NBN - or I shall Never Be Neutered

Now is the time......to get real concerned as to how the NBN is being implemented for ordinary Joe and Jane Citizen across our Great Southern Land.


If we already have a viable existing telecommunications system,  why replace it with something less to be desired?   Can all the public monies used to fund NBN be please better utilised for improving health services, public school education and other areas crying for help in an increasingly socially inequitable country?   And we have a Federal Australian Government which is facing serious issues of balancing the national budget, repaying off huge debts and currently significantly having a large loan interest liability.   Why add to another huge and costly undertaking?


After connecting to the NBN, my landline telephone broke down in services three times in six weeks.  In all my previous many years living in this beloved nation called Australia, I have never had any issues with my landline telephone connection, even with copper wire.   My previous landline phone has never gone dead, until post NBN.


NBN tells me over the phone to just deal with my chosen provider if I have any issues with the NBN installation, pre or post.   NBN cannot help.


The Federal Government talks up of the glories of having NBN, unnecessarily raising expectations in the minds of ordinary people like me.   It is indeed a most exciting time to be an Australian, to know the gap between political talk speak  or hype and the inability of NBN to engage with customers, deliver the technical quality in telecommunications as promised and understand deeply that NBN is not a poster boy for innovation that this country needs.


 My selected provider says a lot of things are subject to NBN control.  As a customer, I am left in the gutter, comparable to between a rock and a hard place.   Providers who deal with the public, like me, need the money plus business - and cannot afford to aggravate the NBN.   They dare not criticise the NBN, period.  


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I am not holding my breadth anymore. 


Speed connection with NBN is nothing better than pre-NBN days, unless I am willing to dish out an additional AUD 30 more per month to upscale my internet speed plans.


My provider tells me there are things that the way NBN does things has a shortfall, but they cannot be criticised, as NBN dishes out the parcel of revenue to eager outsourced providers and contractors  -  as every resident and citizen in continental Australia eventually will face the prospect of having to change over to this god-like entity called the NBN. 


Before I took up NBN connection, I had access to one of the best telecommunications services Australia can be proud of, even if I know other nations are now providing even better and have uplifted the game....but I was content.   The monster in the room is that every one knows that Australia is left behind in this perspective  - excuses are given that 
Australia has such a huge land mass and such a low population, which I recognise as well. 
So I call to the politicians and NBN to factor this constriction that Australia faces - and not promise glorious and better things with NBN installation.   WE are indeed a low population clinging on to a huge land mass.


Now with the NBN installation kicked in, this new arrangement has disenabled my existing back up battery with my landline, which I understand is critical in the event of an electrical supply shut off.    This back up battery is a significant element for the operation of home medical alarms, emergency call systems, fire alarm, emergency lift phones and monitored security alarm systems.


NBN does not tell the public why the back up battery has to be disenabled.  If customers, who have moved on to NBN connections, want to reinstall a back up battery, they have to bear the costs themselves for doing so.


The NBN arrives at your front door with no democratic choice given to you.  No one in person over the phone discusses with the resident about the impending  rollout or its implications.  The attitude from the NBN is "take it or leave it" - showing arrogance to prospective customers, which is rather jarring in a country that promotes human rights and political correctness in a big way, under our Westminster system of parliamentary democracy.   


Are we as commoners in Australia forced to install NBN?  I know that the Government has given NBN roll out targets, to cover more portions of this Great Southern Land.   I shudder when I see NBN advertisements on the media  - to me it just means NBN is way behind its agreed performance targets.


Strange looking men, contractors hired by NBN,  built an outside NBN box above my existing outside Telstra box   - they do not even talk to you and when approached, say nothing, know nothing and  keep their distance from us.      I heard that NBN has targets to achieve in covering specific  suburbs in their roll out  - and akin to war machines. act in surprising the local populace - and treat human beings with no rights at all in consultation, choice and being informed in a civilised way. 



The contractors sent by NBN to install an outside box broke a chunk of the piping between the existing Telstra box and the new external NBN box.  I phoned NBN and got no follow up.  I saw a contractor hanging outside my house by chance and he said he could do nothing.  He actually asked me to repair it myself....by going to the local Bunnings store.


Letters are sent by and written by NBN  in an unfriendly  manner and language.    I note an irritating feature of telecommunications companies in Australia is to spend huge on a budget of sending snail mail letters - and when I phone up NBN, I am placed on a "circuitous telephone and wait on the line" experience, which says so evidently that NBN does not really want to talk to me and listen to my queries.  


On a side note, Telstra still sends me hard copy letters by traditional post even if I owe them nothing and  I no longer use their services -  this has been going on for more than ten years, easy.   Many people I ask just chuck the hard copy letter they receive from NBN.   Perhaps Telstra has a generous budget to waste on printing and mailing.


After the external NBN box has been set up outside my house, I am barraged by these regular letters stating that the NBN network will replace my landline networks and that I need to get into an NBN plan before a stated due date -  otherwise all my accessible telecommunications will be switched off,  with no other option given to me as an Australian citizen.   NBN spells out that all landline phones, landline internet, EFTPOS and ATM services, fax machines and Teletypewriter devices, monitored security alarm systems, medical alarms and emergency call systems shall be switched off, if the customer does not take up NBN installation.


It is just the sub-standard way in which NBN carries out its installation process and then followed by the lack of delivery of viable service to the customer after installation - this is not on.   Throughout NBN does not communicate sufficiently with the customer.


The preamble promise by NBN in this written letter is that the NBN network is designed  to give Australians "access to fast and reliable landline phone and internet services".
This constantly sent NBN letter promises me four key things, which have not been fulfilled by the NBN post installation:

Faster downloads.


Fewer dropouts.


Better productivity.


A brighter future.

The Incredibility of Getting Away With It

Accountability can be so lacking, or am I just under stating the state of such things?


When there is obvious misdemeanour - or worse - several parties reckon all is done with by proclaiming a Sorry.   The structures of legislation or governance spend money on elaborate structured commissions of enquiry, but the hearings consist of pre-staged replies from representatives of the guilty.   The seriousness of the matter at hand is undermined and ignored by the parties going through the motions, without any apparent attempt to explain why it occurred in the first place or what those responsible are going to avert the causes in the future.


The unspoken costs in psychological trauma of being inflicted in an unfair manner can never be measured by compensation in subjective financial terms.   Is accountability restored in part by the shaming in public by the media?   What is more obvious is the lack of effectiveness and authority of the regulatory bodies set up in the first place to prevent, identify and punish crimes of cheating, greed, fraud and general taking advantage of less empowered individuals.     What happened to the esteem and ability of such regulatory agencies in the first place?  What is the point of funding toothless tigers in the realm of compliance agencies?


It is evident that in our contemporary society, there are powerful entities that are deemed too important to be sufficiently punished for significant misdeeds, or that their existence is deemed to be so necessary that the government of the day has to keep them afloat, no matter what their negative deeds are.   Too large to go under, too connected to be kept afloat by every means, perhaps by tax payer money.   Such is the state of things that perhaps capitalism wrought.    The truly free forces of the market, supply and demand do not apply to such institutions - they are exempted from what happens to others in the wild law of the commercial jungle.


Service levels can be so obviously inadequate, but such providers are not criticised enough for corrective action.   Entities are set up with judicial firewalls between them so that when a related parent commits the crime, the punishment can be pushed to the separately set up entity, without inflicting any responsibility and damage to the parent.


The threat of financial penalties are managed by sufficiency of provisions made and by the setting up of apparent compliance teams to project an image.   The costs of financial damage imposed by regulatory agencies are passed on to customers in terms of extra fees.   The mindset in managing misdeeds is not to correct behaviour and repent, but to avoid costs in strategic planning and on-going execution.


So we have a working system to perpetuate negative behaviour in various sectors.   Those responsible are thinking short term, as they will not be around to support a longer term and more effective change in the factors that cause such an environment.


Those responsible for such misdeeds really think they have got away with it, but the true cost has not surfaced yet.


The widening gap in accountability and the lack of rewards in doing the right thing is a malaise of our modern society.  Whether it is in the election of so called democratic governments, the modus operandi of our economic system or in the signals we encourage in our younger generations, the price for it all will come.  We shall not get away with a reduction in accountability, at whatever levels of our lives and community.


It all starts with the individual - you and me.  If my lies are deemed fake news inflicted by others, the only casualty is the casualisation of truth.    If the boundaries of accountability are pushed further and there is no wholesome penalty for our laws and policies, who is going to take seriously our framework of legislation and penalty structures?


A strong society is built on morals within not just the family, but all the entities whom we rely upon for the conduct of our day to day lives.     If accountability is undermined for such entities, what can we be more uncertain of?


Do we overlook accountability in the pursuit of more financial accumulation, the nurturing of specific powers and in the build up of ego?

Tang Court Cantonese Restaurant, Langham Hong Kong

The elegance begins with fine cutlery and silver ware.

The King prawns were substantial but the sauce was even better.

Classic pork chops in gratifying batter.

The serving chopstick pair is different from what you use yourself on your plate.

A gem of the ocean, done Cantonese style.

The classic spring rolls, only to be surpassed by the melting pork belly with crackle.

Churning For More Business

Churn, more than ever, continues to be the source of business profit and drive in contemporary society.

Turnover of paying customers to one's books means showing an increased customer portfolio, no matter how temporary this increase can be.  Inducing them to use your services or buying your products can mean offering some interim concession, creating some excitement in the joining experience or differentiating your offer from your competitors.

This can be in passing on discounts in prices or rates. It may be linking access to frequent flyer rewards, providing nicely packaged gifts or increasing credit card points. In the past, this was reinforced by hiring a team of effective communicators in person or in adverts to push the package. It is sad these days that many on line offers involve interacting with just software - something is lost in this process but business costs are reduced and a new rising generation of potential customers may prefer it this way.

In having a high churn, shareholders and business owners are pleased to receive the eventual outcome, that is profit margin multiplied by the number of transactions. What simple common sense this can be. What has been neglected inevitably is that once a customer opts in, the level of engagement and service from the business invariably declines.

Once you lock in with an insurance policy, wealth management product or gym membership, do you feel increasingly neglected?   However, if a customer actively changes providers for utilities, telecommunications and subscription services, the incumbents may chase you intensely like forsaken lovers with emerging inducements you were not told of before.

It is all a game as old as human history. Commerce used to make profits on a single transaction, but today's financial markets thrive on benefiting sellers with trailing commissions as if they possessed imtellectual property.  Hence we are not surprised that in unethical cases, fees are still charged long after the initial primary transaction.

Churn can be seen in the frenetic reporting by media of even small changes in prices, whether of currency, options or man made instruments. Churn is the vitality of gambling, churn can be creating value out of nothing at all. Churn thrives on sentiment, speculation and movement. Churn is betting on change and making money out of it. The fast paced and more responsive internet enables the better managing of faster and larger transaction universes. The day trader is only a simple example of the utilisation of churn, which underlies all the financial centres of this world.

To the ordinary individual, better managing churn is the key to better purchasing decisions. The seller need not have a monopoly on making a buck out of churning. It is all a game beyond haggling and bargaining. Understand why sellers like churning.

#yongkevthoughts

Human Addiction

If they are not organically grown, strawberries are said to carry the most residue of pesticides from commercial growing of vegetables and fruits.

Just reflect on smart devices and their software, looking captivating as well with lures and experiences of convenience, interconnectedness and flexibility. What residues of negative connatations and real risks do these gadgets have?

1. Escalating personal addictiveness. How long does it take to check your smart phone after waking up each day?

2. Allowing others to manipulate and control our desires - and we are not even aware of it. Fake news or a source we trust?

3. Feeling pleasure in building up our dependency on others. There is an App for almost everything, especially for things we did not even think we required.

4. Emphasising unplaced trust. Who reads all the terms and conditions, written in a most unpalatable way?

5. Enhancing runaway loss of privacy. Did you notice how many parties want to know your present location?

6. Submitting to structures much larger than nations and governments. 

7. Increasing the risks of putting all the eggs in one basket. The Cloud, the Cloud!

8. Nurturing the Empire of Self-obsession. The Me culture is evident in most Apps.

To unplug is comparable to abstaining from our fav foods. Previous generations were hooked on television, white goods, motor cars and other inventions. So what is new?

The immediate casualty for an individual in this contemporary period is losing the balance in choices amongst screen time, embracing the outdoors and enhancing physical activity. There are pyschological and physiological benefits in putting away the smart screens for longer periods - and yet there are withdrawal symptoms, pleasure to give up from persuasive tech and an isolation from communication issues to deal with.

Our human brains are increasingly engineered to sync with such smart machines to such an extent each of us undergo feelings of real loss in not constantly interacting with them. We feel better when we get likes. We instinctively want to get biofeedback from our exercises - and this facet of behavioural pyschology has been utilised to higher levels of inducing addiction in each of us. We want to instinctively get rewards on a constant basis - the smart machines and Apps know this very well.

The human race is essentially a social animal - and yet so called smart tech escalates isolation, over self importance and encourages social awkwardness. The art of an enjoyable conversation is lost, replaced by the thrills of software graphics and the ability to do things silently without the need to verbalise or spell - think of Emojis.

Previous inventions freed up time to enable gathetrings of the family or tribe.
Smart machines make us so obsessed we run out of time to eat properly or make time to meet up - after all the message has been delivered to other individuals by a click.

We can be observed to be like guinea pigs riding mini wheels to obtain constant bursts of little cubes of food. The volume of content of so many social media vehicles are endless - not that most have any meaningful value. 

The stakes in today's games are higher than ever, due to the startling degrees of lacking transparency, hidden access to your data and the extreme profiling of individuals. Behind it all is business, the need to make profits and to sell you something - that has never changed!

In summary, the actual ability of smart machines, social media moves and Apps software to change your behaviour is the most significant. Most of us do not even realise this is happening to each of us.

Rare is the person who can utilise the largest opportunities to take advantage of this development.

#yongkevthoughts