Thursday, October 12, 2006

And in other news...

Broadband. Everyone wants it. It is nearing the end of the year 2006. When I was a kid, 2006 was the future. We are supposed to have hovercars by now. But here we are and there are still people in Australia that can't get broadband.

My brother was called by a marketing guy from Telstra BigPond and offered a broadband package. He told the guy that broadband wasn't available in his area but the telemarketer assured him that his exchange had just been upgraded and he could indeed get broadband. He was signed up.

His exchange was not upgraded. He was billed for a months access. Oh, sure, he was able to ring up and get the charges removed from his bill, but there is no word on when the exchange will be upgraded and until then he is stuck to dial-up. 33.6k dial-up at that! This is so slow it renders useless many services that I take for granted. GoogleTalk simply will not log in with such narrow bandwidth.

Who's fault is it?

Check out this story from ZDNet Australia who blame Telstra for these broadband black spots.

Weren't we guaranteed service to remote and regional areas when Telstra was sold? Shouldn't John Howard be held at least partly responsible?

Telstra turned on their G3 network recently for mobile broadband. Even there rural and regional areas are pushed to a back seat and, well, ignored.

"You'll get it when we get around to it! Us big city folk are busy, okay? Hush now!"

Then we have the T3 Float. Why does it feel like Australia is selling it's greatest asset? Will my brother ever be able to enjoy brodband or does everyone have to move into town to access these basic services?

Life was meant to be a constant struggle. If you are ever happy, be patient, it will pass.

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