Cornered! is a blog devoted, most of the time anyway, to telecommunications: local and global issues, technology, people and trends from the perspective of someone who's been reporting, analysing and commenting on the industry since the dark ages (BC - before competition). Sometimes serious, sometimes flippant, sometimes frivolous. Controversial, analytical, informative, amusing, but never boring; a vehicle for examinations of important issues and observations on my encounters and experiences in an industry where polarised views and hyperbole are the norm.
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Cornered! ALP's broadband vision beats the Coalition's Blueprint
Cornered! ALP's broadband vision beats the Coalition's Blueprint | ALP's broadband vision beats the Coalition's Blueprint |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Thursday, 22 March 2007 | |
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Page 2 of 2 No clear definitions there! And I invite you to sit down and compare the 20 pages of the ALP's New Directions for Communications with the 100 pages of the Coalition's Broadband Blueprint. The language of the former is crisp, specific and punchy: you feel these guys are on the ball and have a clear grasp of the issues. Featured Whitepaper
5 Best Practices for Smartphone Support
The Coalition has focused its attacks on the ALP's proposed funding arrangements - dipping into the Future Fund by getting it to sell its remain 17 percent of Telstra - and has accused the ALP of reneging on its policy of public ownership of Telstra. That is nonsense: the Coalition knows only too well (and has made a virtue of the fact that) Government ownership without government control satisfies no ideological needs for public ownership at all. As the ALP says: "Labor's telecommunications policy. With the Government's sale of Telstra, this objective is difficult to achieve purely through the passive, residual, ownership of Telstra. Now that only a fraction of Telstra is publicly owned, that public capital will achieve more economic benefits for the Australian people through direct investment in broadband." As for accusations that it is proposing a "smash and grab" raid on the Future Fund. The ALP counters that it is simply investing it to good purpose and making an investment that might one day generate a good return. It says it will "leverage infrastructure investment that will enhance the productive capacity of the economy while still meeting public sector superannuation liabilities. Under Labor's proposal the Future Fund will still fully fund anticipated public sector superannuation liabilities consistent with the Government's timetable." The latter is a moot point. But it is quite conceivable that, if this project goes ahead we could all be debating the merits of the government selling down its shareholding in a valuable monopoly asset vital to the national economy: the FTTN network. That would be a very good outcome. And perhaps the biggest hurdle it faces is that it might not be the right solution. Already the are suggestions that 12Mbps will not be enough. There are endless arguments as to when and how additional capacity will be required and delivered: by wireless, improved DSL or fibre to the premises. The danger is that a national broadband network created through government policy and with significant government ownership may be unable to evolve with sufficient speed to embrace rapid changes in technology and customer demand. But the ALP proposal is a great deal better than the alternatives and there is plenty of scope for the plans to mature before the ALP gets a chance to implement them.{moscomment} |
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