In a message written on Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 08:56:10AM -0500, William Allen Simpson wrote:
I've read through the entire thread thus far, and there are several very interesting points. I'd like to know more about the Australian experiment?
For those not watching the news: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/86782/20101130/telstra-nbn-deal-set-to-resha... http://www.theage.com.au/national/parliament-approves-telstra-split-20101129... The summary is that Australian Parliament just voted to break up Telstra (which is partially state owned) into two parts. At a high level it is supposed to be a split between wholesale (wires in the ground) and retain (services on top). The idea is to enable better retail competition. I've not seen any reporting with enough details to figure out yet exactly how this is going to work, and thus if this has a chance of working. Still, it makes sense. Infrastructure in the ground is expensive, and should be done once. I have one power feed to my house, one water line, one telephone line, one cable TV line. They are all provided by or regulated by the government. The Internet will get to the same point one day, fiber to the home will be standard and able to offer all the services a residential user needs. I think this is why the telcos and cable cos fight municipal broadband networks so strongly, they know they cannot compete (as well) in that market. Anyway, I think we should all keep an eye on Australia. -- Leo Bicknell - bicknell@ufp.org - CCIE 3440 PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/