Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Murdoch is right! We need broadband speeds increased!
According to Rupert Murdoch, AUSTRALIA'S internet infrastructure is a disgrace that the Federal Government must fix. Murdoch says that the Government and Telstra should invest at least $10 billion to provide broadband to every home, he told a shareholders' meeting. He also spelt out a clear warning that there is a huge risk Australia would be left behind as the internet changed how commerce was conducted and how people were entertained.
He told shareholders that "When you have broadband -- real broadband, not the type they're talking about here -- where you get, say, 20MB/sec of data into your home, it changes everything," he said. "People then spend a lot of time with their laptops and computers. In Australia we only have a couple of million (people on broadband) and they don't even get 1MB. "I think it's a disgrace."
I find myself in complete agreements with Mr Murdoch who is one of the worlds major online content providers through his News Cooperation company. If you think of internet online content like water and the internet like pipe lines and the consumers at the other end as people needing a resource you can clearly see the problem. In Australia we have millions of people with a major thirst for knowledge and data, the content providers can provide it but the pipes to get it there are way too small and because of this millions of Australians go thirsty for knowledge and data.
Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan seems not to understand the issues, she claims that "Australia is now approaching four million broadband subscribers and has the second-fastest broadband take-up of the 30 OECD countries”. She also says that Internet speeds in Australia are not as slow as Rupert Murdoch suggests. However, it suggests that she fails to understand the issues surrounding this as Australia continues installing pipes that are too small to feed a large number of houses. But Senator Coonan says speeds are improving in Australia.She has also argued not everyone wants to pay for super fast broadband. Well I don’t believe that, people want fast broadband they simply cannot afford the costs of it. The government needs to subsidize the cost of supplying broadband and provide the services Australia needs.
What Murdoch is saying is that the pipelines taking data into houses and businesses are way to small and many Australian internet users agree. However, I think internet users would indeed agree they want faster speeds, however, costs of producing these faster speeds will need to come down. The only way this can happen is if the government spends the money required to provide such services.
He told shareholders that "When you have broadband -- real broadband, not the type they're talking about here -- where you get, say, 20MB/sec of data into your home, it changes everything," he said. "People then spend a lot of time with their laptops and computers. In Australia we only have a couple of million (people on broadband) and they don't even get 1MB. "I think it's a disgrace."
I find myself in complete agreements with Mr Murdoch who is one of the worlds major online content providers through his News Cooperation company. If you think of internet online content like water and the internet like pipe lines and the consumers at the other end as people needing a resource you can clearly see the problem. In Australia we have millions of people with a major thirst for knowledge and data, the content providers can provide it but the pipes to get it there are way too small and because of this millions of Australians go thirsty for knowledge and data.
Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan seems not to understand the issues, she claims that "Australia is now approaching four million broadband subscribers and has the second-fastest broadband take-up of the 30 OECD countries”. She also says that Internet speeds in Australia are not as slow as Rupert Murdoch suggests. However, it suggests that she fails to understand the issues surrounding this as Australia continues installing pipes that are too small to feed a large number of houses. But Senator Coonan says speeds are improving in Australia.She has also argued not everyone wants to pay for super fast broadband. Well I don’t believe that, people want fast broadband they simply cannot afford the costs of it. The government needs to subsidize the cost of supplying broadband and provide the services Australia needs.
What Murdoch is saying is that the pipelines taking data into houses and businesses are way to small and many Australian internet users agree. However, I think internet users would indeed agree they want faster speeds, however, costs of producing these faster speeds will need to come down. The only way this can happen is if the government spends the money required to provide such services.
# posted by Peter Saville - IT Consultant @ 3:04 PM 
