Lets see what comes out of this one as the hidden costs are on the increase.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/phone-and-broadband-bills-to-rise/2007/12/04/1196530678984.htmlUnder existing deals, domestic customers pay an average of about $101 a month for broadband, fixed-line telephone calls and line rental. But based on the owner of a new fibre-optic network charging other telephone companies $59 a line a month to access it, the average monthly bill for broadband and phone services could rise up to $150 a month, or from just over $1200 to $1800 a year. This estimate assumes phone companies will not lower their profit margins to offset higher prices.
More worrying for consumers, a wholesale access charge of $59 a month is considered conservative by the industry because Telstra proposed charging competitors $85 for a basic service of 512 kilobits per second in negotiations with the Howard government this year. The new Labor Government plans to select a company within the next six months to build an $8 billion network - half of which will be funded by taxpayers - offering minimum speeds of 12 megabits per second to 98 per cent of the population. Telstra is considered most likely to win the tender.
Just this week Telstra's public policy chief, Phil Burgess, admitted the company's strategy was to become a "premium provider charging premium prices".
If is not the electricity or water it phone and boardband... What next?
