Conroy assaults broadband alliance

By Ry Crozier on Nov 25, 2010 5:23 PM
Filed under Telco/ISP

Says they have "almost no customers".

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has dismissed the Alliance for Affordable Broadband as a group of "ten CEOs who represent almost no customers".

The alliance sent an open letter to NBN Co chief Mike Quigley earlier today that critiqued the NBN Co business plan summary and questioned whether the cost of the network could blow out to over $50 billion.

The Government has said today the math was incorrect.

Conroy said he had "not seen" the letter from the alliance because he had "been in the chamber [Senate} for most of the day."

But he gave the alliance members - which included the chiefs of Vocus, BigAir, AAPT, EFTel and PIPE founder Bevan Slattery, among others - a spray.

"Does anyone know how many customers they've got?" Conroy told journalists following an announcement on anti-siphoning laws.

"[AAPT chief] Paul Broad doesn't have any customers - he's wholesale only. He doesn't have any retail customers at all.

"So 10 CEOs who represent almost no customers are one voice in this."

Conroy backed the judgement and analysis of the NBN Co board, whom he described as "not [being] Mickey Mouse figures".

And he said the Government was not interested in the alliance's aims.

"They want me to build a rival wireless network to compete with the 3G networks which we are distinctly not interested in," Conroy said.

18 comments in this discussion

"Hallo advocate... If we follow the adoption of new and available internet access technologies and services since 1995, we will observe a series of upgrades in performance as well as technology ..."

By Maxxi2

Tags

conroy, alliance, affordable, broadband, customers, aapt, pipe, vocus, eftel, nbnco, business, plan, summary

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Comments: 18

mad1k5 Nov 25, 2010 6:44 PM	As much as I like ITNews and ITWire for their independents of the OZ, I do wish they remove the insulting headlines. The Alliance of Affordable Broadband have made a number of claims, with nothing to back up, No business case, no Cost Base Analysis, and in Parliament House today, Their numbers were used by the Coalition. We also have a number of Wireless providers, I'm sure they can fund their own Wireless Network, BigAir has done a marvelous job. I'd Trust them as far as I trust Conroy and the Opposition on anything matters to Telecommunications/Broadband.
HubertCumberdale Nov 25, 2010 7:24 PM	I dont see the problem here as much as I dont like Conroy he is right about the broadband alliance, bunch of crybabies if you ask me and yeah I dont care if Bevan Slattery is your personal god as far as I'm concern he's just another irrelevant twit in this new age of FTTH.
singo79 Nov 25, 2010 7:34 PM	Well I'm going to add to the consensus here, the bunch of self-interested CEO's who call themselves an Alliance are an absolute joke. Corny hit the nail on the head, they are nobody's in terms of broadband providers and their client base. They are only interested in the NBN due to the fact that it is going to directly compete against them. There is also the fact that they were hoping to sell their assets to the NBN and make a tidy profit, but alas they are losers in that area. They need to build a bridge and get over it, as I for one don't give a rats a$$ what they think or have to say.
singo79 Nov 25, 2010 7:36 PM	Edit above - I meant "Conroy hit the nail on the head". Stupid Apple auto-correct :)
Tailgator Nov 25, 2010 9:16 PM	Perhaps Bevan Slattery is reluctant to make good on his promise to 'shine Conroy's shoes on the steps of Parliament House'. (ausnog) The Alliance is nothing more than a self interest group of private enterprise which is attempting to sway government policy to their own benefit. Go fish.
sydneyla Nov 26, 2010 9:07 AM	Good honest speak Senator Conroy now make sure that the splitting of Telstra ends the vile tricks of Telstra opponents who for years have used the cry of "Telstra monopoly" to gain advantage. Everyone should now compete on the level playing field.
anonymous Nov 26, 2010 1:52 PM	@sydlala, glad you have finally admitted what has always been obvious - that for many years Telstra has attempted to ensure that there was no level playing field for anyone else, and that it's past time that this was rectified. That was what you meant to say, wasn't it?
RL_1985 Nov 26, 2010 2:37 PM	Three words: Conflict of interest. The NBN will mean more competition, and for the AAB, more competition = less profits. Don't listen to any of the naysayers Conroy, just build the NBN. Let's just hope that the NBN covers at least 35-40% of the Australian population before the next election.
AndrewB Nov 26, 2010 3:21 PM	Umm.. Conroy is calling them irrelevant because they have few retail customers? How many retail customers will NBN Co have, exactly? Oh that's right, zero. So perhaps NBN Co is the real 'irrelevant' player here? Conroy once again displays his unfailing stupidity to the world.
djzort Nov 27, 2010 5:13 PM	Vocus and BigAir are both doing extremely well in their respective markets. AAPT are a still a very solid player in non-consumer connectivity PIPE are one of the most significant companies in the Australian domestic market. One could argue that PIPE have as customers almost the entire population of Australia - and stand to lose everything if NBN decides to do backhaul. BigAir will also lose out, as their products are wireless alternatives to copper/fibre. Unfortunately, Senator Conroy's doesnt agree that a company can and should make an alternative product (ie wireless backhaul) and make money from it. Perhaps we should all just settle on the same car as well, then all the brands can just put their badge on them. Sounds insane right? Labor did just that in the 80s. It destroyed the Australian car manufacturing industry by trying to 'rationalise' the automotive manufacturing industry... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_car_plan
advocate Nov 28, 2010 9:26 AM	Interesting that Conroy makes the point about the Alliance having 'almost have no customers' - sounds like the NBN so far and please don't mention the Tasmanian pilot uptake. The NBN will have customers when they are forced onto it because Telstra and Optus have been given billions for the forced migration, I am sure the Alliance would love that sort of customer uptake gift eh?
advocate Nov 28, 2010 11:42 AM	mad1k5 wrote: The Alliance of Affordable Broadband have made a number of claims, with nothing to back up, No business case, no Cost Base Analysis, Oh it's just like the NBN then.
advocate Nov 28, 2010 11:49 AM	Tailgator wrote: The Alliance is nothing more than a self interest group of private enterprise which is attempting to sway government policy to their own benefit. Go fish. As distinct from commercial promoters of the taxpayer funded NBN who of course don't have any self-interest in 'backing' the rollout for their own benefit. Go fish.
Maxxi2 Nov 29, 2010 8:10 AM	@advocate on uptake.... It may have escaped your attention, however the NBN has been in operation as a pilot for about 3-4 months, those AAB players have been in the market for years... Weird comparison mate, really weird comparison. I think you may come to realise that just because you personally have not seen the NBN biz case, does not mean there is none... It may also have escaped your attention that the folks propmoting and supporting the NBN consist of more than only commercial players. Looks like you are only seeing what you want to see and are ignoring the millions of non-commercial Australian citizens that also want and will benefit from the NBN. They advocate the NBN as well... BTW, the fishing was great.
advocate Nov 29, 2010 8:51 AM	@Maxxi2, the comparison is valid because when faced with a choice customers will not embrace FTTH as much as the pro-NBN lobby would like, the point I make and it is still valid is that if the members of the Alliance could gain a customer base because customers were forced to use them then I am sure they could brag about how 'popular' they are, like Conroy will when the Optus and Telstra customers are forcibly migrated across. What millions of non-commercial citizens want the NBN? - or is that the infamous 'gut feel' non survey that the pro NBN armchair experts frequently use in forums like this?
anonymous Nov 29, 2010 12:10 PM	@advocate: "the comparison is valid because when faced with a choice customers will not embrace FTTH as much as the pro-NBN lobby would like." And your source (not opinion) for that is? @Maxxi2, you are quite correct about it being a weird comparison, but given advocate's self-appointed role as a Telstra advocate (funny thing, that) we can continue to watch the fish trolling with amusement ;-)
advocate Nov 29, 2010 3:37 PM	anonymous wrote: And your source (not opinion) for that is? The only active rollout in Australia at the moment - Tasmania, I look forward to the inner suburb of Brunswick in Melbourne rollout as well, the customers there have more choices of existing high speed broadband, perhaps Santa Conroy will give it away to 'bolster' the uptake figures. but given advocate's self-appointed role as a Telstra advocate Not that anything I said has anything to do with Telstra, but never mind, an off topic diversion attempt is better than saying nothing I guess. funny thing that Why is that?
Maxxi2 Dec 3, 2010 3:39 AM	Hallo advocate... If we follow the adoption of new and available internet access technologies and services since 1995, we will observe a series of upgrades in performance as well as technology advances, which were almost always accompanied by initially higher package or access pricing and lower uptakes, which in each instance then balanced itself out and eventually the pricing stabalised very close to, then equal with and eventually lower per unit of actual usage by the internet public and business users. It is critical here to analyse and understand the market dynamics and the usage patterns of the various user groups over time and from stage to stage. These repeat themselves continually. The averaged usage costs for mainstream (majority) internet access services, relating time spent accessing, to volume used and to speeds accessed, is today far far lower than at any time in the past. That has been the pattern since 1995. It is today bewildering that some folks believe that this natural pattern, which matchs market dynamics developments in similar markets globally, will now stop as of Day One NBN...? Why would that be? There is NO reason for this development pattern to change. The market demand for more access options, more internet based services, higher performance, more access to higher usage volumes, higher resilience, better quality and more points of access continues unabated as it has since 1995 at least. The pricing of the initial ADSL services was very high,the usage numbers were very low. Yet look at the market adoption and usage patterns of ADSL based services today. Massive, popular, growing and cheap as chips per hour and MByte in general. We have a humble 20Mbps ADSL2+ service with 120GB per month quota and use the kahootas out of it in our residence. The whole family, for private, school and business reasons. At $99 per month that works out at about $0.20c per hour. The $29 per month households have massively more than ever before. Why would that stop now? 2011itis? Conroyitis? NBNologies? Pay Fever? Hilaria? NoMoreInternetitis? WantSlowitis? These services save us $hundreds per month is comms, travel, mktg and study costs. In addition, business activities run across this access generate valuable income, at far lower costs, than was ever possible previously. We are not alone. I see myriad usage models for internet usage daily across the nation, and I am yet to see an instance where someone has preferred to keep their 64Kbps ISDN link...?? (OK perhaps some isolated industrial applications??) There is not one single piece of supporting evidence that these market and usage patterns will now do an about-turn and cease to apply in residential, educational nor in business sector applications. There is no evidence that the continually replicating pricing cycles will also all of a sudden hop out of their groove and decide to change: none. There are prognostications, but none of the prognoticators can show us an example where these cycles have not occurred in this industry with each new technology upgrade implementation... It is like claiming that although the geese head off for the winter every year, now that Conroy and the NBN are here they will stop doing that... Trying to judge and use early NBN uptake numbers to disprove the validity of the NBN is false economics and false analysis, and ignores the internet uptake patterns of the past 15 years. In 1995 the standard price for 14.4Kbps dial up access was $5ph from Ozemail. What is the averaged iiNet (they acquired the resi biz from Ozemail) pricing per hour today, and what level of performance and data volumes, services and performance are folks getting for those $$$ now? Understand that, and you will understand what the pricing and deliverables of the NBN will be, related to what we have today, in 1-2-3-4-5 years and onwards. Cheers and happy days guys. Edited by Maxxi2: 3/12/2010 03:44:37 AM