Internet for all?
In a discussion with a senior Telstra operative recently we were told the following:
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1. The internet service to any rural property over 3km from an exchange under the NBN fibre to the node system would not improve, and we would not receive the internet at all due to signal degradation over the copper network, and modems capable of handling the higher speeds will not operate.
2. We would have no change to the slower and less reliable satellite internet (at our cost) if we wish to have any internet access at all.
3. Telstra will only repair existing cable, not replace them, and as cables become less efficient signal carriers, we will be forced to cope with slower speeds and more faults.
4. That telephone and internet are not essential services and we had no right or entitlement to these services.
That evening David Thodey of Telstra was on television crowing about the $4.3billion profit they had made, saying he was now looking for somewhere to invest it.
We suggest we invest it in the upgrade of the existing copper and mobile phone networks in rural Australia.
In closing, we have to question the veracity of the statement by the Federal Minister for Communication Malcolm Turnbull, that all Australians will have the same quality of internet service irrespective of their location under the Coalition Government’s “fibre to node” model.
Given the aforementioned statements it would seem Mr Turnbull is either misinformed or misrepresenting the facts.
Allan Cockburn and Jennifer Smith-Coburn
Wyndham
Rescind the MRET
The oft-repeated inane statement that ultimately energy from renewables would be cheaper than burning fossil fuels has been shown to be nonsense.
Those making such statements were most likely indulging in the common tendency to focus on the wholesale price of electricity rather than the retail price, which includes other costs such as transmission infrastructure and subsidies resulting from renewables use, which are massive when compared to the wholesale cost of electricity.
A competent analysis of all of the costs associated with renewables use would show that they cost between 12 and 33 (wind and solar respectively) times as much per unit of electricity produced as fossil-fuelled generation (internet ref: WUWT Analysis of solar and wind power costs 7/9/14).
John McKerral
Batemans Bay
Issues of interest
John Cafe is certainly entitled to his opinion and when it comes to Neville Hughes, I would certainly have to agree with him (‘Enough’s enough’, BDN, 7/8).
As to how John’s problem might be solved?
Well, Neville and I could pull our collective heads in.
Alternatively, John could stop reading the letters page or even, God forbid, buying the BDN.
Or perhaps he could even enrich us all with his own original thinking on contemporary issues of interest?
As to the observations of the “Bemused Ratepayer”, the best that can be said about him is that at least John Cafe has the honesty and integrity to comment under his own name.
I was tempted to ignore Bemused Ratepayer’s remarks, given John Herrman’s conclusion that YouTube’s anonymous comments section was “the room with the million monkeys and the million typewriters”.
Nevertheless, Bemused Ratepayer’s criticism of the Bega Valley Shire Residents and Ratepayers Association (BVSRRA) exposes him (assuming it’s a “him”) as being no more than an anonymous apologist for council.
The petty attempt to demean the BVSRRA by highlighting the fact that only half a dozen of its members attended its AGM begs the question as to what we should make of council’s routine inability to draw more than the same number to its public forums from a population of more than 30,000 people.
I’m sure that the BVSRRA would take the Bemused Ratepayer’s comments more seriously if and when he addresses a specific issue and does so under his own name.
John Richardson
Wallagoot