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

[David Boxall]

On Fri, 13 Mar 2009 at 01:22:38 GMT stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> 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.
So the national incumbent plans to cherry-pick the most lucrative 
markets and play the spoiler in the rest? Surprise, surprise!

The remedy remains, as always, structural separation.  There are good 
reasons why that idea won't die.

On Fri, 13 Mar 2009 at 02:12:54 GMT stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> Minchin would bring back OPEL
> Suzanne Tindal, ZDNet.com.au
> 9th March 2009 11:36 AM
>
> If the Coalition were back in power today it would bring back the $950 
> million rural broadband network plans which Communications Minister 
> Stephen Conroy cancelled, Shadow Minister Nick Minchin said in a video 
> interview with ZDNet.com.au last week.
...
> Public money should go to under-served areas, not to areas where the 
> market should be able to deliver those services, Minchin said, which was 
> why a plan targeting rural areas was ideal.
And if the incumbent plays a spoiling game: tax what they do in 
lucrative markets to cross-subsidise the others.  I know, I know, that 
comment will bring down on me the wrath of Market Fundamentalists.  When 
market fundamentals have been serving us so well ...

Thing is: there isn't a solution to our communications needs.  Wireless 
would cover parts beyond DSL range, but that won't be adequate for 
long.  FTTN would provide most of the population with speeds that seem 
blisteringly fast to those of us on dialup, but that will pass.  
Eventually (probably far sooner than any of us thinks) FTTH will be seen 
as the basic necessity.  Where to from there?

The pace of change is such that the question seems to be: what can we 
afford to do now, knowing that we'll probably have to replace it all 
within a decade?  To that I'd add: how can we do it fast enough that 
it's in place before it's obsolete?
 
-- 
David Boxall                    |  When a distinguished but elderly
                                |  scientist states that something is
                                |  possible, he is almost certainly
                                |  right. When he states that
                                |  something is impossible, he is
                                |  very probably wrong.
                                                   --Arthur C. Clarke