broadband and Telstra

[miriam_e]

Got a propaganda leaflet from Telstra. (For those of you not in Australia Tesltra is our biggest telecommunications company -- they used to be a somewhat benign government-owned monopoly, but since being privatised have taken a holy "Greed is Good" approach to everything they do. Swindling their customers at any chance.) This leaflet purports to complain that government regulations are keeping Telstra from getting broadband to the Australian public. What a load of crap! What is keeping broadband restricted in Australia is the incredibly high prices charged, and this is a result of how Telstra still own most of the infrastructure and force their competitors' prices up. The whole idea of selling off Telstra was a con from the start. It should have been kept as a public entity and used as a way to ensure private companies don't take advantage of their customers. Instead, a greedy government sold our heritage off for quick cash and we will pay for it in decreased services and increased prices forever afterward.

Have you noticed how few free, value-added services remained after Telstra was privatised?
Have you noticed how free-market advocates trumpetted that since privatisation Telstra phone call charges have fallen? But have you noticed how your bill has continued to get bigger because although individual calls are slightly lower, rental prices have risen manyfold.
Have you noticed how these supposedly cheaper call prices still keep it far more expensive to phone a nearby city here in Australia than to phone the other side of the planet?
Have you noticed how costly mobile phones are compared to land-lines? And did you know it is actually cheaper to run a mobile network than a land-line one?
Have you noticed how much cheaper mobile phones are in other countries?

Telstra, as a company, have become the worst bunch of liars. This leaflet is an example of the bullshit they dish out now.

If Telstra were given complete control of the broadband market their current performance of providing the worst broadband service of all gives us an idea of what we could expect.

Comments

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

Actually, mobiles are not such a good one to bring into the equation. There are more plentiful cheaper options for using mobiles in Australia than in, say, the USA. Almost every US carrier provides hardware-locked phones and puts users into a contract. Pre-paid phone cards over there tend to only last a month, not 6 months, making the minimum you can spend on pre-paid about 6 times what it is here.

But that is precisely because we have multiple mobile networks and real competition, whereas the landline business is a monopoly revenue source.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

On the contrary, mobiles illustrate the point really well. USA is one place where the bad aspects of capitalism have had more time to encrust.

If you want to see what true competition does then look at China, where people pay a pittance for mobiles.

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

The "bad" aspects of capitalism are "encrusted" in the USA in some way that they mysteriously only apply to mobile phones?! Oh, come off it. Why do they not apply to other goods and services? ... Because the specifics of the industry are what's important.

And people get paid a pittance in China too. Without a costing of a mobile phone call there as a percentage of weekly wages, the assertion regarding true competition is meaningless.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

:) They do apply to other goods and services. I don't know why it is generally assumed that USA is a shining light of capitalism... well I actually do, of course, if people say something often enough then people start to believe it is true.

The wages in China are low, yes, but how does that influence things? A phone is still a phone. Most of the mobile phones we get here in Oz are probably made in China. Why the magical jump in price? Other things make it across the ocean and remain economical. As you hinted, it is because the communications companies know they can force a high price here -- there is an unspoken agreement that they will all charge us obscenely high prices. That is a kind of pretend competition.

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

One problem with mobile phones is that they are often bundled with the phone service, which is why I don't think it's a useful comparison. I was keeping to the service part because of that and because, for most people, the cost of the handset itself is pretty close to irrelevant.

I am believing that competition in the USA lowers prices because I experience it regularly. Maybe people are saying something "often enough" because it's true? My watch cost about $90 in the USA and would have cost $300+ here. I've bought hard drives, CD-RW drives, etc, for under $20 there (new) that would cost $80+ here. Board games that cost $32.21 (at today's mid-rate) in the USA cost $64 here. (That was just a random choice of something I bought recently. Most board games are 80-100% more here.)