wintermute000.Your argument about duplication of technology...

wintermute000.

Your argument about duplication of technology certainly has merit and is probably even more relevant to the G3 network, where having one large infrastructure corporation selling to all the retailers including Telstra on a level playing field would mean a far greater coverage of Australia than the fragmented system we currently have. I have long advocated this for G3.

The government would rather have it that way with the NBN too, but Telstra isn't playing ball.

My main objection is in letting Telstra run anything at the wholesale level because they couldn't organise a good time in a bad house. They don't like a level playing field, but want to dominate the industry. This is anti-competitive.

To have a monopoly wholesaler also playing in the retail field will never work. It has to be one or the other.

Telstra needs new management at all levels. They have an attitude towards customers that doesn't fit well as a retailer and yet they are not capable of being trusted to be the wholesaler. Ask any ISP or telecoms retailer who have to endure their misery.

As far as your argument that we don't need FTTH is concerned, I fully understand your point, but my experience with technology in business tells me that the money is worth spending. New uses don't happen until after the capacity has been installed. YouTube couldn't have been invented with dial-up connections prevailing.

I saw growth in my own company in the early 1980s of around 100% per year for a while, because we spent up big on the leading edge technology and was referred to as a leader in our field in Australia. We were only a small outfit but we were rolling in it. ($$$ that is.) There is an effect in business whereby being ahead of the game creates its own tailwind. Momentum.

Your point about Hong Kong Japan & Korea is valid, but as more of the world catches up, the uses will come. If those countries were on DSL and everyone else were on dial-up, I doubt that YouTube and all the other high bandwidth applications would have happened. It takes a certain critical mass. Perhaps your point about FTTN first, followed by FTTH would be a workable compromise, but when I have done that kind of thing in business in the past my results were disappointing compared with throwing everything at it up front. My every instinct, which has served me well in the past, says GO FOR IT...
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Taking over Telstra, fixing the structure, taking out the wholesale part and then leaving it as just a retailer would be a great outcome. But politically I don't see it happening. Not unless they can be persuaded into doing it voluntarily with an inducement that would look after the interests of TLS shareholders.