iPad? Techno Wipeout and how to avoid it

© Depositphotos.com/@searagen

Tomorrow's release of the iPad in Australia is sure to cause a stir in the media. But claims that this is a world changer will be nothing but noise in the echo-chamber. The changes happening as a result of the information revolution pre-date Apple's mass marketing techniques.

One of the biggest problems for any user of technology is keeping up with the changes. Conservatives typically quote digital cameras and their ever-increasing megapixels as markers of the pace of technological change and why it is pointless to try to keep up. 

But the release of the iPad tomorrow will see many arguing that this is the great marker of the revolution, many others saying that Apple isn't everything, and the rest not really caring.

Part of the problem is what I call "Techno Wipeout". It might be cutting edge to surf the edge of chaos, but it can also be expensive. 

I argue that it is better to wait for the right wave and ride it to where you want to go. Unless you are mega rich, of course, and then do whatever you like!

I have tried a few times to be ahead of the curve, but the only outcome was that I was ahead of the curve. Form over substance.

Increasingly, I am finding that the soft skills needed to work with new social media technologies are more important than the technologies themselves. Sure, if you leave it for too long, it can be a long swim back out to the surf, but it is better than constantly being dumped as a new technology wave hits you.

So while Apple's iPad will no doubt bring about some amazing new applications and ways to access and manipulate information (just as the iPhone did), is it really the marker of a brave new world? I doubt it.

But what the iPad will do is signal to the mob that it is now cool to do what many tech geeks have been doing for a long time - connecting and networking and sharing almost anything through their communications devices. Who knows, my students might even start reading e-books!

Apple's brand power will also make those who have refused to see the benefits of these devices take notice. Not because they now see the benefits and the new ways to collaborate and improve productivity, but because it was in the newspaper and on the telly.

So Apple's marketing machine might be the straw that broke the camel's back and bring social media and other web technologies into the mainstream.

But for me, I'll be sticking to my netbook for another generation or two. Just like I did with my telly - I'll be buying my 3D TV real soon and I will not have to get rid of my rather large plasma. That's how I avoid Techno Wipeout.

Telstra down but not out

Although you might still not encourage your mother to buy their shares, Telstra is down but not out.

A Labor win at the election could see Telstra hopeful for an agreement on the NBN. But according to CEO David Thodey:

It is a purely commercial issue and if we can get to an outcome we'd be delighted, if we can't we can't and life will go on.

On the other hand, an Opposition victory (which Tony Abbott appears to have personally hijacked) might prevent any plans to split Telstra's wholesale and retail operations.

But how does this really affect Telstra, and not just its legacy network?

David Thodey suggests that Telstra's wireless customer base is doubling every nine months:

 Telstra CEO David Thodey: Let me say it again, every nine months. Any of you out there would die to have a business like that.

And with Telstra continuing to improve the capabilities of its wireless infrastructure, once the fallout from the Three Amigos and the NBN negotiations has cleared, it seems plausible that Telstra will come out of it all just fine.

Either way, the NBN debate is giving Telstra enough breathing space to reposition its business. Ticky Fullerton's report on ABC's Lateline recently is worth a watch as it identifies some of the major issues for the election. No mention of how backward Australia is at the moment or how it will screw-up our future capabilities, though!

But in the meantime, speculation over the retail  price of the NBN services in Tasmania has prices ranging from $40-$90 per month - even some suggesting it is "too expensive". Given that I currently pay $109 per month to get quasi-reliable Wimax in Palmerston via Gungahlin (I gave up on the ADSL "service" just recently), if any Taswegians out there would like to swap, let me know via the post as my email may not be working...

Photo credits: Telstra sign: "Bidgee"/CC BY 3.0; David Thodey: Telstra.

Infrastructure Duplication? Duct structure is the problem, not the cable

Optus CEO Paul O'Sullivan has confirmed that the telco will support the "controversial "cherry-picker" levy to crimp the ability of Telstra and others to build high-speed networks in high-value, low-cost areas in competition with the NBN".

Singaporean Government-controlled Optus is obviously taking the opportunity to have a swipe at Telstra. But the out-dated natural monopoly argument still being used to prevent infrastructure duplication is a smoke-screen.

The idea is that duplicating infrastructure is inefficient and leads to unnecessary civic disruption and unsightly cables, boxes and so on. The early telegraph and telephone days are cited as proof of this problem.

But it is clear that where a provider has access to the duct structure or the poles (that is, the conduit), the provider is able to deploy wire or cable to connect consumers. Transact in Canberra is a prime example. 

Where Transact (through ACTEW) owns the power poles, consumers have access to the Transact's cable. If you live in Gungahlin, where the ACT Government rushed the development of the suburb's infrastructure through a variety of public-private joint ventures, you get, well, nothing.

So when Optus supports a measure designed to prevent the duplication of infrastructure, it is important to look closely at the argument against duplication.

Put simply, it is inefficient to duplicate the duct structure or the poles (the conduit), not the actual cable. Additional cables increase bandwidth. Additional conduits cause the problems experienced in the early days of the telegraph and the telephone.

Shara Evans at Market Clarity suggested at a broadband conference in Sydney last year that government could improve access to the duct structure by adding this component to all new road-building projects .at a fraction of the cost to do this as a separate project. As the road is built, so is the duct structure.

The main reason this doesn't happen already? The division of powers between the federal, state and local governments.

So the next time you hear Optus or any other telco arguing against "infrastructure duplication", the duct structure is the problem, not the cable.

Put simply, the interests supporting the new measures to avoid infrastructure duplication are worthy of further investigation. And to make matters worse, none of this even got a mention in the whole NBN debate.