On that political note, I've been fascinated to see how the 'media play' aspects of the NBN have been kept out of the limelight. Our Free to Air broadcasters are heavily protected, highly profitable and politically powerful creatures.
In the transition to digital TV a decade ago we were sold an absolute pup which enabled the commercial players to retain their oligopoly, and keep News Limited out from starting another Free to Air network (we could have had another 40 or so channels I recall, all digital, but they elected to go with a spectrum hogging HD format to crowd out alternatives, and enshrined a ban on "datacasting" to ensure they didn't have to innovate at all; so glad I can see Eddy McGuire in HD, aren't you?). The NBN is going to leapfrog all of this. I'm now starting to watch more stuff on ABC's iView, SBS catch up and 7Mate's website from here in Australia than through the broadcast stream (and I record the broadcast stream and already skip ads). Anyway, just interesting that this hasn't gotten much airplay. -----Original Message----- From: silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com [mailto:silicon-beach-austra...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Matthew Griffiths Sent: Sunday, 26 December 2010 10:11 PM To: Silicon Beach Australia Subject: [SiliconBeach] Re: National Broadband Network Comments.. I'm a huge supporter of disruptive technologies, and conceptually (like James) I see huge advantages from a fibre backbone... However, would I rather see a Maglev line down the East Coast for the same money ? (good question - no real answer) As for the NBN - the only thing fundamentally enabled by super fast broadband to the HOME is fully interactive HD TV - ie. a new Australia wide digital broadcasting network. Could true tele-medicine, tele-communiting, etc. evolve from this - who knows...although I'd probably argue that the bandwidth already currently exists, and that prices don't look like they will massively decrease under the NBN for the enabling technology. Are there opportunities for SB's - of course...just correcting our tardy take up of on-line services that are utility like in the US would be a start... M On Dec 26, 9:33 pm, Phil Sim <philip...@gmail.com> wrote: > James, liked your 2 cents :-) > > To me, after having had countless debates on this issue with all manner of > people, I think the fundamental mistake is to try and turn this into a > business or even technological debate. For how many decades have the tech > community screamed out for better broadband? When we finally get a > government, who does something about it because they think its a vote > winner, we complain about what is essentially details. (yes, i realise its a > lot of money but in the scheme of things...) > > In my view, this debate is best viewed as a political discussion. I am sure, > we could get a cheaper version of the NBN that may suffice for a period of > time into the future. What then? We have to wait till the issue becomes a > vote winner again, which generally means a lag of a decade or so. I think > when your dealing with government funding you don't look a gift horse in the > mouth. Governments never spend money purely based on what's best for the > country - it's always traded off against what will or won't win votes. And > if we get 'good enough' broadband, it will cease to be a political issue for > how long? And in 5 or 6 years we'll go back to complaining about how we lag > against forward thinking nations... > > The response to criticism of the afforementioned paper by the Kenny mob in > CommsDay is enlightening: "But [the critics of our paper] do argue we are > missing the benefits that could flow from what they see as a new model that > hasn't been tried before. Perhaps so, and in which case Australia is doing > the world a favor. It can test out the theory that government-supported > ubiquitous fibre combined with government directions to use the network will > create significant economic returns - returns that can't be evaluated or > predicted on the basis of what we know about the marginal returns to > increased bandwidth in the past or what people currently suggest a > fiber network will be used for." > > And to me, Silicon Beachers, that's where our community come into it. And > once the NBN has been built I think there is far greater scope for the > Australian technology building community, to say to the government, that all > those programs you cut really need to be brought back and boosted if you > want to realise those promised economic gains... > > On Sun, Dec 26, 2010 at 8:58 PM, James Purser <jamesrpur...@gmail.com>wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > To be honest I think that paper starts on a flawed premise: > > > "A decade ago telcos wasted billions > > of shareholders' money on telecoms infrastructure that was well ahead of > > its > > time - governments are now in danger of doing the same with taxpayers' > > money." > > > We've had this argument thrown up by Malcolm Turbull as well, that the > > expenditure of the late 90's in building capacity was a waste of money > > because it lacked short term gain potential. Only a decade later we are > > hitting the limits of that capacity build (having had very little build in > > the intervening years until recently). > > > The Just In Time model for physical capacity building doesn't work, I don't > > know if everyone here on the list has seen what happens to a data rack when > > it grows "organically" but I sure as hell don't want to have our telecomms > > networks resemble one. Govts have advantages over business when it comes to > > infrastructure building, the ability to look beyond the next quarterly > > report. > > > With regards to the 12Mb/s minimum, right now the minimum account you can > > get is still 256/64. This means that even the slowest account will be able > > to access a huge range of new services. 12Mb/s is enough for an SD stream, > > voice channel and browsing. Thats media, phone and internet to everyone in > > the country. > > > In terms of new services, this is a list for tech entrepenuers yes? Whether > > we agree with it or not, the NBN is going to be rolling out (and there is > > going to be a tipping point where it becomes more expensive for the Govt to > > close it down than keep rolling it out). The people who get in on the ground > > floor and offer new and innovative services and content are going to be the > > ones who win in the end. > > > Speaking of content, I'm struggling to understand why the concept of the > > NBN being a media distribution network is actually a bad thing. People are > > shifting away from the broadcast model to "when I want to consume" instead. > > Content producers who can take advantage of that to cut out the middle men > > in the broadcast networks are going to gain a huge amount of control over > > their product. If the old players don't move fast enough they're going to > > find themselves left far behind. > > > Anyway that's my 2 cents worth, I'm sure there are people that disagree > > with me. But for me, I'm going to run with the idea that the NBN is going to > > be built and that it's going to offer a whole new vista of market > > opportunities. > > > James > > > On Sun, Dec 26, 2010 at 10:28 AM, Matthew Griffiths < > > matthew.griffi...@mail.com> wrote: > > >> Guys, > > >> I'm sure we all love the principle of super fast broadband... > > >> However, this is the most complete analysis I've seen on the economic > >> benefits (or lack thereof) > > >>http://charleskenny.blogs.com/weblog/2010/11/superfast-is-it-really-w... > > >> M > > >> On Dec 25, 5:11 am, Andrew Dever <andrew.de...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> > I'm glad this discussion has been brought up in this community. > > >> > At the time NBN was first mentioned the cost was quoted at ~$39B, and > >> > google had ~$30B in cash. > > >> > The IIF & IIFF, that help VC's invest in the AU space is ~$192M over 4 > >> > years. And they have to match it dollar for dollar and work hard to > >> > get it. > > >> > Please pull me up if my figures are wrong. > > >> > Further, as far as I know there's not been any explicit discussion > >> > about investment in education around how to turn 'fast' internet into > >> > economic/cultural benefit for AU. > > >> > Nor any explicit discussion or investment in making sure we have > >> > infrastructure bringing bandwidth into the country (as far as I > >> knowhttp://www.vocus.com.aulaidthe 3rd cable in). > > >> > My point is, fast internet anywhere only matters if we a) have > >> > capacity and willingness to invest and b) have the ability to teach > >> > old and new how to turn that connection into cultural/economic > >> > benefit, and that is what the debate should be about. > > >> > This year Obama met with Eric Schmidt, Steve Jobs and ~20 other US > >> > tech CEO's. Julia/the AU govt. should be engaging with Atlassian etc. > >> > especially before they spend that much on infrastructure they don't > >> > completely understand. > > >> -- > >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > >> Australia mailing list. > > >> Guidelines on discussion: > >>http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/msg/351e183e13... > > >> No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > > >> To post to this group, send email to > >> silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com > >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > >> silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<silicon-beach-australi > >> a%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > >> For more options, visit this group at > >>http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > > Australia mailing list. > > > Guidelines on discussion: > >http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/msg/351e183e13... > > > No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > > > To post to this group, send email to > > silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<silicon-beach-australi > > a%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > > For more options, visit this group at > >http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en > > -- > Phil Sim > Chief Executive Officer, > MediaConnect Australia Pty Ltdwww.mediaconnect.com.au > phi...@mediaconnect.com.au > Ph: +61 2 9894 6277 > Fax: +61 2 8246 6383 > Mobile: 0413889940 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Guidelines on discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/msg/351e183e1303508d?hl=en%3Fhl%3Den No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Guidelines on discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/msg/351e183e1303508d?hl=en%3Fhl%3Den No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
