Telstra fumes at 15% hike on cost of FTTN broadband claim

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 05 June 2008 17:25

Opinion and Analysis

Telstra’s spokesperson, Kate McKenzie continued saying in her ABC Radio interview: "This is a completely bogus report that has been bought and paid for by a bunch of competitors who want one thing only - to stop the building of Australia's national broadband network and keep their current cosy arrangements.”

"We don't know what price we're going to charge and presumably, they don't know those things either”, concluded McKenzie.

My comment here is that given Telstra’s existing high prices for wired and wireless broadband, it’s only natural to assume that Telstra would likewise charge high prices for broadband delivered via any new national fibre network.

Therefore, even though McKenzie says “We don’t know what price we’re going to charge”, one only need look at history to get a pretty clear idea of what Telstra’s charges might be, even though unrelated companies like investment firms like to note that “past performance is not an indication of future performance.”

Humans are always reprimanded for not learning from history – so why should the history of Telstra’s actions be any different this time?

Quite how this will end up is still anyone’s guess, but Telstra looks like they’re in the box seat to win the FTTN network build-out and the future closure of ADSL 2+ networks, destroying the businesses of existing ISPs in competition with Telstra, as Internode’s CEO Simon Hackett has publicly expressed concern over.

Given Telstra’s closure of the CDMA network, its desire to close ‘old’ networks and thus removing any backup networks, to save money, is also a historical fact.

So, will we learn from history, or ignore it? That’s a question only the Federal Government of Australian can answer, although expecting honesty and forward thinking actions from politicians beyond the next electoral cycle would also be ignoring the lessons of history.

If Telstra does indeed win the FTTN bid, we can only urge them to consider that such a network would indeed go a long way to abolishing the tyranny of distance Australians know only too well, both within Australia and thanks to its distance from the rest of the world.

But replacing the tyranny of distance with the tyranny of high prices won’t magically transform Australia into a clever AND connected country, but one in which the digital divide is wider than ever, between the digitally connected and the digitally disconnected.

If Telstra truly wishes to do its part in ensuring Australia becomes the knowledge nation, in addition to one that rides upon the sheep and miners’ backs, then realistic pricing – and realistically large download limits – should be its number one priority if it does indeed win the FTTN tender, especially if there is no structural separation as its competitors so dearly wish to see enacted.

What ultimately will happen will shape Australia’s digital legacy for decades to come, long after most of Telstra’s current workforce is no longer there. As a patriotic Australian, I can only hope the right decisions for all Australians are made whoever wins the tender.

What do you think? Will Telstra win the FTTN? Will the G9? Whoever wins, will realistic pricing be available to all Australians, or will the broadband network we end up with be too slow compared with other nations, and cost too much?