Internerd

I've started writing this as I've been keeping a careful eye on my download limits this month as we've already used 70% of our 20GB capacity and we're only 55% into our month. Aside from the fact that broadband download limits in Australia are woeful at best ($70 for 20GB? I'm looking at you, Optus!), the speed does nothing to improve things.

Back in the heady days of 2005 (back in my Blighty days), I paid £30 for unlimited download capacity on a 2Mbps line. If I was there now, I'd be able to have a 50Mbps line with unlimited downloads for £33 per month or half that speed for £17.50. And this is not in a grand metropolis like London. I'm talking of a small town of around 15,000 people where you can walk for less than three minutes and see lush, green fields and the odd bus heading to Wobbly Bottom or Little Whining.

Now, before you say "Go back there then", I'm a permanent resident in Australia so ya boo sucks. Also, I think I have a fair point as the way forward in business and communications is through digital means. Television is slowly turning digital over the next few years, not that a most will notice much at all except that a great many will find their perfectly functional television now needs a box attached to it so that they can continue to watch SBS. Radio is slooooowly becoming digital through DAB+ in Australia although range and quality is lacking compared to FM. Just be grateful that we're not stuck with the woes of the original DAB (rather than the shiny DAB+) service that will soon be taking over the airwaves in the UK in the next 2 years or so that is causing uproar amongst the audiophiles who like to have a bit of Radio 3 from their radiogram. This doesn't include the millions of cars in the UK that don't have DAB receivers (and the two companies that manufacture them) in them.

Internet connection speeds throughout the rest of the civilised world have evolved and it's high time that the telecomms giants in Australia did something to stop the rot around our feet that seems to be dropping us to the bottom of the totem pole. DAB+ not good enough sound-wise or too limited in choice? How about internet radio with a choice of over 30,000 stations with something for everybody and (for the most part) highly satisfactory sound quality? There's nothing worth watching on Foxtel or free-to-air [more of a statement than a question, really]? How about the millions of hours of video available over the internet? America has great things like Hulu and iTunes movies that are fairly reasonable in price and quality without having to leave home or have a dish or a spaghetti-like stream of cables all over the house. Not in Australia, alas. Sure, there are copyright and licensing issues but, let's face facts, it costs nothing to make a digital file available anywhere in the world.

All too domestic an angle? How about the millions of dollars and tonnes of carbon emissions saved through video conferencing rather than expensive "business trips". How about the intelligent use of tele-commuting to work from home and allow more flexible working hours, location and a happier workforce?

Why not? Because this is a first-world nation with a third-world internet provision and the sooner that some brave soul can persuade the tele-comms fat cats to stub out their Montecristos and pave a bold path into a brighter digital Australia, the better.