From news.com.au, comes this small, wonderful little piece of Irony.

FORMER Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski has added his voice to complaints that broadband in Australia is too slow.

Echoing the concerns of News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch, who labelled Australia’s internet infrastructure a “disgrace”, Mr Switkowski yesterday said high quality, high-bandwith broadband was vital for the economy.

“Australia remains sort of slow in its development of the broadband development,” he said.

“We really have ‘broadband lite’ at this stage.”

Communications Minister Helen Coonan defended Australia’s broadband speeds, saying 80 per cent of households were able to access speeds of up to eight megabits from 19 different providers.

I find it incredibly funny that Ziggy, of all people, is complaining about it - given he was CEO, it was within his power to turn on 8Mbit whenever he felt like it.

I’m amazed at Minister Helen Coonan’s apparent response though. If accurately reflected in the article, it shows she is completely out of touch with the realities of the market.

What the minister forgets, is that only Bigpond customers can get 8Mbit at present on Telstra owned DSLAMS - other wholesalers are still not able to offer it as yet via Telstra Wholesale. (I’m not sure why, however). So, really her response should be adjusted to “80 per cent of households are able to access speeds of up to eight megabits from one provider”

Others might argue that the other ISPs should build their own infrastructure - and perhaps they should, but to claim 80% of us can get 8Mbit is just plain wrong.