The USG was John Howard's way of conning the electorate into allowing
him to privatise our telecommunications infrastructure. In that, it
worked. In maintaining equitable access to services, it failed.
Government is responsible for ensuring equity of access to services.
Government has shown conclusively that it can't enforce that obligation
if the private sector is involved. It's now time to take back our
infrastructure.
<http://www.theland.com.au/story/4423539/wishing-for-telco-guarantees/>
Ask any farmer what they want and near the top of every list is a
reliable connection to the outside world.
For a long time that connection has come in the form of a landline
service, delivered under the Universal Service Obligation (USO), a
$300-million-a-year agreement between the Federal Government and Telstra.
Now we are in the 21st century, farming businesses and families need
more than just a landline. They also need an internet service that’s
reliable.
Without a reliable internet connection, there is no access to finance,
health and education services, or to the markets and consumers that
are vital to farm businesses.
That is why it is time to create a new USO that guarantees access to
both landline and internet services, including modern safeguards and
performance standards.
Ironically, as the NBN rolls out, it is the future of voice services
that has become uncertain. A recent Productivity Commission draft
report highlighted the NBN satellite and fixed wireless networks were
not designed to deliver a universal voice service.
If the current USO is ended, there is no certainty about what sort of
voice services rural and remote Australians would have access to.
As the Productivity Commission considers the future of the USO,
farmers need to know what the future holds for their voice services.
We need a new USO, but we also need a plan for voice services in
Australia’s most-isolated parts.
There must be no gap between the current agreement and its replacement.
NSW Farmers will appear at the Productivity Commission’s hearings
about the USO next month to make sure farmers will have a voice well
into the future.
We are also partnering with the Regional, Rural and Remote
Communications Coalition to make sure our political representatives
hear loud and clear that the bush needs better telecommunications to
overcome the #datadrought.
--
David Boxall | All that is required
| for evil to prevail is
http://david.boxall.id.au | for good men to do nothing.
| -- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
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