LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: David Lloyd <lloy0076@rebel.net.au>
  To  : David Newall <davidn@rebel.net.au>
  Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 20:28:36 +1030

Re: Broadband options in SA (was Re: ADSL talk suggestion)

David!

> > I don't see any reason not to hang fibre from power masts.
> 
> I do.  I've felt, for a long time, that there was a compact between the
> utilities and the people to beautify our environment by undergrounding
> these services.  Installing new services above ground puts the lie to
> that idea.

It's never going to happen any time soon. The main reason is that
undergrounding existing cables is very costly and no utility is willing
to increase its charges simply to beautify an area - they are now profit
making organisations (although ETSA seem to have a monopoly on the
infrastructure). A utility will accept money from PLEC (Government
funding which from memory matches dollar for dollar a council's input)
and the credit but that money is raised from taxes such as the GST.

And no Government, local, state or otherwise could afford to blatantly
increase taxes just to underground the power lines. They could possibly
surrepitiously bump the excise/tax up on cigarettes, petrol (etc) but
that would involve a redo of the `supposedly flat' GST. You saw how much
people complained about the Emergency Services Levy - the point is that
people were already paying the Emergency Services Levy through a land
tax (it was collected by Local Government based on house value) which is
a relatively uneven way to collect taxes in a big way.

> The argument that there are already overhead cables so a few
> more won't make any difference does not hold water.

I agree, they don't even stay wet for long after being rained on!

> It's just a thinly
> veiled way of saying that there is no intention -- ever -- of getting
> rid of those cables; and bad luck to the people.  Cables are not pretty.
> Quite the opposite.

I think Greg's point about people in the country could be valid. Adding
overhead cables where there is no cables is not a go ahead. I sense that
is what this list thinks. But where the cables already exist -
especially in distance challenged areas - could be a viable, hopefully
short term solution to providing important services to people who would
otherwise be disadvantaged.

DL
-- 
Don't you find it rather touching to behold
The OS that came in from the cold
Seen for what it is: religion, plus finesse
Countries, creeds, mean nothing - only Linux...

-- 
LinuxSA WWW: http://www.linuxsa.org.au/  IRC: #linuxsa on irc.linux.org.au
To unsubscribe from the LinuxSA list:
  mail linuxsa-request@linuxsa.org.au with "unsubscribe" as the subject