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April 7th, 2009

Reactions to Rudd’s National Broadband Network Plan

By edwina

This morning the Rudd Government announced plans to build its own National Broadband Network at a cost of $43 billion. Newmatilda.com has been scouring the blogosphere to see how people are reacting to the Government’s decision to go it alone and their promise of FTTH technology. We’ve posted some responses here.

Joshua Gans on the Core Economics blog says that when he heard the Government’s announcement, ‘I almost fell off my chair with delight. If I am reading the news correctly, the government is going to do it themselves with a fibre to the home network that will put Australia right up there with the world leaders in this space.’

Like Gans, Trevor Cook on the Corporate Engagement blog believes the Government’s move could see Australia become a real leader in this arena.

‘We should all be cheering from the rooftops, at last a decision that might actually put us on a par with the best in the world. And because it’s wholesale, we might get some real competition (not just a one and a bit duopoly).’

Nicholas Perkins simply writes, ‘Kevin Rudd calls it “Nation building”. I call it bloody awesome.’

Robert Merkel at Lavartus Prodeo is more measured in his response.

‘My initial take is that this might just undo the historic stuff-up of creating and then selling, intact, the Telstra behemoth - a stuff-up that involved both the Hawke-Keating and the Howard governments. Then again, if takeup of wireless broadband continues at its present rate, it might be Australia’s biggest-ever white elephant.’

The Whirlpool forums have also been a-buzz. Simon Hackett of Internode was delighted with the NBN turnaround. His comment was deleted from the site, but a clever user has posted a link to it!

‘It’s as if they listened to us after all. Stuff a $4.7 bn FTTN network, build a $43bn FTTH network instead,’ Hackett says. ‘Take that, Telstra. Welcome to real competition.’

Paul Budde at the BuddeBlog says the Government’s move is visionary.

‘The Australian Government is one of the few governments who, in a holistic way, understand the importance of broadband across the various sectors. This network is not just for high-speed Internet and entertainment but, more importantly, for healthcare, education, smart grids, etc.

The $43 billion also clearly indicates that the investment will go well beyond Internet and broadband and that it understands the need to use it for the digital economy. This will set Australia up as potentially one of the international leaders here. This Government understands the trans-sector approach that is needed to stimulate the digital economy.’

Paul Budde has also written an article for newmatilda.com on the issue. You can view the full article here.