[LINK] NBN just OPEL rebirthed (was Re: Ubuntu)

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Marty writes,

>> Telstra's plan will mean that country folk will have to wait longer ..
> 
> In fact, I think the reverse is true. The current government ditched
> OPEL in favour of their NBN plan, but with Telstra doing their best to
> make rolling out FTTN in metro areas unviable (along with already be
> well served by ADSL2+) will we see the plans reshaped so that it starts
> to look like OPEL mkII?

Possibly Marty, however ...

Nicola Berkovic | March 12, 2009 
Article from:  The Australian 

TELSTRA'S move to turbo-charge its city broadband network will make it 
impossible for the nation to have a single information superhighway, a 
key Rudd Government adviser said yesterday.

The Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee chair Bill 
Glasson said the Telstra move threatened the viability of the 
Government's $4.7billion national broadband network in regional 
Australia. 

Dr Glasson said it was not in the nation's interest to "build two bridges 
over the same river five metres apart". 

"The message to everyone out there, governments and telecommunications 
providers, is we don't want to create two superhighways around the 
country," he said. 

But he said Telstra, which on Tuesday announced it would spend about $300 
million upgrading its Melbourne hybrid fibre coaxial network, had 
effectively ensured the network would be duplicated at least along the 
eastern seaboard. 

The upgrade, expected to be finished by Christmas, will deliver download 
speeds of 100 megabits a second, compared with the national broadband 
network's 12mbs. 

Dr Glasson said the move would have an adverse impact on the short-term 
returns of the successful tenderer, "but that was the reality of the free 
market". He said Communications Minister Stephen Conroy needed to act to 
protect regional Australians: "Governments need to step in and say, if 
you're going to play in this market, you've got a responsibility to play 
across the whole of this network." 

Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce said Telstra's moves to cherry-pick 
the most profitable metropolitan areas threatened to undermine the 
project and meant rural customers would be hung out to dry. 

"You can bet in regional areas they'll leave us alone and let us wither 
on the vine," Senator Joyce said. 

"They (Telstra) are crowding out the market. It's a corporate decision to 
basically say wherever it's worthwhile someone going, we'll make sure 
they won't, and wherever it's not worthwhile, we won't go there and they 
won't go there either." 

Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde said Telstra's moves would 
undoubtedly threaten the ability of other bidders to obtain funding to 
roll out the fibre network. 

"The reality is if you build a network in Australia, you have areas which 
are very costly and areas which are cheaper. The total makes it possible 
to build a national network," he said. 

Opposition communications spokesman Nick Minchin said Telstra's 
investment in cable highlighted the flaws in Labor's mandated fibre-to-
the-node proposal. 

"It raises more questions about the flawed national broadband network, 
particularly given that the Government is proposing $4.7 billion of 
expenditure of taxpayer funds on a network that we know little about, 
potentially duplicates existing services and may not roll out for years," 
he said. 

But Senator Conroy, who yesterday told the Senate an announcement about 
the national broadband network would be made "very soon", said Telstra's 
network passed only 2.5 million homes and would do nothing to improve 
speeds for the vast majority of Australians.

--

Cheers,
Stephen