.. is the headlines I expect to see in the media soon.
Telstra’s Now We Are Talking website is running a poll of interest. Incredible interest looking at historical polls.
Keep in mind when you read the question and answers below, Telstra recently spent a lot of dollars on nationwide advertising, to attract more users to its Now We Are Talking website. The ads are full page ads in major newspapers across the country, and they attack the ACCC because of regulations that help keep competition, to a state that is still not even close to fair in the telecommunications industry.
The question asked is:
“Who do you think is blocking high-speed broadband for Australia?”
And, the possible answers are:
The Government – That’s right, Telstra shareholders actually believe Johnny ordered beavers to set up a underground block to prevent Telstra rolling out fibre services, or enhancing existing broadband services.
The ACCC – That’s related to the other article, the main article on the site is a article by Mr Split Pants Due To Eating Too Much Profit himself, Mr Phil Burgess, and basically has a headline that reads: How is the ACCC stopping Australia from getting high-speed broadband? So, we can see which way he wants the votes to go, towards the friendly, great folk at the ACCC who do a good job at keeping competition active in an industry where a monopoly giant dominates.
Telstra – Interesting choice. I suppose it wouldn’t be a valid poll without this answer, as this answer is the true answer.
Telecom Industry – G9 – That’s right, they have a proposal on the table that is cheaper, and more competitive than Telstra. They are surely stopping high-speed broadband. Right… Seems to me they are encouraging it.
Don’t know – The option most Telstra shareholders should pick if they aren’t already picking Telstra.
Anyway, looking at the results, right now, we can see this fantastic result for Australians, which completely destroys Telstra’s investment in the media for full page newspaper advertising promoting the site and attacking the ACCC.
The results are:
The Government – 73 people believe those beavers are there, blocking fibre cables being laid, and also stopping Telstra turning on the ADSL2+ DSLAMs it already has in exchanges in Australia.
ACCC – 243 people seem to believe Phil’s rubbish, that the ACCC are stopping high-speed broadband from being invested into. That’s not the case, the ACCC are protecting the large numbers of consumers in Australia from Telstra’s monopoly pricing, I don’t really want to pay $100/mth+ for a basic internet connection, sorry Telstra. You lose.
Telstra – 8331 people believe the real reason for slow speed fraudband is actually Telstra’s fault. And this is 100% correct. They are directly responsible by not doing anything for 7 years, providing Australian’s with 1.5Mbit at expensive prices ($50+). That price only came down recently due to industry pressures from ADSL2+ competitors. They still do artificially limit speeds needlessly.
Telecom industry – G9 – 9 people think that providing competitive proposals for faster broadband services is somehow blocking “high-speed broadband”. I know, there’s truly some idiots out there. How on earth are they stopping it by offering it ?!
Don’t know – 11 people confessed, I dunno. I bought TLS shares to make some quick cash like the greedy pig I am.
I’ve had an interesting time on Now We Are Talking recently too. I’m no regular of the site, but I do like to bite where I can.
Syd Lawrence, a shareholder since the days of T1, has a blog on Now We Are Talking. Syd recently made a post to his blog on Now We Are Talking. This blog post contained some fo the following content:
“Telstra’s decision to step up its Broadband Australia Campaign by placing ads in newspapers across the country is great news. It brings the facts of Australia’s broadband fiasco to the attention to more people.” … blah, blah, blah, more useless trash.
Here is my responses to posts on his blog that they thought would be worthy of everyone to see. They obviously agree with the terminology used, as it wasn’t censored, and made it public from their moderation queue:
Let me get this straight.. You all are happy as consumers to pay more for a product, to support those greedy pigs that are Telstra shareholders, and hold back competition, so some greedy pig can have more money, rather than letting someone who is innovative, and actually cares for Australia’s Metro and Regional areas more so, than Telstra and it’s greedy pigs? You really want an FTTN from Telstra, and not the G9 ? Even though Telstra means we all pay more, for the same thing, so greedy pigs continue to get the same or more money? That’s unbelievable and stupid. But I expect nothing more from any Telstra supporter. Open your eyes. The G9 can do it, and cheaper, whilst promoting competition. Telstra has done nothing but hold back innovation and the Australian economy, and put pressure on the government for their own greedy pig gain. They deserve NOTHING, and whilst I am an Australian, who votes in the government, I’ll see that Telstra doesn’t give us FTTN.
As well as:
Syd, You are completely incorrect. The Singapore Government don’t RECEIVE IT. Optus Communications Australia receive it and do something that Telstra don’t seem to have the common sense to do, give Regional Australians HIGH SPEED ADSL2+ Broadband without artificial limits. Why not Wholesale it too? I’d jump on a ADSL2+ wholesale plan in a second if it wasn’t speed limited. Trouble is, no one is offering ADSL2+ here, just yet, and Telstra, already have ADSL2+ equipment there, and are limiting it so they can make more cash off innocent consumers, for the greedy pig shareholders. I say we don’t just give Optus 600 million in cash to help with competition in regional and rural areas, but we give them it regularly in the form of USO payments.
The reason I state greedy pig shareholders is because a proposal exists for a G9 network to be built, with 12% ROI, that’s effectively a 410 million dollar profit return off a 4.1billion dollar network. They say NO, we want 39%. That’s why they are greedy pigs. The people representing the shareholders, and continually claim to be representing shareholders, are exactly, greedy pigs, and whilst they represent shareholders in their greedy demands, the representation makes anyone behind it, exactly, a greedy pig.
I’ve said before that I don’t have a problem with companies making some cash, that’s perfectly fine, but I don’t see how Telstra are going to outshine a G9 proposal that is competition neutrel, and doesn’t have the conflict of interest that Telstra does, being the wholesale and retail and network bodies of the entire customer access network.
With that monopoly, they have to accept that competition will need to exist, and as such should be aligning themselves to accept the offer at a rate that is reasonable. Telstra go to the ACCC with a 15% ROI demand, and it’d probably be signed sealed and delivered on easily. The G9’s is for 12%, but wants a 12 year overbuild protection guarantee. Which makes sense, the HFC network has tought us all enough that overbuild gets us nowhere anyway.
It’d have made more sense to run HFC out to different areas and basically have two providers offering similar deals in single areas, sure, you still have a monopoly situation on cable, but that would mean it reaches more areas, which is ideal.
So, basically the ACCC have the options in front of them:
We can dilute regulation and basically allow Telstra to run rampant on a FTTN build, at $82+ per customer connection, artificially inflating prices so revenue doesn’t drop, and therefore profits remain high, or we can welcome the G9 in at a maximum price per customer of $45 for high speed broadband, with just 12 years of a monopoly.
The ACCC can easily identify the best solution for consumers, considering we learn that Telstra is extremely incapable in a monopoly position to be a fair player in the market and leverage competition for the income it brings Telstra, compared to running a price squeeze like they are now.
They only complain they can’t compete because the ACCC forces wholesale prices down when retail prices are at or below wholesale rates, which makes sense, considering the wholesale suppliers have to chuck money on to pay for bandwidth, support, and profit too. In the current environment, basically after they chuck the initial charge on, theres bugger all room to make any good money, unless you play a numbers game and add LOTS of customers to your network, at that point, you can make a reasonable profit.
There’s plenty more that can be dug at on Now We Are Talking, Syd’s blog is a growing part of the website, as the greedy pig continues to make statements that have incorrect spelling, like “discription”. My response to him is basically, he should investigate an education before he speaks out for any broadband policy, without it, anything he says can only be considered uneducated ramblings.
I’m keen to see what Telstra do, when they know that a extremely large percentage of votes, 96% in fact, believe that Telstra stand in the way of providing high-speed broadband services.
Will they move out the way, or continue squirming like the greedy pigs they are?