Could the Australian Government Turn Off the Internet

Could what has happened in Egypt occur in Australia? That is Turning off the internet. It is as easy as clicking a switch. A government would just contact the main telecommunications company explain the state of emergency and the telco would turn it off. Minor internet providers would follow.

A major problem for a government would be cutting off internet access of journalists. Much of their system is outside of public providers. Turn off that system and you stop government agencies talking to each other.

Cutting off access for major cities would be a waste of time. Television, radio and the print media could not be stopped. In a place like Australia where information transmission is decentralised there is no one person to instruct.

Let's face it - any Australian government that did pull the plug would self-destruct. There is no way the people would ever trust it again. There is also the problem of "leakage" as a few minor Internet providers refuse to submit - some are foreign owned.

Australians are just as smart as other people and many would find "work-arounds", so even if the switch was flicked it would not have much of an effect on communication to the outside. Business would be affected because the Internet is widely used.

http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/
http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/
http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia
http://www.technorati.com/blogs/http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com

~~~~~Internet~~~~~

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Insults a Consumer

Some public servants do not serve the public. Indeed, they tend to favor companies that they are intended to "police". Considering these people are not elected there should be a way of removing them from their positions for insulting the public.

A case in point is the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman which was set up to deal with complaints from the public about telecommunications companies. When transferring an ADSL service to Telstra recently a problem arose. Telstra calls it Rapid Transfer when changing an Internet service to Telstra, but the system could not be used because the existing Internet provider was contacted by phone and email before the consumer was informed not to do this. Consequently, the consumer would have no Internet connection for up to a week.

I have since discovered that Telstra was lying and could not use Rapid Transfer because the existing provider was not on the list of companies agreeing to the system. Note, there is no intention of informing the public of the problem. Obviously, if consumers knew they would be up to a week without an Internet service they would not change to Telstra.

As if this problem wasn't enough to ruin the consumer's day, Warrick McArthur at the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman's office insulted the consumer. He said, "You are upset because you can't make the world work your way." This insult was quite unexpected. Indeed, it is shocking behavior. Considering Warrick McArthur is employed by the taxpayer to represent them in conflicts with telecommunications companies.

http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/
http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/
http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia
http://www.technorati.com/blogs/http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .