)
Re:More Info (Score:3, Informative)
Don't expect your problem to be solved by them either.
Oh and the site has already been slashdotted!
Re:More Info (Score:4, Funny)
Oooh, I dunno. Your performance in "The Phantom Menace" was pretty rough too.
Re:More Info (Score:3, Interesting)
Sorry, couldn't resist. I know the kind of bullshit companies will pull. A couple years back when I got my first DSL line it took a full 4 months from my first signing up for service before I actually got my first connection to the DSLAM. All the while PacBell (the provider at that time,
How loaded is your link? (Score:2, Informative)
Do you have 1 - 3 second pings when you're doing nothing, absolutely nothing, on your link except a ping?
If so - yeah, something is FUBAR. Consider a traceroute to watch where the holdup actually it. It's quite likely a Telstra problem (remember, your ADSL is mostly Telstra no matter who you sign up with).
Here's what I see:
It sounds better... (Score:5, Funny)
I like their customer service "Welcome to Comcast, if you are calling for customer service please hang up now and bang your head against a wall until you are hallucinating connectivity.
Re:It sounds better... (Score:2)
Download caps on broadband (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:5, Informative)
Things have started to improve just recently. First, Comindico (through numerous resellers) have started to offer flat-rate ADSL. Second, Swiftel [swiftdsl.com.au] (directly and also through resellers) have started to offer plans with an excess charge of just $6 per GB - 25 times cheaper than the industry standard.
As others have mentioned, Whirlpool [whirlpool.net.au] is the place to go for Broadband news in Oz. Most of it is bad, of course. Telstra is, not to put to fine a point on it, evil. Our federal communications minister, the benighted Senator Alston, is hopelessly ill-suited to the post. It's not all darkness, though.
Download caps on broadband already here (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:3, Informative)
Have you any idea how much bandwidth in Australia costs? If you run a large company, and you want an Internet connection, you will be paying about 9c/Mb for international
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:5, Informative)
And to all those people that were on existing 12 month contracts? Tough luck, you had the option to either pay your contract out or sit on the service and do exciting broadband things like check your email and/or slashdot. Going over you limit incurred huge costs (some people accidentally ran into the 1000's of dollars in 1 month). They have held Australia back in this area, but alternatives have since appeared through local peering and Comindico http://www.comindico.com.au/ (which offer unlimited and respectable pricing, even if it is at a lil less performance).
Used to be unlimited? Don't think so. (Score:5, Interesting)
4 years ago, I got cable internet within a few months of its initial availability in Sydney, and it was capped, believe me.
For $65/month, I was capped at a mere 100 MB, including both upload and download. Excess bandwidth was 33c/MB! Imagine what downloading a "free" RedHat ISO cost.
Re:Used to be unlimited? Don't think so. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:3, Informative)
Straight away, we rang them and demanded a refund. We sent our own emails, to them and the telecommunications ombudsman. We kept ringing, talking to people higher and higher up the chain.
If you were vocal and persistent, you could get something. We ended up with a full refund of the installation, plus our 3 or 4 months refunded
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:3, Insightful)
Look, it's all very well to bag out the ISPs capping usage or charging usage fees to go over it, but what you don't say is that every ISP has to pay for it's bandwidth, and it's charged by usage as well.
Most data comes from the US. In the US, that's easy, but when you need to go half way round the world to get the info then it costs money! You think the pe
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:3, Informative)
And to all those people that were on existing 12 month contracts? Tough luck, you had the option to either pay your contract out or sit on the service
That's simply not true. Yes, you had the option of staying or leaving, but if you chose to leave, it was at no cost to you, and you had your install fees refunded. It's exactly what I did to get out.
Ray
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:2)
Actually caps are falling away! (Score:5, Interesting)
Many ISP's including Dodo, escape net, TPG to name just a few have introduced unlimited download plans on their "slow" 256K/64K plans. This is fantastic news for home users except for those that have been locked into an 18 month contract with Telstra and are still capped at 3GB.
Incidently, though Australia's broadband usage is only 2% Nationally - it is actually increasing exponentially. Total number of ADSL/Cable users increased from 15,000 in July 2001 to almost 60,000 in June 2002 and it is still increasing rapidly. (See the ACCC [accc.gov.au])
Though growth may have slowed recently a little due to general unhappiness with Telstra's monopoly and bandwidth caps I see the influx of new ISP's and uncapped plans (thanks to comindico) as a good sign of more growth to come.
2%? Wow. (Score:2)
Here in South Africa, broadband has only been out since about March 2002, and it's already had way more than a 2% takeup, despite being relatively expensive (ZAR700 per month, or US$80 per month, for a 512K ADSL line) compared to other broadband-utilizing countries.
Considering the fact that Australia is a more advanced country than South Africa, it seems to me that, judging by the Australian broadband fiasco, and the various Internet censorship fiascos that raged in Australia a while ago, Australia's curre
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:4, Interesting)
So, instead of a whole bunch of interesting web projects (bizarre web cams, assorted servers, php toys), I barely ever connect to the Internet from home and I just have almost the cheapest dial-up account.
However, I don't think this is actually negatively affecting anything of importance. The major use for home broadband throughout the US is "piracy" -- and while I have no firm moral position on this, I don't think it's a good reason to demand cheap broadband.
Final note: I'm going to be cancelling pay-tv shortly, so I'm going to lose my easiest route for broadband into my home. I'm cancelling it for two reasons. Almost all the programs suck or are repeats (or both) and there's no cheap broadband option. Irony.
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:5, Informative)
The good thing though is that traffic from sources within their own network (nntp, their ftp mirrors, games servers, etc) and from ISPs that are connected with a peering agreement (they agree to carry each others traffic free of charge) is always at full speed, and doesn't count towards that quota.
Uncapped for $65/month (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, you can get fixed-rate ADSL from quite a few provides - see Whirlpool [whirlpool.net.au] for a list. Most will slow you down to modem speeds past the cap point, but at least you don't get whacked with thousand-dollar service bills.
Still, you can get ""unlimited" ADSL plans for as little as $65, e.g. from TPG. Only 256/64 Kb/s, and it can get pretty choked at peak times. It does exist, but it's a far, far cry from the unlimited cable I enjoyed in Canada for $40/month...
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:3, Insightful)
Expensive bandwidth shaves off some growth every year at the margin and over time that creates a meaningful difference in the quality of daily
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:4, Insightful)
Now there's a well researched and thought out statement if I ever heard one. What are you, a mindless believer in whatever the RIAA says (even though I assume you're in Australia)?
Really, it's stupid generic blanket frames of mind like this that are giving the goons trying to tie down all digital media an audience in the circles that matter. I have DSL (in the U.S.) and wouldn't trade it for dial up for anything. This is because of the speed of web surfing and being able to watch online streaming videos and other multimedia content, not to mention downloading the latest ISO's and other software. Downloading pirated media is not a concern of mine, or of most of my aquaintences who have some kind of high speed internet link.
I believe that if realistic statistics on pirating using the Internet were generated, instead of statistics that were dreamed up by a bunch of RIAA flunkies sitting isolated in a conference room, you would find piracy rates to be related by specific age groups and demographics rather than be related to type of Internet connection. Also, I think it's almost a certainty that the piracy rates would be lower than the RIAA wants the masses to believe.
I also find it amusing that, right after admitting that you don't do many of the things you would like to do online because of the bandwidth caps, you make the statement that this hasn't negatively affected anything of importance. It's the grass roots, "let's try this out", projects that produce some of the most interesting ideas and software. By your own admission, excessive bandwidth caps stifle this.
Additionally, what about all those kids that would like to do those things, gain the experience and learn, but who can't? Where's the next generation of geeks coming from? Perhaps not from the realm of personal experience and wonder, but from the MSCE classrooms of the world, which is unfortunate. In my experience, those with computer "book learning" are much less capable than those who also learned their skills by trian an error.
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:2)
Mind you, I also feel that A$80/month is way too much to pay for a home service when I work full-time. A particular pair of friends sharing a place with ADSL do much better as one of them is a shift worker.
I should get involved with the local WiFi collective...
Re:As an American I say: (Score:2)
Download caps are normal, Telstra's admin hurts (Score:2)
Re:Download caps on broadband (Score:4, Funny)
Yes, because we all know Australia is a trendsetter and the world will follow in its footsteps...
So eat your vegemite sandwich and throw some more shrimp on the barbie while you watch the wombats and koala's battle it out to the death.
Not only is Telstra a monopoly... (Score:5, Interesting)
... they're anti-competitive too.
Read this post [whirlpool.net.au] for an example. Basically they don't tell the other ISPs on their wholesalers list when new exchanges are ADSL-enabled, so that customers sign up with Telstra because they think they can't get a connection through other ISPs. (The author of that post, Simon Hackett, is the CEO of Internode [on.net], one of the larger - and best -- wholesale ISPs).
Worse than that (Score:5, Interesting)
Here [thewest.com.au], they rejected one customer applying through iiNet, a smaller ISP, claiming line quality was insufficient. The customer applied again through Telstra's own ISP, and was accepted. His ADSL service worked perfectly.
He complained to the Telecommunications Ombudsman publicised this, and shortly afterwards received an offer from Telstra to refund his connection fee, provide discounted service & upgrade his link too. He accepted, and also publicised Telstra's offer, causing more controversy. Telstra's explanation for the original problem was that "line test quality tests varied according to the weather".
Shortly after that, he was notified by Telstra that his service was to be disconnected, as he was "too far from the exchange". His ADSL service was still working perfectly, but apparently he shouldn't have been connected at all, regardless of the line quality...
Monopolies are a great investment right? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Monopolies are a great investment right? (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe for you. Maybe for everyone who bought shares.
But for the people who actually use Telstra it would not have been any easier to take at all.
Frankly even if broadband was perfect I would be somewhat worried that the Government is selling Telstra off for a value of only $45 Billion or so.
Thats only $2500 per Australian.
You could not even lay copper to each person's door for that amount of money let alone the rest of the infrastructure.
Check out this democrat's pdf [democrats.org.au] (different to US democrats) for plenty of other good reasons why selling our goose that lays the golden egg is a bad idea.
Re:Monopolies are a great investment right? (Score:3, Informative)
So, if you can buy the phone company for less than the value
Not much better across the Tasman Sea either... (Score:3, Informative)
They have no bloody clue as well. Funny to see them them lose to Vodafone in the mobile phone market though.
I think the Southern Cross cable is just a myth and in this neck of the woods we connect to the US through "the message in a bottle method".
What is worse is that taxpayers own a majority stake in the company (in theory).
Re:Not much better across the Tasman Sea either... (Score:5, Insightful)
On one hand, people scream and moan about outrageous DSL pricing structures, but on the other, those people who have invested in the company absolutely love what it is doing to the value of that investment.
In addition, TCNZ is one of, if not the biggest, companies in the country. The government is quite understandably scared to step in and do anything, because of the economic ramifications of playing with the source of such a large part of their tax income stream.
I don't know if this is true of Telstra as well, but I suspect it is.
Re:Not much better across the Tasman Sea either... (Score:2)
Unfortunatelly for us, plebs, Telecom owns much larger chunk of The Government.
Telstra - perfect example of a preadatory monopoly (Score:5, Interesting)
They've taken every new technology that has come and instead of saying "How can we sell this to people and make a profit" they say "How can we exploit this and make as large a profit as we can."
I had ADSL with Telstra.
It was capped (bad) but I could live with that. Until they slammed me.
Short story:
I had the three gig cap. It cost $90 AUD/month for three gigs.
I went over one month (my bad) and used around 9 gigs (when I discovered file sharing). The bill I recieved however was for over $1200 AUD.
To sumamrise:
1st 3 gigs - Charge $90.
Each 3 gig block after that cost me $550 AUD.
At the time it was _not_possible_ to get a greater cap then 3 gigs - so if you wanted ten gigs to download that was what you paid.
Exploitation?
Yes.
They are scum and deserve to be broken up.
Re:Telstra - perfect example of a preadatory monop (Score:2, Informative)
I pay about what you do.
Re:Telstra - perfect example of a preadatory monop (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Telstra - perfect example of a preadatory monop (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Telstra - perfect example of a preadatory monop (Score:2)
Re:Telstra - perfect example of a preadatory monop (Score:3, Interesting)
Then I switched to IPrimus, who, for dial-up anyway, are pretty decent, I mean they let me get away with this [iprimus.com.au] which is nice for the most part.
The end result of this is now I don't have anything to do with telstra whatsoever, my phoneline is through someone else, my internet is through someone else, the only thing I do use them for is when their wires fail to work and I need them repaired. In the city at least they
BitTorrent + Telstra == Bad (Score:3, Interesting)
I once made the mistake of trying out the then-new BitTorrent protocol to download an ISO, while staying at a friend's place. He was (but no longer is) connected to Telstra.
I didn't give much thought to BitTorrent's uploading while downloading, other than thinking it was a good idea, nor did I realise that my friend's data cap included upload bandwidth..
A day later, my friend got around to checking his email, and found a series of messages warning him that he was over his cap, and that charges were accu
Estonia (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Estonia (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Estonia (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, right. Me, myself and I? In Estonia, they are far ahead of Finland when it comes to technology usage growth and even usage per se.
Ever heard of Wi-Fi in Finland. Go on, check out www.wifi.ee [www.wifi.ee]
Maybe if you weren't so drunk everytime you go to Tallinn you would've noticed this...
Interesting to compare to Canada (Score:5, Interesting)
In BC, we have one phone provider for local calling (Telus). They are also a monopoly in Alberta, and operate in other provinces. They provide DSL, but the government makes them sublease network access to smaller ISPs (though the price is tied to Telus). And they have Shaw/Rogers Cable to compete with (cable broadband).
Despite their monopoly in the telephone and DSL market, I pay $65 CDN (about $45 US) for a 2.5 megabit line. I could pay $45 CDN/$32 US for a 1.5 megabit line. What keeps the costs down? Well, Telus has to share their bandwidth; small ISPs can sell DSL that sits on the Telus networks. Second, the cable Interet providers provide an alternative.
I'm guessing Australia has neither of these two alternatives, and thus they get f*cked by a nasty monopoly.
Re:Interesting to compare to Canada (Score:5, Interesting)
Cable TV rollout in Australia is pretty small due to the low density of population - satellite is cheaper. Cable modems are available where cable has been rolled out, but that service is also provided by Telstra! (Some areas have cable from another company, whose cable modem charges and terms seem more reasonable, but it is not widely available).
The problem stems from the way that the government de-regulated the comms industry a number of years ago. They should have split Telstra into two components - one to own and manage the actual network of copper and fibre and one to sell services on top of this network. The solution we ended up with has the biggest retail provider, Telstra, also being the main wholesale provider. This makes it almost impossible for new service providers to get a fair deal.
Re:Interesting to compare to Canada (Score:4, Interesting)
I live in the SF Bay Area, so granted there is more choices then in many other areas in terms of ISPs, on top of the Comcast Cable Internet, formerly ATTBI (which IMO, was when it was at its best state), formerly ATT@Home, there's also ten or so other DSL providers, Sprint Wireless Broadband if you get really desperate, and if bad comes to worse, Satalite internet via DirecTV/DirectPC.
As much as our legislation is corporate influenced, the US government has also seemed more ready to take on a monopoly. Granted not the Bush administration by any stretch of the imagination, but that dictator mostly likely, hopefully, will be out in another year.
Re:Interesting to compare to Canada (Score:5, Insightful)
Telstra have to allow other companies to re-sell their DSL connections, and this is in fact very common. However, for some unknown reason, all the ISPs outside of Western Australia are run by total morons. (Except, recently, for Swiftel - who originated in WA anyway - and Comindico.)
Rather than peering with each other and purchasing cheap international bandwidth, they connect to Telstra, pay huge bandwidth charges, and pass these on to their customers.
Either that or they just choose to rob their customers blind (and still can't make a decent profit). It's impossible to get a clear statement of where the money actually goes.
Pacific Internet, my ISP, also provide services in Hong Kong. There I can get a 6Mbit flat-rate connection for HK$288 per month - about A$55. Compare that to the Australian offering of 256k, capped at 500MB per month for A$45.
Australia is the same - in theory (Score:3, Interesting)
The Australian monopoly Telstra is supposed share their bandwidth too - they provide many base exchange services for smaller ISPs, and usually the uplink as well.
The problem is that all of the smaller ISPs are therefore dependant on Telstra's goodwill & timeliness. If Telstra "forget" to give the ISPs up-to-date information, or give their own ISP arm service priority, there's little the smaller ISPs can do.
You may not have to use ADSL - cable is an option for some (through Telstra). Optus are anothe
Re:Interesting to compare to Canada (Score:2, Insightful)
It would be good, however, if the governments applied more pressure for the Telcos to use money they get charging city dwellers
Split Telstra into RETAIL and INFRASTRUCTURE (Score:5, Insightful)
The most recent broadband fiasco here in Oz concerns itself with Telstra (who handle ALL submissions for ADSL in Australia regardless of ISP) deliberately telling competitor signups that they don't meet broadband exchange requirements, then signing them up under Telstra where they suddenly just scrape in.
Then you have the woeful bandwidth limitations (imposed mostly because Telstra controls the phone lines and resells bandwidth to every other ISP by the MB).
The ONLY point I will concede to Telstra is that due to our huge, continent scale country, upgrading ALL exchanges can be cost prohibitive, however to not have broadband capability yet in large POPULATED regions is unforgiveable in 2003.
In short, Telstra as a RETAIL company should be split from Telstra the NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE company. Make the infrastructure company publically owned, then Telstra (Retail) can compete along with everyone else on a level playing field.
Quizo
On the Plus Side (Score:5, Informative)
C [air-stream.org]
O [ballaratwireless.net]
M [brismesh.org]
M [air.net.au]
U [xtreme.com.au]
N [sydneywireless.com]
I [air.net.au]
T [wafreenet.org]
Y [wireless.org.au]
Wireless Networks. And the government finds it pretty difficult to argue against them.
Re:On the Plus Side (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, Melbourne wireless has had quite a few new links come on in the last little while (there is now someone within 2km of me) but it is still no use if you want internet access [wireless.org.au].
Re:On the Plus Side (Score:2)
Otherwise it sounds a great deal - 2Mbs connection for $33pm (with limits) or 64kbps for $22pm with unlimited down/uploads ...
You know what that is? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is it that bad? (Score:5, Informative)
But my perspective as a broadband user in Australia...
Frankly, I don't see there's a big problem. I pay my money (which as much as I can tell is roughly in keeping with global prices), and get a reasonably good, fast connection. Yes, almost all broadband providers have download caps (typically around 1 - 4Gb/month), but that's not a problem for most people, just leeches mostly.
If you use Telstra for your broadband, you might get lousy customer service (as I did before I switched) but now I'm with a smaller provider (Internode) and quite happy with them. Good connections, good service, reasonable prices.
Why the take up is so low, I don't know (maybe the article does), but I've got it, it wasn't hard and I'm happy.
FYI, I pay $A80/month for a semi-high end plan which is roughly $US55. Basic plans start around $A50 - 60/month, perhaps even lower.
Re:Is it that bad? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Is it that bad? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, almost all broadband providers have download caps (typically around 1 - 4Gb/month), but that's not a problem for most people, just leeches mostly.
I downloaded RedHat 8 on Telstra cable. Came to about 1.5Gb. I had a 3Gb cap.
Being a bit of a software dev nut, I also downloaded things like J#, updates to the .NET framework, the Java SDK, Apache 2 and related modules (PHP, Perl, Python), security updates for windows and ... well you can see where this is going, can't you?
I've spoken of all legit software, but in a week, without trying, I could have pushed my cap - and then paid the 20c per Mb over the limit.
No fuckin' thanks. I'm glad it serves you well, but to me it's barely worth the money. I'm currently on a dial-up with no download cap and unlimited hours (by lack of choice - no ADSL/Cable in a new estate apparrently) - and I'm almost as happy as I would be with cable.
Re:Is it that bad? (Score:2)
I pay $100 for 1mb/sec for my server, or something like 400GB/month. I use that too. You may not notice the loss; a lot of people with less restricted broadband use it a lot more.
Tel$tra's Attitude (Score:5, Informative)
Just take a look at the transcription below to get a feel for the attitude this company has!
http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/s
Comments like this from Telstra really make you laugh. (pg. 337)
There is an ADSL fetish that ADSL equals broadband. We do not believe that. We sell broadband services, and so we will try ISDN for those customers. That may be all they need, particularly if they are downloading stuff from the US, because ISDN is the maximum speed you will need to get stuff from the US.
Sad But true.
Why? Value for money (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Why? Value for money (Score:3, Informative)
I live in a brand new residential development, 20 minutes from the centre of Perth (a state capital, population ~1mill). I cannot get ADSL. Why? Am I too far from the exchange? No - because sitting between me and the exchange is a RIM - a multiplexer that makes ADSL non-viable.
I could understand if I was an unu
here's the article (Score:5, Informative)
Australia's great broadband disaster
[by Robert Clark]
After a decade of political in-fighting over the ownership of Telstra, Australia faces the prospect of being a broadband desert. The incumbent needs to get out of cable TV - but first the government has to get out of denial
This is the story how a single mistake can turn into a multi-layered catastrophe. About how industry structure can drive government policy. About how the powerful will drive players in a market to their own ends. About how monopolies will thrive despite the most rigorous of regulators.
This then is the story of the great broadband disaster Down Under.
To a casual observer, it might seem an unlikely tale - Australia has been one of Asia's pioneers in telecom deregulation as well as in the adoption of new technology.
Australia introduced the first full service competition regime in the Asia-Pacific in 1992 and the first totally liberalized market in 1997. It boasts very respectable ownership rates for mobiles and PCs of around 70%, and around 60% for the Internet. It has far and away the strongest competition watchdog along with a well-resourced and experienced industry regulator. It has 600 ISPs, 80 long distance providers and four mobile operators, each of the latter with an international footprint.
As much as any other market in Asia-Pacific it has set the pace for telecom reform since the late 1980s.
Yet the story of Australian telecommunications in the decade since full competition began is that of a never-ending trench war between politicians, regulators, media magnates, new telcos and diverse groups ranging from farmers to pro-privatization lobbies.
More than anything else, they are arguing about the future of 50.1% government-owned Telstra - the country's biggest company, the most widely-held stock, the incumbent telco and the dominant cable company.
Yet amid the political thrust and parry, few have noticed that the industry structure has since lost the ability to deliver competitive outcomes.
No alternative
One long-standing Telstra critic is Professor Alan Fels, chairman of the national competition regulator the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), who describes Telstra as one of the world's "most horizontally and vertically integrated telecommunications companies."
It is Fels who points out that Telstra controls the local loop, is the largest mobile carrier with two digital networks, is the largest retail ISP, the largest wholesale data and Internet provider, and is a 50% shareholder in the biggest pay TV company.
And, almost uniquely in the world, it has been allowed to build a hybrid fiber coax (HFC) cable network which has been leased all but exclusively to its own pay TV company, a joint venture with the country's two most powerful media tycoons, Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer.
"In the local call services market competition has had very little impact," Fels says, adding that Telstra's competitors have virtually no alternative but to use the incumbent's network - even the main rival, Optus, relies heavily on the Telstra local loop.
"The clear message from this analysis is that Telstra has overwhelming dominance across the telecommunications market and in almost every segment of that market," Fels told an industry event in early March.
The impact of Telstra's sway in the market shows up most clearly in what has become the most critical aspect of the "last mile" - the growth of broadband.
The figures tell the story. With less than 2% of the population using a broadband connection, Australia now ranks 23rd on the global league table of broadband connectivity, behind 18 OECD countries as well as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Estonia. And it is sinking.
Ewan Sutherland, chief executive of the International Telecommunications Users' Group (INTUG), says that even if Telstra meets its target of 1 mil
It is b0rked down under (Score:4, Interesting)
Lite 550MB $64.95
Standard 3GB $79.95
Pro 5GB $154.95
Ultimate 10GB $305.95
I'm on the Standard 3GB a month for $80AUD - and btw, if you go over the 3GB your cable modem gets throttled down to 28.8kbps! Besides that, if I wanted to go for 5GB a month then that will be $155AUD! WTF is that! an extra 2GB a month and an increase of $70?!
Indeed it is a crisis, and iirc Microsoft warned about the crisis a few years ago, the article was on slashdot.
Don't worry, the country here is run by a bunch of cattle herding farmers who are afraid of technology and large populations. There won't be any incentive to fix the broadband price infrastructure for some time as they believe the internet is a latest craze like the hoola-hoop and yo-yo.
Funnily enough... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Funnily enough... (Score:2)
Oh, and my download speeds are capped at 1/3 normal during off-peak times.
Yes, I'll be switching ISPs shortly.
Re:Funnily enough... (Score:2)
echo 'ifconfig eth1 down' | at 08:00
Plan pricing (Score:2, Funny)
It's completely ludicrous, driven mainly by the fact that our technology minister is a luddite who went on the record to say that broadband internet is only useful for porn and games.
Re:Plan pricing (Score:2)
Indeed, Alston needs to pull his head out of his arse. Broadband is good for porn, games and filesharing.
Monopoly is not everything ... (Score:5, Interesting)
For some times, here in france FT had a monopoly for the last kilometer link.
This shows that the DSL deployement was not so quick mainly because of the price
Now, that the last KM has been deregulated, the DSL market is booming : +100% on one year !
Some of the ISP use the provider services from FranceTelecom, other have their own core service. We even have some bank now offering DSL services (operated by third party ISP) ! OF course the most interrested thing is the price: 30â for a 1Mb no-limit DSL . And this is constantly decreasing as more as the deregulation is gaining momentum....
Ausis, put the pressure on your gov & telcos !
It worth wasting your time, to get better connectivity
-SLK
Duopoly drops its pants, stifles competition (Score:2, Informative)
Every time we offer a reasonably priced mobile plan that offers the consumer good value for money, both Optus AND telstra drop their pants, offering ludicrously underpriced products that we can'
Poor Government Policy (Score:5, Interesting)
His website reflects his self-aggrandizing nature. Notice how Senator Luddite's name is plastered all over the website taking credit for his staffers work like this report on spam [noie.gov.au]
His latest disaster was revealed in parliament recently when it was revealed that he spent $4 million dollars on his departments website. When the scandal broke, the press went around and received quotes from web shops for roughly $65000 for the exact same job. Have a look [noie.gov.au] yourself. There are multiple javascript errors on the home page apparently. I'm not suprised. I've corresponded with this department and many of the staffers have problems receiving/sending email. It's a joke that this office should be setting IT policy in Australia
You gotta see the master plan! he's a genius! (Score:2, Funny)
From the article:
It's an injustice... (Score:2, Funny)
Blah (Score:2, Interesting)
The only options for me with cable are either Optus or Telstra. And one thing not mentioned by other poster's are that if you want to get cable internet in an apartment, you general *cant* get telstra (their policy it appears is to not support apartment blocks), so you have to go with optus.
So yes, I will also be
Same here (Score:3, Informative)
All ADSL broadband is provided through the largest (ex-SOE) government-supported monopoly of a telecommunications company (Telecom). They charge the most ridiculous prices for ADSL and even mislead customers with the speed of the actual service (in a very cunning, but legal, way).
The problem is cost, more than availability (Score:5, Informative)
Broadband is simply too expensive here in Australia for the majority of customers - that's why the takeup rate is so slow.
While living in Canada for the last 4 years, for about CDN$40/month (about AU$48/month, including the modem rental) I enjoyed unlimited high-speed cable internet. But when I moved back to Australia, I found that cable internet would cost about AU$65/month, plus the cost of the modem ($300 I think), with a 3 GB cap (including both uploaded and downloaded data). Any traffic beyond that was ~14c/MB. This was a lot better than before I left Australia 4 years ago ($65/month, $500 modem, 100 MB cap (yes, MB) and 33c/MB beyond that!), but still a big let down.
I ended up with a third-party (Internode) ADSL link at only 512/128 Kb/s for $99/month (and a $200 modem) which is uncapped, but prioritises me down the more I download (upload is unmetered).
I'm told the Canadian government ensures that broadband prices are kept at reasonable levels. The Australian government certainly doesn't. I was also told that Australia must pay for all traffic both to and from the US. 4 years ago, this was apparently about 12c/MB, and was the justification for the traffic caps and excess charges.However, these traffic charges are not only passed on to the consumer, they are also apply to everything - even Australian sites, and even if the content is cached by a local web proxy. Certain "popular" files may be mirrored for free by the ISP, if you're lucky.
It's not hard to see why Australian broadband costs so much, and why so few people can afford it.
Re:The problem is cost, more than availability (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The problem is cost, more than availability (Score:2)
But the biggest complaint Bigpond users had was the fact that they believed that the bandwidth meters NEVER where accurate. This was based on their local bandwidth meter being raditicaly diffrent
Re:The problem is cost, more than availability (Score:3, Insightful)
Correct me if i'm wrong, but can'
Try iiNet (Score:5, Informative)
When ringing them when the net is down, I had to wait at least 20 minutes before I got through, and when I did, they wouldn't help me because I wasn't using Windows, their USB-to-Ethernet converter, and my computer was plugged into a network. When I finally had reverted my network back to whatever they wanted, they finally started helping me, and the problem was on their end, as I already knew. Usually it takes around a day before it starts working again, and that's nowhere near satisfactory.
After endless hours of surfing, I found iiNet [iinet.net.au], a Perth-based ISP that offered 512/128, 6gb on peak and 6gb off peak for $79.95 AUD. Which was much better than the $100 we were paying for unrealiable 3gb. And if you go past the limit, you get 'shaped' to 72kbits, which is good enough for surfing. Plus, they have an extensive peering network, PIPE Networks, which include a large amount of ISPs and FTPs to grab latest trailers, etc., off.
But wait! There's more! iiNet has an unique way of counting your bandwidth limit. It adds up the last 30 days of usage, and if it goes over your limit, it starts shaping the next day. That means if you manage your download effectively, you can squeeze in 12gb of downloads easily. Only downside to iiNet, however, is you have to pay in blocks of three months.
Otherwise, iiNet is a great ISP to look at if you wanna get of Telstra.
Re:Try iiNet (Score:2)
You should see their marketing! (Score:2)
I'm sick of the Internet tying up my phone line. I'm not getting my normal calls. Isn't there a better way?
ISDN Home effectively provides you with (2) digital channels (2x64Kbps) or the equivalent of (2) phone lines - including an extra phone number. So you can make and receive calls on one line while you're connected to the Internet with the other - and you don't have to worry about missing any urgent calls.
My Internet access is unreliable and
Britain (Score:2)
It does seem though that until the T&C's are relaxed these companies won't reach the critical mass to make profit. Maybe the telcos should look at making the investment to expand their pipes. People would jump on board and I'm sure the investment would pay for
Re:Britain (Score:2)
The T&Cs and price for broadband aren't too bad, they are pretty enlightened really (with a few exceptions- 'no servers'???? Yeah right, like they check.); so far as I can tell they've never been doing any really terrible gouging on price, although you used to be able to get
Incompetence.. (Score:4, Funny)
Wireless (Score:2)
Rus
Good deals in Oz if you look (Score:2, Informative)
I'm with a smaller I.S.P. [arach.net.au] for my broadband here in Western Australia and the plans [arach.net.au] speak for themselves - reasonable monthly fees for realistic traffic levels (given the costs imposed on the I.S.P. by the carriers) - all a bloody sight better than what I'm reading for Telstra and Optus.
Monthly excess can either be charged or a soft cap imposed - but still at higher speeds than dial-up. The o
Actually, that's not the disaster (Score:3, Informative)
Tokyo: $38, Aus $1000s (Score:3, Interesting)
I hope it improves by the time I return.
before you compare (Score:4, Insightful)
On Monopolies, greed and stupidity. (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is broadband in Austrailia is that the monopolies cannot understand this fact of business.
The current population [abs.gov.au] of Australia is about 20 million people. So at a 2% adoption rate, even if they could really, REALLY gouge thier customers at say $500 a month(!) then they stand to gain $200,000,000 a month, gross. Now, if by charging $25 dollars a month they could get a 50% adoption rate, then they will actually make $50,000,000 MORE a month than they did charging $500. That's a 20% increase in income and a 2,000% decrease in price! Everybody wins!
That's right, you can charge less of a price and still make more money, it really is possible... Even a hard core monopoly should at least care about making more money. If you can make more money as a company AND provide better service to more customers, then do it! It is absolute blind, and stupid, greed, and probably a little misanthropy mixed in for good measure, that they don't spend a few days to crunch the numbers and actually see that it's possible to make more money and more happy customers doing things a different way.
Where to live (Score:3, Interesting)
I recently was looking at some land to purchase in the U.S. It was decent land and an okay price, but before I even talked to the owner, I went to one of the neighbors and asked, "do you get cable out here." He thought it was an odd question to stop by someone's house and ask, but I'm not going to make a six figure investment on house and land that does not get broadband. He said "Yes".
It happened to be on the edge of an area that Time Warner had recently added digital cable, but I wasn't sure if this property was too far out in the boonies or not. I knew it wasn't going to get DSL, wireless hadn't made it to the area yet, and I don't care for satellite. Time Warner cable, although hella expensive (compared to what I pay now) would be an acceptable solution.
Just shows how times change and priorities (like being in a good school district) get moved down the totem poll. Actually, I ended up not choosing that land because I found a plot that had the same broadband available, was in a better school district, and had a pond in the neighboring property.
Sorry if this is slightly off-topic.
Kickem where it hurts (Score:4, Interesting)
The pipes are the 1st excuse. Boy is it a lame one too. It turns out that AT&T recently decided it was too expensive to maintain repeaters every 20km and repalced them with ones that have a greater distance and now they have something like a 1000x the bandwidth they had before. Soutern Cross just upgraded its repeaters and now has more bandwidth than the can sell plus most of the speculators are tring to offlaod their unused bandwith as well. Plus Tyco may be running a new fiber which will keep the stock holders happy about keeping orders up for undersea fiber and the laying ships busy even though the bandwidth side of the businesse may not be looking so hot. Why have 3 bad divisions when you can have one?
The second excuse is that Australia is a big place and Telstra has to provide coverage everywhere. Thats kind of ture but there are parts of Australia the size of many US states that has zero population and no one asking for a phone. Throw in the fact that two cities have a larger population than Chicago now. With the other cities 96% of the population lives within 25,000 meters (or yards) of an exchange (but not by ADSL distance) or cell tower. Telstra does have to spend a bit on rural areas but its no different than the western part of the US midwest and they don't have to worry about ice.
The only real excuse is Telstra is a luxury tax which helps the goverment and what a lovely tax it is. Outside of the 3rd world, Telstra is the most expensive phone company in the world for people who use the phone.
The interconnect fees are out of line. Its cheaper for me to call the US or UK on some cell phones than it is to call the other side of town. with Orange, its cost twice as much to call a land line in Australia than it does to call a landline in the US. Phone rates in New Zeland are equally out of line. With some plans its the same price if you call a phone in NZ, Aus, US or the UK.
Right now I've got a few Canopy [canopywireless.com] access points. I also have access to a roof on one of the tallest building in town and 10mb ISP uplink. I've got racks of isp gear and everything I need to sell ISP service execpt for one small thing, a Telecomunications License. Thats $10,000 up front and more every year. You also have to be the right kind of company to get the license but the license lets you do things like run wire in the ground and resell inetnet access.
So if anyone near Melbourne wants to buy an unlimited 2mb pipe, I can set you up. The gear is only about $1500 and it takes about 2 hrs to set up so the setup fee would be about $11,800
I also have an AP on a very tall hill just outside of the outer burbs and I can't sell bandwidth from there either.
And for those that say Telstra won't sell unlimited business broadband, they will but only in New Zealand and a 1.5mb adsl link is NZ$500/mo +gst. The same thing in Australia would cost you something like $38,556 in over use charges if you could keep the pipe full for a full month.
People in both countries need to pull their heads out and figure out they need a Public Utilities Commission but everyone seems to be so happy with the TIO and ACCC and the other groups that aren't looking out for anyone.
Excuse me while I hop on over to the Information Super Outback! Thanks Telstra!