hanrahan - agree totally with your comments. The amigos have not...

hanrahan - agree totally with your comments. The amigos have not endeared themselves to anyone. Arrogance beyond belief, pure self interest, living in a completely different world to the majority. The sooner we see the back of these guys the better. Howard completely screwed the original divestiture in not recognising and thus not purseing access / core network separation to drive uninhibited / free & competitive market space. Why? Becuase it would have diluted their asking price and could not have filled their coffers to the extent they did. We are now living with the consequences. Unhappy shareholders, not committal investor enviro because of the "psuedo - mono", still high retail prices for services in OZ, its a f$$#n quigmire to sort. If one does not instigate an investment needed in this infrastructure within the next couple of yrs (and that I mean FTTH; wireless will never cut it as speeds we need in 10 / 15 years does not scale on wireless, pure FIBRE, yes) then OZ will be left behind on many, many fronts on the world stage.

This techno is a lot more than just fast downloading of porn. The potential of services / applications is unthinkable when one removes speed as limiting factor between any 2 points (A to B) socially, economically, the potential becomes enormous. The majority of the world is heading down this path (FTTH/FTTB) and growing in numbers. Unfortuantely as bold and visionary as it is, we have very little choice......there will be losers of course.