Telstra again shows it is not a Patriotic Australian.Telstra is...

Telstra again shows it is not a Patriotic Australian.
Telstra is for Telstra. Screw its customers screw Australia.

Article in this weeks PCWORLD by Ross Catanzariti

Fresh from losing the chance to build Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN), Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo was last week shouting about some new technologies from the rooftops.

Citing HFC cable upgrades as a potential response to the fibre NBN, Trujillo also unfortunately revealed what many pundits have accused Telstra of in the past — holding back Australian broadband.

The comments surrounded DOCSIS 3 — a new system for cable internet which increases speeds from the current 30Mbit per second that BigPond cable offers to over 100Mbit per second.

The upgrade would be able to provide download speeds of up to 160Mbps by the end of this year, and also be able to deliver video calls, VoIP and even full television.

Now, Telstra apparently has this technology available, but unsurprisingly, Australian consumers won't see it anytime soon. Why? Well, Telstra won't launch it until a competitor forces them into action.

"We have DOCSIS 3 as an option if somebody chooses to compete and to compete with us," said Trujillo.

So, instead of potentially being able to provide all the benefits if high speed Internet connections, Telstra won't budge and Australians will be stuck with the current mediocre broadband situation. All because Telstra is only interested in looking after itself and its shareholders.

What's wrong with a company looking after its own interests, you might ask? Nothing.

But there is something wrong with holding back such technology, especially in a broadband market like Australia.