The Federal Opposition has attacked the Communications Minister over her suggestion most Australians are happy with the speed of their Internet connection.
Senator Helen Coonan says she is disappointed Telstra has scrapped its $4 billion plan to upgrade Internet technology to make it faster, but that it is not the end of the world.
She told ABC TV’s The 7.30 Report that most Australians are content with things as they are.
“Currently no one is complaining about their speed of broadband in metropolitan areas,” she said.
“Well they ought to be (happy) in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, certainly and Perth,” she said.
“They should be reasonably happy with their speed of broadband, if they have ADSL 2 Plus.
“There are nine providers that already provide these speeds.”
This woman is
full of shit to be frank. I am in a regional area near the second largest city in my state of Victoria. My internet connection is a lousy 521/128 however I could go up to 1500/256. That is the fastest connection available to me. I cannot get cable or the DSL+2 as she says. I am sorry I do not live in the centre of freaking Sydney but people outside of the city and some suburbs deserve faster internet. She claims no one is complaining about the speeds, well I am as I know other Australians do on a daily basis. DSL+2 is ok when it comes to speeds however outside of Sydney CBD it is impossible to get. We Australians are still far behind America and so far behind Europe when it comes to the internet. We are slow when it comes to technology and it comes down to the governments outdated policies, ideas and perceptions.
The internet must be faster and rural and regional areas deserve fast speeds. When areas which are still fairly populated cannot even get DSL that is pathetic. It also comes down to Telstra the major phone company in Australia. Half owned by the Government, it needs to return to talks with other ISPs and do this upgrade. If Australia wants to be taken seriously and please consumers outside of the Sydney CBD then they need to get real and get their head out from the sand and listen to computer users who want faster connections.
CHANNEL Nine boss Eddie McGuire has officially surrendered to the internet, unveiling a flurry of online joint ventures with PBL stablemate ninemsn. They include imminent plans for late afternoon video podcasts of National Nine News bulletins, more TV shows to be sold online for $1.95 an episode, and a user-generated project called Revver to rival YouTube and News Corp’s MySpace Video. Mr McGuire and ninemsn’s new chief executive, Tony Faure, said yesterday that public interest in online video viewing on ninemsn was booming.
That is good that
Australian TV is venturing online but there is one problem with this, and that is
NineMSN is associated with Microsoft as the name would suggest and that means they use Microsoft technology. Being a Firefox and soon a Mac user that doesn’t put me in a very good position or the many non-IE/Windows users. They use Windows Media Player which can cause problems with Licences and they make their site basically exclusive for Internet Explorer. Some pages do not display correctly in other browsers. NineMSN’s main competitor in Australia is the newly formed
Yahoo!7. They make their site non-browser and as far as I know non-operating system exclusive. I think if they start online news and programs I may go with them. At least they care about their user base a little more.
Of late I have been pre-occupied doing things away from the internet life I share with real life, some important some not. I am in the process of arranging finances and legal documents all of which have come very fast since my birthday. My small income I collect fortnightly (every 2 weeks) can pay for some things I need and use, however right now all of it is going straight into an savings account until I save $2100 AUD. I am 1/3 the way there however was closer until a surprise event happened which required me to spend a small amount.
Other than boring things like that the weather has been warm for this time of year, it is winter in Australia right now and should be cooler than some days have been lately. I have spent alot of time outside and not wanting to come online as it feels a waste of a nice day. I did not have anything to write about other than personal things, all the news lately has involved the middle east crisis and Mel Gibson, none of which I feel strongly enough about to write an article about.
