Sponsor's Message

Headed "Why you won't be getting cheap broadband for Christmas", the full-page ad put Slingshot and CallPlus's perspective on the issue of unbundling and the release of a letter from Telecom's CEO to the Government.

Slingshot's angle was quite similar to that which I published in a recent edition of this column but I fear that neither my own, nor Slingshot's Annette Presley's highlighting the outrageous situation we're currently facing, will make a single bit of difference.

This weekend I conducted a bit of a straw-poll of several non-techie people I know and asked them about the advertisement...

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Most didn't really understand the whole issue of unbundling at all, and Slingshot's ad didn't seem to clarify the matter for them.

None of those I spoke to felt that they really needed faster broadband because they could already download their email and browse the Xtra website fast enough for their needs.

About half were on dial-up but those on broadband were still on the slower low-GB plans and didn't see the need for larger caps or faster speeds. They also thought that the price was okay.

So there you have it -- the *big* problem we face is that the majority of Net users are not power-users. They just want to browse a few websites and exchange messages with Aunty Flora in the UK.

They don't understand or want to be fussed with such things as VOIP, P2P, music/video downloads or any of the other applications that sometimes demand more data capacity and speed.

So, do we really need the faster, cheaper more flexible broadband that unbundling would produce?

Hell yes!

One only has to look at the way Telecom's strangle-hold on the broadband market is adversely affecting the film editing/production industry here in NZ to realise that an increasing amount of our business demands 1st-world DSL services.

While it's true that the average mom and pop DSL user probably wouldn't see much improvement from unbundling, it's a sure bet that businesses, currently paying very high rates for what are actually very slow DSL, would benefit enormously.

But don't look for any real movements from government next year -- they've effectively shown us that they've backed themselves into a corner and are letting Telecom call the shots over this issue. They're also aware that the majority of voters are more interested in getting a bigger fist-full of taxpayer-funded handouts than they are making sure our economy remains prosperous and competitive on a global stage.

Let me make an outrageous statement now: Stupid and lazy people are breeding far more quickly than bright people and that's dragging down the average IQ of the nation. This can be seen in the rising support for socialist policies and a great deal of pandering to this dumb-vote by politicians.

Am I right or wrong?

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