The impression I get is that Telstra lobbied pretty heavily for an essentially hobbled fixed-line network. The reasoning is pretty simple: the ACCC stepped in i

The impression I get is that Telstra lobbied pretty heavily for an essentially hobbled fixed-line network. The reasoning is pretty simple: the ACCC stepped in in the early 2000s and gave access to Telstra exchanges for putting in their own hardware (DSLAMs) to provide ADSL service. As a result Telstra (IMHO) decided that fixed line was a loser so focused on 3G/4G as a profit driver since there was competition there (most notably Optus) and thus the ACCC couldn't really force Telstra to "share". The result? A "next generation" broadband network that for a lot of people is 12Mbps... in 2017. This being a hobbled version of the FTTH network the previous government originally set out to put in place. The other side of this is Telstra owns half of Foxtel and you can't provide an IP based TV service at 12Mbps (realistically) so no competition there either. Anyway, this is what I think of when I see announcements about Telstra's LTE network. All others be damned.