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

[Steven Clark]

  On 30/08/2010 3:07 PM, David Boxall wrote:
> 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.

it's not helped by the insistence by so many that government operate 
like a profit-making commercial venture.

also not helped by the dominance of particular view(s) about what 
government is/is not 'supposed' to do. etc etc.

-- 
Steven R Clark, BSc(Hons) LLB/LP(Hons) /Flinders/, MACS, Barrister & 
Solicitor

PhD Scholar
School of Commerce, Division of Business
City West Campus, University of South Australia (UniSA)
http://people.unisa.edu.au/Steven.Clark

Deputy Director, Community Engagement Board (CEB)
Chair, Economic, Legal and Social Issues Committee (ELSIC)
Australian Computer Society (ACS)
http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?action=show&conID=acscas 
<http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?action=show&conID=acscas>