'Entire NBN Co board quits'

[poddster]

It gets better everyday 🙂

THE entire NBN Co board has reportedly submitted their resignations to Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

The resignations have yet to be accepted by the minister, Fairfax Media reports, and a decision is to be made at a cabinet meeting in early October.

Mr Turnbull hinted in July, after NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley quit, that he may sack board members from the organisation responsible for the national broadband network.

The coalition has blamed the board and executive team for massive cost blowouts, timetable delays and for contractors losing money.

Mr Turnbull said after the election that former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski would be well qualified for the role of NBN Co chairman.

The coalition's vastly different plan for the network would switch from the previous Labor government's fibre-to-the-home scheme to a cheaper fibre-to-the-node option.

[lakeland27]

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@poddster wrote:

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@cherples wrote:

What sort of person celebrates the destruction of an infrastructure project that is envied around the world?

What is it you are celebrating about?

That would be an immature clown who doesn't give a toss about those in areas with smaller populations than the cherry pickers would bother with.  Nice.

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Envied around the world???

The NBN Co. White Elephant you mean??

And as far as infrastructure is concerned , show me where it is or is it just a promise, pie in the sky.

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 we'll see how well the turnbull version goes first with inferior technology and coverage, then we'll have something to compare. i wonder what those in the bush who end up with nothing (again) will feel. i think they'll feel less inclined to vote national myself.

[poddster]

"Those in the bush" were never going to get fibre in any case.

Not even outlying communities were even if the cable wen up their main road unless they had 1000 residences.

LL don't believe all the hype and B/S that is offered up to you.

[lakeland27]

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@poddster wrote:

"Those in the bush" were never going to get fibre in any case.

Not even outlying communities were even if the cable wen up their main road unless they had 1000 residences.

LL don't believe all the hype and B/S that is offered up to you.

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do you know whats on the end of the line ? Towers . wireless broadcast towers , so the signal continues out to the previously ignored regions.. blackspots. the NBN towers have provision for phone company use as well. now, thats going too. back to the city-centric.

as i said, national voters have no idea . voting to cement tele-isolation for another generation.

[monman12]

"What sort of person celebrates the destruction of an infrastructure project that is envied around the world?"

Now for the reality,  a project that is "supposed" to be completed in 2021, is not fully costed,  and currently we do not know what we will get. because governments have their non business/science fingers in a technical pie.

"envied around the world" from countries that have a fair degree of broadband already????. Proof would be good, apart from other countries with private enterprise broadband (and funding) that might "wonder" (even envy)  at a socialist style  monopoly, state owned, financed,   and protected project in a free enterprise democracy.

[lakeland27]

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@monman12 wrote:

"What sort of person celebrates the destruction of an infrastructure project that is envied around the world?"

Now for the reality,  a project that is "supposed" to be completed in 2021, is not fully costed,  and currently we do not know what we will get. because governments have their non business/science fingers in a technical pie.

"envied around the world" from countries that have a fair degree of broadband already????. Proof would be good, apart from other countries with private enterprise broadband (and funding) that might "wonder" (even envy)  at a socialist style  monopoly, state owned, financed,   and protected project in a free enterprise democracy.

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 its not envied any more. pitied is the new sentiment.

you yourself said private money wouldn't finish it (as envisaged) what do you suggest as a means to finish it (as envisaged) ?

there are times where a state monopoly is useful, when private capital won't stump up. when the project is completed, the private sector would buy in. you say 'competetion' when nobody was willing to provide any.  so rather than have a successful non-private enterprise its better to have a second rate private one ? that's a philosophy not a sound reason.

[izabsmiling]

Poddster why wouldn't it be envied ...Malcolm Turnball himself said  fibre to the premises is technologically the best solution if you want to get absolute maximum speeds, (but) question whether there is any market or demand for it,” he said.

and he has put his own money into investing in Companies that have introduced fibre to the home .That seems to indicate that he knows it's a good investment.

 http://www.bendigoweekly.com.au/news/turnbull-talks-nbn

Turnbull talks NBN

Bendigo Weekly,28th March 2013 

Mr Turnbull said money would be better spent improving the broadband connection in areas where it is poor.

“In 2007, there were two million Australian premises that did not have broadband adequate enough to play a You Tube video. They still don’t have that broadband,” he said.

“We will complete the network, we will complete it in a cost-effective and business-like way.

“We will prioritise as our primary target the areas that have inadequate broadband now, rather than overbuilding in areas that have very good broadband already.

“We are not saying we won’t get to those areas later, but the first priority should be to ensure that all Australians have got very fast broadband

are they going to be catering to those 'in the bush' or not ?

a tower went up not too far away from us a few weeks back ....what happens now ?

[lakeland27]

It’s no surprise the entire NBN Co board has resigned. The Coalition doesn’t want NBN Co to succeed, and the technological and political challenge ahead is mighty.

The entire NBN Co board have offered their resignations. And who can blame them?

An NBN Co board job would be a poisoned chalice right now, because NBN Co is being set up to fail, either as a byproduct (intended or not) of introducing wholesale competition, or to provide a clean and obvious historical example that “proves” Labor can’t manage infrastructure projects, or both.

As Alan Kohler succinctly puts it at Business Spectator, that the Coalition plans to use fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) technology — which means relying on copper wire for the last few hundred metres — rather than fibre to the premises (FTTP) isn’t the issue. Competition is the issue.

But for that to work, NBN Co has to be a monopoly, and the very concept of a monopoly goes against the Coalition’s religion. Its policy makes it very clear that the monopoly will go: “The Coalition will remove or waive impediments to infrastructure competition introduced to provide a monopoly to Labor’s NBN, and investigate opportunities to invigorate and enhance competition among retail service providers (where hopes that monopoly infrastructure would enable a dynamic retail market have so far been unfulfilled).”

With competing wholesale providers able to cherry-pick the most lucrative parts of the market — such as Telstra’s existing cable network in the inner cities, or any number of players running fibre through greenfield housing developments or to high-rise apartments — NBN Co will be left to do the bits no one else wants because they’re not profitable enough. NBN Co is then forced to raise its wholesale prices, making them unattractive to the retail telcos, which have to package the NBN Co’s raw wholesale connectivity with support and application-layer services, such as email and web hosting, and flog them to the public.

The result? Commercially successful wholesale broadband providers in the cities, and NBN Co struggling to deliver its now-overpriced services. “See?”, says the Coalition, “We told you that the private sector is more efficient.”

Would it be too cynical to then imagine some concocted “budget emergency” forcing NBN Co into an asset fire-sale, with private operators picking up whatever they’ve managed to roll out at knock-down prices?

http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/09/23/nbn-co-board-refuses-to-drink-the-poisoned-chalice/

[cherples]

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@poddster wrote:

"Those in the bush" were never going to get fibre in any case.

Not even outlying communities were even if the cable wen up their main road unless they had 1000 residences.

LL don't believe all the hype and B/S that is offered up to you.

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What do you define as the bush?

Remote areas are getting brand new up to date satellite services with easier to access areas getting fixed wireless with a current choice of 25/5 or 12/1 plans.

Some towns with fewer than 1000 premises would be included in the FTTP roll out, plus councils were able to apply for an extension to get the FTTP to towns with fewer premises.

[cherples]

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@poddster wrote:

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Why do you have such a huge case of sour grapes?

Why do you hold such a deep hatred for something that offers so much for so many?

How does Australia having a first class broadband network adversely affect you?

Why the glee over such a backward step?

[poddster]

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There is still a lot of deadwood to cut out LL

Just think , if Labor had have actually debated some of the issues instead of gagging debate there would be no need hack out all the expensive rot.

I have no doubt that Labor will be repaid in the same way as far as the gag is concerned.

The chbickens have come home to roost

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