A perspective on the National Broadband Network (NBN)

So is it a citizen's right to have 100 Megabits delivered to their house or do we leave it to market forces? In Korea, it has been enshrined in legislation that a basic human right for their citizenry is to have access to 1Megabit/sec internet service. We don't question having a telephone in our house connected to the copper network - that's what the PMG installed in the 40's and 50's whether you wanted it or not. Today we have alternatives nevertheless it did take decades to arrive at this scenario.

Conclusion: Even though $43B sounds a lot, taken in context of the wealthy nation that Australia is today, this amount may not be enough over the at once 8 years in order to retain our international competitiveness. 2    Regulatory environmentWe can easily recall the government advertisements for T1, T2 & T3 - a vertically structured carrier like Telstra provides the best of both worlds for clients, wholesale and retail. With the Universal Service Obligation and the monopoly guaranteed, Telstra looked a sure bet for all of us who invested. What we didn't count on was the Howard Government selling down their majority ownership and not forcing any split between wholesale and retail offerings.The monopolistic behaviour starkly manifested itself in 2008 when the at that time management failed to submit a response to the RFT by the newly elected Rudd Labor Government, for a FTTN NBN. In many ways the Rudd Labor Government was left with no alternative other than to create and fund a monopolistic alternative to Telstra at that time legislate to force Telstra's hand and this is nevertheless being played out in our Federal parliament.Whilst it doesn't add anything to this debate, one must recall that Kim Beasley as Minister responsible for Telecommunications in the Hawke Labor Government, strongly supported the so then CEO of Telecom Australia, the late Mel Ward, in not splitting the organisation up when they merged OTC with it; subsequent Labor and Coalition governments failed to grasp this nettle as well. So however the ACCC is grappling with the monopolistic issues in relation to the national trade practices legislation and how the number of points of interconnection plays in this environment - is it 14, 200 or 400 PoI? No doubt the ACCC has the competence to assess this to put it more exactly complex issue and get this about right.

Recent currency exchange rate turmoil has caused pain for many Australian companies. To try to head off problems hereafter, many businesses are considering upgrades to their supply chain management IT systems in 2011.