what do you want rudd?

Ok it seems some numbers are starting to appear on this new plan. They all point to significantly higher access fees for the consumer than is currently being spent. One could argue that the services that such a network would be able to provide would expand dramatically and so people will pay it. Or maybe they wont. Especially lower income earners primarily in the bush. But wait a minute! Arent these the same people that Rudd is trying to service? Doh!

So the question is Mr Prime Minister , what is it that you want to achieve with this massive spend?

a. Increase access (presumably there was an initial assessment that related access to cost of access ie cost being a barrier to entry.The theory being that removing the TLS monopoly on the network would open up competition and drive prices down.

b Or increased capacity and performance regardless of cost.

Either way you have to go back to your employers (the people of australia) to see whether they want such a massive amount of money spent on over-servicing people.

I know many people who are quite happy with "broadband" speeds of around 1500 k. Yet I am unhappy with my adsl 2+ speeds. But I am an early adopter in these things and would not use myself or others like me to describe the average user.

My feeling is that at these costs and I use TPG with 200 GB of downloads per month for $69, that the $100 access fee would be too much for most people.

They would need to pitch the pricing at around current prices eg $70 for top of the line service.
But what about the many households that simply dont want/need top of the line service? They ATM dont want to spend the $70 per month. So potentially the numbers of subscribers will be vastly less than what the $100 per month access fee is based on. Therefore access cost would need to blow out even further.

Well kevin.. this is another fine mess youve got us in.