Can Terria save us from the clutches of Telstra?
The G9 rebel alliance has regrouped as Terria, but it's going to take more than a name change to defeat the imperial might of Telstra, says Adam Turner.
If Telstra is allowed to build the next generation of Australia's broadband infrastructure in its own terms, we're basically handing Emperor Sol a fully operational Death Star. Telstra will continue to hold the country's technology future to ransom every time it doesn't get its own way, blowing up rebel strongholds every now and then as a demonstration of its awesome power.
It's a bit of a worry that the rag-tag Terria alliance is our last best hope for victory - "our" being all of us who don't want to see Australians continue to get screwed by Telstra. Terria includes AAPT, iiNet, Internode, Optus, Macquarie Telecom, Primus, SOUL and TransACT. The G9 name obviously became untenable after the nine were reduced to eight when AAPT acquired PowerTel.
Optus is also putting in a separate bid to build the National Broadband Network, which is a smart business move by Optus but doesn't bode well for the unity of the alliance. Surely there is a conflict of interest here, unless Optus only intends to go through with its bid if the Terria bid fails.
You can be sure the propaganda machine over at Telstra's Now We Are Talking site will have a field day with this angle. Divide and conquer is one of the oldest tricks in the book.
It's obvious Telstra should have been broken in two before it was privatised, with the nation's communications infrastructure spun off into a separate company so all communications providers could compete on a level playing field.
Instead Telstra owns the copper playing field, and regularly threatens take its bat and ball home if it doesn't get what it wants. If Telstra is allowed to build a Fibre to the Node network under the same conditions it might break the "broadband drought" in the short term, but it will condemn Australia to forever be at Telstra's mercy.
As attractive as structural separation is, I think that battle is lost. We can't pry the existing copper network from Sol's grasp. My biggest concern about the new proposals is that they could still be reliant on Telstra to supply the last mile of copper from the node to the home - which still gives Telstra a massive bargaining chip.
Unfortunately for Terria, taking Telstra out of the equation by building a second copper network or running fibre to every home just isn't practical. The obvious solution is to go wireless. The Communications Minister, Senator Conroy, recently said he's open to telcos hanging wireless links off the nodes to cover the last mile. While OPEL's long-range regional WiMAX plans may have tanked, short-range metro WiMAX could be Terria's last mile saviour. Terria members such as Internode already have successful WiMAX roll outs to their name.
If the rebel alliance fails, Emperor Sol's power will only grow. Using wireless to take the copper network out of the equation could be Terria's best hope of bringing Telstra's reign of terror to an end.
Also read our story: G9 Crew Ready Their Troops
What do you think? Should the Terria group go wireless? What is the best answer for Australia's National Broadband Network?
Other Blog Entries written by Adam Turner:
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Comments: 1
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blockcentre
May 29, 2008 6:06 AM
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When Labor decided to pursue this FTTN network plan they effectively condemned us all. Surely they can see that this will only cripple future technology advances? Letting Tel$tra off the leash isn't exactly what I had in mind for the next level of internet services. This is going to be like the ADSL1 roll-out, except a million times worse. I would hate to be any other ISP other than Telstra right now - the future has to be bleak. |