NBN Business case released!

[Jovial Monk]

Most of the fibre will be pulled through the pits, ducts, tunnels and conduit Telstra has already dug? In the country I imagine a lot will be carried by the existing power/telephone poles.

Re equality, there will be a 12:1 service available everywhere from fibre, fixed wireless or satellite. Eventually, pretty much where ever copper is will be served by fibre.

We better get the fibre into every state: with the Boomers retiring and eventually needing aged and nursing home care the NBN and monitoring devices sending data via the NBN there would be so much aged care facilites needed as would bankrupt the nation whereas with the NBN most can stay in their own home. The recent huge electronics show was full of ECG gear and blood pressure cuffs etc etc people can administer themselves and this will only accelerate.

[Jovial Monk]

What telehealth is doing for the VA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJvmsMZoBzw

Note that Puerto Rico is a tiny island, here in Australia people in the regions have to drive for hours and hours to their GP then drive hours and hours back—repeatedly if they have a chronic condition and even for such minor things as a repeat of a prescription. Note also the YouTube titled suicide prevention—think there is a group of people with high suicide rate here? Yup, rural youth.

We cannot afford not to roll out the NBN and fibre optics is the only real way to do so.

[mantra]

You have a weird view of what Australia is, Mantra...
A vast area, so little of it developed or mined.

Apart from the outback - the coastline is pretty well developed and mined. When was the Telstra copper installed - 1920's? How many buildings will have to be damaged to access the old copper wire for replacement. Has this even been costed?

I can. Australia is (ironically) one of the most urbanised countries in the world (and increasingly so), so getting fibre to the vast majority of the population is no problem, at all.

Providing equality of coverage, however, is another story.

Yes - equality of coverage is an issue and we'll be back to square one as we were with Telstra - no decent coverage to the bush. Can you imagine them running thousands of kms of cable through the desert?

The whole point is through mismanagement of Telstra and with the installation of the NBN - we will have paid for it 3 times. Once to get it up and running, twice when Howard split it up and sold it off to Mum and Dad investors and now we have to fork out another $11 billion to buy it back.

This is part of an article by Malcolm Turnbull. It makes a lot of sense, particularly as there are so many questions left unanswered.

Does the network represent the most productive possible use of these resources? Will it earn even the paltry return on taxes invested that the government forecasts? Could the underlying objective, to guarantee universal fast broadband across Australia, have been achieved far less expensively? Will it stifle competition?

If 100Mbps of bandwidth to every home is the answer, why does the national scheme involve shutting down and overbuilding the Telstra and Optus cable network, which passes about a fifth of Australian homes and is capable of providing that speed already?

And the cost does not stop with the government. NBN Co is not able to tell us what the cost of rewiring a house will be to enable access to the new optical fibre network. It may be worth it for those who want more bandwidth and can afford it, but for many people it will be seen as either or both an unnecessary or unaffordable expense.

And how convincing can any business proposal be that assumes near-universal market penetration and pricing that would result in average prices increasing when, to date, they have been declining? Most importantly, how can we answer any of these questions in the absence of the detailed cost-benefit analysis the government refuses to undertake?

The most frightening aspect of the government’s approach to the NBN is that this is a notoriously difficult area of investment. The private sector has made shocking errors in forecasting costs and matching these against future demand. Consider the $5 billion or so of private money lost in Australia since the 1990s on botched investments in motorways and tunnels such as Sydney’s Cross City Tunnel.

Similarly, private telecommunications firms burned through about US$22 billion of their shareholders’ capital during the 1997-2002 speculative investment bubble in submarine communications cables — new links that were later sold for cents on the dollar.

http://delimiter.com.au/2010/10/06/the- ... -analysis/

Most of the fibre will be pulled through the pits, ducts, tunnels and conduit Telstra has already dug? In the country I imagine a lot will be carried by the existing power/telephone poles.

Monk - I think that in theory the NBN is a good idea. It's the cost blowouts and the magnitude of problems that will be encountered stringing it around Australia and of course inland. Queensland is going to cost at least $20 billion to restore and that's not taking into consideration their economy which has almost come to a standstill. I just think we're on overload at present and should be a little more cautious - but that's only my opinion.

[Jovial Monk]

If the economy is going to take a hit from the floods accelerating the NBN rollout will help offset that. The people running NBN Co are very experienced in running out networks/cables etc so there will not be any huge blowouts. The NBN will be largely funded by debt so stopping it temporarily or permanently will have no impact on the restoration of flood damage.

Turnbull is an idiot who knows nothing about the internet—the HFC cables would suffer a severe slowdown in speed if the number of internet users connected to it doubled.

[Jovial Monk]

Founder of net says NBN is a stunning investment
Mitchell Bingemann

A FOUNDER of the internet has heaped praise on the National Broadband Network but warned it will be difficult to predict its economic benefits.

Google vice-president and chief internet evangelist Vint Cerf said the plan to construct a fibre-to-the-home network to 93 per cent of the nation was a "stunning" investment.

"I continue to feel a great deal of envy because in the US our broadband infrastructure is nothing like what Australia has planned," he said.

"I consider this to be a stunning investment in infrastructure that in my view will have very long-term benefit. Infrastructure is all about enabling things and I see Australia is trying to enable innovation.

"I'm excited by this and hope it turns into something that is visibly measurable for the Australian economy."

But Dr Cerf was less certain about measuring those economic benefits.

"For these kinds of infrastructure it's very hard to predict the result," he said.

"Measuring the benefits is a non-trivial exercise and part of the problem is knowing what causality one can apply. Some of the benefit is going to take time to emerge. This is a long-term investment from the NBN point of view."

Dr Cerf cited the construction of US interstate highways in the 1950s as an example of the difficulty in predicting the economic benefits of massive infrastructure projects.

"It was a Defence Department project so we could drive missiles around to stop the Russian from targeting fixed silos," he said.

"As it turned out, we didn't use it for that purpose but it did link cities and the country together, it created an automobile boom and a housing boom.

"No one predicted that outcome.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/busines ... 5993282500

Wow, the OO praising the NBN!

“Measuring the benefits is a non-trivial exercise . . . ” so so much for a CBA.

[Jovial Monk]

Here we have someone on the NBN and using it to full advantage:

High speed broadband a barrel of success

TOP CELLAR: Chester Osborn hopes the iPad and NBN will bring big business to his door. Pic: Keryn Stevens.
AT the touch of an iPad, Chester Osborn can discuss his latest drops with 100 Russian wine trade journalists - without leaving his McLaren Vale cellar door.

D’Arenberg’s chief winemaker has been using Skype - internet software used to make video calls - to hold virtual wine tastings with trade media and overseas buyers.

But he says the rollout of high-speed broadband in McLaren Vale - part of the $30 billion National Broadband Network (NBN) - this year will help to make his international business even more efficient and professional.

“When I do my ‘webinars’ with groups overseas, it will be just like I’m in the room with them - they’ll be tasting the wine and I’ll be giving running commentary,” Mr Osborn said.

“With the wireless broadband we have at the moment, the video is a bit jerky and the resolution isn’t very good.

“It’s a bit unprofessional when you’re dealing with countries like the US that have very fast broadband and can get a very clear picture.”

Mr Osborn said technology such as iPhones and iPads would remove the need for him to travel overseas as often to sell his wine.

He makes three two-to-three-week trips overseas each year to meet the company’s distributors in more than 60 countries.

“When we’ve got the faster broadband it will almost remove the need for me to travel because I’ll be able to do everything just as well from here,” Mr Osborn said.

“With this technology, instead of just discussing and tasting the wine, I can make it really interactive and show them pressing or fermenting or what’s going on in the vineyard.”

http://southern-times-messenger.whereil ... he-barrel/

McLaren Vale obviously part of the Willunga NBN rollout.

Roll on NBN . . .

[Jovial Monk]

Telstra preparing for life without copper:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/sh ... 5991559459

[IQS.RLOW]

Thanks for the $11+Bn Labor tards

[Jovial Monk]

True, it is due to the huge fuckups by those fuckwits, Howard & Costello! And Telstra needs the money, bad management has shrunk the company and its capital something wicked! Typical Liberal idiocy!

[Jovial Monk]

It seems that iiNet have released their NBN Fibre plans. A lot cheaper than I'm currently paying to Telstra an ADSL connection (3 down / .5 up)

NBN-1
10GB + 10GB
25/5 Mbps
$29.95

NBN-2
100GB + 100GB
25/5 Mbps
$49.95

NBN-3
200GB + 200GB
25/5 Mbps
$69.95

NBN-4
500GB + 500GB
25/5 Mbps
$99.95

https://www.iinet.net.au/nbn/

http://whrl.pl/RcC5cb