infrastructure competition
Big Pipes (2006)
This report released in April 2006 was inadvertently omitted from my publications page – sorry. It deals with the importance of improved international connectivity (“big pipes”) for big business, big science and the development of the information economy in WA. It is here: bigpipes
A shaky start for USO levy study
This column highlights some of the issues raised in my submission published last week.
To read it, click Economuse 2015-06-01
Submission on USO Levy
The Bureau of Communications Research at the Department of Communications is tasked with finding out how to fund non-commercial services on the NBN. An industry levy seen as the prime mechanism that will sustain these services in the presence of infrastructure competition (as I argued in my 2010 submission to the Senate).
This submission is a response to the request for comments on the Bureau’s first consultation paper.
To access the submission, click USO-Levy-JdR
Act now – or the NBN will be a white elephant
The current (Aug 2012) NBN business plan is a fantasy and we must now assume a legislated monopoly will not hold.
The new carrier licence condition that will apply in January may close the loophole in legislation that TPG exploited. But TPG has a Plan B that uses wireless spectrum and cannot be stopped so easily.
The real issue for the NBN is that mobile is rapidly becoming the de-facto standard for broadband access. It is already competitive with the NBN for downloads up to 15 GB per month.
These issues and some ideas for dealing with them are explored in Act now – or the NBN will be a white elephant
The NBN and infrastructure competition can be compatible
Infrastructure competition should be welcomed – if it plays its part in making universal broadband service available.
The Labor policy that required mothballing networks that could compete with the NBN to underwrite an internal cross-subsidy was a travesty.
This opinion piece published in CommsWire on 22 April looks at the options that would support both infrastructure competition and universally affordable broadband service.
It concludes that an industry levy would lead to efficient by-pass of the NBN while supporting affordable universal broadband service.
To read more click on Economuse 2014-04-22 (levy)