Invest in FTTN in haste: repent at leisure

by Stuart Corner

Wednesday, 11 June 2008

Page 1 of 3 ! Having given scant regard to examining all the options, the Rudd Government is driving the National Broadband Network project at breakneck speed to deliver on its pre-election promise of multimegabit services to 98 percent of the population within five years. Analysis from the UK, where these issues have been studied in much greater detail, suggests this might not be a wise move. The UK has one thing Australia lacks: a well funded organisation with broad representation from all facets of the 'broadband community' but with no set agenda other than to ensure the optimal outcome. It's called the Broadband Stakeholder Group and it "provides a neutral forum for collaboration for organisations across the converging broadband value-chain to discuss and resolve the issues related to the development and exploitation of broadband that affect them all." It aims to be a 'critical friend' of government and the regulator, and comprises companies from the telecoms and technology sectors through to content providers and rights holders. It also has direct representation from government departments and Ofcom (the UK equivalent of the ACMA). It "focuses on strategic, medium- to long-term challenges that affect the whole broadband-enabled value chain, with the ultimate aim of helping to create a strong and competitive UK knowledge economy." Since its formation in 2001 it has commissioned a number of detailed studies that have contributed enormously to the debate in the UK. Its two most recent offerings: "A Framework for Evaluating the Value of Next Generation Broadband" and 'Models for Efficient and Effective Public Sector Intervention in Next Generation Broadband Access Networks" - both released earlier this month are no exception. In his foreword to the 'Framework' report BSG chairman, Kip Meek, captures the Australian situation perfectly: "Those impatient of the need for hard evidence to emerge through the economic data point to the transformations taking place in the world around them...From these observable changes they extrapolate future trends and conclude that the underlying technologies enabling these innovations must be critical to economic well being in the 21st century. In several countries around the world large scale investment decisions are being taken by firms and in some cases governments, based on such visions. (my italics)." CONTINUED << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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