back to article Digital Post Australia goes titsup in orderly fashion

Having fought a lawsuit against Australia Post (the nation's postal service) to have the right to offer its service, the much-hyped but ultimately-unwanted Digital Post Australia (DPA) is shutting down, saying its service is “not sustainable at this time”. DPA's closure might give pause to communications minister Malcolm …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A place where you can have all of your private data stored, within easy reach of the Taxation Department and other government instrumentalities, what a good idea

  2. Winkypop Silver badge
    FAIL

    Wrong business model

    With Wrong-way Turnbull in charge of the "NBN", they should have gone in for messenger pigeon husbandry.

    1. RealFred

      Re: Wrong business model

      It wouldn't matter who the government of the day was, they still have your data in one place. Why would you only let the NBN build a network in Australia. They tried it before and you can see how well that went. Any government built network is a recipe for disaster. I don't see why they don't let private companies build their own networks, rather than having a government controlled network. It just makes it easy for the government to spy on and censor people. Remember the great Australian web filter, that was Conroys and labors attempt at controlling the internet. What a farce that was. The NBN was their next attempt, look how well that worked out

      1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

        Re: Wrong business model

        Private companies do have their own networks, and look how well that's turned out. Some highly populated areas have no fixed line broadband coverage at all.

        The idea is that everyone should have access, and subscribers in areas the private companies have ignored (for whatever reason) are not excluded. This can pretty much only be done by governments because they are not driven solely by profit.

        Private companies aren't prevented from providing a competing wholesale FTTP network. The access requirements are however specified; essentially anyone who wants to compete with the NBN has to offer the same level of access, coverage, and non-discriminatory pricing.

        As for spying, do you think someone on Telstra's various broadband networks is any better protected? The NBN is also an OSI layer 2 service, which I believe effectively rules out content filtering at that level.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why?

    In a country that has BPay View for most bills and whose banking system - despite being uncompetitive money grubbing tosspots - seems to have some very good internet banking software/UIs, why did anyone thing this sort of service was necessary? BPay View, Gmail, CommBank. Done.

    1. John Tserkezis

      Re: Why?

      Agreed. I wondered the same thing.

      I read the AustPost brochure, and looked for the icing on the cake. I couldn't find it.

      Every service mentioned, I was either already using, or at least had the capability to use. From years earlier.

      Especially notable was the cloud storage of bills and other "important" documents. Were they kidding?

      1. Ronny Cook

        Re: Why?

        I got one of those brochures as well, and was also left wondering what the heck they were thinking.

        My best guess is that they want to level in on BPay's territory, taking over the electronic payment market.

        But the last thing I need is yet another mailbox that I have to check.

    2. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

      Re: Why?

      I have never even heard of it.

      I just watched the "Digital Post Explained" video on the Digital Post Australia website. Nope, still don't get it.

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