AU Goverment To Break Up Telstra; Filtering News 144
benz001 writes "The Minister who has pushed the ridiculous broadband filter plan has at least won a few brownie points with yesterday's press conference, in which he promised to force Telstra to split its network and wholesale businesses. Australia's largest ISP, and the country's main infrastructure owner, will be given a chance to implement the structural separation voluntarily; if it does not, the Government will step in with legislation. Here is the Minister's official press release." And speaking of the filtering program, reader smash writes "After several years of debate and electioneering, some statistics on the Australian national web filtering effort have been disclosed. Apparently, the typical Aussie web surfer is 70 times more likely to win the national lotto than stumble across a blocked page. Additionally, despite the claim that the main aim of the filter is to block child pornography, only 313 of the 977 total sites blocked is on the basis of child porn. At $40M AU so far in taxpayers funds, the cost so far is around $40,900 per blocked URL. Government efficiency at work..."
The truth... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It's hard enough dealing with ONE Telstra (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wow (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's hard enough dealing with ONE Telstra (Score:4, Informative)
Japan is a similarly isolated island country, and yet affordable 1 gbps connections are proliferating in urban areas.
Population density of Japan: 337.6/km2
Population density of Australia: 2.833/km2
Theres a reason that 1gbps connections are available in Japan, but not Australia. For how isolated we are as a country here, its remarkable that we have the internet as good as we do.
Re:The truth... (Score:3, Informative)
When Telstra was privatised it was quite clearly stated in the prospectus that the government could implement changes in the way telstra was managed if those changes were in the public interest, this obviously has always had an impact on Telstra's share value and as an investor you should have kept informed.
On the subject of privatisation, prior to privatisation Telstra as a government institution had originally intended to have fibre optic to the majority of Australian homes by 2005, so the profits for a few yet once again destroyed the benefits for the many. Privatisation the scourge of efficient well served public 'services', how to turn something good into something reviled requiring constant government supervision, auditing, legislation and prosecution.
When you want to fix a system that is irretrievably broken, you break up the private parts, nationalise it and turn it into a public service, when you want to do the opposite, privatise, a few get rich and the rest get screwed plus a whole load of PR=B$ advertising.
Re:It's hard enough dealing with ONE Telstra (Score:4, Informative)
Indeed, and any suggestion otherwise is merely FUD.
Having worked for Telstra, their attitude toward wholesale customers is absolutely terrible. They are deliberately given worse service than Telstra customers, even though ALL Australians paid for the network they "own". This is great news and I have been pushing for this as a viable alternative to the mess that is Aussie telecoms - mind you, most people have no idea of the real impact and just parrot the FUD spreaders.
I wouldn't be surprised if bloodhawk is in Telstra middle management.
I disagree (Score:5, Informative)
The separation of Telstra's wholesale and retail divisions has been discussed [zdnet.com.au] heatedly [smh.com.au] for many years, long before the change of government. The previous administration was happy to let it stand, which made Telstra investors happy but pissed off Telstra customers as well as competitors, not to mention holding back innovation [arnnet.com.au]. You only have to look at the number of times Telstra has lost in fights with the ACCC [news.com.au], the courts [theage.com.au] and even the government [theage.com.au] to see why this was a mistake.
The only group of people who are opposed to Telstra being split are the (unlucky) shareholders. Pretty much everyone else who has had to deal with Telstra are unhappy with their service and pricing [whirlpool.net.au], their treatment of retail customers [news.com.au] and wholesale customers [whirlpool.net.au].
I'm not saying that the government's NBN plan is well-thought-out or anything, but Telstra's joke of a proposal [news.com.au] and their juvenile "change the law to suit us or we take our toys and leave" attitude [news.com.au] is even worse for the competitive landscape and the general Australian public. A split can't come soon enough.
Re:Statistics? (Score:3, Informative)
These stats came from a government that would not set the criteria of pass or fail until they have the result. They also make stupid claims about how it won't slow the internet, last I checked a 404 is a pretty high percentage of slow down about 100%
Re:It's hard enough dealing with ONE Telstra (Score:4, Informative)
Absolutely true.
I have seen something similar going on in The Netherlands, where KPN (traditionally the only fixed-line telephone provider) has been forced to give access to other companies to their network, at good rates. Those rates are determined by the government, periodically reviewed, and are cost plus reasonable profit for the maintenance of the existing network.
It took a while, but first the IDD providers got in - users had to dial a four-digit prefix to select the carrier. Then those IDD providers also started to provide long-distance calls, with the same four-digit prefix. Then small devices came that would dial that prefix for you automatically and transparently. And now even that is not necessary anymore, users can directly set the IDD and long-distance carrier. And are billed by that carrier.
The same of course for ADSL services provided over the POTS network. First KPN's own povider Planet Internet was basically the only one, now there are dozens or even hundreds competing on the ADSL market, providing great choice for the consumer.
The only problem left is that because KPN owns the cables, so it is always a KPN technician that comes to your home to make necessary connections. And the communication between you (consumer that wants a connection), ISP (that has to set up your account) and KPN (that has to connect the cables) is not always going perfectly well.
Re:Maybe we could fix the regulations instead? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Statistics? (Score:3, Informative)
I was recently told by a Queensland Education Department tech that the current, recently upgraded EdQ filter infrastructure (centralised in Brisbane covers every school in Qld Au) is only able to cope with a maximum 80mbps requests. Some of the apparently common slowdowns of the department's network were due to this.
I can only wonder what will happen when Australians are all filtered...
cities are more relevant (Score:1, Informative)
yeah some population densities for the cities, because its silly to average a population concentrated in a few large cities over a continent as large as australia.
Tokyo Population Density 5655 /km /km /km /kmÂ
kanagawa 3,711.6
osaka 4,664
sydney australia 2058/km2 (2006)
aichi 1,424