The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
Roozendaal’s statement continues: "Given those experiences and the fact that most cities in NSW already have free WiFi points in libraries and in some commercial centres like hotels and cafes, it would be an inappropriate use of taxpayer US dollars to continue this investigation."
What’s worse, however, is that the Government wanted to set up a free scheme in competition with commercial enterprises.
Government’s track record in providing services to “the people” is dismal, at best. Sure, there will be those that say it would have been good for “the people”, or for those who can’t afford the cost of their own Internet connection.
But if you can’t afford an Internet connection, do you even own a computer, or a modern one that can best take advantage of today's Internet?
Free Wi-Fi is also available, as Roozendaal notes, in public libraries and other areas. Paid Wi-Fi is also available in many areas, too. And the cost of data plans for mobile users has never been cheaper – witness Vodafone’s $39 per month for 5GB of data, a plan that is still available.
Or Three Mobile’s $15 per month for 1GB of data, with both services using a USB wireless modem to deliver broadband. Optus has competitive plans too, and while Telstra’s are certainly the most expensive, they’re the fastest in Australia – far faster than most Wi-Fi connections, and has a breadth across Australia that Wi-Fi could only dream about.
There’s also the looming threat of WiMAX, which will drive wireless data charges down even further, if not in Australia because its rollout has been potentially derailed, or at least delayed, but overseas where Sprint is rolling it out across the US, delayed though that rollout is too.
What’s most annoying is that the government promises things it knows it won’t – or can’t – deliver. Free Wi-Fi was never a serious plan, and if it was, it was something that could only have been dreamed up by a politician.
Yes, I’ve previously been pointed to Google’s free Wi-Fi setup in a part of Mountain View, California. But Google is Google, and the Government of NSW is just another lying, untrustworthy government that would sell us all out at the first moment if it could – and undoubtedly is in many ways right now, anyway.
So... the next time the government – any government – promises ‘free’ this, or ‘free’ that, think twice, nay, thrice before believing them. If it does come about, know that it isn’t free, but that we’re all paying for it, and undoubtedly receiving a sub-standard service for our troubles.
Governments can spit in our eye with promises of free Wi-Fi, but the more they lie, the more we have to wonder why... why do we trust them, and why do we expect to get something for nothing.
David Bass
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