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 Liability limited by a scheme approved under Prof. Standards Legislation Honorary Lecturer, Computer Science, Australian National University https://cecs.anu.edu.au/research/profile/tom-worthington _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
