Most households won't pay the price of a high-speed broadband network

THE brawl over the National Broadband Network is becoming more intense.

The opposition is trying to use the estimated cost of the project to attack the government's financial judgment and capacity to deliver on its promises.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is clearly also frustrated by what he insists is a media campaign led by The Australian to discredit the NBN.

But the real problem has always been Labor's determination to fuse the commercial case for the NBN with what it believes are the project's broader economic and social benefits. With the rollout starting, the potential conflicts between those two different positions become ever more apparent, leading to increased and more prominent coverage of the story.

That also includes the difference between the speed available via the fibre network -- at least 100Mbps -- and what speed most households currently want or are willing to pay for.

Source: www.theaustralian.com.au... 1

AiG business lobby backs ubiqituous NBN

The powerful lobby Australian Industry Group has thrown its weight behind the National Broadband Network, calling the project an "unprecedented opportunity" for business innovation and placed a premium value on the ubiquitous nature of the fibre roll-out.

An innovation report released by AiG in Canberra today found that while there were concerns among businesses about cost transparency and the fact that it was a Government-led enterprise, the investment “has substantial possibility to generate long-term positive opportunities across many sectors of the economy.”

The report, by AiG's Innovation Review Steering Group, was based on a five month engagement with more than 400 businesses.

The NBN, so to speak, would be the largest dinosaur project ever embarked on by any Australian government.

This project is clearly a step in the wrong direction, as there has been no cost-benefit analysis (the costs would most likely exceed the benefits by an order of magnitude), not all Australians would want broadband, not all Australians even have a personal computer!

The National Broadband Network rightfully deserves to be titled the National Boondoggle Network

I dunot know why they don't put the money into wireless technoology, i.e. the mobile phone type internet connection. This is the tehnoology of now and the future. Hard wired stuff is the technology of the present and past.

Obviously taking instructions from some higher ups.

cya

Last month, the U.N. endorsed the National Broadband Network project, which was a far cry from a Snowy River scheme.

In another audacious move, Stephen Conroy threatens to use federal law to force NBN on states should they revolt.