Not everyone down under is thrilled with the plans by the Australian Government to build its own fibre to the premises (“FTTP”) network for AU$43B. CBC described the network plan in a story last week.
Here are links to 4 articles that provide colour on the government plan.
The first is a report from news.com.au on preliminary survey results, showing that a bare majority of Australians like the idea.
From The Australian: “The broadband betrayal“:
The Japanese government began heavily subsidising FTTP more than 15years ago; FTTP coverage reached almost 100 per cent coverage 10 years ago. But today’s FTTP penetration (subscriptions per 100 inhabitants) is 11.0. Less than half of all broadband subscriptions are FTTP.
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FTTP is technically superior (in speed). [Communications Minister] Conroy describes it as the Rolls-Royce. But even if we think Rolls-Royces are superior, almost no one buys them; we prefer to trade-off “superiority” for lower cost.
On the lack of economic sense, you might read another Australian commentary: “Rudd flouts rules with market play“.
Will consumers be prepared to pay $150 or $200 a month for 100megabits per second of broadband? Because it will probably need to cost this much to attract private investment.
From Australia’s Business Day, there is “Where’s the vision in Rudd’s broadband plan“:
The Government’s telecommunications policy envisages developing a government-controlled monopoly that will use the best technology cost effectively. This overlooks the long experience of poor management of government businesses…
Will this network really get built?
Nice post. It’s always good to know both versions of the story.