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The NBN (National Broadband Network)

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boyo

Mark Ella (57)
Copper_Man_Australias_Poor_Quality_Broadband_976b068e83313550f75d_1.jpg
 

boyo

Mark Ella (57)
NBN Co and the ACCC
http://davidhavyatt.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/nbn-co-and-accc.html

"This is a member of Dr Vertigan's Expert Panel that is preparing the CBA who still seems to believe the Coalition policy document cost (peak funding) citing $96B when the real peak funding (all equity) for the two FTTP scenarios in the Strategic Review were $63B and $54B. (And both of those were artificially inflated by still assuming away revenue from higher speed services).

Hopefully the CBA will be based on the cost data provided by NBN Co and not Mr Ergas's recollections."


 

boyo

Mark Ella (57)
Wrapping the NBN in cotton wool

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/7/17/technology/wrapping-nbn-cotton-wool

"The problem with government reviews and audits
It’s an unfortunate aspect of government that commissioned reviews and audits are often carried out by panels consisting of lawyers, accountants and economists and all too often panels do not include scientists and engineers. And this could be why the telecommunications industry is in the mess that it is in today.
Since the 2013 election the government has commissioned a number of reviews and audits into the NBN but interestingly Turnbull has not commissioned a technical review. The 2008 technical review into access network infrastructure carried out by an expert panel that included Laureate Professor Rod Tucker, Professor Emeritus of Communications Reg Coutts and the then Treasury Secretary Dr Ken Henry, among others, recommended a fibre access network. Perhaps the current government is worried that another technical review may again point towards a full fibre-access network rollout."

As I've said^^^^ "MT seems to use committees/reviews/enquiries/etc. as an excuse for inaction."
 

Gnostic

Mark Ella (57)
18 months ago the NBN construction crews went through the Mid North Coast NSW and put up all the wireless towers and ran the fibre to them from the local exchanges.

18 months has passed and none of this capital infrastructure has been commissioned. Being in business myself I am sensitive to have idle capital. 18 months and counting is a long time to have idle capital and there is no information as to when the system will be operational. Given the number of towers we are talking about it is a very significant amount of money, just sitting idle generating no income. These people are idiots.
 

boyo

Mark Ella (57)
The Mtm rollout so far:-


FTTN = Delayed and issues (power and copper).
FTTB = (FTT basement. Used for unit blocks, etc.) Delayed meaning more time for TPG/Telstra/Others to extend using 1km rule.
Telstra agreement = Delayed.
CBA = Delayed.
FTTP = Slower now than previously.


Nearly 11 months since the election and still no customers for Mtm, whilst the world continues to rollout FTTP.
 

boyo

Mark Ella (57)
MT has invested in companies in France, in Spain, and in the USA that are rolling out FTTP networks, yet he condemns Australia to Mtm.

When it comes to his own money he invests in FTTP, but when it comes to Australia's money he runs away.
 

boyo

Mark Ella (57)
Playing NBN politics with the ACCC

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/8/1/technology/playing-nbn-politics-accc

"Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann have let the cat out of the bag in their recent letter to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman Rod Sims.
If nothing else, the communique reads like an attempt to placate Telstra, which holds all the cards in the NBN negotiations and whose position gets stronger by the day.
Given the bargaining chips in Telstra’s possession, the government has little choice other than to give ground. But does the competition watchdog share the sentiment?"

"The mere mention of Turnbull’s name is likely to remind Telstra chief executive David Thodey of the famous line uttered by the media mogul Kerry Packer when he said, "You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime, and I've had mine."
"
"You might think the government would be interested in protecting the interests of 22 million Australian consumers... but you would be wrong.
The government letter states, “the terms agreed by Telstra, NBN Co and the government were approved by Telstra’s 1.4 million shareholders in October 2011. It will undermine the integrity of this deal if Telstra shareholders are deprived of the benefit of arrangements they did not initiate but negotiated in good faith.”

"If Australian consumers have to pay more so the government can keep its election promise to provide Australians with a slower and less capable NBN sometime after 2020 so be it. This government appears to be ready to take whatever steps are necessary.
 

Runner

Nev Cottrell (35)
Labor’s NBN planning ‘chaotic and inadequate’

05 Aug 2014 Joanna Heath

An audit conducted by former Productivity Commission head Bill Scales is damning in its judgement of the policy formation process for the second, vastly expanded version of the NBN in 2009

Labor’s $43 billion National Broadband Network was rushed and improperly launched without necessary preparation or analysis, a report has found.

The audit conducted by former Productivity Commission head Bill Scales is damning in its judgment of the policy formation process for the second, vastly expanded version of the NBN in 2009, describing it as “rushed, chaotic and inadequate, with only perfunctory consideration by the Cabinet”.

“There is no evidence that a full range of options was seriously considered. There was no business case or any cost benefit analysis, or independent studies of the policy undertaken, with no clear operating instructions provided to [NBN Co], within a legislative and regulatory framework still undefined, and without any consultation with the wider community,” Mr Scales wrote.

NBN Co, as the government business entity set up to run the NBN’s construction and operation in only 11 weeks, was not fit for purpose and woefully inadequate for the task, the report found. Governance arrangements at NBN Co had a long-term and detrimental effect on the roll out of the NBN, it adds.

“NBN Co was a start-up company given a job that only a well-functioning, large, and established telecommunications company would have been able to undertake in the allotted timeframe,” Mr Scales wrote.

The report is also heavily critical of the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission, which Mr Scales said “overstepped its authority” when it advised the government ahead of the first NBN plan in 2007 that fibre-to-the-node, the current government’s model, was not a “stepping stone” to fibre-to-the-home.

In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the NBN, Mr Scales recommends any large infrastructure projects included in election commitments be independently costed by the Productivity Commission or Infrastructure Australia and the full costs made public.

Public infrastructure projects costing over $1 billion should also be subject to a public cost benefit analysis study.

Communications minister Malcolm Turnbull said Mr Scales report suggested “very sound recommendations” that would be considered by cabinet, adding they were consistent with common sense and largely with existing government policy.

He said he was in favour of cost-benefit analyses being made public wherever possible.

“The guts of it should be made public so that the public understands what the government is doing with their money and also frankly the importance of making things public,” Mr Turnbull told Sky News.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s $5.5 billion paid parental leave scheme did not fall under Mr Scales’ recommendations because it was not an infrastructure project, Mr Turnbull said.

“PPL was approved by the shadow cabinet although it is fair to say the leader of the opposition as he was then was made it pretty clear what he wanted.”

“That is the policy we took to two elections including the one we just won. We have a clear mandate for it, and it’s not infrastructure.”

Mr Turnbull’s cost benefit analysis of the current roll-out, headed by former head of Treasury Michael Vertigan, is due to be published within months.

Former communications minister Stephen Conroy has already hit the airwaves to defend the Rudd government’s signature project. He said the Labor government “optimistically believed” the construction companies contracted to build the NBN would deliver on time.

“The government has now spent $10 million commissioning six reports that are all a political attack on the NBN,” Senator Conroy said.

He added that there had been alternatives to the $43 billion model discussed in 2009, but Mr Scales was not aware because they took place in cabinet.

Current shadow communications minister Jason Clare said Mr Turnbull was wasting money commissioning reports that told him what he wanted to hear.

“Instead of paying his mates to write reviews and fixating on Stephen Conroy, he should get on with building the NBN,” Mr Clare said in a statement.

The Australian Financial Review

 

boyo

Mark Ella (57)
When reading an audit such as this is it first important to observe that it was 'Coalition commissioned' as opposed to an independent audit. The next step is to then have a look at who the auditor to check if they are:
A. a major contributor to the Coalition;
B. have previously worked for the Coalition in whatever capacity to induce Coalition nepotism;
C. a business owner whose self-interests are linked to Coalition ideology;
D. All of the above.

Then measure the credibility of the audit. Essentially though, all you need to do is see that it has been commissioned by the Coalition and know with great confidence that it is a load of rubbish and set up to justify the current direction of keeping Australia in the 1900s (technology-wise).
 
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