At home with the NBN
We see it all too often...Stephen Conroy and NBN supporters coming out and telling us of all the possibilities that the NBN will give us. They also produce fancy flyers and video advertisements posted onto sites like YouTube to demonstrate what will apparently come about as a result of this project. The video below is a prime example of this government propaganda that is being circulated amongst the Australian Public.
There a number of fundamental flaws in this video that are explained below, but above all, the video focuses on software possibilities that the NBN could enable. Most of these technologies are not yet available to the Australian public for wide usage and often the bandwidth provided by the NBN is not required with current internet speeds being able to produce the same results.
The software demonstrations shown throughout the video are in no way factual. For example, we see a transparent projection of a screen shown in the 'office' room and many more that are similar. In the same clip, we see 3D Graphical models being manipulated via the movement of the user's hands. (See example below) These examples both look like something straight out of a hollywood blockbuster.
NBN: $132m a year for 560 customers
Can you believe it? Well that's correct...The Daily Telegraph today reported that a massive $235,000 is being spent per customer by the Government every year on NBN Co.'s staff salaries alone!
The Article reported:
THE cost of salaries for employees of the controversial National Broadband Network has hit $132 million a year, despite the fledgling company servicing just 561 customers.
...the NBN has just 561 customers across the entire country, with revenue of only about $3 million.
Even this started to puzzle me: how do 561 customers supposedly make up a $3 million dollar revenue? If there are only 561 customers bringing in about $3m p.a, this means each customer pays on average $445 per month (and I don't see many customers signing up at that price!). Using internode as our example ISP, we know that plans for the NBN are available starting for a 100Mbps connection with a 15BG quota at $59.95, and ranging to $139.95 for a 200GB quota (I would be going for this plan with those speeds!). The revenue figures just don't seem to add up...
NBN Co has also stated that by the end of June the company is expected to have 1000 staff - almost two employees for every customer! Labor's management of this plan is ludicrous as they allow so many executives to run a company offering very high salaries to their employees with such a small customer base. A private sector company would never allow this to occur, and unfortunately, because the company is Government Sponsored with no risk of collapsing, the company can continue to operate at a huge loss. Opposition communications and broadband spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said "This is a start-up business, but unlike every other start-up business, there are no financial constraints at all". After a decade of the Taxpayer footing the bill, Labor's broadband plan hopes to bring in revenues of $5.8Billion.
Conroy’s Digital Economy Con
Thought this article posted by Malcolm Turnbull on his personal website was worth sharing. Let me know what you think!
The plans for Australia’s digital economy as outlined by Senator Conroy today reveal the hollowness of the argument for an immensely expensive and excessively risky Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) network.
The Coalition broadly supports the eight goals outlined by Senator Conroy today. But they could all be achieved by spending much less than $50 billion on a FTTH network.
A cursory look at each of the Government’s goals reveal the shortcomings and shallowness of Senator Conroy’s arguments for a new, anti-competitive, one-size-fits-all Government-owned fixed line monopoly.