There appear to be three options:

(i)a part-public owned broadband network with adequate access for competitors; or

(ii) a heavily regulated private broadband network with similar access rights for competitors (not very likely in practice); or

(iii) a lightly regulated network with a quasi private monopoly,

If, as an economist, I had to choose between these three alternatives, I might well opt for (i), although in fairness I have not done a full benefit cost analysis of the three.

In case you haven

“The ideas for the technology is there and investing in this technology is not a waste of money. It will generate money. Lots of money.”

Could you please explain how Rudd’s proposal will show a positive return above the risk free rate if it is not monopolistic and adds more than just easier access to movies on demand. Please also show why business and not movie consumers need such a fast internet outside of the the big cities. Show us the economies for the Bush.

The point I was trying to make is that without the infrastructure, then these ideas will stay ideas and if Rudd didn’t say something, we would be stuck in the past.

I do have questions regarding if the Government should foot the bill for the upgrade completely. Probably part foot the bill with the private sector or look into deregulating Telstra.

My issue is that something needed to be done, this is why I want it done, so everyone needs to stop blaming someone else and get up and do something! This is why I am happy that something seems to be getting done. Even if its all talk at this stage :)

I think the big issue that needs to come across is that its more than just faster YouTube and MySpace. The ideas for the technology is there and investing in this technology is not a waste of money. It will generate money. Lots of money.

What am I missing here with their

I’m in IT too (contract programming, for my sins), and “web services” is too buzzwordy for my tastes. Poorly defined and much talked about, a bit like religion.

I am skeptical about your claims that Microsoft will centralise their OS offerings. Microsoft promise to do all sorts of things in the next OS, a pattern they’ve repeated since they started talking up Cairo circa 93-94. Most of those features have still to arrive.

Even if Microsoft do create some “web OS”, and solve the problems entailed, something still needs to manage the end-user’s hardware. Some software layer which handles drivers, local files and connects to the Internet. An OS, in fact.

I don’t disagree that Microsoft will offer more services, but I suspect it will be more designed to lock people into Office than anything else. Hosted Sharepoint services or the like.

And as for hosting sites, it does not matter if Australia’s pipes are slower. Fast cheap hosting is a reality today. Club Troppo and Andrew Norton’s blog are hosted in Los Angeles for very little in an incredibly competitive market.

Yes I realise my opinion is biased since I am in IT, but I know of the plans large corporations have for web based services and how it has been talked about for so long and never implemented because of the technology not being there yet.

Everyone uses Telstra infrastructure. It doesn’t matter what ISP you use in this country, they all use Telstra copper wire.

The fastest Internet we can currently get is 24 megabits per second and thats only if I am sitting next door to an exchange. The further away you are from an exchange, the slower the Internet is. I am relatively close to an exchange and can get 4 megabits and I live just outside the city too. Most people generally get around 2 megabits per second.

Why is this too slow? Because I’m talking about web services of the future which can do more than just email or surf the web. As I said in my previous post, Microsoft and other big companies have ideas and plans for web services that can run large portions of an operating system for example. 4 megabits a second to run an OS is not enough! And I am right next to an exchange! And then there is the country areas with very limited broadband connections and speed!

I’m talking about moving forward with a revolutionary technology. Staying with the same old, same old is easy. But if you look outside the square, possibilities are endless. Telstra has done nothing but sit on their hands for too long and they were quite happy to continue to do this.

I am in IT, so from my perspective and others within the industry, upgrading our internet service and removing the control that Telstra currently has will be priceless.

Will the general end user see any difference in the short term? Well no. But in the long term, once we start seeing companies utilise the power of web services, then the general end users will see the difference.

Would the country side take it up without subsidy? Probably not initially but this would change over time just like the Internet did when it first came out. How many people first used the Internet when it first came out and look at it now? I remember when the Internet first came out and people thought “Why should I get it? I don’t chat or send email”

I believe that if the Government continued to ignore the Internet services in this country then Telstra would be happy to do nothing.

It’s not a matter of money. Telstra have already said they would like to upgrade their own network, but that it’s not viable at the line-rental prices the ACCC wishes to impose.

That is, we could probably achieve the same thing by deregulating Telstra, rather than spending $$$ on a new super-telco.

You can now buy Bigpond Extreme from both Telstra and a rebadged vserion from the other competitors. Please explain how this service is too slow?

Please also explain that if the government did lay the optic cable whether the country side would actually take it up without subsidy?
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Anyone makng comments about the slowness of our firms to add newer cabling needs to first read the media and communication regulations before reaching any conclusion.

The ALP have to take the blame for [blocking the sale of Telstra, causing price issues] and now they want us to believe they have better foresight than the existing telcos in the marketplace. Sadly, experience tells us that is not the case.

I don’t think they are claiming better foresight, they are trying to leverage a far healthier balance sheet. The ALP had some very good reasons for objecting to the sale of Telstra – one of which was the disastrous way it was done. I’m sympathetic to the idea that splitting the company would have made it worth far less than the government got, but that hardly seems to justify maintaining a monopoly which is soon to be completely in private hands. In fact, given the current Telstra share price vs. the original listing price, the government over valued the company despite (or perhaps because of) it’s monopoly over the last mile of copper. There is no blame to be layed except at the feet of the Liberal party.

Telstra owns all the copper wire throughout Australia that all the other carriers have to use which is the biggest problem. Telstra has been happy to do as little as possible to build on the existing infrastructure. Why no other carriers have looked into laying out infrastructure is anyones guess. Probably because it will cost too much for very little return and they are happy with the status quo that Telstra has been providing.

By taking the control away from Telstra, this country finally may be able to get out of the hole that it is currently in for its Internet services.

By improving the Internet in this country, businesses will improve. No, not by email and surfing the web, but IT companies will be able to develop web based services that can utilize the new infrastructure. Essentially its like saying if I have an old PC that can still access email then why should I upgrade? Well if a new PC can do other things that you don’t know about that you find useful then shouldn’t you upgrade?

Well what are these things I talk about that a PC can do besides email and surfing the web? The big answer to this is Web Services.

Web services are going to be a big thing in the not too distant future. Yes, it is a term that has been used for a long time now without any real substance. Companies like Google and Microsoft are looking into major web services. For instance, after Windows Vista, Microsoft is looking into an operating system which is completely online based. Details are still up in the air and it could all be hot air by Microsoft, but its a sign that web based services are going to be prevalent in the not too distant future. Essentially, major companies don’t want to distribute software on a CD or a DVD if possible and want to distribute software and services via the web. The main reason for companies wanting to do this is to combat piracy.

The main reason why web services have not really taken off globally is that Internet infrastructure in a lot of countries is still stuck in the past.

So why should Australia then take the plunge and have excellent Internet infrastructure and speed while a lot of other countries are behind and wont necessarily mean that Australia will see these web based services in the short term?

Well its like Global Warming. If nobody does anything then nothing gets done. If people start making change, then others will follow and companies will jump on board.

So should the Government of Australia fund for this or should the private sector do all the work? I believe that if the Government continued to ignore the Internet services in this country then Telstra would be happy to do nothing. If in the very least this scares the crap out of Telstra and they start to do something then kudos to the Government for trying to make a stand. Something needed to be done.

One thing is clear though in the IT sector, we are happy that Telstra is losing its monopoly for the Internet infrastructure in this country.

If a faster internet is financially viable under the present regulatory set-up Soul would have been on it like a rate up a drain pipe. He walked away because of regulations.

Don’ get me wrong, I love Rudd’s proposal from personal perspective. But is it the best deal for the Oz public? I very much doubt it would add anything to business efficiency- so little it would be meaningless. Faster download time for movies perhaps, which is why the Packer kid was rapped over it.

Voice is data. Now, with digital and network communication, we can stuff even more things down more versatile pipes now than we could 100 years ago and it

Yes, some people really need to grasp that the internet is more than just a series of tubes!

It’s a series of trucks, I hear. Maybe we should spend $4.7B on highways!

Oh no, there might be more spam!

There’s no maybe about it. We need to deal with our current bot net problems, even and especially if we propose to make them worse.

As to whether or not it

Voice is data. Now, with digital and network communication, we can stuff even more things down more versatile pipes now than we could 100 years ago and it’s high time that copper was replaced.

The costings are based on Telstra and Optus’ estimates regarding taking fibre cables to nodes. Coonan’s claimed comparison is with South Korea where the fibre was taken into houses, which is a much more expensive proposition. The communications minister either doesn’t understand communications or is lying.

Might be nice if some of the knockers bothered to find out what the proposal actually entails.

As to whether or not it’s infrastructure, think about B2B transactions, distributed teams working across space, even online advertising. And a host of other things. If it has escaped people’s attention, Australia’s productivity growth has flatlined under Howard. You might like to check up the literature on the connection between faster and better communications infrastructure and productivity improvement.

Or maybe you’re all too busy sending telegrams to Rudd decrying this or something…

If we had this attitude, we wouldn

Your earlier comment was more insightful – “middle class pork barrelling or maybe just some tax churning here”. What will we plug into the high speed network when it gets installed? IP based telephones, doodads like Apple TV and OLPC machines will be more affordable than a full-blown PC I suppose.

“when what we