Not since the NBN came about. Infra is owned by NBNco after they bought out Telstras infra (forced).
Before that Telstra owned an ageing, choppy and slow copper network and that was your monopoly unless another ISP decided your area was populated enough to set up something.
I admittedly have it much easier living in a metro area, but I have about 80 ISPs to choose from. But my relatives are all over Australia and the majority of them have at least a FTTN network to use now.
I still suspect it will be sold back to Telstra and/or privatised and it'll go to hell again, it's already been majorly neutered.
Before that Telstra owned an ageing, choppy and slow copper network and that was your monopoly unless another ISP decided your area was populated enough to set up something.
I admittedly have it much easier living in a metro area, but I have about 80 ISPs to choose from. But my relatives are all over Australia and the majority of them have at least a FTTN network to use now.
I still suspect it will be sold back to Telstra and/or privatised and it'll go to hell again, it's already been majorly neutered.