The Government has launched an official, taxpayer funded website posing as a service "to help consumers access broadband, the options available to them and how to get connected". The problem is the Government site, www.broadbandnow.gov.au, failed entirely to mention that Telstra is a broadband service provider - and their promises to fix the issue seem to compound the error.

Requests to fix it met brick walls

Telstra's people in Canberra and elsewhere have been trying to get some sense out of the bureaucrats behind the www.broadbandnow.gov.au site for days but those responsible have been slow to rectify the problem.

The Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, which is responsible for the site, has promised some Telstra broadband services will be included by close of business Thursday, 5 July, but it will be some time before they include any mention of Telstra’s Next G™ broadband services.

SingTel-OPEL gets star billing

While Telstra is not mentioned as a provider of broadband services, the taxpayer funded SingTel-OPEL Broadband Connect arrangement has an entire dedicated page on the site - despite the fact SingTel-OPEL does not provide a single broadband service to a single customer.

The Department seems intent on blaming Telstra instead of admitting their obvious error in omitting Australia largest broadband provider from this site in the first place.

It decided to use a geographic locator tool that only identifies broadband services that fit their own arbitrary definition of a metro comparable service concocted for the purpose of receiving government subsidies. This was totally inappropriate given the stated purpose of the BroadbandNow website is to inform consumers about all the broadband services available to them. It is quite incredible - even surreal - that it effectively denied the existence of Telstra broadband.

This is obviously a stuff-up

The Department used the wrong geographic locator tool.

But instead of admitting their mistake, they spent the last two days telling people it is Telstra's fault because we do not have a service that fits their arbitrary definition of a metro comparable service. The Department's convoluted criteria for "metro comparable" services excludes basic broadband (256Kbps) and all of Telstra's higher speed broadband services.

Yesterday the Department informed Telstra that they will identify Telstra's ADSL and ADSL2+ services on the website, stating that they are not metro comparable services and that they will add a separate category to the website for non metro comparable services, which might include Telstra’s Next G™ network sometime in the future.