[LINK] PM's national broadband plan really is no net gain

[Frank O'Connor]

Mmmm,

Paid for 'independent research' seems to be the go these days ... but 
our media and PR industry takes no notice of that fact. When it 
devolves into corporate spin I have a real problem with that.

Bottom line: Arguing a government financed infrastructure thingie on 
a user pays basis just for the NBN, and not doing it on that basis 
for every other infrastructure project (roads, schools, hospitals etc 
etc) seems just a tad faulty to me.

The government can take a ROI over a much longer period than private 
industry, and indeed finances many/most infrastructure initiatives 
with no regard to ROI, but simply because the voting public requires 
it, or because private industry (with its much tighter investment 
timeframes, responsibilities to shareholders, annual budgetary cycles 
and the rest) can not or would not do it.

Business tends to be quick to take advantage of the government's 
infrastructure initiatives though - which is as it should be. Of 
course ... Telstra could make a moral stand against the NBN once it's 
completed.         :)

Back to copper ... hey, that's been Telstra's solution for the last 
30 years despite having fibre to 'within 700 feet of every 
subscriber' since the late 80's. Of course, everyone trapped on that 
copper is a Telstra subscriber in one form or another ... but I doubt 
that even enters into Telstra's calculations.

They just want what's best for us.           :)

					Regards,

At 3:04 PM +1000 4/8/09, Birch, Jim wrote:
>Henry Ergas is a paid Telstra consultant, so you can take what he says
>in that light.
>
>I don't know how he gets the $215/month figure, it sounds like a scare
>number calculated in the Telstra spin directorate to me.  Economist John
>Quiggin gets a back-of-envelope figure of $80/month, with what seems a
>reasonable if simple calculation to me.  It's still a lot but I guess a
>fair few people already spend that on internet and phone.  Better
>numbers please.
>
>http://johnquiggin.com/index.php/archives/2009/04/08/the-broadband-revol
>ution/
>
>He also suggests renationalising the local copper will be a lot cheaper.
>Given how much everyone hates Telstra, this might not be such a problem.
>
>
>Jim
>
>
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