Stuart Corner
Monday, 24 November 2008 15:37
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
Just before the 26 November deadline for the National Broadband Network RFP Telstra appears to be trying to spook the government into backing down from its brinkmanship with the 'release' of market research purportedly showing that the voters are solidly behind the idea of Telstra building the NBN, but these research findings need to be taken with a pinch of salt.
The research was commissioned by Telstra which used UMR Research, a pollster favoured by the ALP, to canvas 1200 Australian voters by telephone.
The results have been reported, but not released,
on Telstra's Nowwearetalking web site. This is an important distinction: without the specific questions asked it is not possible to determine whether or not they were couched so as to solicit a particular response.
For example, according to NWAT: "The survey findings showed strong support for Telstra building and operating the NBN, the major reasons being: Telstra's Australian background and heritage; its financial capacity to build the network; and importantly the fact that it already has the runs on the board in terms of advanced technology projects."
No doubt those reasons were given as options in a multiple choice question - I can't imagine respondents being asked "give reasons why you think Telstra should build and operate the FTTN."
Again NWAT notes that "Significantly, Australians strongly embrace the open access regime that Telstra has agreed, that companies gain equivalent access to the network and the operating regime is entrenched in law and administered by the ACCC. When informed of this Australians become even more supportive of Telstra building and operating the NBN."
So exactly how was this information conveyed? It seems hardly reasonable to expect your average punter to grasp the nuances of telecommunications access regimes in the few minutes it takes to respond to a telephone survey delivered by a pollster who is merely reading a script.
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