NBN Rollout Scrapped

[sydboy007]

That is debatable, whether you like it or not everything (other than electronic data) is transported.

We move it by road, air, sea or rail. The shortest way from Asia to Adelaide is through Darwin.

If carbon taxing becomes a norm and as you are pro carbon reduction, the Darwin Adelaide rail link becomes essential.
The Adelaide freight movement study, forecasts a threefold increase in freight from WA - Darwin via Adelaide by 2030.

My guess is that is conservative, if weather extremes change as per the greenies, much more freight will be transported overland. Sea transport,especially to Asia will be kept to a minimum distance, just my guess.

As far as the NBN goes, I'm getting a box on the wall.

So your argument seems to be to build the capacity before it's actually required? Sounds rather like the NBN, only on current take up rates for the NBN it seems most are quite happy to pay the small increase to have the highest speed plans compared to the low speed ones. You can survey people to see what they will do, but when they actually part with the $$ you get to see the true demand for a product. People making a conscious decision to use the NBN has been far higher than comparable rollouts around the world. There's plenty of demand for fast reliable broadband.

I dare say the money spend for the ADE DRW rail link would have provided a pay back by now if it had been spent on straightening the rail line linking BNE SYD MEL to allow faster freight transport.

I wasn't able to find the tripling forecast you mention. The only tripling I could see was for freight into and out from Adelaide which includes the fright to MEL and PER along with DRW:

One key reason for forecasting the rail freight task was to understand the future importance of Adelaide as distinct from Perth (and to a much lesser extent Darwin) as a destination and origin market for railed freight.

 

[sptrawler]

So your argument seems to be to build the capacity before it's actually required? Sounds rather like the NBN, only on current take up rates for the NBN it seems most are quite happy to pay the small increase to have the highest speed plans compared to the low speed ones. You can survey people to see what they will do, but when they actually part with the $$ you get to see the true demand for a product. People making a conscious decision to use the NBN has been far higher than comparable rollouts around the world. There's plenty of demand for fast reliable broadband.

I dare say the money spend for the ADE DRW rail link would have provided a pay back by now if it had been spent on straightening the rail line linking BNE SYD MEL to allow faster freight transport.

I wasn't able to find the tripling forecast you mention. The only tripling I could see was for freight into and out from Adelaide which includes the fright to MEL and PER along with DRW:

One key reason for forecasting the rail freight task was to understand the future importance of Adelaide as distinct from Perth (and to a much lesser extent Darwin) as a destination and origin market for railed freight.

I've always said government should spend the money on infrastructure and yes it should be installed before a bottleneck occurs.
Also I've said on numerous occassions the NBN is a great idea, I just feel there is other pressing infrastructure requirements competing for the same money.
It boils down to personal preferences and priorities, no one has the perfect solution, just their preference.

 

[drsmith]

Some bubbling of issues to the surface from within,

NBN Co board member Kerry Schott has acknowledged the network’s board “struggled” with the rollout of the telecommunications project, arguing that former NBN head Mike Quigley was “not the right person” to run it.

Ms Schott’s criticism was backed by long-serving Leighton Holdings construction chief executive and potential NBN Co board director Wal King, who slammed the national broadband network’s rollout as “chaotic”.

The comments from insiders provide a rare insight into the politics and schisms at the highest levels of Australia’s biggest infrastructure project since the Snowy River Dam Scheme.

http://www.afr.com/p/australia2-0/nbn_board_struggled_quigley_not_QorGNEWQHqjPZheTHXzHKJ

 

[drsmith]

In a broad context, the following article from the AFR isn't a bad read.

http://www.afr.com/p/technology/turnbull_pre_election_nbn_rhetoric_WrF7fbrSdu3VDPfb5RxuvO

 

[sydboy007]

In a broad context, the following article from the AFR isn't a bad read.

http://www.afr.com/p/technology/turnbull_pre_election_nbn_rhetoric_WrF7fbrSdu3VDPfb5RxuvO

I had to laugh at this complaint

Senior analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media, Tony Brown, says that the outgoing NBN Co board deserves some sympathy, as it had been saddled with an almost impossible task by the previous government’s overly ambitious targets.


Considering the targets MT has set I 'd say they're just as impossible, if not more so.

 

[Calliope]

Considering the targets MT has set I 'd say they're just as impossible, if not more so.

sydboy's Malcolm Turnbull voodoo doll.

 

[drsmith]

I had to laugh at this complaint

Senior analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media, Tony Brown, says that the outgoing NBN Co board deserves some sympathy, as it had been saddled with an almost impossible task by the previous government’s overly ambitious targets.

It's been proven to be true.

 

[sydboy007]

sydboy's Malcolm Turnbull voodoo doll.

:topic

- - - Updated - - -

It's been proven to be true.

Yet no mention of the impossible expectations of the new board from MT.

 

[drsmith]

Yet no mention of the impossible expectations of the new board from MT.

He won't be asking his board to don red underpants.

 

[sydboy007]

He won't be asking his board to don red underpants.

Of courcse not. Don't be silly. It will be an extension of the blue tie Coalition Cabinet

 

[IFocus]

In a broad context, the following article from the AFR isn't a bad read.

http://www.afr.com/p/technology/turnbull_pre_election_nbn_rhetoric_WrF7fbrSdu3VDPfb5RxuvO

Introduction of competition will be the interesting bit pretty much makes the whole project non-viable from a return basis.

Aside from restocking NBN Co’s leadership ranks, in fairly short order, he will need to have a clear plan for unwinding Labor’s fibre to the home (FTTH) plans, make headway on high stakes negotiations with Telstra and explain how his NBN will make enough money to remain off-budget with more *competition introduced.

And this to some extent (unless MT has a cunning plan) shows MT is still to learn the art of politics.

In short, by cleaning out the remnants of Labor’s project so quickly, he has taken an approach that will leave him nowhere to hide in a very short space of time.

 

[sydboy007]

Well, either the Coalition has decided to start recycling, or they really have no new ideas on broadband

http://www.afr.com/p/technology/coonan_approached_as_nbn_board_takes_MAfIRIlVjxyRLRWVBc4VBM

Coonan was barely a step up up from Senator Luddite. Talk about jobs for Liberal mates.

 

[sydboy007]

So Malcolm has started to move the goal posts already.

During the election he said he would hold a review of the NBN that would report within 60 days of taking office.

Now it's within 60 days of the new NBN board taking over.

Now now Malcolm. Surely you had planned for fact you were going to sack the current NBN board and install one to your personal liking when you made that policy statement pre election? If not then one has to wonder what plans, if any, you had pre election.

 

[sydboy007]

Do we have yet another non core promise broken?? I suppose it'll take a week to move through the coalition vetting process before MT can say anything

During the Federal Election campaign, then-Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull had appeared to confirm the NBN’s previous fibre to the premises model would be fully deployed in Tasmania, as the state was already covered by existing construction contracts which Turnbull had pledged to honour.

Last week, as Communications Minister, Turnbull issued a revised Statement of Expectations letter to NBN Co, ordering the company to continue existing construction only where build instructions had been issued to delivery partners, but not explicitly confirming the fate of the Tasmanian rollout.

In Tasmania, construction for the entire state has already been contracted; including 200,000 homes in the state via fibre to the premises where for many detailed designs are not yet ready. “Yesterday’s announcement only guaranteed that 300,000 more connections would be made by fibre optic nationwide, however if that figure also includes the 200,000 in Tasmania there can’t be many contracts signed for the whole of mainland Australia,” said Digital Tasmania in its statement. “Something doesn’t add up!!”

 

[drsmith]

Ziggy Switkowski is interim CEO of NBN Co.

With the board of three announced, the strategic review has also commenced.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-03/malcolm-turnbull-announces-ziggy-switkowski-as/4997146

 

[drsmith]

THE National Broadband Network can be built more quickly and at less cost to taxpayers using the Coalition model, outgoing NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley conceded as the Abbott government signed off on a radical shake up of the company's board and management.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...o-head-new-board/story-e6frgaif-1226732614762

Also in the article,

The review will investigate the cost of completing the project under Labor's model of laying fibre to the home and under the Coalition's preferred model of making greater use of fibre-to-the-node in brownfield, or established, areas, and then Telstra's copper network.

Mr Quigley said in his email that the fibre-to-the-premises rollout was "behind where we would like it to be".

"However, as a matter of principle I have never believed that the solution to this problem was to spend more taxpayers' money than is required for an efficient network build, even if doing so may have made life a bit easier for management and myself," Mr Quigley wrote.

"Rather, I would prefer that we take the time to calmly establish sustainable new construction models to add the construction capacity that we need."

Overall, the outgoing chief executive wrote, the broadband network was "still largely on budget".

There were hard-working contractors and subcontractors "who are prepared to work for a reasonable rate" and "we have been bringing more of these companies on board in recent months".

Telstra chief executive David Thodey said last year that fibre-to-the-node was faster and cheaper to deliver but cautioned that in some areas the copper had been there a long time "and there could be issues".

It will be interesting to see what the strategic review due to be handed to government on December 2 reveals.

 

[sydboy007]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...o-head-new-board/story-e6frgaif-1226732614762

Also in the article,



It will be interesting to see what the strategic review due to be handed to government on December 2 reveals.

Not really interesting at all. The Govt controls the scope and extent of the review, and will control the release of information.

If MT was truly for the transparency he claims, we wouldn't have needed over $2K for a FoI request to get the Telecommunications Blue Book.

Lets see how many "issues" the Telstra copper will provide. You'd think MT would have ordered some sort of audit, though no report of this as yet.

 

[drsmith]

Not really interesting at all. The Govt controls the scope and extent of the review, and will control the release of information.

If MT was truly for the transparency he claims, we wouldn't have needed over $2K for a FoI request to get the Telecommunications Blue Book.

Lets see how many "issues" the Telstra copper will provide. You'd think MT would have ordered some sort of audit, though no report of this as yet.

Regardless of how the politics plays out from here, it's clear from Mike Quigley himself that Labor's full FTTP rollout was a political objective rather than a practical one.

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Regardless of how the politics plays out from here, it's clear from Mike Quigley himself that Labor's full FTTP rollout was a political objective rather than a practical one.

I still reckon all these NBN jokers will be shown in history as similar to those who continued with steam when oil came in for motors.

Go the amoeba I say.

NBN Rollout has been scrapped.

Let's await the next invention, biological transmission of data.

Go the amoeba.

gg

 

[drsmith]

Two more views from outgoing directors. Malcolm Turnbull cops some negative and some positive, but on Labor and Stephen Conroy, the desire to shed the red underpants is increasingly universal.

NBN Co director Brad Orgill has slammed interference in the national broadband network from both sides of politics, claiming the rollout was dysfunctional under Labor and lashing new minister Malcolm Turnbull over his purge of the board.

Mr Orgill said that when he joined the board in September 2012 parts of NBN Co were dysfunctional and that delays in the rollout were unacceptable.

Mr Orgill was the only director who refused to voluntarily resign from the board last week.

“I chose not to resign with all other board members . . . [because of] my weariness at politics overshadowing fair process,” he said in an exclusive opinion piece in Friday’s Australian Financial Review. “That [Mr Turnbull] declined to even meet with the board before demanding all to resign was disappointing.”

http://www.afr.com/p/australia2-0/nbn_director_slams_both_conroy_and_QnAV30RjyINrs2UAvaoweO

THE Coalition's National Broadband Network will focus on areas that can "get more dollars in sooner" and where the existing services are poorest.

The vow, from Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, is part of a push to put an end to claims of political interference that have dogged the project.

It comes as a former NBN Co deputy chair, Diane Smith-Gander, said she was "hugely encouraged" by the approach Mr Turnbull had taken towards NBN Co.

Ms Smith-Gander -- who quit the NBN Co board to take up a board seat with NBN construction contractor Transfield Services in early September -- said there was a great difference in approach between Mr Turnbull and his predecessor Stephen Conroy, but it was not about fibre to the home (Labor's model) versus fibre to the node (the Coalition's preferred model).

"It's to do with how the company's run," she said. "I'm hugely encouraged by what Turnbull's doing."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...on-quick-return/story-e6frgaif-1226733246783#