[LINK] Benefits of a digital economy enabled by the National

[Jan Whitaker]

At 04:28 PM 22/09/2010, Stilgherrian wrote:

>People talk about the terrible, terrible cost of the NBN as a few 
>thousand per household over eight years. You don't need to save too 
>many car trips per month to recoup that, even if you factor in 
>people's time at a minimal rate.

I think also what people are forgetting is that home infrastructure 
is now part of the purchase cost in ways it hasn't been in the past 
(or else it's more obvious or passed through or more expensive). 
Water, electricity, phone, gas lines are borne by the homeowner. I 
wonder what the costs of each of these are? A 'few thousand' is 
probably in the ballpark. Once the entertainment, education, home 
management, information (think what a set of Encyclopaedia Brittanica 
used to cost and expire in a couple years!), and 2/multi-way 
communications are experienced, people will wonder what all the fuss was about.

I just got back from the states. I was amazed at their basic 
services. You can't buy a DSL service under I think 9Mb/s for similar 
price we pay for 1.5Mb/s, and they look at you strangely if you ask 
about their data charges, except on phones.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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