NBN: a sick, dirty and expensive joke played on Australians

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 22 December 2010 23:21

Opinion and Analysis

Now that the wildly optimistic NBN figures are out, showing the NBN won't be available to all Australians for almost a decade, we can safely say the NBN is a sick, dirty, political and very expensive joke. Thanks Senator Conroy!

OPINION: Hello, haters of people that don't think the NBN is the broadband nirvana our overlords in Government say it is. Notice the word 'opinion' at the start of the previous sentence? Yes, this is an opinion. Deal with it.

The NBN figures have come out, with the build time for the NBN now stretching out to 9 and a half years, instead of the 8 years it was previously promised to be.

The whole thing has been a shemozzle from start to finish, from former PM Kevin Rudd's waffly promises through to the 45-min flight of doom from Sydney to Canberra that saw Senator Stephen Conroy and former PM Kevin Rudd cook up what was billed as the $43 billion dollar NBN, through to various price points, refusals to subject this massive plan to a very simple cost/benefit analysis, through to the latest 'redacted' business plan that raises more questions than it answers.

Sadly, folks, this is Government gone mad, spending money it does not have and subjecting us all to multi-billion-dollar interest payments over several years for a network that will take nearly 10 years to get there and will still subject some to what will surely be glacially slow speeds of 12Mbps in 2019.

That's right - if you think you'll be getting the promised 100 Mbps connection, think again - the cheapest plans start at the 12 Mbps speeds the current Government roasted the current Opposition over, so unless you're willing to pay the big bucks, a 100 Mbps connection won't be in your life anytime soon, and you might have to wait a decade to get it!

The sad reality is that many people are already getting in excess of these speeds on existing cable networks, and some even get it on ADSL 2+ networks, so any 'retreat' to 12 Mbps in ten years' time is just a sad, cruel and very expensive joke.

Look, I want faster broadband as much as you do, but at what cost? Naysayers will reduce the costs to the ridiculous by 'spreading' the payments over several years, but conveniently neglect to factor in the costs of billions in interest payments.

Again, the whole thing is just a joke designed for the current political party to have some electability about it the next time there's an election, while Australians in metro, rural and regional areas wait and wait and wait for a connection that is still years in the making.

Oh well. You get what you pay for, and what you vote for, I suppose. Those that don't mind dipping their fingers into the national taxes won't care: it's not their money anyway, it's just yours and mine.

Finally, let's not forget Senator 'Mr Wait-a-Minute' Conroy's delightful net filter. You can be certain that Senator Conroy hasn't forgotten it, and he'll undoubtedly re-introduce it when 'the time is right', only to put it on the backburner again when he realises it's still political suicide.

Well, I hope you 'wait a minute' next time you're at the ballot box, and think long and hard about who is offering which policies. Thus far, we're getting expensive spin that is delivering a long, long, looooooong 'dial-up-like' wait. Wait a minute? Ha, try waiting nearly ten years. Thanks Senator Conroy!