Telstra is up in arms over letters it says Communications Minister Helen Coonan has sent to homes located in broadband-enabled areas telling them they have no high-speed connection available.
Telstra will switch on over 200 remote ADSL exchanges after a funding stoush between the government and the telco was resolved.
Telstra has hit back at accusations from rivals that its decision to turn on ADSL2+ in 900 exchanges across Australia was the latest example of the telco "losing a game of chicken with the government".
Telstra has published a response to the G9 consortium's fibre-to-the-node proposal, calling it an expensive and dangerous proposal that "imposes a tortured, dysfunctional ownership and management structure"
The OECD has passed judgement on Australia's broadband in a study calling it among the slowest and most expensive in the world, however, Communications Minister Helen Coonan claims it was a "strong report card" for the nation's infrastructure.
If there was ever evidence that the stoush over broadband had gotten personal, it came when Telstra's sour-grapes mentality led it to sue Helen Coonan, personally, for claimed procedural flaws in the OPEL contract.
Much has been made of Telstra's decision to finally stop holding Australia to ransom, and to actually turn on the ADSL2+ equipment it has installed in what is apparently over 900 of its exchanges around the country.
There's something immensely gratifying about accomplishing the seemingly impossible -- particularly in IT, where pundits regularly proclaim that a particular technology has hit its physical limits.
In telecoms, Telstra is no 800 pound gorilla. It's an 800 pound colic-ridden infant, irritably throwing its toys out of the pram when it doesn't get its own way.
Sometimes, a well-placed and well-timed letter can make all the difference. Other times, it can make no difference at all and even hurt your case. This week's missive by the Competitive Carriers' Coalition, I would suggest, falls into the latter category.
When the government announced that Optus and Elders had won the bid to build Australia's bush broadband network, it provoked jeers and plaudits alike, but it was the ISPs' choice of WiMax as the bearer technology that has provoked the most furious storm of argument. Just how will the technology stand up to life in the bush?
The Australian Labor Party's ICT shadow minister wants a national fibre broadband network and enough skilled people to exploit it.
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