The main problem with the NBN

Greg Jericho identifies The main problem with the NBN lies within the government’s intent.

When your objective is to provide an internet service that’s good enough just to download Netflix, there will be problems

The NBN, Australia's National Tragedy

In The Tragedy of Australia’s National Broadband Network Rodney Tucker explores how most of the world is deploying FTTP rather than obsolete FTTN, and how FTTP deployment costs are comparable to FTTN in other parts of the world, including New Zealand.

Flaws in the NBN CBA

Rod Tucker highlights some Serious flaws in Turnbull's NBN cost-benefit analysis report.

A good article on why Labor created the NBN

David Braue explains the reason Labor created the NBN in Time for a reality check on Labor's CBA-less NBN strategy.

Some useful NBN related links

jxeeno blog: NBN: FTTP workflow resumes in mainland states
NBN Co: 6SPT Roll Out Map
Graph showing speed vs distance for different DSL technologies:

FTTC Speed Graph:

Devoted NBN: Service Qualification Tool
myNBN Info: List of FSAMs for 6SPT
NBN Co: Work flow:

Right to Know: Victorian FSAM coverage areas
Right to Know: Western Australian FSAM coverage areas

Vectoring not a solution for NBN

In Blowing Thought Bubbles Like A Preschooler With Bubblegum the Sortius is a geek blog looks at Turnbull's proposal to use vectoring technology on ADSL instead of fibre.

The NBN vs the Coalition's proposal

In The vast differences between the NBN and the Coalition's alternative Nick Ross has written a detailed comparison of the Government's NBN and the Coalition's proposal:

The Coalition's broadband policy slogan states that they will "Complete the current NBN cheaper and faster." This simply isn't true.

Ross goes on to justify this statement in great detail. Whilst Ross comes across as a little on the strident side (and I'm not sure the suggested savings in health costs would ever eventuate) I think his argument is essentially correct.

An NBN product review

In Product Review: The National Broadband Network Nick Ross has written a great article on the NBN.

Why Australia needs fibre and the NBN

Nick Ross looks at a report from Cisco in NBN stats: Australia's broadband future and why the Coalition's alternative 'won't work':

The world's foremost internet traffic study and growth forecast, which historically has been proven very accurate, describes a further explosion of internet traffic around the world and in Australia. The findings illustrate a requirement for fibre optic cable "deep deep into the infrastructure" both for wired and wireless broadband connections.

Ross also writes:

Speaking at a recent VNI announcement was Dr Robert Pepper, Cisco's Vice President of Global Technology Policy. He has sat on the board of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the USA and currently sits on the UK's equivalent, Ofcom. In these roles he briefs governments and network operators from around the world on infrastructure, what to expect from future data requirements and modes of broadband usage based upon traffic stats and growth curves. He is an American based in the USA and has no dealings with Australian politics. Some of the key points he made were:-

• That all roads point to the requirement of optic fibre being implemented deep into both wired and wireless networks.
• The future is indeed wireless, but it's mostly WiFi and not 4G.
• Wireless technologies need to be primarily methods of connecting to nearby fibre networks.
• That Australian mobile networks will soon have to join the US and UK in offloading data onto local WiFi networks in order to avoid congestion.
• That a 4G mobile user uses 28x more data than a 3G user.
• That new wireless spectrum needs to be opened up as quickly as possible to cope with growth.
• That as much wireless traffic as possible needs to be seamlessly offloaded onto the wired networks to avoid congestion.
• There is a huge increasing requirement for low-latency data transfer and high upload speeds.
• That a fibre to the node infrastructure which relies on a 'last mile' premises connection using Australia's current copper infrastructure, current HFC networks or fixed 4G-like wireless won't have the symmetry, contention ratio, bandwidth or latency to keep up with demand by 2016.
• That fibre needs to be very nearby every internet connection whether wired or wireless.

The NBN's objective

Michael Wyres writes in What Actually Is The NBN Objective? that the Opposition's proposed FTTN would cost around the same as the NBN's FTTP but deliver an inferior product that would need a costly upgrade sometime in the future.

The cost of scrapping the NBN

In Coalition shuffling feet on broadband "Jack the Insider" has an interesting point on the cost of scrapping the NBN if the Coalition win Government at the next election:

By the next election, the Commonwealth will have invested $15 billion into NBN Co. Should the Coalition win the next election and NBN Co.’s windows are boarded up as promised, standard accounting practices dictate that the $15 billion invested will have to appear as a line expenditure item in the Budget.

It is entirely possible that the Commonwealth could sell NBN Co.’s fibre assets in various locations around Australia to a telco of one stripe or another but it would be at a bargain basement price and significant contractual penalties would be payable.

Put another way, the Coalition, already committed to $70 billion in savings over the forward estimates, would have a further $15 billion to find.

None of that would be good news for Joe Hockey.

But it gets worse because Coalition policy would effectively shut down any sort of broadband roll out for at least five years. Citigroup estimates six months will be spent on the preparation of the cost benefit analysis the Opposition insists they need, two years will be needed to complete all contractual negotiations with stakeholders, including Telstra and Optus with a further three more years to be spent completing a necessary separation of Telstra. The policy won’t be implemented until 2018.

The cost to the Commonwealth? Citigroup puts it at $16.7 billion. Put in the $15 billion already spent and we’re getting close to the overall cost of the NBN: $35.9 billion.

So the Coalition’s policy is just a little cheaper but the concern is that it won’t even be half as good, will effectively ignore the existing structural problems in Australia’s telecommunications architecture and leave regional Australia in the dark yet again.

Cutting the NBN won't save money

Renai Lemay writes in Correction: Cutting the NBN won’t save money that Tony Abbott was wrong when, in his speech to the National Press Club, he claimed that "cutting Labor’s National Broadband Network project would free up Federal Government money to be spent in other areas such as transport". This is because the Government, as per internationally accepted accounting standards, treats the NBN as an asset rather than an expense (see the note below). What does this mean in practical terms. Well, say the Government was going to give NBN Company two billion dollars this year (a figure I made up). Because this is money spent on an asset, the Government can't treat that $2b as an expense (that's the way accounting works). So, not spending the money won't decrease the budget deficit or increase a surplus. If Tony Abbott came to power tomorrow and immediately cut funding to NBN Co he wouldn't suddenly have $2b extra to add to the budget bottom line. Of course he could use that $2b to purchase other assets. Alternatively, he could not spend that $2b and so not increase Government debt. However, I doubt that would save much as the Government is able to raise money incredible cheaply at the moment.

Note
The reason the NBN is an asset is two fold. One: It will generate revenue. Two: It can be sold. To quote Wikipedia:

In financial accounting, assets are economic resources. Anything tangible or intangible that is capable of being owned or controlled to produce value and that is held to have positive economic value is considered an asset. Simply stated, assets represent ownership of value that can be converted into cash (although cash itself is also considered an asset).