Awful broadband - in Australia

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freitasm

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#10524 27-Nov-2006 13:23

When Telecom launched "unleashed" a lot of people jumped saying that poor performance for all ISPs was all because of the non-existence of LLU. Many even cited the "success" of LLU in Australia and the UK.

Oh, really? Australia's Broadband Disgrace:

"FORMER Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski has added his voice to complaints that broadband in Australia is too slow. Echoing the concerns..."

"AUSTRALIA'S media moguls are pursuing their own commercial interests by complaining that the country's broadband speeds are among the slowest in the developed..."

"COMMUNICATIONS Minister Helen Coonan has rejected Rupert Murdoch's criticism of Australia's broadband services, saying the media baron is misinformed..."

barf

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#53840 27-Nov-2006 15:37

...cos if we can't stream HDTV-sized advertisments Rupert's empire will fall

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CrispinMullins

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#53891 27-Nov-2006 21:49

I always thought that it was a stupid idea to compare New Zealand's situation with Australia's situation, but it is a comparison that is inevitably made, no matter what the subject matter is. The Australian broadband market looks to me to be another market suffering from chronic underinvestment and a lack of flat-rate plans.

it would be more accurate to say that all countries in which broadband is NOT awful have embraced LLU; I say this because until recently, the only OECD countries not to have embraced LLU were New Zealand and Mexico.

PS. This is my first post -- is there some sort of quotation mechanism available that I have missed?

freitasm

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#53892 27-Nov-2006 21:55

CrispinMullins: PS. This is my first post -- is there some sort of quotation mechanism available that I have missed?

Welcome to Geekzone... Clicking the "Quote" button?

CrispinMullins

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#53901 27-Nov-2006 22:37

freitasm: Welcome to Geekzone... Clicking the "Quote" button?

Ah, so conveniently located on the opposite end of the screen. That'll be the one! Thanks! :-)

juha

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#53917 28-Nov-2006 07:40

Ziggy should think before opening his mouth because... what exactly did he do then at Telstra? Of all the people there, he was in a position to make Australian broadband go faster. Telstra however doggedly stuck to 1.5Mbit/s DSL until this year, but I don't see Ziggy explaining why.

Also, if this is "awful broadband":

Communications Minister Helen Coonan defended Australia's broadband speeds, saying 80 per cent of households were able to access speeds of up to eight megabits from 19 different providers.

... then it'd be interesting to hear what the Aussies think of the NZ variety. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there are any comparisons between Aussie and NZ broadband that are favourable to the latter.

Juha

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#53920 28-Nov-2006 07:57

While I'm leery of agreeing with Rupe Murdoch on anything, I found this story in The Age interesting. I think the one thing everyone can agree on is that there are some real benefits to fast network connections and that the demand is there for them. The Aussies are worried that their 17th broadband uptake placement in the world behind countries like Britain, Japan and the US (all of which have LLU) is holding them back.

Australia's actually gone forward in the broadband stakes as well, whereas NZ hasn't shifted from its 22nd out of 30 position.

LLU isn't anything new or remarkable, but something considered best practice around the world. In 2002, 23 OECD countries had unbundled. In 2006, New Zealand is the only OECD country together with Mexico not to have unbundled (and this is an important point: we do not have LLU yet; the new regulation stipulating it should be in place next year, but CUBS, RUBS and full-rate DSL is not LLU).

Juha

CrispinMullins

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#53928 28-Nov-2006 08:36

juha: 80 per cent of households were able to access speeds of up to eight megabits from 19 different providers.

It's all about how you market it, Juha -- we only have about 10% uptake in New Zealand, but I'm willing to bet that 80% of New Zealand households have access to broadband services of up to 7.4 megabits from at least 19 different providers. However, that is about as scientific as a six-year-old's biology project. We all know about what limitations the service described has.

This statement sounds grandiose, but it doesn't take into account whether or not access is affordable, what percentage of households can actually reach two megabits let alone eight, and layman's measurements such as how long it will take for me to upload the 100MB h.264-encoded video of my newborn daughter to her grandparents at 128kbps upload speed.

Basically, "80% of households are able to access speeds of up to eight megabits from 19 different providers" is a statement that says absolutely nothing -- yet the debate on speeds and services in both Australia and New Zealand still seems to focus around this kind of statement instead of real measurement.