https://theqlder.com/2019/05/11/how-the-liberals-sabotaged-the-nbn/
> James Calligeros > > Spurred on by two decades of Telstra owning a private monopoly on last-mile > telecommunications infrastructure, the Labor Party envisioned the NBN as the > solution to Australia’s growing digital divide. In 2013, the solution became > part of the problem with the Liberal Party’s total destruction of the > program. Why? > > No two entities stood to lose more from the NBN than Rupert Murdoch’s News > Corporation and Telstra. One controlled – and still controls – virtually all > regularly circulated print media in Australia. The other controlled a > vertically integrated telecommunications monopoly for well over a decade. > Together they controlled the only pay TV network in the country – Foxtel. > > The NBN posed an existential threat to this triad. It would take away > Telstra’s vertically integrated monopoly on telecommunications. Access to > streaming services would severely disrupt Foxtel’s monopoly on “premium” > entertainment. Ubiquitous access to real news would deprive News Corporation > of its ability to control the country’s political narrative. For Telstra, > News Corp and Foxtel to remain viable, Rupert Murdoch would have to destroy > the NBN. > > To this end, he relied on an ally in government. A man with no mind, with no > ideas of his own. One might almost say a man with no brain. No, not Baldrick. > Tony Abbott. The plan was to destroy the NBN from within, and hopefully make > a few bucks while doing so. > > The 2013 Liberal broadband policy launch was a farce. Abbott’s script was > blatantly prepared directly by his puppet masters, as it amounted to little > more than a regurgitation of the same hogwash that had been appearing in the > pages of Murdoch’s The Australian. He repeated lie after lie after lie. > Labor’s plan is going to cost $90bn (the FTTP cost per premises almost halved > from 2011 to 2013). Labor’s plan was not going to be finished until 2030 > (FTTP rollout time for a given service area was shortened by weeks between > 2011 and 2013). Labor’s plan was extravagant and unnecessary. The Liberal > Party was taking with it to the election an alternative NBN (in the same way > that anti-vax pages are “alternative news”). The Liberal party proposed an > alternative they promised would be “cheaper, faster, sooner.” Spoiler alert – > it wasn’t any of those. > > Abbott continued to belabour the point that the Internet was nothing more > than a “…video entertainment network…” used by entitled millennials to pirate > Game of Thrones, and that no one actually needed what Labor was building. > Abbott also mentioned that Telstra’s 5G network would render FTTP obsolete (a > moronic statement that will never come to fruition), so we should all just go > contract with Telstra! And just as a final extra middle finger to the art of > subtlety, this entire event was hosted at Foxtel Studios in Sydney. > > The new Liberal policy was to stop roll outs of a permanently future proof, > world-class network and replace it with a technology from the late 90s that > Telstra itself said was dead in the water in 2003; Fibre to the Node. Rather > than roll fibre all the way to the premises, it would be deployed to a > roadside cabinet, from which Telstra’s existing copper network would be used > to provide VDSL to the premises. This is the same Telstra copper network that > in 2003 was described by Telstra CEO Ziggy Switkowski as being “…five minutes > to midnight…” The Liberal party promised that FTTN would be capable of > delivering a minimum of 25Mbps to all Australians by 2016, a promise they > knew they could not keep, and had no intention of doing so anyway. > > Perhaps the biggest slap in the face to the Australian people is that by > 2013, most newer developments already had a variant of FTTN called RIM. This > service began seeing widespread deployment by Telstra in the late 90s as a > cheaper alternative to running copper all the way from the exchange. The real > motive was to lock entire estates into only being with Telstra for telephony > and broadband services, as third parties were unable to access this RIM > infrastructure. The service was (and is) unreliable and slow, to the point > where people stuck on RIMs often request to be moved to a direct connection > to the exchange. And this is the technology the Liberal Party said would > bring Australians into the 21st century. > > The Abbott Government’s first act was to force the resignation of NBNCo. > chairman Dr Mike Quigley – a man who had for years been extremely critical of > Telstra’s market practices. After doing away with Dr Quigley, one Dr Ziggy > Switkowski was appointed as chairman. Yes, him. It seems like “five minutes > to midnight” actually means “forever if you shovel enough money into it.” > > Following Switkowski’s appointment, all NBNCo. operations were ordered to > cease pending a “Strategic Review” into the feasibility of the network. This > review was principally conducted by Deloitte – the same Deloitte responsible > for the 2011 tobacco lobby’s report into the Australian tobacco industry – a > report universally condemned and called “baseless and deceptive” by Home > Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor. This review halted all operations at > NBNCo. for at least 3 months. > > Oddly enough, this totally independent and unbiased report concluded that > FTTP was in fact the work of Satan. The report also “recommended” following > the Liberal Party NBN policy document to the tee. Build and design contracts > for FTTP were torn up on the spot, leaving suburbs such as Ascot literally > half-baked. Palm Avenue, for example, has FTTP deployed halfway down the > street, while the other half is still yet to be connected to the NBN. > > Half a year was then wasted redesigning the network and drawing up new > contracts with Telstra to shovel as much money as possible into the > corporation. Telstra won design, build and maintenance contracts for the > copper component of the network. It is important to bear in mind through all > of this an ex-Telstra CEO was chairman of NBNCo – a chairman who had in the > past been found in breach of conflict of interest laws as head of ANSTO, > Australia’s nuclear regulator. > > Most of 2014 was now gone, and no new work had been done on the NBN save for > some limited FTTN trials. Towards the end of 2014 however, large-scale > deployment of FTTN began, and this is where NBN complaints started flooding > the mainstream media. Of course, these complaints mostly came from > ill-informed people who blamed Labor for “doing the NBN,” as was the > intention of the Liberal Party from the start – turn public opinion against > the NBN. > > The Party now had a dilemma. The public was no longer accepting FTTN as a > solution, but after years of badgering Labor for FTTP, they could not turn > back. This is where the “anything but fibre” doctrine was adopted. NBNCo. > moved to minimise the amount of FTTN in the network by approaching Optus and > Telstra with offers to buy their HFC networks. Optus received $800m. Telstra, > on the other hand, received an IV drip. The transfer of HFC assets was > incorporated into the existing $11bn “pit and pipe” lease contract, the > details of which remained private for a while. Telstra guaranteed the > government this network was fit for use. More spoilers – it wasn’t. > > HFC as a technology is infinitely superior to FTTN and almost as good as FTTP > … when designed and built properly. Optus’s network was designed and built > first and foremost as a broadband network. Telstra’s was designed originally > only to carry Foxtel. Again, in totally transparent and unbiased trials, > Optus’s network was deemed unfit for purpose and discarded. $800m of your > money gone. Telstra’s network was of course perfect. > > Telstra’s network was designed for a maximum utilisation of around 30% of the > rollout area. This information was either withheld from the government or > ignored by a certain ex-Telstra CEO. NBNCo thought it had a huge win on its > hands – a “here’s one I prepared earlier” network that they could just start > connecting customers to immediately. Except when they started doing so, the > network failed. NBN, Telstra Cable and Foxtel services all suffered from > widespread disruptions and signal quality issues. Years of neglect and > absolute barebones maintenance had left it in a state of disrepair. Loose > connections, corroded taps, 20+ year old amps, cables chewed up by rats. Last > year, NBNCo. made the decision to halt all new connections to HFC and spend > some time remediating the network. No points for guessing which large telco > with HFC experience was awarded this multi-billion-dollar remediation > contract. > > Again, in a total oversight and not at all a conscious decision borne of deep > rooted corruption, Telstra and Foxtel were allowed to continue connecting new > customers as NBNCo paid to expand and repair the network. Telstra also used > the refurbished network to boost speeds on Telstra Cable at no cost to > themselves which resulted in a large number of new customers signing 24-month > contracts for the service – contracts which also locked them in to staying > with Telstra when NBNCo eventually lifted the stop-sell. > > Unlocking HFC’s full speeds requires the entire RF spectrum from 60-1000MHz > be available to NBNCo. Part of the purchase agreement made with Telstra is > that Foxtel gets to stay on the network – our network – for as long as they > like – consuming the vast majority of the RF spectrum on the network. > > We were sold universal access to high-speed broadband, and a dream of > unlocking new economic prosperity, a dream we were so close to realising. > What we got instead was literal state-sponsored Bolt Report broadcasts, > delivered straight to your Foxtel telescreen on government-owned > infrastructure. What we got is outer metropolitan suburbs on satellite > connections meant to be reserved for remote homesteads. What we got was a > hodgepodge of old Telstra assets that were on the table for replacement 15 > years ago. What we got was brazen and deep-rooted corruption – the pissing > away of Australia’s digital future – and the giving away of undisclosed > billions of taxpayer dollars – in exchange for positive coverage in the > Murdoch press and a free ride to the PM’s office. > > This is on everyone that voted Liberal in 2013. This is on everyone who > subscribes to Foxtel “just for the footy, mate.” This is on everyone who > purchases Murdoch newspapers. This is on millennials who don’t register to > vote because they think the system sucks. This is on boomers who couldn’t > care less about modern problems and future planning because it won’t affect > them. This is on everyone who thinks Australian politics is boring and > doesn’t matter. You did this. > > I hope you’re happy. -- Kim Holburn IT Network & Security Consultant T: +61 2 61402408 M: +61 404072753 mailto:[email protected] aim://kimholburn skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
