[AusNOG] Government sets parameters for NBN

[Mark Newton]

On 9 Apr 2014, at 5:17 pm, Greg Anderson <ganderson at raywhite.com> wrote:
> 
> In my opinion, the FTTH was expensive but invaluable, 

That meme is one of the reasons it failed.

It was only "expensive" if you had no sense of proportion.

This country spends $110 billion *per annum* on health funding; the absolute worst credible estimate of NBN costs was about half of that spread over a 15-20 year build cycle, and that was assuming there'd be no cost recovery afterwards by selling it (the second half of the NBN policy proposal) or charging for its use.

The kind of money the Coalition was holding up as a worst case to build a national FTTH network was roughly the same as the life cycle costs of two Collins Class submarines.

We (the electorate) let the current government get away with happy-clapping about the cost of this "gold plated" proposal for 5 years, even though the expense was a drop in the ocean, about 0.5% per annum of the half-trillion-dollar Federal budget: Literally a rounding error.

They're still doing it now.

   - mark