All you need do is move office, house or try and use some of the 'amazing' functionality promoted by chief magician Sol Trujillo or any one of the other magical underlings out there from Vodafone, Optus, AAPT and the like. When you ring the Telstra support line or your own provider expect the same thing; expect to lose a day, lose sleep, lose business and perhaps even lose your mind.
Our Internet connection is with Bigpond - aka Telstra. We tried to connect with Optus but Telstra told them no lines were available. We changed to Telstra and, like magic, we were connected - almost twice the price though. We have our business telephone with Commander who, like everyone else, are simply resellers of the Telstra network. We went to Commander because their rates are so much cheaper and the service is so much nicer, BUT that's not the big advantage. The real advantage is that while you may sit in a queue talking to them or Optus or AAPT or whomever, rest assured they are sitting in another queue on your behalf talking to Telstra. They wait for less time because often, but not always, they have more clout! It is a lot like being in India and hiring someone to sit in a queue while you go for lunch or have a lassi. Surely this is down right un-Australian?
Why am I so sure this is the case? The simple answer is long term experience that has bred cynicism in a died-in-the-wool optimist! A couple of years ago a digger went through a cable in our street. A Telstra contractor messed up and all the lines were severed. We had two lines at the time, one with Optus and one with Telstra. You might think that since Telstra owned the lines, their lines would have been fixed first - but no - as explained to me by Optus, they have a 'service level agreement' which means they get OK service while Telstra customers ...well ... they wait. Our Optus line was connected on the same business day but the Telstra service took three.
The bottom line is all roads in the non-wireless world lead to Telstra.
Sol would love this to be the wireless world too. What about the copper wired network the PMG poured billions into over the last half century? And what if wireless isn't the answer?
What we know about technology is that it actually delivers reliable functionality about 10 years after we get it. Broadband ADSL is almost there and we have had that for a decade. Only now with ADSL 2+ is it approaching the standards those in Europe and the USA have had since the beginning. However, while the base product is reasonably stable ask any ADSL2 user about their service up time and 'micro-outages' and then step back.
Are we wise therefore to put so much effort, business and down right responsibility onto wireless technology that is so 'new'? In the face of a raft of experience would we be wise to maintain and, dare I say, perhaps even 'develop' the good old network of wires and cables sitting underground and on poles around our wonderful country?
As with everything there are two sides to the wireless coin; the flip side of the massive wireless development is the further degradation of our expansive wired network which still delivers almost all of our broadband and our ever faithful ISDN digital telephone services.
Is it smart business to dismiss the possibilities of harmful side effects from all this wireless mayhem? What if wireless transmissions like cell phones do cause cancer? What if Bluetooth and other wireless technologies like 3G were to do the same?
None of us know the answers to these questions and none of us will -for another decade or two. What we do know is that we need, as a nation, to be ready for all these possibilities. At risk is our very lifestyle and our competitive standing in an ever-crowded first world.
A few decades ago Margaret Thatcher wrote off the coal industry in the UK in a single stroke of the pen, disenfranchising a couple of generations of coal mining families. She did so on the basis of profitability. She had not factored in the cost of unemployment, crime and the down right negativity of taking away the 'work' of an important part of the nation. And let's look what is happening to the cigarette companies who for decades 'proved' there was no link between their products and our cancer. I think most of us have an allergy to the 'smoking gun'.
I am a proponent of technology; every day I look to improve my customers' bottom line and their lifestyles by using sound business processes that inevitably include technology. I am not negative, I am realistic. What I say to Sol Trujillo is this:
Sol, you hold in your hands not simply the future of your business but that of our nation's position in the 'first' world. Please be a True-Hero, think past your bonus to what you can create that is bigger than Telstra and bigger than this great brown land. Incorporate new technology but don't bet our position in the economic world on it.
Will he listen? I doubt he could with the current legislation that manages his business, but even this cynical optimist has some faith in Kevin 07.
If you agree with John Wooding and wish to let Kevin Rudd know how you feel then click here http://www.pm.gov.au/contact/index.cfm
If you disagree with John or want to comment then write here http://jwgecko.com/contact_centre.cfm?recipientid=9D099C0F-1143-CE49-CB9544C730BA06D3
If you want to email Sol Trujillo [Good Luck!] then use this email form http://www.telstra.com.au/contact/email.cfm?page=35, it says Compliments but I wouldn't worry about that!
To make a complaint to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman then use this link https://www.tio.com.au/ComplaintForm/ComplaintFormS1.asp
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