The anarchic freedom of the Internet, nurtured if not conceived in Australia in the best academic tradition of free flow of knowledge, has been flogged off at a steal to Telstra (Telecom’s commercial name). The Australian Academic Research Network (AARNet) is the Australian gateway to the Internet _ which itself was generated 25 years ago in the US as a lose connection between universities for transmission of academic matter. With the invention of the cheap PC and modem greater numbers of people have connected by phone to hub “”sites” through AARNet to the Internet.
The sites with 10 or more phone lines and a large computer are run by companies and non-profit groups. They pass messages to the 20 million users connected to the net. They provide access to information stored at other sites. They store material in their own sites which is available to all. And they provide different rules and rates for access competitively. There are several hundred of them in Australia. Telstra has bought that client base. There are thousands of sites throughout the world. They and the users who connect to them are the Internet _ no-one has overall control. Academics are fearful because Telstra has a deal with Microsoft for a separate information network called On Australia. Telstra says it will be separate. Some academics are fearful that the Chinese wall will disappear and Microsoft will end up in control.
Microsoft’s commercial instincts are towards getting people to use its platform, whereas academics are used to free shareware software. They are used to freely passing their work about. They are used to open systems. Commercial bodies like Telstra and Microsoft will inevitably charge for the information as well as the connection fees. Telstra has another reason for the takeover. Under present arrangements it can only charge on volume down the phone lines _ irrespective of whether the matter being transmitted is words, software code, pictures, sound or video files. A file of a million words is about the size of five A4 colour photos. As the technology improves to send pictures quickly (say a 30-second call), it means millions of words can be sent for virtually no cost. Messages and academic material come mainly in words. Telstra would much prefer to charge, say, 5c a message or 10c an A4 page irrespective of whether it is a photo or text.
It can only do that if it can control the content. Under present arrangements people can use AARNet and the Internet to communicate around the world very cheaply. In short, AARNet and the Internet pose a obstacle to new commercial providers who do not like the idea of people providing free software, free information and very cheap connection fees. Nor do they like the competition and diversity of several hundred hub-connection providers. This easy-path sell-off of Australian university property is the first step in the Microsoftisation of the Australian information superhighway. (Telstra is unlikely to stay public property for too long.) Users will find themselves guided to Microsoft software and Microsoft content. Having got in on the ground floor 25 years ago it was madness to sell the base for information superhighway just as the tollgates are opening. The Government and the universities should have funded the wherewithal for AARNet to expand and improve under its present arrangement so it could provide the base for links to homes and educational institutions. That’s what a creative nation would have done.