Opinion: The faster the better
- 07 August, 2012 11:28
- Comments 3
Sometimes it’s hard to believe we live in a intelligent and aware society.
Over the past 18 months I’ve watched as the National Broadband Network (NBN) has been tossed around with, at times, little regard for what it really represents by both sides of the polical fence.
It has become the proverbial political football. How sad.
Before we get started I’ll state my politics so there’s no accusations of my having a political agenda with this piece. Frankly, both major parties are sad and sorry cases, right now, neither deserving of my support. I wish one was. Politics at both Federal and State levels is about as low as it can go.
The NBN is a desperately needed in Australia. I don’t care which party puts it up, implements it, rolls it out.
Labor happened to get in first. That said, the Liberal party deserves a walloping over how it has handled its opposition to the NBN. Yes, it should hold the Government accountable for any slowness in the roll-out, budget over spend, deviation from the orginal plan, and so on. But inanely opposing it for the sake of opposing it ranks of little vision or understanding.
Opposition telecoms spokesperson and chief NBN-basher, Malcolm Turnbull, has yet to come up with a sophisticated option and I would suggest any attempt to stop the NBN dead in its tracks with the rollout well underway should the Liberal party come to power at the next election would rank with the all-time most stupid political acts.
This is all so simple. It isn’t about politics, it’s about Australia and it’s position in the world. It’s about standard of living, economics, and competing on the world stage. Australia needs a world-class broadband network if it is going to compete successfully. Right now, it has a fairly ordinary broadband system.
You think not. Let’s look at some facts.
State of the Internet
According to the world recognised State of The Internet, fourth quarter, 2011 report, from Akamai Technologies, the top three countries in the Asia-Pacific region for average connection speed in Megabits per second (Mbps) were South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong. South Korea remained a clear first, with an average connection speed of 17.5 Mbps leading both Japan and Hong Kong (both 9.1 Mbps) by over 8 Mbps. Australia came in a distant fourth with an average connection speed of 4.9 Mbps, just ahead of Singapore (4.6).
On the world stage it’s even worse - Australia doesn’t rate near the top 10 countries - South Korea 17.5 Mbps, Japan 9.1, Hong Kong 9.1, Netherlands 8.2, Latvia 7.8, Switzerland 7.3, Ireland 6.8, Czech Republic 6.7, Romania 6.4, Belgium 6.1. The US manages 13th with 5.8 Mbps. Canada isn’t far behind far behind at 5.6 Mbps, the UK is even with Australia and a host of European countries beat both.
Competition So you get the picture. Australia is not competing on the world stage. Even worse it isn’t on the same page in Asia-Pac. In a mobility-obsessed and driven business world a fast broadband network is not only essential it’s mandatory.
On a personal level, I recently moved to Manly. To get a decent basic broadband connection I had to change ISPs because it turns out only one really services the suburb.
That is wrong, as well. Unfortunately, Manly is not scheduled for NBN connection until beyond 2015. And before you say I live in a tech bubble, believe me I don’t. Yes, I’m the editorial director of a tech-related mag, yes I’m a bit of an Apple fiend, but as much of my spare time as possible is spent outdoors – fishing, preferably in places where’s the no tech, no mobile coverage and no people.
But at work - both at home and in the office - I use the Internet a lot - and I mean, a lot. The faster the better. And I’m not alone in that. Education, e-Health, big business, finance, IT and a zillion other sectors are also going to benefit. Time equals money.
So please stop the political hairspray, stop the inane posturing – on both sides. Turnbull and co may be bad, but Conroy’s press releases have to be read to believed – every step is accompanied by rhetoric about the NBN and/or a demonstration of the benefits of the NBN. The hyperbole is as awful as it is repetitive and boring. Just give Australia a decent broadband network, please. We need it.
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Comments
seven_tech
1
Hear hear!!
I've been saying this for some considerable time now. I don't give a fig who builds it, as long as it gets built. But at the moment, the only people who WILL build it are Labor. And if that means I have to vote Labor to see the NBN built....well, worst crimes have been committed.
Australia DESPERATELY needs this massive infrastructure boost to the digital economy. Without it our already lagging place in the digital world will fall exponentially further behind.
FTTH to Australians is not an IF it's a WHEN. The when SHOULD be now and it would be, as you say, an all time low and massive political failure should the Coalition get in and blindly take an axe to the whole thing.
Keeping fighting the good fight!
Andrew
2
I couldn't agree more! The state of broadband in Oz is terrible. If Liberals get back in control prior to the NBN being rolled, we face a dire situation with their half baked idea that fibre to the node is going to be good enough, but what they fail to tell everyone is that rolling out a FTTN network might be cheaper now, but we will end up paying to get FTTH down the track anyway because the FTTN model doesn't work good enough because we still have to rely on copper for the last mile, which is where all the problems are. Just look at what has happened in the UK in the last few days, the house of lords has now recommended that they start building an NBN similar to Oz's NBN FTTH plus ex british telecom CTO Peter Cochrane saying that rolling out FTTN in the UK was 'one of the biggest mistakes humanity has made'. I wonder what Malcolm Turnball would say about FTTN now given that BT's FTTN network was something he used as a 'good enough for them' badge.
Mike
3
I seriously believe that whatever the "policy" the LNP takes to the next election, it will be scrapped within – what, a month? The old excuses that 'we can't afford it' and 'we've been left a huge hole in the budget' will be trotted out like a set of tired 10 year old Christmas decorations. The bits of the NBN that are in place will be sold to the 'highest bidder' – who will of course be Telstra. Underhand and shady deals will make sure of that. Telstra and the Coalition will 'promise' the Australian public that 'it is committed to providing a national network equivalent to that the Government would have built but at no – or minimal – cost to the public purse'. Since "the Government" will then be a Coalition one, and their network plans will have been suitably vague, we won't be able to argue. Telstra will cherry pick the most profitable bits – possibly roll out some more 'top-hat' updates; show that speeds have increased a few kb/s and suddenly determine that it's all too hard (i.e unprofitable) to do anything in the bush. Those on the (original) NBN fibre will see their prices go through the roof due to lack of competition, and the use of cabinets will ensure that Telstra can obfuscate and delay the installation of competitor equipment for such FTTN rollout they might halfheartedly do.
And Turnbull will be invited to sit on the Telstra board as he picks up his fat pollie pension and disappears into the sunset......and we will be left to pick up the pieces.