[Linux-aus] Political Recognition for Technology in Australia - was Re: Seeking feedback - EFA Citizens Not Suspects campaign

[Charles Gregory]

On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 10:58 AM, Russell Coker <russell at coker.com.au>wrote:

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013, Bret Busby <bret at busby.net> wrote:
>

> > In the meantime, using a (rough, and, not very accurate) figure of a
> > population of about 20 million, then, the listed cost cited above, of
> > $37400000000, gives about (3.7x10E10 / 2x10E7) $1800 per person.
>
> 37400000000/7600000 == 4921 which is pretty close to the 5000 number that
> has
> always been used for the cost per household.
>
> This isn't economically viable and there's no realistic possibility of the
> NBN
> being privatised in any sort of profitable manner which doesn't involve
> writing
> down the value to something significantly less than $37.4 billion.
>

It's also worth pointing that the build cost is being spread over ten
years, and the actual lifespan of the network is often stated as 50 to 100
years.

Given 50 years - $98 per household per year.  Even if costs double, an
absolute bargain for the resulting infrastructure.

The NBNCo's business plan also states that the company will be debt free by
about 2030, at which point the company will be returning $2-3 billion a
year directly into the Government budget.

> I understood that data transmission via electricity supply lines, is
> > faster and less expensive, as the network of lines already exists. I
> > believe that data transmission via electricity supply lines, has been
> > used successfully in Europe, for some years, now (of course, we are way
> > behind the rest of the world - that is the policy of the federal
> > parliament).
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_line_communication
>
> Wikipedia suggests that data rates only go up to hundreds of kilobits per
> second, that signals don't go through transformers, and that even power
> companies are using optic fiber for their own data transfer needs.
>

Aurora Energy (Tasmanian government owned energy distribution/retail
company) did trials of both FTTH and BPL (broadband over powerlines) about
ten years ago now; it was the outcomes of these trials that prompted the
Tasmanian Government to submit a proposal of a statewide FTTH network to
the Federal Government in 2007/08; and it was this proposal which resulted
in the Federal Government deciding to build a National FTTH network in
2009.  So in a very indirect manner, this option was eliminated very early
in the process of the NBN!

Regards,

Charles
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