Yet again Helen Coonan disappoints fans with another bad decision.
The DCITA recently awarded $98 million to the pigs at Telstra for installing ADSL services in Regional exchanges. 211 of them.
Unfortunately, however, the list demonstrates that many of the exchanges Telstra are choosing to deploy into already have government funded, and competitively priced, services in them as it is.
Placing Telstra DSLAMs beside the already existing, taxpayer funded, cheaply priced DSLAMs from competitors like Internode is a very, very, very poor policy decision.
Did Coonan not think to check if broadband services were available in those areas?
Did she just believe crap put in front of her from Telstra?
For me, this nearly sparks an end to Coonan’s employment as far as I am concerned.
This decision really is a poor decision. $98 million that Telstra could have easily found by itself, but instead, was taken from a taxpayer fund, containing $162.5 million for regional investment, was given to Telstra, a extremely profit driven company, to overbuild competitively priced services in many of the regional areas on offer in the 211 proposed exchanges.
$98 million that could have perhaps gone to some of the other ISPs who already have invested carefully in the area, and could have done better with the funds, like expand services into NEW areas, and not overbuild areas where competitively priced services are already available..
Poor planning, poor decisions.
I think we simply got lucky with FTTN in that she did turn it down and avoid a grubby deal with Telstra.
This $98 million reflects some kind of ignorance of Telstra’s profits.
Surely the minister realises that whoever invests in the areas, will eventually be making a return on the equipment, even if they did go at it themselves, they would be making a return eventually!
Telstra more so, because Telstra’s prices mean returns are found rather quickly, perhaps even in the same month of the equipment going live.
Ladies and Gentleman, Broadband Consumers, we have two idiots aiming for that job of Communications Minister.
Coonan: Poor decision making skills, when reviewed in the context of the $98 million handed to a company with exceedingly large profits that could easily have been invested in these new areas, and the fact that a deal was NEARLY done with Telstra on FTTN behind closed doors.
Conroy: Poor knowledge of the areas he is talking about, and more of a Telstra puppet. Coonan demonstrated his lack of knowledge, where he claimed to deliver 6Mbps to areas already getting 24Mbps.
So, take your pick. Idiot 1 has so far made some good decisions, but came close and also made bad decisions. Idiot 2 doesn’t seem to keep informed in what happens in metro areas, let alone regional areas.
It’s a shame we can’t pick someone else to take that spot. Someone who actually can think about the facts behind the presented issue, someone who can look at Telstra and tell them to spend their own dollars, someone who can see the issues competition are facing in investing and giving them a kick along, but also, someone who can set proper competition frameworks that encourage investment and encourage development.
The two people mentioned above are far from what Australia really needs to fill that area of the nations interest. That’s what I can conclude from following many of the decisions and announcements produced by both the fools we have a choice of.
Enjoy!