This is a temporary solution. I can't imagine that in a couple of decades fibre to the home won't be standard - it is a superior technology in almost every way, bandwidth, maintenance cost, reliability but is expensive upfront.
This means that the real questions are: 1. Is it affordable? 2. What is the costs and benefits of doing it now or now or later? 3. What are the costs and benefits of a private or public ownership model? 1. This is almost moot now. The original question of NBN or nothing is no longer on the table. We are just faced with a cheaper upfront or a better long term option. The cost per household is significant something of the order of a couple of thousand dollars per household with the bulk of the cost being putting the cable in the ground. $2k is not a trivial amount of money but we are getting something that will be used relentlessly for like 50 years. Compare this with a new car, a kitchen renovation or roof replacement and it's a relatively small amount of money. I guess this is is something like what most households would spend on technology hardware over a couple years but the NBN cabling will be running when the 2013 TV or computer would be a museum piece. Paying $2k off over 20 years at 5% would be about $13/month $160/year which looks like an absolute bargain to me. YMMV. 2. Given the the Liberal NBN has something like half the upfront cost and significantly higher and running costs there's a point about 20 years hence when you were better off going with the expensive option from the start and getting the benefits. At this point, we will need to build a network like the Labor NBN at something like the same real cost. Mass produced hardware gets cheaper over time It won't be getting wildly cheaper to dig up roads and footpaths. This seems like a no-brainer investment choice to me. The only reason for not going with it would be that you are too destitute to get the loan, or that you believe that any government spending is wrong for some religious reason that can only be understood by fellow sect members (in which case you should also hate other government extravagances like the electricity system, the road system, the sewerage system, scheme water, etc.) 3. If the purpose of the NBN is gouging the maximum possible money from the punters then the public ownership model is really bad. Nothing beats the pricing potential being a single supplier of an essential resource. Since the cost of entry, ie, laying down cable, is extremely high there will be little chance of competition except in highly populated areas. A single ubiquitous standard infrastructure platform, available to everyone and open to carrier competition is going to be a lot cheaper for consumers. It is also worth noting that buying the thing on the lower interest rate offered to stable "AAA" governments also present a major project cost saving, like a third of the interest cost on a 20 year loan. The Liberal model appears to recognise these factors as they have adopted a similar public model. One thing that worries me is that Labor plan - I guess, the Liberal plan too - includes selling the NBN when it is built. - Jim . On 23 April 2013 21:09, David Boxall <[email protected]> wrote: > On 23/04/2013 6:49 PM, Frank O'Connor wrote: > > ... > > Turnbull's NBN? Not even a quarter as attractive. ... > As Paul Brooks said > <http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/link/2013-April/099706.html>: > > 75% of the cost to build 70% of the network in 80% of the timeframe to > provide less > > than 10% of the capacity ... > > In the 1960s, part of the road outside my school in Sydney's Surry Hills > collapsed. When they dug it up, the foundation proved to be timber > blocks. Looks like what the Coalition plans is a timber foundation for > the NBN. > > -- > David Boxall | Drink no longer water, > | but use a little wine > http://david.boxall.id.au | for thy stomach's sake ... > | King James Bible > | 1 Timothy 5:23 > _______________________________________________ > Link mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link > _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
