Wired Brown Land?

As Australia struggles with the question of whether to build a new national broadband network and with the Rudd Government promising to spend $4.7 billion of taxpayers' money, it is an extremely timely contribution to a crucial public debate. Written by an industry insider who knows and has dealt with all the key players in the broadband battles and interviewed many of them on and off the record for this book. This title is filled with strong, charismatic characters like Telstra's Sol Trujillo and Phil Burgess, Telecommunications Ministers past and present Helen Coonan and Stephen Conroy and Graeme Samuel, Chair of the ACCC. It presents a gripping narrative of the twists and turns in a struggle for control of a multi-billion dollar industry. The author will be prominent in the media and will increasingly become a commentator as this issue hots up even more. This title describes the commercial and political battle between Telstra and everyone else to control Australia's broadband infrastructure, a struggle that escalates as the Government prepares to spend $4.7 billion on a new broadband network.