[LINK] tRe: NBN white-elephant-to-be ...

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Kim Holburn wrote:
> On 2010/Aug/27, at 12:10 PM, David Boxall wrote:
> 
>> On 26/08/2010 3:56 PM, Kim Holburn wrote:
>>> ...
>>> Say between Canberra and Sydney, how many towers,
>>> how many relays, how much power for say 45Mb compared to one fibre?
>>> Maybe a relay or two but all but built in to the cable. ...
>> So, long term, fibre is the green alternative?
> 
> Cheaper, greener.   Perhaps cheaper is the more important here.
> 
> Fibre is much cheaper and less energy intensive to make and far less  
> energy to run than copper.  So far it has been the terminations and  
> optical transceivers that are more expensive.  I imagine this will  
> change eventually.  For instance if nearly every household in  
> Australia has one - it might help bring the price down.
> 

Something there has been limited discussion of is training 
programs for the people who would build and maintain the 
network, particularly in "the bush".

When this was raised at the briefing, the glib response to 
the Australian content of the project was that the trenches 
would in Australia. This side of the NBN hasn't had much 
media coverage - or I missed it.

By contrast here is an example of the US pitch:
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/06/09/usda-broadband-report-highlights-role-recovery-act-bringing-connectivity-rural-ameri>

Marghanita
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://ramin.com.au
Tel: 0414-869202