[LINK] Battery back-up mandatory for NBN?

[Tom Worthington]

Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> ... If we had $43b to spend only once, is spending it on the NBN the 
> optimum use of public resources? ...

I don't think the Government strategy is to actually spend $43b of 
government money on the NBN. It is to have a grand sounding, visionary,
long term, nation building project. Then spend a few hundred million
dollars on some pilot programs in marginal electorates, while the
technologists and the market sort out the future of telecommunications.

Within a few years the NBN will be rendered obsolete by technological
and market developments. But this will not matter as most of the NBN
will not yet have been built and what has been built will still be
usable. The ALP can take credit for whatever emerges, saying that the 
vision of the NBN has been fulfilled, even though the implementation 
details have changed.

This is not much different from the opposition proposal, except
the opposition is making the mistake for trying to design a commercially
viable short term solution, where there isn't one. By doing the "vision
thing" the Government is avoiding that trap.

Providing fibre to the home to some of Australia will be useful,
although I don't think this is the future of telecommunications. Smart
phones are becoming affordable and very popular (the Huawei IDEOS is
less than US$200). There are numerous tablet computers for under $400
being released for Christmas 2010. These devices will cause an explosion
in the demand for wireless communications.

It will still be handy to have a high speed fibre connection for
watching TV at home, or for business. But the major use of the fibre 
will be backhaul for the wireless network. This is much like the Sydney 
toll road building program of the NSW Government. These roads are 
unsuited to Sydney's long term transport needs, but can be adapted for 
Bus Rapid Transit
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_rapid_transit> as shown by the
Brisbane South East Busway
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South-East_Busway,_Brisbane>.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science, The
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/