Truth: The NBN is the Achilles heel of Turnbull’s Innovation policy

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25 COMMENTS

  1. Here’s a start for Malcolm to turn it around. All he has to do is ask Australia if they will dig their own lead ins and bury a conduit from the nature strip to their residence to get fibre. In an instant there’ll be more digging than the mining industry. Come on Malcolm, just ask, I dare you!

    • Why do they need to? Digging up the front yard was a lie to begin with. Fibre is just pulled through the telephone conduit using the existing phone line.

  2. I will get upset if I get started on this subject..
    Renai, could you investigate this?

    Clare saying that nbnco are going to move to fttdp from fttn https://amp.twimg.com/v/d5ddc61e-94cc-47c9-b210-f09d04065e32

    I’m not sure if he meant nbnco were going to do it or its the alp policy.
    Either way, it’s one hell of a better option than fttn . Even reasonable cost fod could be obtained.

    • I think what he is saying there that NBN is trailing FTTdp and may make an announcement before the next election about changing to that model. So whether he has insider knowledge considering they new about the HFC leak before anyone kind of leads to that case.

      Think Clare has talked up possible doing FTTdp to get fibre closer without causing as much of a delay like switching from FTTP to MTM has done. Becuase the real funny thing is FTTdp can do the min speed claim Turnbull has made while FTTN can’t lol.

    • I’m a big fan of FttDP as an alternative option, and I truly hope its one they explore. If the Liberals main issue with FttP was the cost, it removes the most expensive part – the last 10m – while delivering speeds that should last a considerable length of time.

      Pop the brick sized nodes in the little pits you see every couple of houses, and let the home owners pay for the connection from there. Its a very fair compromise.

    • problem with Fttdp is you’re adding a 6th subset of users now and yet another technology into the mix. Contractors will have to learn its ins and outs and chance of it not causing extra delays is pretty small imho.

      Its fine for the likes of MDU’s etc (ie FttB why it wasn’t being used from the outset I’ll never know) but normal residential homes you’re going to stick a new pit every couple of houses … how much is that going to cost (labor costs will be a killer) and then honestly why not just damn well pay the little extra and go full fibre (something that is better understood and already supported by NBN).

      I’m just not seeing how dP is going to be a bigger benefit than just finishing the mess that is MTM and then doing fibre when NBN can afford it. (and I hope its when not IF).

      • Missed this yesterday. Why do you need new pits every other house? They’re already there from when Telstra put phone lines in.

        The big cost for FttP is from those pits and into the house, with every property needing its own personal touch. Take that out of things, and the savings are there with FTTdp.

        Benefit comes into the speeds its capable of. There are physical limitations with copper, which mean the faster the speed, the shorter the copper needs to be. If the copper loop is 10-20m, that should mean speeds are possible of up to 1 Gbps, if not more.

        Which means longevity, and a real chance of recouping the costs. The other benefit is that a FTTdp build can use the existing FTTP plan, and just take that last part of the process out of it. Would be faster to build than FttN as well.

  3. He needs to prove to Australia’s technologists that he can overcome the mistakes and lies of the past and deliver up the bright and shining future he is promising, on the back of the correct fibre platform for the NBN. Anything less will be seen as just another continuation of a dastardly past — and of policy failure.

    Hear hear, well said Renai!

  4. “Never before, I wrote, have we see a Prime Minister who understands the implications of the global technological disruption as deeply as Turnbull does”

    He might but he doesn’t care whatever he might sound like.

    If we can believe Labor on the matter “we remain deeply concerned the Abbott-Turnbull Government has cut more than $3 billion from innovation, science and research initiatives since the 2013 election”.

    This means that currently the tech sector is $1.9 Billion in arrears as far as the LNP goes so whats to cheer about? LNP has taken with both hands and given back with one!

    Its a start if they keep going and fix it all sure it won’t be a bad thing but this is nothing more currently than electioneering with policies at its finest going on here.

    Lest we forget Faster, sooner, cheaper! (NBN is just the easiest thing to bring them to bear on).

    • Not quite – they took with both fists, then after several years they’re giving back with one, just in time for an election. I wonder if it’s a permanent thing this time, or whether it’s just on loan for 12 months?

  5. You can’t rewrite history or blame Abbott for Turnbulls mistakes. Turnbull was minister for communications, he made the decisions and announcements about his fraudband NBN. He it totally responsible for its 3rd world MTM morphing, and the cost over-runs.

    Also, throwing a red herring about climate change is below you Renai. Many people believe climate change is natural, and nothing to do with man, and neither you nor the climate change loonies scientists can prove otherwise!

    Please stick to verifiable facts in your articles in future!

    • Me thinks you might be one of those who believes climate change is natural… It might scare you to know that 97% of scientists believe that climate change is entirely humanly influenced. So… 3 in 100 scientists claim it is natural, so… in reality… the people who deny it are the “loonies”.

      • Actually, that’s not correct. It isn’t 97% of scientists counted as individuals, it is 97% of published, peer reviewed science on the topic demonstrates that climate change is real. The proportion of people called scientists doesn’t actually matter, what matters is that the science is almost universally in agreement. That 3% includes studies that were inconclusive. If you look at the amount of peer reviewed science that demonstrates in some way that climate change is *not* taking place, it drops to under 1%, and I dare say of those there would be few if any that would not have been comprehensively refuted by facts, evidence and analysis of their methodology.

        So people like Peter can say things like ‘many people believe’ all they like – people are free to form their own ignorant opinions about the world, but that doesn’t make them *worthwhile*. The evidence in the case says your beliefs, Peter, are wrong-headed, uninformed and really rather idiotic. It is immaterial how many other idiots you know who believe the same nonsense – that just means you know lots of people who are also wrong. The whole world used to think the world was flat and gods and demons walked amongst us – collective ignorance is no more correct than individual delusion.

        So congratulations – on this occasion Renai has stuck to the very definition of verifiable facts. That should be cause for celebration, no?

        • I was being hyperbolic, the guy is clearly a climate change denier calling people who think it is real, “loonies”, I think it is okay for me to be hyperbolic at that point :P

          • Hyperbolic? You were exaggerating? Not really, if anything the 97% of scientists thing is understated. I wanted to clear that up because most people get that wrong, and it’s an important distinction.

  6. >> The words may sound dry on paper, but Turnbull really believes this stuff.

    Malcolm Turnbull is the official Australian National Champion at looking sincere. Imagining that you can tell what he really believes is like imagining that if you ran in the marathon at the Olympics, you’d probably win.

    • @renai – I really do think he believes this stuff but I’m pretty sure that he’ll sell his left one sometime during my next heartbeat to keep his job and Government. As was the case with the destruction of the NBN and – as with Climate Change Policy, this means keeping the Conservative side of the Coalition happy – at all costs.

      They don’t want new tech, they want old manufacturing and primary industries because that is what they understand. I’d buy the argument that Malsplaining could win them over but Cardinal Abbott is highly keen to stoke the fears of conservatives from the backbench – so it just isn’t going to happen.

      So, I just can’t trust him.

  7. Mr Turnbull’s biggest turkey, or “lemon” is his bizarre “Turnbullstein NBN” where he is attempting to breathe life into a bunch of long dead technologies to produce a workable high speed broadband system.
    Now installing “New Copper” to resuscitate Telstra’s decaying infrastructure at a minimum cost of nearly a billion dollars and a similar bill for HCF infrastructure. It’s reminiscent of Howardstein’s plan to resuscitate a bunch of 30-year-old helicopters lying dead in US junkyards attempting to produce a modern helicopter “on the cheap”. It didn’t work, a billion dollars was thrown down the sewer nothing ever flew. 16 brand new Sea Hawks or MH90’s could have been bought with that billion dollars.
    His “innovative” NBN plan has fallen into disarray only a handful of fibre to the Node installations have been connected in “trials” and HCF is unable to proceed until extensive new equipment installed and cable remediation takes place at an open ended cost.
    The only NBN equipment installed in the 2 years and 3 months of his administration of the NBN is the Fibre to the Home, Satellite and Wireless equipment ordered by the previous Government. Turnbullstein has effectively achieved nothing, except pile up a bunch of doctored studies done by political cronies, installed tainted and proven failures in the field of telecommunications administration into NBN Co.
    I will remind readers that Mr Turnbull and Mr Abbott promised that by the election in 2016 he would connect 90% of Australian Households with FTTN at a speed of 25/5mbps, it was to be Quicker, Faster, Cheaper and Less Expensive. It was ready to roll the day he assumed office.
    The reality is, nothing has been installed in 2 years and 3 months of Mr Turnbull’s administration. The Turnbullstein NBN is now approaching the cost of the original Technologically Advanced Fibre to the Home NBN commenced by the previous Government.
    New Zealand is now installing Fibre to the Home cheaper than Mr Turnbull is now promising to install HCF and Fibre to the Node.
    He has saddled Australians not only with the cost of repairing decaying infrastructure to allow his cheaper more expensive build, the sunk cost of all the equipment and engineering costs to build the Turnbullstein resurrection of dead technologies. He’s again saddled us with the costs of replacing all this stuff with Fibre to Home when it’s obsolete, probably before his plans are complete.
    Mr Turnbull has lied to the Australian people about his Broadband plans, his approach has revealed he can’t even manage one project with any level of competence, probably because he was applying all his energies to the politics of leadership.

  8. In rural areas, many farmers would already have the machinery and quite possibly the willingness to bury their own optic fibre cables. All properties already have at least a 2.5m fire break around the perimeter and along road sides already, just bury the fibre cable there! This has already been done in the U.K. and parts of north america, where they too are fed up with second-rate infrastructure.
    I applaud the NBN project, and am a huge supporter of it, and at least the MTM version of the project will see more people get a faster service sooner, which has a lot to be said for it, even if we have to go back and do it ‘properly’ a second time round, and at greater expense.
    I’d sooner a ‘mediocre’ service today, than have to go without for 10 – 15 years while we wait for fibre!
    But that said, why can’t we have small community funded and manned fibre projects to connect our regions? The NBN would then only have to provide the point of interconnect, and the cost per premises would then be no higher than in the city, as the national transit network is already in place!
    Could be a great regional employment opportunity also, and a chance for local shires to ‘value add’ by using their graders, trucks, etc for the project.
    There are thousands of Telstra huts scattered around the countryside already that could be used for termination, optical multiplexers, repeaters etc. The possibilities are limitless.

  9. you could always run fibre along the powerlines, fibre from melb to bendigo done this way done 10 years ago!. above ground below ground all have pros/cons.
    i’ve always said way b4 nbn started that it would be just a mess and a massive waste of tax payers money. i know of 1 priv comp that rolled out 500km of there own fibre back in 2004 way b4 nbn, but nbn crippled anychance of a free market.
    i’m out of it now, prob never go back.
    ps thanks alot little johny for the 457 visa’s really fk the tech job market in the early 2000’s.

    • Fred
      That 500Km of fibre is just under a third of the 1800km of copper nbn now buying and that’s only a six month supply.

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