Telstra and the Country (2 Viewers)

[Raiks]

Hey guys,

I reckon Telstra's being pretty hard done by the USO agreement and government regulation. In Singapore, when the govt imposed a new regulatory framework, it was forced to pay more than a billion dollars in compensation for removing the SingTel monopoly.

I think that the government should have completely deregulated the telco sector prior to privatisation because that way investors know exactly where they stand.

Barnaby Joyce wants to take money out of the Telstra sale and have it exclusively for rural telecommunications. What about a fund for improving city communications? Where are the Barnaby Joyces of Sydney? Why don't they set up a city telecommunications fund so that Sydneysiders get cheaper access to WAP, Blackberries and high speed internet. It really is a constraint on Sydney's ability to compete with places like Hong Kong and Singapore for business.

Yeah! Why should the country get telephones when the city can have access to WAP, Blackberries and high speed internet instead?

Damn whinging ungrateful country bumpkins... when will they ever learn.

 

[White Rabbit]

How about because Sydney has far less 'black spots' compared to rural australia. Between Dubbo and Bathurst, I get reception maybe twice. Even in the smaller towns like Geurie and Molong I had no reception, which is rather terrible imo. You want faster net access or better WAP services? We want to be able to make a phone call in town! Having lived in both Sydney and rural NSW I can tell you the level of telecommunications is exellent in Sydney by comparrison. Stuart Town and Geurie may be small towns but the fact remains they are towns, and that you need to get onto the highway in order to get reception is ridiculous - hell, even the highway in stuart town doesn't get reception. Ignoring peoples basic need for telecommunications, it's streches like this between towns that NEED access to the networks - what happens in MVAs? People need to drive into Dubbo to call emergency services? Because lets face it, how many people - esspecially city people driving down the Mitchel hwy honeslty have CBs in their cars/utes etc? Farmers and truckies aside, I know very few people who still have CBs in their cars.

 

[ogmzergrush]

I liked the bit where he said Telstra were hard done by.

 

[Raiks]

hell, even the highway in stuart town doesn't get reception. .

Isn't that a good thing since it's illegal to be on the phone while driving?

 

[Enlightened_One]

Yeah Raiks, but it's a bitch if your car breaks down in the middle of the night, or you come across an accident and want to call for help.

 

[White Rabbit]

Isn't that a good thing since it's illegal to be on the phone while driving?

Yeah Raiks, but it's a bitch if your car breaks down in the middle of the night, or you come across an accident and want to call for help.

also, when I've tried to make calls in stuart town, i've been a passenger

 

[katie_tully]

We had no phone again the other day.

/End rant.

 

[katie_tully]

Hahaha oh Stuart Town. Imagine getting stuck there at night. =\

 

[Armani]

You could always invest in a satellite phone.

 

[katie_tully]

Have satellite internet.

 

[loquasagacious]

Where I used to live we had unreliable phone lines virtually every time there was a storm we would loose the telephone. Probably an average of once or twice a year we would loose electricity. Typically these took 24 hours or so to be repaired. Though as a record it once took four days for electricity to be restored and more than a week for phone.

When you choose to live in a rural area you considered the pros and cons you weigh up dodgy telecommunications against cleaner air, more space, etc etc. If you choose to live in a rural area then clearly the pros outweigh the cons, clearly YOU believe that the telecommunications is adequate or you wouldn't live there.

This brings me to my next point: we seem to assume that the country is dieing because people keep leavin it and so we must prop people up and encourage them to stay on the land and so ensure the bush's survival. Yet this is at best a loosing battle as even if procreation was inline with the rest of Australia the bsh would slowly grey and die.

What we need to do is not encourage people to stay but encourage people to move there. Targetted immigration into rural and regional areas would provide a much needed labour force enabling industry to operate better and even expand. Most importantly an increased population base would increase the aggregate demand for goods and services in rural and regional areas. The increased demand would make it much more attractive for telcos (and for that matter other businesses) to invest in rural areas and provide better services. Corner shops wouldn't close if there were more customers etc etc.

 

[loquasagacious]

Out of interest is the satellite internet provided at the cost of normal internet?

Also as long as the satellite doesnt fall out of the sky you have telephone access via VOIP which would probably be cheaper than the landline anyway.

Infact as it is satellite you could even scrap having a landline at all and save on the rental cost.

 

[katie_tully]

No it's a bit more expensive, but it's more reliable and faster so it's worth the extra cost. I mean, it was $30 a month for dialup, non inclusive of the dialup call and the extra downloads.

 

[Raiks]

We had no phone again the other day.

/End rant.

Here's 50c. Call someone that cares.

Ohhh....waitaminute

 

[katie_tully]

So cruel

 

[=slade=]

Where I used to live we had unreliable phone lines virtually every time there was a storm we would loose the telephone. Probably an average of once or twice a year we would loose electricity. Typically these took 24 hours or so to be repaired. Though as a record it once took four days for electricity to be restored and more than a week for phone.

When you choose to live in a rural area you considered the pros and cons you weigh up dodgy telecommunications against cleaner air, more space, etc etc. If you choose to live in a rural area then clearly the pros outweigh the cons, clearly YOU believe that the telecommunications is adequate or you wouldn't live there.

This brings me to my next point: we seem to assume that the country is dieing because people keep leavin it and so we must prop people up and encourage them to stay on the land and so ensure the bush's survival. Yet this is at best a loosing battle as even if procreation was inline with the rest of Australia the bsh would slowly grey and die.

What we need to do is not encourage people to stay but encourage people to move there. Targetted immigration into rural and regional areas would provide a much needed labour force enabling industry to operate better and even expand. Most importantly an increased population base would increase the aggregate demand for goods and services in rural and regional areas. The increased demand would make it much more attractive for telcos (and for that matter other businesses) to invest in rural areas and provide better services. Corner shops wouldn't close if there were more customers etc etc.

"When you choose to live in a rural area you considered the pros and cons you weigh up dodgy telecommunications against cleaner air, more space, etc etc. If you choose to live in a rural area then clearly the pros outweigh the cons, clearly YOU believe that the telecommunications is adequate or you wouldn't live there."

...ok, so explain how those who are too poor to move the city / whereever there is adequate telecommunications are in line with thise ridiculous statement?

what about those who have lived there their entire lives, who, simply because they cannot afford to leave their farms/businesses/homes, suddenly have CHOSEN to be without phone lines in an emergency because some dickshit in the city has decided its "THEIR CHOICE" to be living there??

and yes we do need to encourage those that are already there to stay, because once they all leave and move to the city where they can "CHOOSE" to have better telecommunications, the ppl from the city will have very little idea of how to run a farming enterprise, which means this type of production could eventually begin to decrease.

again, you are talking shit...

 

[loquasagacious]

The Government should ENSURE that all telecommunications are more than substantial and in working order.

Why?

...ok, so explain how those who are too poor to move the city / whereever there is adequate telecommunications are in line with thise ridiculous statement?

what about those who have lived there their entire lives, who, simply because they cannot afford to leave their farms/businesses/homes, suddenly have CHOSEN to be without phone lines in an emergency because some dickshit in the city has decided its "THEIR CHOICE" to be living there??

Who can't afford to move? You just sell up and move even if the sale doesn't yield much you can pick up unemployement etc etc benefits. Experience running farms and businesses will aid finding employment in the city. A nostalgic attatchment to what you know is merely a tick in the pros list People can afford to move - that they don't merely indicates that they find that the pros of staying outweigh the cons.

Do you know where I'm from? Do you know my background? I can asure you I didn't grow up in the CBD. Where I grew up and my parents continue to CHOOSE to live is in a semi-rural area, we lost (and they still do) telecommunications and electricity in storms several times a year. My Telstra moble doesn't get any reception when I visit them, they live to far from the nearest exchange to get broadband.

Two years ago my best friend and his family moved to a rural area in SA, they get no mobile reception until their in the nearest town. They have a max 33.3k internet connection because the phone lines in the area are that old. But guess what they choose to move there, they like the lifestyle and they like owning and operating a vineyard.

So if you don't mind you can climb down off your moral high horse - it's built on assumption, hyperbole, nostalgia and misrepresentation, it doesn't impress me. Logic, rational thinking and empirical data do that if you have a horse built out of those then by all means climb aboard and go on a steplechase, until then how about you spare us your patronising holier-than-thou tone and claims of a somehow more deserving country.

we do need to encourage those that are already there to stay, because once they all leave and move to the city where they can "CHOOSE" to have better telecommunications, the ppl from the city will have very little idea of how to run a farming enterprise, which means this type of production could eventually begin to decrease.

And so farming decreases, did you even see an eyelid bat? Yes it is understandable to me that you may feel an attatchment to what you know (or would like to) however that alone does not make me feel for it's loss. Maybe if our farmers had a comparitive advantage they wouldn't wither and die. So if unsuported they prosper then thats dandy we have a comparitive advantage. If they don't then we just shed some deadwood.

So now country-folk are the only ones who can farm? Them thar city dwellers 'ould jus' stuf the whole damn thingy up. Honestly your ingrained superiority complex is really starting to rankle. Sometimes I wonder whether fifty years ago you'd have been the kind of person criticising italians and other immigrants saying that surely they didn't mean to farm. Turns out they're doing pretty well for themselves.

Lets not forget that rual australia isn't all dieing Schreuss have been experiencing very solid growth and have rapidly expanded. Whilst wheat, canola and cattle have been declining fruit and veg (as in, in the fresh produce section of the supermarket) have been doing well.

For anyone who's too lazy I thought I'd summarise your argument:

again, you are talking shit...

I think it encapsulates the part where you pontificate seemingly without any real basis.

 

[katie_tully]

snap. =\ .

 

[loquasagacious]

snap?

ten char

 

[katie_tully]

I disagreed with some of your post, but I'm in an angry mood. Promise to reply when I've cooled off and am thinking rationally