#U/C: $43billion FTTH NBN

[Omicron]

I would like to combine this with the Buckland Park thread so that I can confine my distaste to one giant thread of fail.

The only fail that I can see, is that there's someone wearing Crocs...

Ahaha!

What makes you think the NBN would fail?

It's the most ludicrously expensive, gargantuan, self-indulgent project to install 2011 technology in preparation for 2021 based on 2011 usage behaviours to a stupidly small percentage of people who'll make the most of it and a huge percentage of people who'll download superfast porn and buy ugly things from eBay. And, as a rule, I get grumpy about any proposal for the Government to use taxpayer dollars to inflate itself further.

I'm sorry sir, but I must respectfully disagree. Therefore I bestow you upon with the honourary badge of fail. I think more champagne for you at the Gallery would be in the forum's best interests to stop furthermore nonsensical squabbling of such matters.

Champagne! Sold.

[Isiskii]

When they built the railroads back in the 1800's - one could have just as easily said then as well. "We shouldn't build these tracks and things to all the towns and villages across the land, because who knows, in 10 years time, we might have a completely different way of traveling around."

Yet, more than 200 years on...

I do understand that the rate of technology development increases over time and that's a variable to consider, but if the copper network served us so well for the last 100 years, well I think its fair to say that we should rely on the fiber technology to serve us the next 50 years, and see what technology is available to us then when the time comes around. Better to have something to help us progress in the moment, than to be restricted by the constraints of an antiquated technology.

Someone please feel free to correct me on this, but fiber as I understand it can also carry more capacity without having to upgrade the actual fiber itself, just server points at each end where the data is stored which is an easy task unlike upgrading copper networks.

Isn't the cost of the NBN now $36b instead of $43b? - just thought the thread title could do with a bit of a change is all.

[Wayno]

Isn't the cost of the NBN now $36b instead of $43b? - just thought the thread title could do with a bit of a change is all.

$36bn provided by the govt, the rest presumably by the private sector.

[Omicron]

It's a diamond-encrusted golden sledgehammer used for a solitary nail. Granted, there'll be benefits, but I'm not at all convinced that they're sufficient to justify the exorbitant pricetag and rubbish return.

[Aidan]

Isn't the cost of the NBN now $36b instead of $43b? - just thought the thread title could do with a bit of a change is all.

$36bn provided by the govt, the rest presumably by the private sector.

No. The government did a deal with Telstra to bring the cost down by using some of their infrastructure.

$36bn is the total figure, with the government providing $27.1bn of that.

[Isiskii]

Call me a spin doctor, but wouldn't it have been better to spruik to the public that "The Federal Government is investing $27.1bn into the NBN."

Sure, you'd discreetly say, we've done a deal with Telstra in the fine print - Just seems obvious that the public would have responded less angriily about Labor's "wasteful" spending given the $16bn difference between saying $43bn and $27bn.

Seems a like good government which lost its way is getting worse. Such incompetence if they can't even sell their message through the media effectively.

[Aidan]

Call me a spin doctor, but wouldn't it have been better to spruik to the public that "The Federal Government is investing $27.1bn into the NBN."

Sure, you'd discreetly say, we've done a deal with Telstra in the fine print - Just seems obvious that the public would have responded less angriily about Labor's "wasteful" spending given the $16bn difference between saying $43bn and $27bn.

Seems a like good government which lost its way is getting worse. Such incompetence if they can't even sell their message through the media effectively.

It's not that they government are particularly bad at getting their message across, it's more that the opposition are particularly good at it. During the election campaign every chance they got they criticised it using the total cost figure (which at the time was estimated at $43bn). They made sure it was the figure that stuck in everyone's minds.

Unfortunately it's going to stay that way until everyone realises they're talking rubbish.