Broadband: Advance Australia where?

Over on Doc Searls Weblog, there is a post about the current level of Broadband penetration in the US. The original reporting is from DSLreport.com, under the title U.S. Drops Further In Global Broadband Rankings. Currently the US is 15 of the 30 OECD countries. Both Doc Searls and the Kevin Barron say 15th is a sad state of affairs.

So where does Australia sit on the rankings? After a little digging at the OECD site, I found this December 2006 reporting. Australia sits at 16th, just behind the US.

So, what are John Howard and Kevin Rudd doing about it.

Kevin Rudd wants the rob some money from the future retirement funds of some Australians. Is Kevin going to make the commitment to keep the money rolling for ongoing improvement of this broadband infrastructure?

John Howard wants private money to do the Broadband job. The problem with publicly listed private money is that it's looking to short term returns, and won't do the whole job. It will cherry pick the metro areas and bugger the rest. John needs to set (and enforce) a high broadband bar for both Telstra and G9.


Gnoll110

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australia+broadband oecd liberal+policy labor+policy doc+searls kevin+barron john+howard kevin+rudd