The Rudd ALP government has been caught out and finally the press are holding them to account.
Stephen Conroy stuffed up the Broadband tender, and Rudd and Co figured the best way to stave off the inevitable painting of their government as useless bunglers, was to try and spin the media cycle rushing out a hasty plan to do the job themselves.
THE Rudd Government yesterday abandoned the fibre-to-the-node National Broadband Network tender and announced a new cunning plan: a $43 billion fibre-to-the-home broadband network.
It represents an incredible waste of taxpayers' money. The new plan's objectives can be realised far more cheaply and quickly.
The FTTH plan is enormously more expensive than old FTTN. The total cost -- $43 billion -- is more than quadruple.
As the FTTH network will be majority government-owned, taxpayers will be up for at least $21.5 billion -- 4.6 times the $4.7 billion limit the Government had previously set.
Lindsay Tanner admitted this morning on sky news that the government would make up the short fall for any lack of private investment.
So the Australian tax payers could be up for a $43 billion dollar bill. Of course this money will be borrowed or robbed from the future fund. Ironically the future fund has large investments in Telstra, so this decision will ultimately decrease its own value and capacity to fund works.
All the while the capacity to get fiber to the door is already present;
Underground ducts, which house Telstra's copper, generally have ample space to accommodate fibre.
The national interest would be better served by utilising those ducts, rather than spending many billions duplicating them.
So we will be duplicating an existing infrastructure. Madness.. the costs are insane, but we are told the whole time that we are behind the OCD standards and the costs are warranted;
...Another reason why FTTH is so expensive is Australia's low population densities.
Even large-scale FTTH networks in countries with much higher population densities (like South Korea and Singapore) have required large government subsidies.
While our Government announced that the new network would be "built and operated on a commercial basis", investors -- including taxpayers -- stand no chance of earning commercial returns.
And within the FTTH network's five-year build program, it may well become redundant or lose any competitive advantage, given advances in alternative broadband technologies (ADSL, wireless, enhanced HFC). No commercial investor would invest in FTTH in Australia. No wonder it will be majority government-owned.
The chance that such a network could be commercially viable is highly dubious. Frankly why would communications companies invest in the infrastructure when you already know that the governments prepared to fill any gaps, they wouldn't, its a free ride for them. So its risk assumed by the Australian Tax payer yet again as Rudd pushes his Socialist agenda.
and the forgotten folk of this sad and sorry spin... the original tenders who have not just missed out on business, and a hit to their reputation but have just wasted millions on a bungled bid process by a Dudd minister;
ACT utility TransACT has attacked the Rudd Government's decision to take over the rollout of the broadband network, accusing it of acting unethically.
Mr Slavich said the Government had favoured the Tasmanian government's proposal because it offered to roll out fibre direct to homes and businesses.
But he said the Government had specifically requested a proposal for fibre-to-the-node technology to 98 per cent of homes and businesses, which TransACT had offered to build.
"Had we known that's what they wanted that's what we would have put in,'' he said.
"It's an ethical question.
"We're not a huge company and we spent a lot of money putting together a proposal in good faith.''
Subscribe