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I base this assumption on the fact that, with only a few notable exceptions (some of whom I communicate with semi-regularly), Telecom and Telstra to have a dearth of sensible people amongst their ranks.

There's no need to review the many idiotic decisions and attitudes attributable to Telecom so today I take a swipe at Telstra over it's decision to withdraw from peering arrangements with many ISPs.

Before I go on it's important to point out that the decisions these big Telcos make are not silly ones, given their responsibility to shareholders. Indeed, it could be said that some of the most business-savvy people in the country can be found in the offices of NZ's telcos.

But we must remember that these people have only one obligation -- provide shareholders with the maximum return on their investment, and that's something which was never an issue when the internet was conceived.

Indeed, in "the good old days"(tm), the internet was forged on a very powerful spirit of mutual cooperation, shared cost and an over-riding emphasis on providing users with the best possible service.

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Now that it's become a huge market where there's lots of money to be made however, the academics have been replaced by beancounters, marketers and bonus-oriented managers.

As a result, many of the basic tenets on which the infrastructure of the Net was built are crumbling under these commercial pressures -- and it would appear that peering is one of them.

There's an excellent story by Juha Saarinen on IDG's website today, do read it and marvel at how things have changed.

It seems that, once you get down to it, Telstra really are just the Aussie equivalent of Telecom and neither have the slightest clue about the concepts that made the Net the ultra-powerful ubiquitous medium it is today.

If you're using TelstraClear or Telecom as your ISP, maybe it's time to reconsider whether you want to support all those beancounters. There are still a few independent ISPs who still temper their business-goals with a little of the good old internet spirit.

And while I'm busy bashing telcos I know you'll all find this BBC story absolutely fascinating.

I hope the idiots who decided against unbundling our own local loop are reading this.

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