Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 27 November 2009 14:11
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
Hot on the heels
of the news of Telstra’s slightly cheaper new broadband plans came the
news that the legislative reforms intended to break up Telstra haven’t
passed by the end of the year as expected, and has now been delayed
until next year – giving Telstra more time to try and do a favourable
deal with the Federal Government.
First we learn of Telstra’s new “BigPond Elite Gateway” that takes Next G and shares it through a Wi-Fi and 4-port Ethernet router, and then Telstra’s new broadband plans which increase minimum download caps, introduce new 100GB and 200GB plans and try to get everyone onto “bundles” so they can “save money”.
Telstra have also chosen to highlight its $59.95 per month plan for 12GB of downloads per month when I keep on hearing ads from TPG for a $49.95 per month package offering 100GB download split into 50GB peak and 50GB off peak.
Of course Telstra does offer a lot of additional content to its users, as well as unmetered access to services such as BigPond Music, TV, Movies, a news channel, sports and the list goes on.
But the Internet is not just what is offered by Telstra but what is out there from the entire planet, and while any locally included legal content is good, there’s lots of other free and paid legal content out there I’m interested in as well, be it from iTunes, or the ABC, or any number of other sites amongst the billions out there.
As
previously noted, Telstra could clearly be doing a lot more, but is likely saving its ammo for the true NBN fight to come.
Fellow iTWire journalist Stuart Corner has
nicely explained the situation facing Federal Minister for Communications, Senator Stephen Conroy, and Telstra, with Telstra now able to use lack of stronger government powers and the extra time before the legislation comes back to parliament next year to try and negotiate a more favourable “pre-Christmas” deal than any subsequently passed legislation would otherwise allow.
Naturally this puts great pressure onto Telstra to put the best foot forward, with Telstra CEO David Thodey recently speaking to business leaders at the American Chamber of Commerce, first noting that he couldn’t talk about the NBN but then seemingly on his vision of just that!
Continued on page 2, please read on…
