@dpadams -- Re: ADSL uptake slow no ports -- And it's a Double Whammy Too.
Not only is there a shortage of ADSL ports but wireless is outrageously expensive in Australia.
With few ports available one is forced onto outrageously expensive wireless. The location I'm at now uses Telstra ADSL with only a meager download limit of 50GB per month at $70 per month [$69.95]. Moreover, this Telstra account is one of the more expensive, as the same limit can be had from other suppliers for less than half the cost.
If say I were to use Vodafone's prepaid wireless 12GB/month--one of the better deals--then it'll cost $150 (Telstra being much more expensive for wireless).
Here's a summary:
- Telsta ADSL, speed here ~13,500 kbps, download lim./cost: 50GB @ $70 per month
- P'paid Vodafone wireless, practical speed ~250--350 kbps, 12GB @ $150
Thus, Vodafone wireless is nearly an order of magnitude more expensive for only 1/4 the download speed. Furthermore, these figures are ones I've immediately to hand; in practice, much wider price gaps for ADSL/wireless exist.
Right, the situation is outrageous. And who's to blame? Right again, Australian governments, past and present. Governments failed to properly deregulate telecoms because money-grab politics:
- They privatized Telstra together with all the network lines/cableways so there was no effective competition as other carriers had to pay Telstra--their competition--through the nose for access to cableways.
- They did nothing about this obvious fuck-up for years.
- When they did it was with the controversial National Broadband Network. While the NBN concept is a great idea, this replacement for the sold-off cableways will cost the Australian people many billions more than if the original cableways had been kept in government hands.
- The management of the NBN too has been a first-class fuck-up. It's the laughing stock of the telecoms world. It's rumored that Telstra is waiting for the NBN fire-sale then we'll all be back to square one again. (This is more than a rumor--Telstra has already done a deal over the NBN with the government and Telstra is poised to strike with a 'better' offer when the next fuck-up occurs or when the government changes hands, which is a certainty in the near future. Remember, you read it here first!)
There's much more I could go on about but I've already covered it many times before in earlier El Reg posts.
Fact is wireless is damn expensive in Australia because of successive incompetent, disingenuous and deceitful governments have fucked-up telecoms time and time again.
Incompetence in radio communications, broadcasting policy and developing telecommunications infrastructure is a national Australian pastime, no one else comes close. A parade of fuck-up go back to the late 1800s and the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1905. If Nobel had awarded a prize for incompetence in communications then the Australian Government would have won hands down every time.
Trouble is the myopic Australian public is too obsessed with trivia to even see the bloody obvious. Why Australia has been screwed rotten over ALL telecom fees--not just wireless--requires a level of understanding, cognition and hindsight that's beyond the comprehension of present-day Australian culture.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
