NBN Roll Out Needs To Be Quick, Clear & Now

We all applauded the Government's decision to deliver much faster broadband to most of the people most of the time.
 
Yes it will be built on optic fibre. We can see the sense in that decision even though science keeps upping the speeds that the old copper network can deliver-an option that might have been a lot easier and cheaper to consider at least in the shorter term.
 
However despite these quibbles I'm very keen to make sure Australia is well and truly in the digital race. Without speed we just won't keep up globally.
 
We need however to get the NBN in place as fast as possible. If we don't do it quickly then it may soon be irrelevant.
 
Other companies are already getting into the business of delivering blistering broadband speeds using their own fibre roll out. Telstra is doing this in Melbourne right now and plans a national expansion.
 
But news that Google is also planning to set up a network that can deliver speeds of 1 gigabit per second is a wake up call. While Google is only doing it in the U.S. at this stage, the chorus of communities there pleading with Google to give it to them is an indication of how fast things on the web move.
 
So the other bit of news that the Government is delaying making public the $25 million NBN implementation study is fairly worrying.
 
The industry I represent is already awash in rumours that the NBN will cost more, happen later and not deliver all that speed evenly. It would be good to know just what the facts are.
 
This is an important bit of information. The nine-month, 500-page long study by KPMG and McKinsey covers a range of details for the NBN, including operating arrangements and the prospects of private sector investment in the $43 billion project.
 
The Government says it is reviewing the study first-nothing wrong with that, but that review should not be open ended and vague.
 
We want the NBN, be we needed it yesterday.

John Fennell
jjfennell@copperdev.com