[LINK] Fairfax press looks at broadband around the world; Australia not doing well; govt intervention needed

[David Boxall]

On 30/08/2010 1:36 PM, David Goldstein wrote:
> This article is in the Fairfax press today... the hard copy version has a graph
> with the numbers of different types of broadband in about 20 or 30 countries.
> And yes, reading the report shows the government's NBN is the only way to get
> high speed broadband around the country and the private sector is inept at
> providing it.
>
> David
>
> Waiting on a missed connection
> Government intervention will be required to give Australian households
> super-fast fibre, writes Lucy Battersby.
> ...
I particularly liked this from Paul Budde: "The single biggest problem 
for fixed broadband expansion is the cost. Revenue from phone calls and 
data no longer justify the cost of installation for any 
telecommunications company anywhere in the world".

Like roads or much other infrastructure of National significance, the 
NBN is not necessarily commercially viable. Commentators who insist on 
employing measures of commercial viability simply don't have a clue.

-- 
David Boxall                    |  When a distinguished but elderly
                                |  scientist states that something is
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  possible, he is almost certainly
                                |  right. When he states that
                                |  something is impossible, he is
                                |  very probably wrong.
                                                  --Arthur C. Clarke