Next CLUG meeting

[Alex Satrapa]

At 10:49  21/03/02 +1100, karl at inspired.net.au wrote:
>On Thu, 21 Mar 2002, Damien Elmes wrote:
>
> > Matthew Hawkins <matthew at topic.com.au> writes:
> >
> > >> We should be able to do full streaming whatchamacallit with dual 
> dolby thingamajings

Someone forgot to leave names in there somewhere - this was said by someone 
else (Jeremy?)

But the point of my email...

> > > *cough*Telstra'smonopolyinducedexcessivetrafficcharges*cough*

If you want to be the sheep that Telstra wants you to be, just compare the 
cost of local ADSL to USA *DSL - $US50/month over there for crappy ADSL, 
about $US50/month over here for even crappier ADSL.  Thanks to the Telstra 
monopoly, it's consistently crappy ADSL, not crappier in some areas, 
depending on whether the copper was laid by AT&T, MCI or some small local 
telco that went bust two days ago.

I'd really love to know what was going on in the Telstra execs' minds when 
they first turned around and realised that people were using all of their 
"unlimited" bandwidth/traffic.  Perhaps it suddenly dawned on them that 
home consumers are not network operations people, and don't budget for only 
40% utilisation.

But then, this is the same company that conveniently forgot to block 
outgoing calls on a mobile phone that I reported stolen, and now expects me 
to pay the $900 in calls that the drug-dealing-ho-pimping phone thief made 
(mind you, itemised bills are great for helping me harass Nowra based drug 
dealers).

I don't mind paying this much for ADSL, after all, Telstra can't do it all 
themselves - they have to ship the bits over to the USA to be processed, 
then ship them back so they can go where they're supposed to.  All that 
Mexican labour costs money.  It's not like the networking gear located in 
Australia is actually capable of routing and switching all on its own, is it?

Okay.  Spleen vented.  Thanks for reading.
Alex