[LINK] National Broadband Network Implementation Study

[Tom Worthington]

The Australian Government has released the National Broadband Network 
Implementation Study, after a delay of several months: 
<http://www.dbcde.gov.au/broadband/national_broadband_network/national_broadband_network_implementation_study>.

The Study reports on the feasibility of the NBN. The Government has 
invited comments on the Study and has set up an NBN Implementation Study 
wiki, for comments: <http://wiki.dbcde.gov.au/>.

In the accompanying Media release the Minister claims the study confirms 
the NBN is achievable and affordable: 
<http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2010/040>.

The Study is provided in PDF, RTF and compressed RTF formats, both as 
one file for the whole report, and as individual chapters. What is not 
provided is an easy to read web version of the document. Also there 
appears to be a fault in the formatting of the RTF version of the 
document, with the executive summary being 46.8MBytes, compared to 
449Kbytes for the PDF version.

 From the Executive Summary:

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Summary OF IMPLEMENTATION STUDY FINDINGS

*  Government's objectives for the National Broadband Network can be 
implemented within the $43 billion estimate of capital expenditure by 
deploying fibre to 93 percent, fixed-wireless from the 94th to 97th 
percentiles and satellite to the final 3 percent of premises.

*  The NBN should be deployed efficiently by setting practical coverage 
objectives, being willing to make use of existing infrastructure, 
providing appropriate legislative support and leveraging the 
capabilities of commercial wireless operators.

*  Retail competition should be improved through mandating NBN Co's 
wholesale-only, open-access role and by ensuring NBN Co eliminates 
network bottlenecks and operates at the lowest appropriate layer in the 
OSI stack.

*  The fibre access network should be expected to become the predominant 
fixed-line telecommunications infrastructure over time by pricing for 
affordability and take-up and providing continuity for existing services.

*  Full Government ownership should be maintained until after the 
roll-out is complete requiring temporary peak funding in the vicinity of 
$26 billion by year 6-which can be paid down quickly from then with 
investment-grade debt prior to privatisation. Government should expect 
to cover its cost of funds under most plausible business case scenarios.

*  Future competition and innovation potential should be safeguarded by 
preferring a network design that preserves options for active-layer 
competition and shifts in technology, and by ensuring a healthy industry 
structure and appropriate regulatory regime are in place prior to 
privatisation ...
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-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Lecturer, The Australian National University t: 02 61255694
Computer Science http://cs.anu.edu.au/user/3890