File spoon-archives/seminar-13.archive/postco-virtuality_1997/97-04-23.111, message 60


From: "Enok Kippersund" <enkipper-AT-sn.no>
Subject: Fw: save the australian internet
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 11:01:10 +0100




----------
> From: Karen Melzack <melzack-AT-IINET.NET.AU>
> To: CYBERMIND-AT-LISTSERV.AOL.COM
> Subject: save the australian internet
> Date: 28. mars 1997 10:10
> 
> http://www.ozlink.net/
> 
> On March 25, 1997, the Australian Parliament passed legislation that
> threatens to shut down the Internet in Australia. The Telecommunications
> Bill opens the way for Telstra to charge for timed data calls. As the
> source of connectivity for hundreds of ISPs in Australia, this will allow
> Telstra to strangle Australia's ISP industry by raising their charges. In
> turn, these charges will be passed on to the consumer. Using the Internet
> through today's ISPs will become so expensive that very few people will
> be able to afford it. Companies will lose their clients and go out of
> business. Gradually, Telstra will take over Australia's ISP community,
> and the age of affordable Internet access will end.
> 
> As Ramin Marzbani, Principal of www.consult, Australia's leading
> Internet analysts, remarked, "Telstra are very smart and well-prepared.
> The ISPs don't have a chance".
> 
> 
> How can this happen?
> 
> The Telecommunications Bill allows for the provision of timed local data
> calls for businesses. In the weeks leading up to the passage of the bill,
> Communications Minister Senator Richard Alston attempted to quell
> debate on this issue by stating that residential customers would continue
> to have access to untimed data calls. This is an act of deception. While
> the originator of a data call could be immune from direct time charges,
> the recipient, namely the ISP, will not. The ISP will be billed for the
time
> a user connects, and will then add these charges to their bill. Consumers
> already pay enough for Internet access alone. Adding time charges will
> increase the overall cost of accessing the Internet to unacceptable
levels.
> 
> 
> What will happen to the Internet?
> 
> The introduction of timed data calls is a calculated move that is
designed
> to increase the profits of Telstra at the expense of the rest of the
nation.
> This will improve Telstra's attractiveness to its investors, who are
likely to
> be foreign-owned telecommunications companies.
> 
> At a time when Australia is suffering from high unemployment and
> stagnation in our industries, the federal government has struck a blow at
> one of the fastest growing industries in Australia.
> 
> Australia is one of the heaviest users of the Internet in the world.
There
> are more than 470 Internet Service Providers. The industry directly
> employs 14,000 people and indirectly employs 60,000. Furthermore, it
> helps businesses with their commercial communications.
> 
> Thousands of people use the Internet as a means of overcoming
> disabilities, medical problems or alienation due to beliefs or
lifestyles.
> Internet users in rural communities and isolated properties will also
suffer.
> 
> The Internet also saves on the use of paper, making it an environmentally
> friendly method of communications. This, and other benefits, will all be
> lost as the Internet becomes unaffordable.
> 
> As Anne Davies wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald (27th March
> 1997):
> 
>        "The 470 Internet Service Providers have been outraged by
>        the Government's decision to allow timed data calls for
>        business, claiming that Telstra will use the new freedom to
>        put them out of business. Telstra competes with Internet
>        Service Providers directly through its Big Pond product.
>        However, it is unlikely that Senator Alston's guarantee will
>        placate the ISP industry."


   

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