[LINK] The Cost of the NBN (1870 -v- 2010)

[Tom Koltai]

In a previous email I compared the longevity of copper to Fibre.
I referred by example to the copper undersea cable between Darwin and Singapore…. Which was the connecting cable to the trans SA/NT Overland Telegraph Line.

As an exercise in Economics, I decided to compare the cost of the Overland Telegraph line in 1871 to the National roll-out of the NBN.

Surprisingly, the two came within a few percentage points of the national GDP.

In 1870, the Darwin to Port Augusta telegraph line had an initial budget of ₤128,000. The GDP for Australia that year was ₤5,810,000 thereby resulting in a cost of 2% of the then national GDP.

In 2009, Australia's GDP was 1.3 trillion with the NBN budget estimated at 26 billion, which results in a cost of 2% of the national GDP.
 
Realising that the overland telegraph was the lifeline to Mother England for Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and New Zealand is an argument that some misdirected politicians might like to argue.

However, I can find no study that demonstrated that it would be cheaper to send messages via homing pigeon between Adelaide and Darwin, (Winston the pigeon) therefore I can but deduce that politicians in the 1870's were far more level headed than today's lot.


References:
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Current Economy of AU
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Australia
Darwin to Port Augusta Overland Telegraph
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Overland_Telegraph_Line
Economic (GDP) History
http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/Historical_Statistics/horizontal-file_03-2009.xls
Economy, Australia Per Capita
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=I242EL00ieAC&pg=PA128&lpg=PA128&dq=gdp+australia+1870&source=bl&ots=Ipp7c4VCed&sig=k0bUbEUCaVx8ZepLsONdkttNU2w&hl=en&ei=TTU5TfHNFY-yrAfk7f38CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=gdp%20australia%201870&f=false
SA pigeon 'faster than broadband' 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8248056.stm