Cornered! is a blog devoted, most of the time anyway, to telecommunications: local and global issues, technology, people and trends from the perspective of someone who's been reporting, analysing and commenting on the industry since the dark ages (BC - before competition). Sometimes serious, sometimes flippant, sometimes frivolous. Controversial, analytical, informative, amusing, but never boring; a vehicle for examinations of important issues and observations on my encounters and experiences in an industry where polarised views and hyperbole are the norm.
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Cornered! Rudd's FTTP NBN, a rerun of the FTTN version?
Cornered! Rudd's FTTP NBN, a rerun of the FTTN version? | Rudd's FTTP NBN, a rerun of the FTTN version? |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Wednesday, 15 April 2009 | |
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First, both were bold, 'big picture' solutions to Australia's broadband 'problem'. Second, both required the Government to pump in large sums of money: $4.7b for Plan A and an unspecified but much larger amount for the much more ambitious Plan B. Third, there was very little indication in either Plan that the Government had done its homework thoroughly to arrive at its cost estimates. Fourth, both Plan A and Plan B were greeted initially with rapturous enthusiasm by most of the telecoms industry for the breadth and decisiveness of their vision. Despite the lack of detail in Plan A one observer saw in it a devilishly smart plan. Paul Fletcher is the former director of corporate and regulatory affairs at Optus and author of the just published "Wired Brown Land? Telstra's Battle for Broadband". In the book he describes the ALP's March 2007 NBN policy as "a clever piece of work", and "good policy", tapping into the growing public appetite for broadband. He too noted that "by the standards of business planning it was very thin," but said: "if assessed for its political effectiveness [the policy] was a screaming success." Later after the Rudd Government had sought to implement that policy through the NBN RFP, Fletcher commented on Telstra's last minute bid to be included (with its Clayton's response) and its subsequent exclusion (for its failure to include an SME plan in its response) by saying: "Conroy was not going to get his dream outcome: Telstra voluntarily building the network he wanted on the open access terms he wanted. He hoped that the threat of the contract being awarded to a competitor would be enough to scare Telstra into co-operating. It had not worked."
This article first appeared in ExchangeDaily, iTWire's daily newsletter for telecommunications professionals. Register here for your free trial.
 Featured Whitepaper
5 Best Practices for Smartphone Support
This article first appeared in ExchangeDaily, iTWire's daily newsletter for telecommunications professionals. Register here for your free trial.
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