That to some extent may be true there but there's perhaps also an element of attempting to brace Labor's legacy in that argument against the news to come....But now...
The contractors have taken those contracts, but know that they will not be renewed. They know that the FTTP rollout will end at the completion of the current contract. Thus, they will employ and train the absolute minimum number of people to fulfill their obligations. Depending on the penalties written into the contract, they may even be happy to deliberately fail to meet targets rather than spend money empoying and training people for a job that's about to finish. They will also likely want to tender for FTTN, which they may divert parts of their workforce into before completing their FTTP obligations.
As sydboy wrote, I also agree that Turnbull will point at the missed targets and blame FTTP, when the reality will be that the contractors saw the end coming, and wound down accordingly.
I'm relieved you're only tempted.
With regard to any learning curve, that should be factored into forecasts and not used as an excuse to justify chronic shortfalls.
With regard to the copper network, if 20% needs to be replaced then the flipside is that 80% is still serviceable.
In my opinion, a house with fibre connected will in the future be worth more than one that doesn't have it. Once people wake up to this situation, that will shift the debate somewhat I'd expect.
malcolmturnbull.com.au/ said:Our NBN Policy
12th September 2013 | 899 comments | Blog
The campaigning website change.org has been hosting an onine petition calling on the Coalition to abandon its NBN policy and complete the National Broadband Network on the same design as that set out by Labor - fibre to the premises to 93% of the population.
Last Saturday there was a general election at which the NBN was one of the most prominent issues. The Coalition's NBN Policy - which can be read here had been published in April - five months ahead of the election. The Coalition won the election.
The promoters of this petition apparently believe that we should ignore the lengthy public debate on the NBN that preceded the election and also ignore the election result. We should within days of the election walk away from one of our most well debated, well understood and prominent policies. Democracy? I don't think so.
For those who don't have time to read our policy (but time to sign an online petition) there are a few important points to bear in mind.
We do not regard technology as an ideological issue. We are technologically agnostic. We want to ensure that all Australians have very fast broadband as soon, as cheaply and as affordably as possible. The NBN project at present is running over budget and way behind schedule. At the current rate of progress it will take decades to complete and close to $100 billion.
The Labor Government has not been honest with the public about the NBN. They never conducted a cost benefit analysis, they have sought at every turn to conceal the fact that the project has been failing to meet its targets.
We will bring the public into our confidence. We will open the books of the NBN. There will be a strategic review conducted within the next 60 days which will show how long it will take and how much it will cost to complete the NBN on the current specifications and what that means both to the taxpayer and to the consumers. We will also set out what our options are to complete the project sooner and more cost effectively and again what that means in terms of affordability and of course in service levels. Many of the FTTP supporters on twitter and elsewhere say that they don't care what it costs or how long it takes - they want fibre to the home regardless. That point of view is reckless in the extreme. Every public infrastructure project has to be carefully and honestly analysed so that governments, and citizens, can weigh up the costs and benefits.
This study is vital for the public to be fully informed and our redesign of the project will be informed by the result of those studies.
The NBN debate is not over - but I am determined to ensure that from now on it is at least fully informed.
MT's blog post about the online petition isn't very encouraging.
"well debated, well understood"That's a stretch.
http://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/media/our-nbn-policy#.UjmDuNISb7Y
I still reckon someone will be able to use an amoeba to give us biological transmission of data which will be far superior to the NBN.
NBN is a waste of money, an ALP thought bubble.
gg
It really frustrates me why you conservatives settle for inferior policies just because its not the ALP. Why aren't you lobbying the government about the complete waste of money that is the FTTN NBN? Why aren't you lobbying the government about their Direct Action plan that wastes 3.2 billion dollars of tax payer money?
The distinction is one between the ideal and political reality.It's not about the Abbott Government doing what they said they will do, it's just if they do it better than Labor, whatever that means.
While I won't go into the specifics of what I feel the Coalition's underlying positions are on specific policies in response to the above comments, Labor won the 2007 election essentially on the back of a me too and John Howard Lite campaign.It really frustrates me why you conservatives settle for inferior policies just because its not the ALP. Why aren't you lobbying the government about the complete waste of money that is the FTTN NBN? Why aren't you lobbying the government about their Direct Action plan that wastes 3.2 billion dollars of tax payer money?
I would understand if the coalitions stance was to cancel the NBN all together and repeal the ETS but they insist on inept policies just to have an alternative to the governments. This is not a conservative government, a conservative government that has continually told us about the dire economic times yet comes out with the most generous paid parental leave scheme that is essentially a tax on the public through indirect methods (the same way the ETS worked). The worst part is I feel that the media will not hold this Abbott government to the same accountability they held the ALP to but I hope to be proven wrong.
I feel we're going around in circles to some extent here, but in quickly responding, I'll replace an extra 10% with an extra x% with x being a variable.Liek to speculate on what an extra 10% copper remediation will do to the FTTN budget?
A senior technician who is currently rolling out the NBN but performed an audit of Telstra's copper network some years ago - when Telstra itself was considering a FTTN rollout - told us that over 30 per cent of the records were wrong. He said that the only way to tell which copper line went from the turret to each house was to have teams of engineers (one at the turret and one at each address) test each line individually to check that it went to the right place.
He said this made the process of performing a "one-to-one translation" of lines from the current pillars to FTTN cabinets, completely impractical; pointing out that Telstra has some 65,000 pillars around Australia with many handling communications for around 200 premises.
While I won't go into the specifics of what I feel the Coalition's underlying positions are on specific policies in response to the above comments, Labor won the 2007 election essentially on the back of a me too and John Howard Lite campaign.
Both major parties are guilty in this regard.
Apart from the top marginal income rate above $180k, Labor in 2007 went to the election matching the tax cuts the Coalition proposed during that campaign. There were obviously significant policy differences, but there were in the 2013 election as well. The question remains though as to what happened to Kevin Rudd the fiscal conservative ?I don't recall this as the case, my memory is a bit scratchy of the 2007 election but weren't Labors two major polices to scrap work choices and the NBN. I'll attempt to stick to the NBN as to not sidetrack the thread. I don't see how there is any possible way one can rationally reject Labors FTTH NBN model and then support the Liberal FTTN alternative. One is the right way to do it that will last 60+ years and the other will require ongoing upgrades/maintenance until either an alternative model is available or upgrading to FTTH which will cost significantly more in the future. You either do it right and do it once or you don't do it at all and we hold off until most Australians are complaining about their inadequate service and upgrade then.
We will be bumping this thread in 10-20 years time pointing out what white elephant this policy become as a few of us will have cherry picked FTTH because TPG etc decided it was economically viable to upgrade that suburb while the rest of us will wait for sensible policy.
Our copper must be replaced at some stage, it has already exceeded life expectancy and now would be the logical time to replace it.
The NBN that Labor proposed in 2007 was not the grand plan that's being built now. The rollout schedule is also fantasy and the cost estimates are heading in that direction. Both FTTP and FTTN need to be critically analysed, not in the context of choosing one of the major party's specific plans, but to best determine the rollout mix.
You have (for example) a 100 pair cable with 70 of those pairs being needed for connections and the rest as spares.A senior technician who is currently rolling out the NBN but performed an audit of Telstra's copper network some years ago - when Telstra itself was considering a FTTN rollout - told us that over 30 per cent of the records were wrong. He said that the only way to tell which copper line went from the turret to each house was to have teams of engineers (one at the turret and one at each address) test each line individually to check that it went to the right place.
Your house and even the cable in your street might be relatively new. But what other cables are between yours and the exchange? They might be 20 years old or it could well be that the "new" cable in your street simply connects as an extension of a previously existing cable that dates back to the 1950's.i think I'm lucky that my house was recently built so my copper is likely to be < 20 years old. The house near to me, could be 50+ years??
Your house and even the cable in your street might be relatively new. But what other cables are between yours and the exchange? They might be 20 years old or it could well be that the "new" cable in your street simply connects as an extension of a previously existing cable that dates back to the 1950's.
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