Article link via Michael Specht
When we've only just stopped laughing at Senator Alston's "discovery" of amazing technology (wireless internet), Helen Coonan has proved once again that Australian politicians are out of touch with the technical needs and resources in the community.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Everybody in metropolitan areas around Australia is happy with the speed of their broadband?
SENATOR HELEN COONAN: Well, they ought to be in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane certainly and Perth. 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. So it is available, it is competitive and it doesn't have to depend on Telstra.
Helen Coonan, I AM NOT HAPPY with my shitty ISDN connection in a large, established South Eastern suburb of Melbourne. This is the best connection I can get here. A measly 128Kbps.
My friend in Hong Kong has a connection that I can't even imagine using. I can barely download podcasts with this heap of junk on a crap network that should have been upgraded in the 1990s.
Australia is being crippled by the government's lack of foresight. Quit blaming Telstra for everything, get your act together or watch your people leave for better-wired shores.
I want fibre to my home, not the bloody node. Recycle the copper cable and move on people.
Yep, and I got 10mbps without even shopping around. That's up and down, all I can eat, all day, every day. I just leave the wireless router permanently connected. Costs me about AUD$30 a month. Thank you Hong Kong. Hopefully by the time I get back to Australia things will be slightly better. Here's a thought - could the government perhaps one day make somone Minister for teh Intarweb and Telemacommunications who's actually USED a computer before?
Posted by: Adrian | August 11, 2006 at 12:42 AM