On Sat, Nov 12, 2005 at 02:28:42PM +1030, Ryan Verner wrote:
> Personally, I consider that very cheap (AU$20/month), considering it's
> quite usual for a true dedicated server to cost anywhere from around
> $200 up (and in most cases, a lot more up). Remember, bandwidth costs a
> whole lot more over here than it does in the US, so I'd be surprised if
> you were able to match the price/plans here.
In an interconnected world it doesn't matter where in the world your
servers are so it makes sense for people to go with the cheapest price
even if that means not bothering with servers located in Australia.
If bandwidth costs a whole lot here then the upshot is that we can't
compete.
Because the hosting infrastructure costs lots of money to build,
the more uses you can find for that infrastructure, the more extra
money you get to build more infrastructure and the more competitive
you get. So if we can't compete today, we will only be less competitive
tomorrow. An excellent example of positive feedback. You can look
at classical economics and get the clear message that positive feedback
doesn't exist. Of course there are heaps of physical examples to
prove this wrong but no one can ignore the real world more effectively
than an economist.
It gets worse because the high price of bandwidth leads to a high
price of hosting which in turn leads to a high price for innovative
projects involving hosting. Since all the interesting projects are
overseas, people working on those projects are more likely to move
to where the work is. Lack of expertise leads to higher costs and
less infrastructure which in turn gets us back to higher bandwidth
prices. More positive feedback (which officially doesn't exist,
except in the real world, where it does exist).
Sad to see a government playing "pump-and-dump" games with Telstra
shares but paying no attention to what is actually happening in
the industry.
- Tel
--
SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
