Network Facilities Tax

Very Busy said :

trickster said :

Very Busy… Stanhopeless! Pure comic genius, you took his name and put less on the end!? Witty political satire at its best.

trickster, Thanks for the compliment but as much as I’d like to take the credit, if you look really closely you might see quotes at the beginning and end of that line. If you look closer still, and read the original post, you might even see where I got the quote from.

I strongly suspect that Trickster’s comment was dripping in sarcasm (exclamation marks give the game away).

Sleaz274 said :

Phone lines are now a decrepit ancient technology, hell even the romans and greeks if I remember correctly were using copper piping to move water around.

Of course the on passing of a tax on a company for using public land to run its assets and hence gain a profit from to its consumers is up for debate and if enough people start switching on to new technology the faster Telstra will lose out.

We pay amazingly large amounts compared to other countries for telecommunications built on a network sustained and constructed by the tax payer and then farmed out for profit to the Government not the tax payer and now we see again the tax payer collecting the bill of blatant government revenue raising aimed at industry. Eventually people are going to start realising that over 50 cents in every dollar they earn and spend is disappearing down the magic drain whole of government revenue and they are receiving less and less benefit from it.

Romans predominantly used lead and stone for moving water around.
We still use copper for alot of modern house plumbing.

Phone lines are not an ‘decrepit ancient technology’, what connection medium do you think all these naked ADSL connections are using. Having a POTS connection actually connected/configured at the exchange is certainly starting to get a bit Grandpa, but its still main stream.

But yes, I agree, we pay way too much for our telecommunications and Internet.

Only problem with naked dsl is the same as normal dsl, you need power to make it work.

While this is true, not many people I know don’t have a mobile phone, and none of those have broadband…

Even a small UPS would run an ADSL modem for quite a while, if that’s important to you.

It’s stanhope’s policy of no tax rises. Tell you one thing and then sneak it in another way. I’m surprised that Telstra didn’t pass it on earlier.

Only problem with naked dsl is the same as normal dsl, you need power to make it work. If the power drops you’re stuffed. If you had a medical condition you’d probably want a good backup plan.

trickster said :

Very Busy… Stanhopeless! Pure comic genius, you took his name and put less on the end!? Witty political satire at its best.

trickster, Thanks for the compliment but as much as I’d like to take the credit, if you look really closely you might see quotes at the beginning and end of that line. If you look closer still, and read the original post, you might even see where I got the quote from.

Phone lines are now a decrepit ancient technology, hell even the romans and greeks if I remember correctly were using copper piping to move water around.

Of course the on passing of a tax on a company for using public land to run its assets and hence gain a profit from to its consumers is up for debate and if enough people start switching on to new technology the faster Telstra will lose out.

We pay amazingly large amounts compared to other countries for telecommunications built on a network sustained and constructed by the tax payer and then farmed out for profit to the Government not the tax payer and now we see again the tax payer collecting the bill of blatant government revenue raising aimed at industry. Eventually people are going to start realising that over 50 cents in every dollar they earn and spend is disappearing down the magic drain whole of government revenue and they are receiving less and less benefit from it.

Very Busy… Stanhopeless! Pure comic genius, you took his name and put less on the end!? Witty political satire at its best.

Spoono – frankly, the thought of NEVER dealing with Telstra again brings a huge smile to my face. No more screwed up bills, no more voice prompted ‘customer service’ (or alternately, frustrating calls to people from India), no more charges on a home-line that I rarely use.

Are you a Canberran? I know lots of interstate folks who rave about iiNet, but I am glad to hear positive reports from a local. I calculate that I’ll save at least $80.00 a month by making the switch.

I ditched Telstra for iiNet naked adsl about a year ago, haven’t looked back. All our phone calls are free except mobile calls (30c/min). The download/upload quota isn’t as good as my old normal ADSL plan but no real dramas. I save about $40-50 a month I reckon from the old line rental + phone bill + ADSL and the main thing is I have no dealings with Telstra (or Optus).

I really can’t think of a good reason why anyone wouldn’t ditch the fixed line and get naked ADSL and VOIP.

I’m ditching Telstra; going to an iinet package, moving to a VOIT system, no more home line rental, no more pricey phone calls, no more excessive broadband costs, basically no more being ripped off by Telstra. Feels gooooooood.

Wireless broadband is also not suitable for anyone wanting to use VPN
It can be done, but it’s unreliable.

Yeah I got the same letter, funnily enough this ‘tax’ wil increase my monthly bill to $100.00. Telstra = teh sux0rs. Nude TPG here I come. I found this little site was invaluable: http://www.yourbroadband.com.au/

Wirless broadband technologies such are an option for people who:

A) Are not worried about high latency.. ie gamers.
B) Do not download ALOT.
C) Can handle losing signal from time to time (dont’t be surprised if you lose connectivity every hour, or if you never lose your connection).
D) Are just casual web browsers.

If you want Internet with %20 less suck, always pick a wire.

If you want a good resource to investigate Internet stuff, go to whirlpool.net.au

Your milage may vary

It’s basically a charge for these private utilities using public land, right? Sounds fair enough to me then – don’t see why they (and their customers) should be getting a free ride.

have wireless via 3 network and works great, like any wireless service there will always be poor reception in some areas but for the majority it would be more than sufficient.

So what if I cant stream hq movies without a buffer pause, it just gives me more time to riot-act. I do a fair bit of surfing and stream the odd funny movie and I’ve never exceeded my 3gb limit. I can be online all the time with ADSL (not adsl2+) speeds and it only costs 29 a month.

farq, how often are you microwaving things while on the net…..and I think you might be referring to wireless networking, not wireless broadband.

p1, not sure about the uploads.

I have naked broadband. Only draw back is that uploads are counted in your total usage. Do the wireless broadband deals do this?

wireless is dodgy.

only takes a microwave oven near by to cause problems.

I’m with Transact and they’ve been including this charge on my bill for some time now.

Not sure why Telstra have suddenly decided to start passing the cost through to customers now.

“Thank’s again Stanhopless”

And thanks to all those that voted labor in the ACT elections. You’ve got what you asked for!!!

More taxes, more inefficiency, more waste.

…or get a naked DSL connection that would be more stable.

Goose, the letter (from memory) also stated that this was a partial cost recovery. Telstra will no doubt plan to increase the fee to a total cost recovery when the howls of protest diminish.