
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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Celebrating 20 years of telecoms competition
Cornered!
Celebrating 20 years of telecoms competition | Celebrating 20 years of telecoms competition |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Thursday, 22 May 2008 | |
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Page 2 of 5 For anyone under 40 years of age it is probably hard to comprehend the telecoms world of 1988. Today we have fierce competition in every aspect of telecoms services. In 1988 not only did Telecom have a monopoly on services, but it dictated CPE also: Thus when the analogue cellular network was launched in 1987. Telecom named the six manufacturers who alone would be permitted to supply handsets!The May statement laid the groundwork for and set in train the events that made full deregulation possible: the changes it ushered in were far more fundamental than 1 July 1997: by that time the key legislated distinction between carriers - Telecom, Optus and Vodafone - and all other players was their exclusive right to provide 'line links': transmission capacity fixed or wired used for public telecommunications services: switching resale of services on these 'line links' and pretty much else was open to competition - not that the carriers necessarily made it easy for competitors! The May 1988 statement was also notable for it early recognition of the key role of telecommunications. "Telecommunications is no longer just traditional telephone, telegram and telex services, but now includes access to information, to computers, to new services, to electronic mail, to entertainment and to the world's markets. Australia's success in both providing and using these wider services will be crucial to success in re-structuring for growth in advanced economic activities." Remember this was before the public Internet, when modems operated at 2400 bits per second, when email, outside of academia with access to the Internet was only through a multitude of proprietary and incompatible services. And there was no such thing as 'always on' connectivity, only dial up access. Many of the policies set out in that statement are still with us: CONTINUED |
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