[LINK] Broadband for a Broad Land

[Ash Nallawalla]

Couldn't agree more, although the environmental damage angle won't sway many
people. 

Most people are on the best plan they can afford and many can't afford an
extra $10-20 a month no matter how much faster the speed is.  I don't
download movies and wouldn't even if I had FTTH today. I can barely keep up
with FTA TV. I am not too far off retirement age and I have to think about
things like the rising electricity costs and the possibility that my
Internet use might have to be reduced to keep my bills low.

Ash

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Worthington

> What worries me is that NBN Co. is assuming: "build it and they will
come".
> The government is spending billions of dollars building a system, in the
hope
> that it will help with services, health, education, environment, economic
> growth, employment, business efficiency, research and development.
> 
> In my view the provision of the NBN is not sufficient to ensure broadband
> will benefit the community and may well cause harm. The NBN will allow the
> move of regional services jobs in government, finance, education and
health
> to Australian cities and many of these Australian jobs overseas. The NBN
may
> harm the environment by increasing greenhouse gas emissions from the
> energy it uses, by polluting groundwater from the equipment it makes
> obsolete and from discarded backup batteries.