[LINK] Conroy dismisses NBN anti-competitive report

Sat Dec 10 17:52:24 AEDT 2011

Unfortunately, I hear shades of Liberal policy in there.

Let me translate. An organisation given a legislative mandate to;
 remove all the competing copper infrastructure and;
 contractually restrict Wireless speed, with the two largest Telco's
being paid sufficient hush money to quiet their shareholders objections,
(whilst giving corporate investors ample time to jump ship),     

And then over price the result at the lowest entry level beyond the
reasonable reach of 23%-27% of Australians.

Gee, sounds almost like Marie Antoinette... "The peasants are at the
gates, please pass the cake...."

Or the former Rt. Hon. Richard "Broadband is only for Porn" Alston,
"whose dead regulatory hand still reaches from beyond the political
grave to strangle innovation in this country's ICT industry". [1]

Mr. Alston's policies resulted in the T1, T2 and T3 sell off, which
whilst delivering strong economic performance on the political stage,
failed miserably in providing Australia a level playing field
internationally in our ICT and e-commerce ambitions, forcing us to be
(now 23rd) one of the slowest broadband countries in the OECD.

Whilst Mr. Howard is fondly regarded by most Australians, the same is
not necessarily true of the Rt. Hon R. Alston. Apart from a few
corporate financial advisers and stockbrokers, did anyone else in
Australia benefit from the brutal anti-competitive behaviour installed
by the previous Liberal government attempting to shore up it's share
sell off valuations?

The NBN started as a value add infrastructure boon to the Australian
economy.
It is rapidly turning into a duplicate of the farce that deregulation
became as soon as the government decided to privatise the asset.

If Mr. Conroy wants to make his mark on Australian politics and be
favourably considered for a higher political post in future upcoming
elections, he would do well to consider options where :

A: The copper is left alone.

Or, it is divided up on a LGA basis to competitive local exchange
carriers. (CLEC's.) (Sold off like Spectrum auctions).
   We already know that the copper at recently approved Zone 1/Zone 2
valuations is $16 p/mnth. On that basis allowing a 3 year goodwill
valuation,
   Australia's copper network in an auction scenario is worth between
6.124 and 10 billion dollars, or a third of the cost of the NBN.
(Valuing each pair of
   copper lines at $576.00) If the government needs a financial return,
that is a much fairer and more equitable methodology of paying off a
portion of the NBN.

B: That the NBN is restricted from delivering wireless last mile or
satellite services. (Let's be real 12Mb down and one Mb ip is a joke.)

Last mile should be left to the carriers with a legislatively delivered
pricing solution. I believe we used to have one in Australia, it was
called the Universal Service Obligation.

C: At the speed of developments in modern wireless edge technology, Mr
Conroy's current political machinations may be misread in future history
books as being those of a deliberate anti-technologist religious order.

Then again, I guess we wont have books that will need burning in the
future. PDF files and Wikipedia are easy to redact and correct.
I must say, I am sincerely becoming enamoured of either cuneiform clay
tablets kiln fired or ion based carbon fibre mathematical data
structures.
I doubt that those that have a need to alter history would be able to
successfully alter papyrus scrolls buried in clay jars in low humidity
cavernous structures etc etc.

Modern technology and the need for a return to base scribing tools,
suddenly shows some elements of history in a whole new light...
Imagine having to redact the hieroglyphics in any of the Pyramids...

TomK

[1] Bernard Keanes:
http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/05/25/alstons-cold-dead-hand-still-control
s-broadband/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Kim Holburn
> Sent: Friday, 9 December 2011 9:21 AM
> To: Link list
> Subject: [LINK] Conroy dismisses NBN anti-competitive report
> 
> 
> http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-08/conroy-dismisses-nbn-ant
> i-competitive-report/3721386
> 
> > Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has dismissed a 
> report that has 
> > found the National Broadband Network (NBN) could be 
> anti-competitive.
> > 
> > The Productivity Commission has warned that because the 
> non-commercial 
> > benefits which may be generated by the NBN are yet to be 
> determined, 
> > the company could be in breach of the principle of competitive 
> > neutrality.
> > 
> > Some of the non-commercial benefits flagged are in areas including 
> > health and education.
> > 
> > It follows complainants alleging NBN Co has gained a market 
> advantage 
> > because it is government-owned.
> > 
> > Senator Conroy has rejected that, saying the Government decided to 
> > build the NBN because the private sector could not.
> > 
> > He said NBN Co was set to operate eventually as a 
> commercial reality, 
> > but its purpose was to not expect to earn a rate of return 
> comparable 
> > with that in the private sector.
> > 
> > "To earn the commercial rates of return that the report is 
> > recommending, higher prices or lesser services would be 
> necessary in 
> > rural and regional Australia," he said.
> > 
> > "The alternative of funding of rural subsidies from the 
> budget would 
> > create permanent uncertainty."
> > 
> > Senator Conroy said the Government would not be adopting 
> the related 
> > recommendations of the commission's report.
> > 
> > "As the Government has said many times, it is doubtful 
> these benefits, 
> > which are so self-evident and pervasive, could be meaningfully 
> > quantified, and even if they could, whether there would be any 
> > particular merit in doing so," he said.
> > 
> > Under attack
> > 
> > Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull has pounced on 
> > the report, arguing it shows the NBN is anti-competitive and 
> > uncommercial.
> > 
> > Mr Turnbull also said the report found the community service 
> > obligations on the NBN did not justify the huge investment and 
> > sub-commercial returns.
> > 
> > "The Productivity Commission concluded any community service 
> > obligation costs carried by the NBN Co should be transparent and 
> > quantified so that their true impact on the corporate plan and 
> > commercial returns can be assessed," Mr Turnbull said.
> > 
> > The Business Council of Australia (BCA) says it is not too late for 
> > the Government to undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the $35.9 
> > billion network.
> > 
> > CEO Jennifer Westacott said the Productivity Commission 
> found that NBN 
> > Co's target rate of return of 7 per cent was below a 
> commercial rate 
> > of return as required of all government businesses under 
> competitive 
> > neutrality policy.
> > 
> > "The commission has recommended that the Government assess the 
> > non-commercial benefits of the NBN investment to justify 
> the network's 
> > rollout at a lower than a commercial rate of return," Ms Westacott 
> > said in a statement.
> > 
> > "It is not too late for the Government to undertake a cost-benefit 
> > analysis to demonstrate whether this investment and its associated 
> > impacts on competition are the best way forward for developing the 
> > communications sector and lifting productivity growth," she said.
> > 
> > But telecommunications analyst Paul Budde says the 
> Commission has got 
> > it wrong, because it is approaching the NBN as a telecommunications 
> > network, instead of a piece of national infrastructure.
> > 
> > "Most of the problems that we are facing now in economic, financial 
> > and ecological terms do require national infrastructure on 
> the level 
> > on an NBN," he said.
> > 
> > "Why is the NBN different from electricity or water or roads?"
> > 
> > However Mr Budde said private cable-laying companies who 
> complained to 
> > the Productivity Commission did have a legitimate complaint.
> > 
> > He said the Government pushed them out of new housing developments, 
> > even though it promised to cooperate with them in the first place.
> > 
> > "From a moral point of view I think both the Government and 
> NBN Co did 
> > the wrong thing," he said.
> > 
> > "They should have honoured the promises that were made in the 
> > beginning where there was a cooperative environment between the two.
> > 
> > "Basically NBN Co bulldozed over them."
> > 
> > The Government established NBN Co to build a fibre optic 
> cable network 
> > to 93 per cent of homes, schools and business with high-speed 
> > broadband across Australia by 2021.
> > 
> > The remaining 7 per cent would be connected by fixed wireless and 
> > satellite technology.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Kim Holburn
> IT Network & Security Consultant
> T: +61 2 61402408  M: +61 404072753
> mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
> skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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