The NBN

Ttoday I will pen a small piece on the NBN and tomorrow on the politics of the energy market.

When the NBN first started it occurred because the major telco companies thought they had the Government in a corner. If they did not bid then The government would have to come to them for building the wholesale market and it would be on their terms.

The government then said no they would build it via a corporate structure called the NBN which would be privatised at some time in the future.  This was always an absurd proposition. Telstra had shown it was incapable of developing the wholesale market.
It is ironic some conservative critics such as Ergas a or Sloan criticised the NBN as a monopoly without EVER talking about the past and Telstra's position. ( Ergas who worked for Telstra then criticised the NBN on grounds he defended Telstra for in the past!)

The government decided to have fibre to the premises. This was almost future proof as there was almost unlimited speeds you could have when using  fibre optic cable. Thus Australians could gain speeds never dreamed of if they were willing to pay for it.

The other major reason much forgotten for choosing this was to boost decentralisation. If companies in the regions had equal access to the internet it would mean they were no longer at a disadvantage compared to city businesses.
A change of government meant change the NBN. Thus fibre to the node was born. The very last bit of the process could be copper or other technologies used. The government was warned the further from the node customers were , be they families or businesses, the slower the speeds.

This has occurred.

The government is now being hoisted on their own petard. The major problems of the NBN were easily foreseen and well known before they started to proceed. They went ahead because of political reasons.

The internet in Australia was in the stone age before the NBN. Mobile internet via 4G or the forthcoming 5G is not a competitor in that if all Australians had monthly mobile internet it would be as slow as old get up. ( See Rod Tucker) something Sinclair Davidson patently does not understand.  Try using it at a major sporting event.

What should the Governments had done. It was always going to be a long set up period. Accept that and more importantly tell the public that.
The areas that got the ORIGINAL NBN should have been selected on economic not political reasons. How ironic selecting them on political reasons blew up in their face anyway.

Brilliant exposition on the ABC. HERE