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Australia's National Broadband Network To Go Ahead
angry tapir writes "After weeks of a hung parliament following the Australian federal election, the incumbent Labor Party has garnered enough support among independent MPs to form a minority government. Broadband was central to clinching the independents' support. Labor's victory means the $43 billion National Broadband Network will push ahead. The policy has generally been popular among ISPs and telcos — though some rebel operators preferred a policy that emphasized wireless technologies, similar to the proposals put forward by Labor's opponents. The primarily fiber-based NBN is set to offer Australians 1Gbps broadband."
Great. We're to be shafted by a massive white elephant.
1. The true cost will be much greater than $43 billion. This figure - guaranteed to blow out anyway - includes no allowance for the interest and other borrowing charges that will be incurred by the project. The true cost may be greater than $200 billion.
2. Funding sources for the project have not been defined. The Government's exposure is 20-something million in initial investment, with the remainder supposed to come from the private sector. Especially given the failure of other public-private-partnerships (Brisbane, Sydney ...) who would be foolish enough to tip billions into another government stuff-up?
3. The NBN will be superseded by newer technologies within its implementation timeframe, and we'll be stuck with expensive crap.
4. Australians will stick with their (possibly) slower current technology services when given the alternative of a faster, but significantly more expensive solution.
5. While the projected NBN speeds look good on paper, they'll be constrained by overseas pipes for the content people REALLY want to see.
6. The projected NBN speeds still won't be delivered to most of the Australian continent. City users may get high speeds, but a very large number of rural citizens will get nothing.
NBN is another Conroy joke at our expense. A consultant-driven, snouts-in-the-trough, cynical billing exercise that would put the typical US Defense project to shame.
Silly high prices. It will only get worse.
Lets see
$43B / 5M users (50% of existing users) = $8600 cost of capital per connection.
Lets say 10% cost of capital (interest on loan + repayment of principal) is $860/annum
+ maintainance of the NBN + ISP fees. at say 2.5% and $30 respectively means about $120/month.
Hmmmm... what is the take-up going to be when it is already competing against 5-20mbit ADSL???
This is another Labor government pork debt binge.
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