AAPT a valid NBN dissenter or just a can't do telco?

Stan Beer
Monday, 13 April 2009 09:11

Business IT - Technology

It's very interesting indeed to hear the boss of a telco owned by NZ Telecom telling Australians what they need and that they already have enough bandwidth supplied by ADSL2+ through Telstra's ageing copper network.

Apparently Broad sees building a modern FTTH network as merely "duplicating" Telstra's copper network at an unacceptable cost. What he thinks is a better idea is to structurally separate Telstra, make the entire copper network open access, fill in the blackspots and work from there.

That's all very nice in theory but, leaving aside the issues with separating Telstra, Broad's view of what should happen has one fundamental flaw. Australia wants - needs - a world class broadband network and it won't get it with the existing copper in the ground.

It is the height of arrogance for AAPT and Broad to presume what Australia's needs in the information space will look like even five years from now let alone in 10 years.

For Broad to predict what FTTH will cost consumers (he claims $200 a month) or that there will be no demand because of the price is highly presumptious.

Back in 1955, Australia didn't need television but we finally got it in 1956 and boy did the need become apparent. Consumers were spending the equivalent of $10,000 in today's currency for primitive 17 inch black and white TV sets.

Yes, we could just sit on our existing copper to the home infrastructure, fill in the black spots and wring every ounce of bandwidth we can get out of it. And we could watch as Europe, parts of Asia and the rest of the world leave us behind in the information space.

Or we can bite the bullet and just go ahead and build a world class FTTH network and open the way for Australia to participate in entire new industries of information delivery. It's pretty obvious which option Australia has chosen.