From

http://www.nowwearetalking.com.au/blogs/the-telstra-phile/nz-and-britains-broadb
and-disgrace

New global broadband rankings (www.viewswire.com) released this week show
the UK is paying the price for its failed experiment in trying to break up
the incumbent telco BT.

The now not-so-great Britain has slipped behind Australia on the internet
superhighway. It really is a disgrace when you consider the country of 50
million plus people live in in an area smaller than our state of Victoria.

The only country that's tried importing the bureaucratic UK model, New
Zealand, has gone even further backwards. Soon we'll be sending food parcels
across the Tasman.

As Telstra and other major telcos in the developed world prepare to build
next generation fibre networks, the UK and NZ telcos are focussing their
efforts on satisfying regulators with more important tasks like making sure
their wholesale staff don't share the same toilets as the rest of the
company.

It's easy to see why Telstra's competitors would like to see the same happen
here in Australia. They know it would weaken Telstra and delay investment in
FTTN for a couple more years. Meanwhile they can keep raking in the profits
thanks to the cheap prices they pay to access the old copper network
courtesy of the ACCC.

It was amusing this week to see one of those piggy backers crying poor while
announcing his decision to turn his back on the people of Tasmania
(www.news.com.au).

Simon Hackett is the 100 percent private owner of Internode, one of the most
successful ISPs in Australia, making him one of the wealthiest men in South
Australia.

But Mr Hackett has decided the profits are not rich enough in Tasmania and
so he'd rather not do business there. Rather than just admit he wants to
keep his roots firmly planted in home-town Adelaide, Hackett had the hide to
blame Telstra for his business decision!

Worse still, many people in Tassie fell for Hackett's propaganda. Even the
Premier cried foul (www.news.com.au), saying "Tasmanian business pays far
too much for telecommunications access --- principally the blame for that
lies at the feet of Telstra." Mr Lennon overlooked the fact that Telstra has
invested more in Tassie than almost any other company and charges the same
telecommunications prices across Australia, whether you're in Hobart or
downtown Sydney.

If Mr Lennon wants more competition and choice to the people of Tasmania,
all he need do ask Mr Hackett to open up his wallet and actually invest some
of his vast wealth in the necessary infrastructure.

The reality is that Tasmania is one of the most difficult and high-cost
parts of Australia to serve. It just doesn't fit in with the big city
business models of most of Telstra's competitors, while the ACCC's insane
model of regulation actually encourages Telstra's competitors to avoid
regional areas.

It's no surprise these companies sit on their cheque books and paint Telstra
as the evil culprit. Business, after all, was never meant to be a picnic.
It's embarrassing though when journalists and politicians fall for the
propaganda and oafishly overlook where the real problem lies.

Finally though some very welcome news from the company that pioneered the
'blame Telstra" model - Optus this week revealing it would divert some
profits away from its Singapore owners and begin to extend its slow and
miniscule mobile network to regional Australia.

This of course is SingTel's 'Plan C', coming after the failure of 'Plan A' -
asking the ACCC for piggyback rights on Telstra's Next GT network - and the
subsequent failure of Plan B - the billion dollar Coonan OPEL debacle.

It's good to see SingTel step up to the mark, but shameful to see the
company claim its investment will see it "come close to matching"
(www.itwire.com) Telstra's Next GT network.

Should Plan C be successful, (and we'll wait a couple more years to find
out), SingTel's network will still only be half the size and half the speed
of Telstra's.