Comments on NBN
Posted on April 7, 2009 by by Michael de Percy
I have an article on ABC’s Unleashed about today’s NBN announcement here: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2536796.htm
Cheers,
Michael.
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16 Comments to “Comments on NBN”
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That is great news for sure, I am sick of Telstra’s monopoly and having broadband speeds slower than a turtle.
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I already have my own hypothesis with regard to timing of the annoucement, current events and and proposed delivery of the outcome:
As I tweeted earlier:
“Conspiracy theory: No need to impose mandatory Internet filtering on comm. 3rd parties when #NBN will be Federal Govt managed/controlled.”
I’d be happier if I could apply Occam’s Razor instead.
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Jonathan, I admit, I had the same uneasy thought. It seems like such a brilliant, innovative move in the first instance, but I can’t help but glimpse the underbelly …
Here’s hoping I’m wrong.
L
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The more I think about it, the more I am coming to the unfortunate conclusion that the whole “out of the blue” announcement sounds more like a distraction than a genuine nation building project/solution.
The policy “brochure” can be found here.
http://www.dbcde.gov.au/communications_for_business/funding_programs__and__support/national_broadband_network/national_broadband_network_policy_brochure
Read it carefully, there isn’t anything in this document that is truly earth shattering. Obviously there is a strong positive spin on all the benefits… but how this all translates in to reality of end user product affordability (remember we work in a user pays society and everything is driven by profit when in private hands) goodness knows.
Yes, it is still national infrastructure, but as was demonstrated by the NBN tender process, it could have just as easily been delivered by private enterprise (Telstra’s idiotic tender tantrums aside). This nation already has a solid core communications backbone networks (yes the plural was deliberate here – representing duplication of resources) in private hands and it was just a matter of delivering service or improved services to those households that are currently missing out.
I am still skeptical that where I live, an older Gungahlin suburb, we are not going to see any appreciable improvements any time soon. I am connected off a RIM which effectively cripples 3rd party broadband access and limits speeds to ADSL1 rates. These RIMs are already fed by optic fibre – fibre to the curb – but that fibre “belongs” to Telstra. Perhaps we would not have been in this national predicament in the first place had Telstra been split properly during privatization in to a carrier and carriage reseller components. Interestingly the call to split Telstra to introduce true competition is something that the current monolithic and monopolistic Telstra continually resists.
In my opinion for the majority of cases throughout the country an appreciable improvement in broadband speed could have just as easily been accomplished through implementation of anti-competitive practice legislation that would have brought Telstra back in to line.
But getting back to my opening statement of why I think this announcement is a distration: surely getting priority core infrastructure items right first (health, education, shelter & accommodation for the homeless, water, jobs, roads, rail, public transport etc…) are far more important? What is really happening that they need to distract our attention from?
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Maybe I spoke too soon with regard to introduction of anti-competitive legislation and the functional separation of Telstra as this article in the Australian (8 April 2009) indicates: http://tinyurl.com/d3a97v
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It all sounds a little alarmist to me, to be honest. I think I need to ruminate further before airing my opinion, though. Watch this space.
L
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@Loquacity
Interesting commentary is starting to appear all over the inter-webs.
This blog from John Linton of Exetel:
http://johnl.blogs.exetel.com.au/index.php?/archives/2090-Krudd-Trys-A-Mega-Bluff-To-Save-Face….html
This media release from Senator Humphries:
http://www.canberraliberals.org.au/html/s02_article/article_view.asp?article_id=673&nav_cat_id=-1&nav_top_id=-1
The major problem is the initial analysis and commentary is tending to be very politically charged (extreme political bias).
I’m wondering if failure to get the new NBN proposal through the Senate could end up being a trigger for a parliamentary double dissolution and early election. In which case that could be the deliberate obfuscation I was intimating.
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http://johnl.blogs.exetel.com.au/index.php?/archives/2090-Krudd-Trys-A-Mega-Bluff-To-Save-Face….html <— a load of hyperbole and practically impossible to read because of all the asides. As far as I can tell, his main premise is … well, actually, I’m not sure. It all just comes out sounding like whining. I’ll get back to you when I manage to get through the lies, half-truths, and suppositions.
As for Senator Humphries’ media release, he states in one breath that the government has “wast[ed] eighteen months and $20 million of taxpayers dollars” while considering how to roll out the NBN and then goes on to say that “The Federal Government needs to start thinking about what they are going to do before announcing that they are going to do it”. Besides, he’s in opposition. It’s his job to criticise the government’s position.
At the moment, and based on these two links, I’m inclined to think it’s all scaremongering. It happens a lot when governments announce a package that is going to cost billions of dollars. That happened with the stimulus package as well. Despite the fact that the IMF has now announced that all countries should be undertaking stimulus packages, there was still a Liberal party member on News Radio this morning yelling about what a crappy idea it all was. Let them have their whine, and I’ll be sure to bring some crackers next time.
Another choice quote from Senator Humphries: “$43 billion of taxpayers money on the line for an investment in what has been proven as one of the most unpredictable and fast changing industries in the world.” So, that’s a bad thing is it? Investing in one of theworld’s fastest growing industries? Since when?
L
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If I were a betting man (and I’m not except when it involves things that are certainties, like AFL), I’d say the NBN rollout will create a lot of fluff and news coverage, and then, in 2-3 years, we’ll find they’ve rolled it out to some parts of the metropolitan areas of some of the larger cities (Syd, Melb, Brisbane, maybe some of the others) and then… it’ll barely go any further, and then some Liberal future government will flog it off.
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This is apparently the genesis of the current plan:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/secret-team-kept-even-ministers-in-the-dark-20090407-9zlo.html?page=-1
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what concerns me is where the money will be spent for this great broadband network. will local providers get a sniff, or will it be run by the verizon / telstra / optus giants? will the local reseller or isp be any better off?
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The censorship issue was my first thought when I heard about it, however when I discussed it with my partner he seemed to think that it would make censorship slightly more difficult if anything, but that it was pretty much much of a muchness, if that makes sense.
Me, I do not know anything about it.
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Censorship = non issue. Simple electoral maths says so.
To Peter’s point, working for a small ISP as I do, a system majority owned by the government is much less likely to crush the life out of small ISPs than one owned by the Evil Empire. So it’s a win for us.
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ah! had another thought! think Dell vs IBM, or to put it another way, Telstra vs RuddNET.
RuddNET – now that has a catchy ring to it…
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Did I hear regional Australia wont be getting any of this? but if Canberra is part of regional Australia does it mean we won’t benefit from it?
Anyone knows anything about it?
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Somehow I think I am not the only one thinking conspiracy theory: http://www.itwire.com/content/view/24310/1239/
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