Yep. This boneheaded plan was born from Tony Abbott's 'angry toddler' period, where he just said "No!" to everything the incumbent party was doing, regardless of merit. So he got into power and had to stick to his lines. This is something that Americans should keep in mind, given that they've just come off six years of a Republican majority going "No!" to everything, and now they're in power, free and clear.
The utterly nonsensical thing is that residential fast internet is just a nice-to-have, but for business, it opens up lots of new avenues. It's business that really has need of fast internet. And the party that scuttled this is the party that's supposed to be the business-friendly one.
I think you're under-representing residential internet there. Residents with fast internet are customers for entertainment services - movies, episodic shows, streaming of sports and events, education, etc.
Sure, but that's more a 'nice-to-have', not something new. People already watch streamed activities in the residential market, just not at hi-def resolutions. I certainly think there's a demand for it, just not the opening of new avenues of activity.
The utterly nonsensical thing is that residential fast internet is just a nice-to-have, but for business, it opens up lots of new avenues. It's business that really has need of fast internet. And the party that scuttled this is the party that's supposed to be the business-friendly one.