[LINK] Addendum to Coalition hasn't checked its s... (abc.net.au)

[TKoltai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of TKoltai
> Sent: Thursday, 16 February 2012 11:39 PM
> To: 'Antony Barry'; 'Link list'
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Coalition hasn't checked its s... (abc.net.au)
> Coalition hasn't checked its satellite NBN facts. Here they are... 
> http://www.abc.net.au/technology/articles/2012/02/16/3432368.htm
> 

A small adddendum as a result of a minor oversight.

Quote/
A look at other satellite operators around the world reveals that none
currently have operational Ka-band satellites in the sky anywhere near
Australia: North American operator ViaSat, owned by aerospace interest
Hughes, is first to offer Ka-band commercial services via its ViaSat-1,
but is targeting the impending JUPITER and other satellites at
high-density markets like Brazil, India and China. 
/Quote

Except the fastest Broadband Satellite in the world.

Japanese Kizuna winds that has 155 Mbps pointed straight at the little
seaside town in the NT called Gove (Nhulunbuy for the purists). (For
interested parties, a 1.8 metre dish from Groote Eylandt will just
reach....) (Additionally, Kizuna has adaptive Active Phased
Array Antenna (APAA) in Reference pdf [1] which can point anywhere in
Australia on demand.)

Which is interesting, as Telstra just charged Alcoa 34 million to
connect broadband....

The cost of Kizuna Winds was claimed to be 480 million (but that figure
included almost a decade of research and development so that actual cost
of the launch is estimated at 9 million and the satellite itself at
around 35 million.).

Shame the chaps at Telstra didn't bother to keep up with technological
developments of high speed broadband. (Gove has been in the Kizuna Winds
footprint since 2008).

If Telstra could get it so wrong, one wonders what other commercial
interests might have hidden agendas with Australia's broadband future.

If the NBN is merely a crowbar to enhance competition, then well done
Senator Conroy. 
However if anyone expects this infrastructure to pay for itself in under
twenty years, they're dreaming. 

Attempting to force all Australians onto the Fibre only will fail with
dire consequences for Australian Telecommunications.

The Copper, the Telstra Broadband cable and the Optus HFC all have to
stay in play for Australia to get the real benefit from the NBN.

The benefit is not one that can be measured in micro-economic fiscal
returns to NBN Co.
I don't understand why everyone is focused on this little item.
We discussed on link sometime ago that the Overland Telegraph cost the
same percentage of Australia's economic budget 140 years ago as what the
NBN is costing today (2%).

What we didn't discuss was that due to fires, flood and theft, the
continued operation of the O/T was only possible by donations of time
and money from landholders along the line of the Telegraph. In other
words the Government couldn't maintain the service without the
assistance and support of the populace.

There is no infrastructure in Australia that has ever paid for itself in
a timely fashion.

Big life changing projects take decades and generations to pay off.
That's why it is generally only Governments that can afford to execute
them.

E.g.: Sydney Harbour Bridge 1923-1988 - 65 years to pay off a piddling
20 million dollars.
And the Sydney Opera House 1959-1975 - 16 years to pay off 107 million.
And the cross Sydney Tunnel, ooops, shhhhh, we'll forget that white
elephant shall we? Even though the artificial traffic islands and road
blockages made navigating the Woolloomooloo area a nightmare and has
doubtless cost several million in lost productivity and additional fuel
usage costs.

Politicians know this, yet feel compelled to snipe at each other and
make unrealistic financial estimates that will never be realised; but
using those hollow promises to justify the removal of other operational
"competitive services" and restricting commercial "competitive"
operations in an attempt to make the NBN pay for itself.

I guess the next trick will be to double the cellular wireless licensing
price. Oh, yeah they already did that one.
 
The real benefit of the NBN will be the reduced cost of communications
enabling faster throughput, more choices, and the consequential addition
of commercial opportunities for everyone attempting to do business in
Oz.

The Internet dropped the price of a phone call to the USA from $2.88 per
minute in 1990 to $0.005 per minute in 2010. 

Lets do the same to data.

That can only be achieved by high speed Fibre, high speed Satellites,
high speed wireless, high speed copper and high speed cable/HFC all
competing with each other for the consumer dollar.

Otherwise we are merely swapping one Monopoly for another.

I wish Messrs. Turnbull and Conroy could man up and come together over
this issue. For the good of all Australians. Further, the entire world
is watching our NBN experiment with interest and our NBN has clearly
assisted in the formulation and execution of several me too national
projects.
It is hard to search for in country FTTH developmental projects gloablly
without finding reference to the Aus NBN.

Therefore the first primary benefit of the NBN is to place Australia on
the world map as a leader in consumer broadband. Which after having an
economy for almost two decades based on Telstra's "squeeze 'em until
they bleed" policies is as Mastercard would say, "Priceless".

I call on the opposition to drop this ridiculous (we are all sick and
tired of it) point scoring and work with the Government. For a better
economic future for the entire country.

First order of business. Throw out the Business plan. 
Second order of business. Build the NBN.
Third order of business. Lower the wireless Spectrum costs to 100
dollars per month per data Mhz. (That equals $100 per 15 Gbyte)
Fourth order of business. Tell the carriers to drop their data prices
accordingly. (They're all busy transitioning into banks anyway, so they
won't mind too much).
Fifth order of business. Provide free (speed limited, e.g. 256 kbps) NBN
to everyone on any kind of social welfare.
Sixth order of business. Legislate Internet dial tone in every property
to be sold or rented, domestic or commercial.
Seventh order of business. Give those design engineers that came up with
the KA band satelite idea a pay rise. 

TomK

References:

[1] http://www.aprsaf.org/data/aprsaf15_data/csawg/CSAWG_4b.pdf