Is Hackett the Saruman — the once-good wizard who is seduced by the dark powers of Sauron — of my recent Lord of the Rings scenario? Is something rotten in Renmark — and elsewhere?
If you're a firm believer in coincidence, you might not
have made much of the fact that the
departure of Telstra COO Greg Winn came during the same week
that the NBN expert panel
passed in its report to Senator Stephen Conroy.
You certainly would not have questioned the timing of Telstra's
late-2008 rural charm offensive, which saw a burst of pre-NBN
munificence including but not limited to
pay phones for Aboriginal communities,
storm relief for Brisbane customers, a
tally of its "community spend", its
$5.5m investment in southern Queensland, a
traditional ceremony to bless its $34 million Arnhem Land trunk, and a
technology makeover for rural aged homes.
And that was just over
the course of three weeks. But not even the most die-hard optimist
can argue that coincidence had any part to play in the curious
timing of Internode's
announcement, on 26 November. That was the same day that it and
its buddies in Terria — the one-time potential telco that is now
just another anti-Telstra lobbying group — decided not to submit
the bid, letting Optus go it alone while they wave flags from the
sidelines.
Can it be a coincidence that the most visible spokespeople of
both
Internode and iiNet came out slamming the
NBN in public, after months in which they had openly supported it
and Terria's effort?
In a
recent column, one reader, whose parents apparently chose the
interesting Christian name "Anonymous" (after some obscure saint
perhaps?) used a colourful metaphor to describe my relationship
with Simon Hackett, erstwhile CEO and now managing director of
Internode.
Yet while Simon and I have talked telco stuff on many occasions
before, since the NBN tender was lodged, he has gone to ground.
Calls and emails during December were intercepted by his PA, who
informed me he was in back-to-back meetings, apparently, every
minute of the day and night. No problem: I emailed him a list of
questions exploring this issue in mid-December, but am still
waiting for even a brief response to one of them.
Through several follow-ups, I have realised that Hackett has
apparently been on holidays for what is now approaching six weeks —
and still has not found 10 minutes to respond to my emails. Which
is surprising, or maybe not, given that some of the last
public comments Hackett made were those in which he blasted the
whole NBN process.
Is Hackett the Saruman — the once-good wizard who is seduced by
the dark powers of Sauron — of my recent Lord of the Rings
scenario? Is something rotten in Renmark — and elsewhere?
Call me sceptical, but the timing of all this suggests that
Internode's souring on Terria may have come about as a direct
result of interference from Telstra. Or, more to the point, that
Telstra withheld negotiations on ADSL2+ wholesale until it
extracted a pledge that Internode would help poison the well and
break up Terria's
already-flagging momentum.
Is something rotten in Renmark — and elsewhere?
It's not as significant a step as I contemplated last year,
when I wondered whether Telstra might buy a Terria member to
disrupt the allegiance. However, it is nonetheless a significant
one because it confirms that many Terria members saw the alliance
not as an opportunity for real change — but simply as a bargaining
tool to further their own position against Telstra.
OK, so that's life in a competitive business world, hurrah,
hurrah, clap, clap. But by having one of the country's largest
ISPs roll over to Telstra, Internode is not only perpetuating the
carrier's stranglehold over ADSL2+ services; it's also tacitly
admitting that carriers simply cannot keep up with Telstra in
building their own ADSL2+ footprints.
In other words, the implication is that vigorous DSLAM
competition is nothing more than a lofty but unrealistic ideal.
Internode, after all, had just over 110 exchanges running its own
DSLAMs and could never have hoped to compete with Telstra by
investing — especially not in this economic climate.
And where does that leave the NBN? In limbo, for now, at least
until the minister's pleasure leads to release whatever hybrid
strategy he dreams up to get this country broadbanded once and for
all. In the meantime, I invite your thoughts on Internode's
seeming duplicity and the potential effects of Terria's neutering
as we head into this year. And I'll let you know if Hackett ever
gets back to me.
