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

[Tom Koltai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of 
> stephen at melbpc.org.au
> Sent: Monday, 30 August 2010 10:11 PM
> To: link at anu.edu.au
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Fairfax press looks at broadband around 
> the world;Australia not doing well; govt intervention needed
> 
> 
> David references an interesting article, and wites ..
> 
> > .. reading the report shows the government's NBN is the only way to 
> > get high speed broadband around the country ...
> 
> 
> Well, not quite. Although i hope it's a publicly funded NBN, 
> from this article, one imagines this Norwegian idea might 
> well work in Australia.
> 
> Dig your own ...
> 
> "As summer spreads across Scandinavia, thousands of 
> Norwegians will take 
> to the garden with a shovel, digging a trench between their 
> house and a 
> metal box at the end of their street.
> 
> Altibox, owned by the electricity provider Lyse, has found an 
> ingenious 
> solution to the prohibitive costs of installing fibre broadband to 
> suburban and regional areas. It offers customers a $450 discount on 
> installation costs if they dig a trench between their 
> premises and the 
> fibre node at the end of the street. So far about 136,000 
> households, or 
> about 80 per cent of their customer base, have got their hands dirty.

What a great idea. 
Although methinks we might have some right of way services in the
footpaths already.

I can see the headline now....

As thousands of Australians ditch witched their new FTTH trenches,
phones, water and sewerage pipes were cut hundreds of times and all to
save 450.00.

Cost to Government, 96 Billion in fixing all the "homemade" trenches...
(And of course no-one reported it, coz then it wasn't their fault.)

I actually mooted this concept in the submissions to Gov last January,
with the exception that I suggested on premises trenching to the
property line only, as most home owners would know where the
electricity, and services pipes were. However after seeing the
clusterflubber that the home insulation innovation created, I doubt that
the average Australian has the nous to check for pipes, and underground
cables. 

Ergo we have a 43 billion bill. BUT... No-one will get electrocuted and
mains water, sewerage cable TV and telephones will be probably safer...

> 
> Altibox will not connect a town to the backhaul unless 60 per cent of 
> households sign up to its internet service, ensuring every 
> fibre rollout 
> is profitable. This is one of many different ways governments and 
> businesses are encouraging the spread of fast, affordable broadband."
> 
> --
> 
> Cheers,
> Stephen