Pig at the trough - lets be honest... I have a personal interest in Australia having decent broadband and competitive prices because I am an internet pig. I will consume as much data capacity as I am given and then want more. In the age of 1GB game demo downloads, 1080p/720p video quality and ISO images that would choke a donkey and even my camera takes 7MB RAW images and uses 4GB cards.., it's easier than ever to clock up massive downloads / uploads and I do. I am always on the lookout for a better ISP deal, but it seems in Australia there aren't many bargains out there.

State of play in Australia - Australia used to have one of the most advanced telecommunications networks on the planet. We had a publicly owned and controlled telecommunications network run by Telecom Australia. Given the vast amount of land in Australia and the comparatively small population, our telephone and data networks were a triumph and an example to other countries on how to get things done. Telecom wasn't without problems - customer service was notoriously bad at times and there simply wasn't another option when it came to telephone connections for most people. As is the fashion these days, our Liberal government decided to privatize the company, with a lackluster attempt to reduce the staggering monopoly over telecommunications infrastructure that it was selling off at what was clearly bargain bin prices - more details here.. Once sold the government would no longer be responsible for the telecom giant, they would get some quick cash for the established public infrastructure and services, and the private sector and investors could dash off and start flogging some golden eggs out of the previously publicly nurtured, but aging goose. Our Government actively encouraged 'mums and dads' to invest in Telstra and publicly rejoiced in the short term budget cash injection from the sale.

The public was faced with a new private company - Telstra that owned the copper wire infrastructure in Australia, was understandably profit focused and had no interested in promoting competition in Australian telecommunications. Almost instantly the cost of land lines (home telephones) rental doubled, then tripled. Other ISPs were forced to use Telstra's copper wire infrastructure to provide ADSL services but struggled to be competitive when Telstra's wholesale prices for access to copper took away almost all profits from competitors. At one point Telstra was attempting to charge competitors MORE for wholesale access to copper wire than they were charging their retail customers. The government staged several investigations into Telstra abusing its market competition and politely requested Telstra separate its infrastructure from it's services, which Telstra realised was not in its best interest. The government also monitored Telstra's activities in country Australia - with part of the privatisation legislation attempting to ensure 'bush services' including mobile phone networks, were not abandoned because of their lack of profitability. Any litigation against Telstra is an expensive affair for governments or ISPs - a new ISP trying to get a fair deal on copper access could simply be caught up in court until they were broke.

In 2003 Telstra made a net profit of $3429m - that's around $1040 revenue or $180 net profit for every man, woman and child in Australia.

In November '07 there was a federal election and both parties promised to improve the stalemate between government and Telstra through the introduction of competition and removing the monopolies that exist on telecommunications infrastructure. Needless to say, complaining about Telstra has become a national pass time for many, myself included!

Other examples of this are:-

• Tell The Truth Telstra (note - this site has contributors that are Telstra competitors)
• Telstra Tactics - a site unashamedly critical of all things Telstra

Compared to other countries.... to get some idea of the value for money of Australian broadband vs other countries here are a few examples.

Some points to note:- Telstra counts uploads in your monthly quota, there are installation costs, disconnection costs, modem costs and if DSL is used, you also have to pay for a land line at about $30 per month, even if you don't use it - making broadband for less than $1000 a year impossible in Australia. The worst part is that after reaching you limit in Australia, you are slowed to dial up speeds or worse, making your expensive internet connection next to useless, especially if it's shared amongst a household.

Faster internet connection means... speed limited sooner! - I'm on a plan which is very fast by Australian standards and not available to the majority of customers as it is a cable based product and most Australian's don't have cable hooked up in their suburb. My plan is for $59.99 per month for 10GB, I get a max speed - a very decent 8Mbits/second.

At full throttle the connection can pull about 700KB/second. Which sounds great until you understand that at these speeds you only get (10,000 / .7 seconds) = just under 4 HOURS of downloading at full speed until you get speed limited to dial up speeds for the rest of the month!

Letter to the now EX-telecommunications minister - As previously explained, it's not Telstra's job to ensure the country has excellent competition and infrastructure, their first responsibility is to shareholders and the bottom line. Our Government is responsible for ensuring Australians are protected from monopolistic markets and ensure broadband services are facilitated and competitive for Australian consumers.
So I wrote the following mail to the then Telecommunications Minister - Helen Coonan.

Unsurprisingly, Ms Coonan didn't get back to me. She was preparing for an election at the time and making promises about the next three years was obviously taking up her time. Hell, I don't have to be impartial - this is my rant. Ms Coonan drove me nuts - for 11 years the Liberal Party stood up in Parliament and told us everything was rosy while we slid further and further behind in our broadband capabilities and paid more for broadband than any other developed country. Her response was to shake a stick at the monopoly monster her own party created and half heartedly wave around band-aid solutions to the national mess. I only hope our new Government isn't as pathetic.

Now there is a new Labor minister for Broadband, Stephen Conroy, and I'll be sending a similar letter to him in the near future.

Senator Stephen Conroy	Ex Minister for Telecommunications - Helen Coonan

Things to look forward to:- Most recently there have been some new players selling what is called 'Naked DSL'. In the past, using ADSL required that you had a land line operational in your house. Regardless of the land line provider, funds generally flowed back to Telstra and the cost of a land line has been prohibitive. People are paying around $30 a month rental, just to have the phone line switched on at their property- that's before making a single call. Most people have mobiles now with cap plans and so the land line gets less and less use. Previously, even cheap ADSL packages also incurred the expense of paying for a land line. Naked DSL allows you to get ADSL/ADSL2/+ without having a land line. Many packages also provide VOIP services at far cheaper rates than land line offerings - some even make national calls completely free.

A number of Naked DSL vendors have rolled out their own infrastructure (at least in part) and so have been able to escape the wholesale costs of operating on Telstra infrastructure - this has meant some real competition and a step in the right direction in Australia. I plan on getting a naked DSL connection in the near future with greater usage allowance.

Some vendors of naked DSL include:-

Up and running... check suburb coverage. The plans look pretty good to me and include VOIP which could be good for lengthy national land line calls. Another thing I like is that they have on/off peak timings. If you use up your off peak download limit, you only get speed limited off peak - ensuring your girlfriend doesn't get upset with you - ace!	Naked services coming soon.... I called to ask more about Naked DSL and the lady seemed to think I had to have a Telstra phone number to get it - I think she was missing the point!	I called them to ask if their naked service was available. After 15 minutes on hold I gave up - if AAPT can't run their sales line their support line is likely to be appalling. I have seen articles suggesting AAPT naked DSL but I guess someone will have to answer the phone at AAPT for me to find out.

Need more fibre in your infrastructure?- There are plans afoot to create an alternative fibre infrastructure, deployed by a consortium of telecom providers. Unfortunately they are only going to run fibre to the node - not to the home - which is the telecommunications equivalent of a six lane highway that ends in a muddy goat track running to your house - not the best way to do things. I also can't help feeling like Australians paid for the copper network and then it was sold off at bargain prices, now we are paying again to build a fibre network - will our politicians make the same mistakes again?

Australian Broadband
"The sad state of telecommunications infrastructure
and broadband in Australia"

Copper wiring - built decades ago and yet still the way most Australians access the net.
And it may amaze non-Australians - we have this type of wiring setup almost everywhere throughout
Australia, with only very new suburbs installing wiring underground.