Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Australian Telstra Monopoly Dead

Posted by timothy on from the let's-see-what-happens-next dept.

philmarcracken writes "The Senate recently passed a bill through the Lower House for the separation of Telstra's retail and wholesale arms and now that same bill has just scraped by in the Upper House; 30 to 28. The deal is worth $11 billion AUD for Telstra and is welcomed by them despite Coalition opposition. This paves the way for the governmental body NBNco to use Telstra's existing assets and expedite laying fibre optic cables to the larger population densities."

1 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. NBN waste of money by nighty5 · · Score: 0, Troll
    Our politicians have just blown a cool $43 billion (in some sources over $58 billion depending which paper you read) of our money on a network that will most likely be obsolete in years to come.

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/billions-to-be-spent-on-dubious-benefits/story-e6frg6zo-1225961705602

    Not only that, but it benefits for city folk are heavily debated, while the country folk will reap much of the rewards. I don't have a problem with country folk, but I do have a problem with us subsidizing their life choices by living remote from services offered in heavily populated cities. Hell, I'd love to move out to the countryside, and have all the services offered in a city location.

    I lived in Sydney for 35 years before recently moving to London for contract work, and the last 6 years of that I had a 20 MB pipe, without the need for Telstra - the peddlers of an over the top expensive product.

    The govt all the long wanted Telstra to stump up for NBN and when the pollies rubbished their proposal, it seemed like the smaller operators had a chance to collectively provide services at an equal rate.

    Anyway guys, the NBN may come to your door, but in order to use it you'll have to shell out up to $450 and $750, and up to $3,000 to get a connection. Good luck with that.

    These public-private consortiums are ruining our country, hiding our debt and placing the burden on the citizens to stump up extra for services that should spearheaded by govt - if they deem them so important.