Rebel telcos call for 'NBN 3.0'
- — 01 September, 2010 09:09
A splinter group of rebel telecommunications players have broken with their Australian brethren's long-standing support for Labor's National Broadband Network policy, publishing their own, "NBN 3.0" model in an apparent attempt to influence the independent members of parliament who may help decide the next Federal Government.
The group is led by a number of prominent NBN critics -- PIPE Networks founder Bevan Slattery, AAPT chief executive Paul Braud and BigAir chief executive Jason Ashton -- and also includes other companies such as Allegro Networks, EFTel, Vocus Communications, Polyfone and HaleNET.
In an open letter published today (the full PDF can be found here), the telcos strongly put their view that competitive markets were "better managers of capital and technology risk" than governments -- in direct contradiction to Labor's oft-repeated statement that Australia's telecommunications market had failed.
"We believe the argument for a national, fibre-only NBN solution has failed to convince," the letter states.
"For the short to medium term we see, globally, no demonstrated mass requirement for the 'up to 1Gbps' speeds to homes and [home offices]. Instead, we see the greatest priority is giving broadband to those who don't have any, not faster broadband to those that have."
The so-called 'Alliance for Affordable Broadband' laid out a number of principles upon which the Government should structure NBN policy, including the following planks:
- A 4G national wholesale wireless network to reach 98 percent of Australians at speeds of up to 100Mbps
- Fibre or equivalent fixed connections to create a competitive backhaul network and to connect schools, hospitals and most businesses, at speeds up to 1Gbps
- Fibre in some other areas where there was a demonstrated need, via commercial return
- Satellite for remote areas, at speeds of up to 12Mbps
- A focus on a public/private model
The alliance hinted that its model could be one advocated by one of the independents who will hold the balance of power in the House of Representatives in the current hung parliament.
"We believe that a well-informed independent member of parliament might wisely favour a NBN v3 public/private model on a mix of technologies, with deliverables within a term, over a more costly and more risky 8+ year NBN 2.0 rollout," the document stated.
It finally noted that the NBN 3.0 proposal could be delivered "for a fraction of the cost" as Labor's $43 billion NBN policy.
The NBN model proposed by the Alliance shared a number of similarities with the Coalition's model -- namely the focus on wireless as a delivery model, as well as competitive backhaul and meeting the needs of those currently without broadband.
Harry
Fri 03/09/2010 - 06:25
I can only read in to this report "self interest".
It even reminds me of the that famous line "let the peasants eat cake".
The reality is that this NBN can carry Internet, Telephone,Pay TV as well as "Streeming Video" yet most Commentators conveniently overlook this and refer only to its Internet Capability.
As far as speed is concerned the cost difference between 100Mb/s and 1 Gig is minimal, so why not future proof the network by having the faster speed. Additionally the Higher speed can reduce congestion by increasing the throughput. Even my own home network uses a Gigabyte switch and all the computers etc have Gigabit ethernet connections. With even larger and faster hard drives and SSD's becoming available at affordable prices, backup times become shorter and more efficient at the Higher speed. Add to that the number of IT consultants and Graphic Artists who either work from home or small suburban offices and have a need to upload and down load large files and you begin to realise the speed benefit.
This reminds me of other examples, a typical one being the retrofitting of seat belts to Cars which were built at a time when belts were available yet not mandated.
Lets do it once and do it properly.