On Thu, 08 Dec 2005 12:23:28 +1030, you wrote: > Ian McPhee wrote: > >> I heard about that and am horrified - went around tassie recently and the >> CDMA worked almost all over - my friend (ex telecom) phone was all but >> useless. Is it time to contact Barnaby Joyce? Notice recently Nigel Andews >> had an old Hyundai CDMA and I asked how come you have that - He said "it >> workes everywhere and I just leave it prepaid" which I find has no time >> limit. He had a GSM for regular use. > > You'll note that CDMA coverage at the moment is inferior to the old > AMPS coverage from the mid 1990's too, so the disappearance of CDMA is > really two steps backwards, not one. > > Contacting Barnaby Joyce will be of little value. Barnaby Joyce's party > voted to privatize Telstra, and the flip-side of that is that Telstra is > now a commercial organization making decisions on the basis of commercial > imperatives, because that's what private companies do. Folks like me > warned that this kind of thing would happen, and I'm sure there'll be > more of it in the future, but the kind of people who vote for Government > asset sales don't tend to take kindly to arrogant bastards saying, "I > told you so," when it all turns pear-shaped afterwards :-) > > For what it's worth, Telstra is currently engaging in some political > posturing of its own, and is attempting to make use of the aforementioned > commercial imperatives to get the regulatory landscape changed (and the > changes, I might add, will have the effect of making it even easier to > do this kind of stuff in the future). Any public announcements Telstra > makes in the present environment really need to be taken with a grain of > salt. We're all just waiting for the big ACCC smackdown, but until that > happens you can expect Telstra to continue to make irrational and > abusive threats against its customer base, then say the Government's > regulatory system is giving it no alternative. It's all part of creating > public support for tearing-apart the regulatory system. Don't be sucked-in > by it. > >> Where do we start - what people want in country is a service and not bells >> and whistles and I understand GSM is not much use beyond 32km and besides >> CDMA does not interfer with aviation radio like GSM! > > There are some technical and economic realities around telecommunications > which people in regional areas need to face up to. > > They voted for political parties which would privatize Telstra after > swallowing the line that it was theoretically possible for communications > services in the bush to be equivalent to those in the city. "We'll set > aside a few billion for regional telecommunications," said the Government, > "if you let us sell-off Telstra for ideological reasons!" > > In practice achieving city-style telecommunications in the bush requires > massive, unprecedented capital investment. And private corporations > never make capital investments without expecting a return; And they > can't get returns in the bush because the population density isn't > high enough to provide the income stream needed to pay for the required > infrastructure. > > So turning Telstra into a private corporation in charge of telecommunications > in the bush was 100% the wrong answer. If you want quality, you aren't > going to get it now. Not from Telstra, anyway. > > As I said above, you can expect a hell of a lot more than this in future > years. There's no point crying about it now; If Australia wanted the > public interest to override the profit motive in rolling out telco > services in the bush then it shouldn't have voted in a political party > that was ideologically opposed to public ownership of telecommunications > companies. The bed has been made, now is the time to lie in it. > > - mark
I think what you are saying Mark is that we need a Government owned telecommunications monopoly, where the uneconomic areas are funded out of general revenue (yours and my taxes). Maybe you are right, but I don't see ANY government buying back into that scenario. Regarding the "propaganda" about regulation from Telstra, the main beef is that it is ONLY telstra which has to comply with the Universal Service Obligation, and hence has a financial millstone around its neck. Cheers, John G. _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
