[LINK] Australia begs residents to accept free fiber connection

Kim Holburn kim at holburn.net
Sat Jul 31 07:49:25 AEST 2010


http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/07/australia-begs-residents-to-accept-free-fiber-connection.ars

> Australia begs residents to accept free fiber connection

> If your government had decided to install a national, open-access  
> fiber-to-the-home network to 93 percent of all residents, if the  
> installation was free, and if the fiber hookup had no effect on your  
> existing phone or cable service and committed you to nothing...  
> wouldn't you take it?
>
> Not if you live in Tasmania, where the Australian government's  
> ambitious new National Broadband Network is getting underway with  
> its first fiber deployments. The government-created NBN Co. has the  
> right to dig up streets and trench along rights-of-way, but to  
> install that "last-mile" connection to a home or apartment it needs  
> permission—and Tasmanians have been slow to offer it.
>
> According to local news accounts, only half of the homes and  
> business in the first dig zone have given permission to access their  
> property. That led to this week's rather pathetic press release from  
> NBN Co. in which the CEO basically begged "residents and businesses  
> within the Willunga and Kiama First Release Sites to sign up."
>

> But people's reluctance to sign consent forms could add serious  
> costs and delays to the entire project. And if everyone will be  
> hooked up eventually, why not just make the fiber installations  
> mandatory now?
>
> That's the direction in which Australia is moving. Conroy and the  
> Tasmanian Premier, David Bartlett, are now both talking about ways  
> to shift to an "opt-out" model in which the NBN Co. has the right to  
> install on your property unless you explicitly object.
>
> Opposition figures in Tasmania have been pushing the idea for more  
> than a month. "I am sure there would be plenty of people that would  
> not want the government rolling up onto their property and  
> installing fibre without permission," said MP Michael Ferguson.  
> "Nonetheless it would be an enormous cost to the community if we  
> only do get half of our homes connected to the fibre."
>


-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
T: +61 2 61402408  M: +61 404072753
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