So, ultimately, it might cost the taxpayer. But taxpayers could end up recovering the cost of the investment. Or, if it's anything like the privatisations of the Commonwealth Bank, Qantas or Telstra, the taxpayer could make a profit on the whole deal.

But what about the interest burden in the meantime? This is the interest that Joyce thinks we will all have to work longer to repay.

The interest on the money that NBN Co. would have to borrow to build the network is estimated by the Treasury to be $1.6 billion over the next four years.

That's real money but let's keep some perspective. It works out at an annual average of 0.1 per cent of the federal budget.

In sum, it's entirely affordable. And it's a vital project for the national future, especially if we want a future beyond the iron ore and coal gouging that is our present best prospect.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/strike-up-the-broadband-20101119-180u1.html

Gus: Heard on the news this morning, a furious Barnaby Joyce venting his speen at Labor spending any money on the NBN... And he angrily wowed to delay the vote as long as possible, till the end of days. His bile is typical of that from constipated idiots. The Greens are furious the Liberals are delaying the NBN vote by procastinating like petulant children and possibly costing the taxpayers nealy two million bux per extra Parliament sitting day...

see toon at top...

There was a deeply unreal feeling yesterday when Senator Nick Xenophon agreed to pass the Government's Telstra legislation in return for the publication of a document telling us how cool and cheaper-than-expected the NBN would be.

And not just because the question "Why, exactly, has the Government been sitting on this sunshiny precis for so long?" lingered so uncomfortably in the air.

Mainly, it was just that it all seemed a bit too easy.

The last sitting week of the year, and the biggest, trickiest legislation on the books is out of the way by lunchtime on Wednesday?

That's almost un-Australian.

As everybody knows, there is a right way to deal with tricky legislation, and that is to leave it to the very last minute, piled up in the Senate while the occupants of that chamber squabble over motions to express support for the earless lizard or World Sea Dragon Day and outside, in the corridors, their Lower House colleagues sink hopelessly into a morass of binge drinking.

To cut a deal on Wednesday is kind of cheating.

But the Senate is making up for it all today.

The Coalition this morning has declared itself prepared to sit till Christmas, if necessary, to discuss further the structural separation of Telstra, an outcome they support conditionally, which is to say that they support it, except to the extent that the success of the bill might reflect well on the Government.

Having been stripped by Senator Xenophon of its chance to deprive Communications Minister Stephen Conroy of his legislation, the Coalition has responded with deadly force, and the only weapon it has left: Speechifying.

...

George Brandis - a barrister who can impart just as much quivering outrage to the proposition that standing order 56-whatever be ignored as he might to the question of whether Rosa Parks should be allowed on that bus - was magnificent.

His oratory on the theme of "That the Question Be Now Put" blazed with unforgettable fire.

Quietly, the Government revised its motion to allow the reinstitution of Question Time.

Senator Brandis, who knows a prosecutorial outrage when he encounters one, demanded the restoration of the original motion, so he could fight it properly.

When frustrated by the President, he tacked nimbly: "I move that so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent me from moving that the Senate take note of your ruling".

Senator Macdonald chimed in, demanding a discussion of the motion "as originally circularised".

It was glorious, champagne procedural theatre: dressage, almost.

But Senator Brandis was doomed. Across the chamber, Government ranks were boosted in their efforts to shut down the Telstra debate by the Greens, Senator Xenophon and Senator Fielding. Exactly enough votes to get the gag motion through and restore the Coalition senators to their families well in advance of Christmas.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/25/3076242.htm?site=thedrum

see toon at top...

5. Our debt went up by over a billion last week. It is now at $174.45billion gross.  
6. Your Foreign Affairs minister is apparently not across the detail, flies off on tangents and is a control freak.    
But do not worry Australia. It is all under control, really. Just like Wreck of The Hesperus.

http://www.barnabyjoyce.com.au/Newsroom/MediaReleases/tabid/74/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1189/Austen-Arbib-International-Man-of-Mystery.aspx
---------------------
Yes Joycey...
we all know that:
Longfellow combined fact and fancy to create this, one of his best-known, most macabre, and most enduring poems.

There is a legend that, in January 1840, Longfellow missed a steamboat embarking upon a voyage from New York City to New England, because he had been discussing the merits of the new poem with a publisher and arrived late at the pier. The steamboat he supposedly missed was the steamship Lexington, that caught fire and sank with the loss of 139 out of 143 passengers and crew on that voyage.

Mad magazine, in its early years, parodied much poetry by presenting the text with little or no change but with bizarre illustration by a member of its art staff. Wallace Wood took Longfellow's somber poem and illustrated it in a ridiculous manner, with a pint-sized captain, and a hideous, tall, buck-toothed daughter. The ship is found wrecked the morning after the storm, but the captain and his daughter survive and walk off along the shore (she is still tied to the broken-off twenty-foot-tall massive mainmast!), and the fisherman chases after them with her wig, shouting "Norman! Whoa!"

"The Wreck of the Hesperus" is also referenced in the comic song "Lydia the Tattooed Lady," written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg and performed by Groucho Marx in the Marx Brothers movie At the Circus (1939). It became one of Groucho's signature tunes. The song is also featured in The Philadelphia Story (1940), sung by Virginia Weidler in her role as "Dinah Lord."

Oh Lydia, oh Lydia, say, have you met Lydia?

Lydia The Tattooed Lady.

She has eyes that folks adore so,

And a torso, even more so.

Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclopedia,

Oh Lydia The Queen of Tattoo.

On her back is The Battle of Waterloo.

Beside it "The Wreck of the Hesperus" too.

And proudly above waves the red, white, and blue.

You can learn a lot from Lydia!"

The title phrase has also been used as a colloquial term in the UK to mean a "disheveled appearance," spoken as "You look like the wreck of the Hesperus!" and can also refer to a very untidy room. Its everyday use was greater in the 1950s to 1970s; however its use remains occasionally. Former Beatle George Harrison referenced this colloquial usage in writing his song "Wreck of the Hesperus," included on his 1987 album Cloud Nine.

In The Simpsons sixth season episode "Homer the Great", Homer Simpson is repeatedly paddled by the Stonecutters as an initiation prank. Each of the paddlings is given a name, one of them being "The Wreck of the Hesperus."[4]

In Mighty Mouse Season 1, Episode 1, "The Wreck of the Hesperus" (First Aired: February 11, 1944), Mighty Mouse rescues the crew from being eaten by sharks.

------------------------------------

Gus: but of all things, The storms than led to the poem being written was the great Abbott Blizzard of 1839, a tempest that destroyed everything and anything without rhyme nor reason...

see toon at top...

Liberal politicians' closet support for the NBN is at odds with party policy.

Tony Abbott this week wasted no time again fingering the National Broadband Network as an easy target for elimination to push the budget back towards surplus.

With several Liberal ministers recently pushing for a faster NBN rollout, however, Abbott's reflexive dismissal of the project may be driving a wedge between the Coalition's anti-NBN platform and many Liberal politicians' desire for their constituents to realise the network's benefits.

Paul Fletcher, the member for the northern-Sydney seat of Bradfield, complicated the debate when NBN Co last month issued its 12-month rollout plan highlighting 28 new areas to receive NBN services.

Fletcher issued an analysis, quickly rebutted by NBN Co, that he said showed rollout sites for the network were being chosen along political lines.

Although his complaint that every NBN site in Tasmania is in a Labor or independent electorate was widely lambasted (Tasmania does not have any Coalition seats), Fletcher's analysis suggested a growing expectation amongst Liberal ministers that the NBN be rolled out in an equitable manner that reflects the country's political distribution.

Fletcher didn't mention his constituents when he toed the party line in a response to questions from IT Pro: "I am a strong supporter of an upgraded broadband infrastructure for Australia, but the NBN is the wrong way to go about it," he said. "Re-nationalising the telecommunications industry so that all fixed line broadband will be delivered over a government owned monopoly network is a bad and backward looking idea."

Other ministers, however, are being less circumspect. Sussan Ley, a Coalition candidate representing the western NSW seat of Farrer, last week told the ABC's PM she wanted NBN fibre delivered to her constituents as soon as possible.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/government-it/nbn-forces-liberals-to-juggle-convictions-and-constituents-20111109-1n6bu.html#ixzz1dBzD8jCo
see toon at top...

The Australian Press Council has come down on the Daily Telegraph for publishing three blatant NBN beat-up articles in June and July. It has reminded it that "Publications should take reasonable steps to ensure reports are accurate, fair and balanced. They should not deliberately mislead or misinform readers either by omission or commission".

It's certainly not the only mainstream publication to be guilty of this in 2011 and we may see more judgments appearing down the line. However, more people are likely influenced by the original article than ever hear of the later counterpoints. The "journalists" in this case were Gemma Jones and Geoff Chambers. Neither are regular tech journalists and its not clear what their motivations were for writing the articles.

Balanced reporting on the NBN is a real problem with little positive news coming out of the government or NBN Co. This means day-to-day technology journalists tend to spend time scrutinising details of the build and holding those to account rather than informing the public of the big-picture benefits of the NBN. Mainstream media has very little understanding of the technical aspects of the NBN and rarely deals with the subject well.

Next year, we'll be looking at the benefits and of the NBN and show how they will revolutionise healthcare, education and society in general for all Australian's - particularly the elderly and those living in rural areas. We'll also be scrutinising beat-ups from other journos similar to those which have been appearing all year (from the same few names each time). We'll be asking them why they're so determined to help rob Australian's of an infrastructure which is going to enhance their lives in so many ways - although we might have to tell them why that's the case first. We'll also be looking at true costs and dispel myths that have started to circulate unchallenged regarding price and potential alternatives to the network. We'll be sure to show our working.

http://www.abc.net.au/technology/articles/2011/12/23/3397389.htm?WT.svl=featuredSitesScroller

 

see toon at top...

I've had enough and something has got to be done. I'm pretty much certain now that, outside of the tech sector, the majority of Australians hate the NBN. Many people hate it because of its ties with Labor. Some hate the idea of the (perceived) massive amounts of tax money being spent on an infrastructure for geeks which is irrelevant to them. Some are hating it because the Coalition is telling them to. And I no longer blame them.

---------------------

This article was written on the ABC Technology and Games site, yet there is no reference as to whom Nick (Ross) is... I know quite a few people of the same name thus I need to know which one. But it is very slack of the ABC not to tell us who Nick is and to some extend illegal since the ABC is a public funded organisation...

This Nick could be a back alley tin-can man with an axe to cut the NBN for all I know.

After a rant where Nick reluctantly aligns himself with Piers Ackerman, he starts some faulty evaluation of the NBN. Unfortunatly, the main contributor of some rebutal to the article was cut off by limit on the length allowed by the reply-department.

There are of course other advantages to the NBN that are not mentioned here, including providing jobs... As well computing power is going to increase and ADSL2 won't be enough in say 5 years from now. A new transmission data protocol will have to be developed for faster transmission. Do we need faster transmissions? A bit like asking our ancestors why did they need fire...

Here is the beginning of the reply article:

-------------------

Most of the points in this article do not actually justify the need for highspeed fibre connections. Tell me why remote health monitoring can't occur using a dsl connection? If it was such a great idea why haven't we already seen this? You certainly can't tell me a 20mb connection can't handle remote health monitoring with conferences. The remote area's of Australia are a different situation and shouldn't be exactly because for one majority of Australian's live close to a major city.

People constantly imply the NBN will be faster than what we currently have which is dsl technology.
Well yes, technically speaking fibre has a much higher transfer rate.

What I believe a large majority of people forgot to mention is the NBN is a business and will be run like one.
Just look at the plans suggested, caps! HFC we are going to have data / speed caps on Fibre....
Which was one thing Conroy said a very very long time ago wouldn't be the case.

Also people forget the NBN will be selling ~80% of it's wholesale service directly to Telstra. Telstra will need to make a profit and will certainly restrict us like they have in the past. And Conroy uses the so called problems with Telstra as evidence we need to build a seperate network. To clearly point it out, the whole point of the NBN is to avoid Telstra and the crap we have all had to put up with.

"outside of the tech sector, the majority of Australians hate the NBN"

This is incorrect.

"The entire NBN will be paid for by the cost SAVINGS to the health service"

This is incorrect. The arguements provided to justify this point is totally illogical. Examples:

"... oh, and healthcare will be revolutionized for ALL Australians, particularly the elderly and those living in rural areas at the same time"

The percentage of people in rural area's that don't have good internet is very low. In places like Inverell and Armidale the locals have ADSL2+ technology. They pull about 600-800 k without any problems. Inverell has a population of 12,000 people. Sure some of the people who live 30 minutes out of town can't get dsl but that is a very very low percentage. Define rural and we can talk. I assume you don't mean you want to give people in the middle of whoop whoop highspeed internet and somehow say it's going to save the health system money.

"If you think the cost of the NBN is large - and remember to spread it over 50-odd years (even 25 years if you like) - it is nothing compared with Australia's ANNUAL health budget which is in the region of $100 billion - every year!"

I don't see the point because we spend money elsewhere we should waste money somewhere else?
Or the "spread it over".... The second you need to start "spreading" oosts it's over.
Whats our population? 26 million or so and the NBN costs even at best because

 

See toon at top

 

The Gillard Government may have taken on the pallor of a doomed patient waiting for risky, life-or-death surgery – yet the tests keep coming back saying the vital signs are good. 

The bitter mystery behind the tragi-farce of Labor's leadership soap opera is that if you were to strip away the power plays and personalities, the Australian public supports the Government's over-riding policy agenda.

It has become a truism that the 'government can't sell its message' – but as this week's Essential Report shows, on the big initiatives rolling out in 2012 the Government is winning.

Support for the National Broadband Network has increased over the last 12 months to 56 per cent, support for the mining tax is at an all time high of 55 per cent and, as we have shown in previous posts there is also support for a carbon tax when it is linked to compensation and investment in renewables.

The public has also given a resounding tick to the Labor Government's latest legislative achievement – the winding back of the private health insurance rebate to those on household incomes above a quarter of a million dollars.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3842128.html?WT.svl=theDrum

 

 

Google is installing super-fast fibre optic internet service in Kansas City. Will it usher in a new era in industry and society - or just enable faster web browsing and media downloads?

For technology consultant Bret Rhodus, Google's newest venture is an amazing business opportunity.

"This can be a game-changer," he says. "The opportunity for entrepreneurs is significant."

For art supply clerk Danni Parelman, however, it's just a chance to download more music.

The California internet giant has begun installing fibre optic cable that will give Kansas City residents download speeds of up to 1Gbps - about 100 times faster than the broadband internet service currently available to most Americans.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17081508 

 

 

Er... We in Australia, are installing a similar service for a whole CONTINENT... to the discontentment of loopies in the opposition ranks... "It's too expensive" they say... read the toon at top...

 

The world's foremost internet traffic study and growth forecast, which historically has been proven very accurate, describes a further explosion of internet traffic around the world and in Australia. The findings illustrate a requirement for fibre optic cable "deep deep into the infrastructure" both for wired and wireless broadband connections.

The global study carries with it political ramifications in Australia where the opposition Coalition parties maintain that the optic fibre-based infrastructure currently being implemented by NBN Co is not needed to fulfil the promised benefits of the NBN and that suggesting so is "one big lie." However, the study further illustrates, using measured figures and reasonable growth curves, how the Coalition's alternatives won't just be unable to support the benefits to health, education, power distribution, business and society that NBN Co's current planned infrastructure will provide, but also that they won't be able to support the regular organic growth of the general internet requirements that we have now - within just four years!

http://www.abc.net.au/technology/articles/2012/06/14/3524848.htm?WT.svl=news4

see toon at top...

 

Six years ago this month, Google moved into one of the largest buildings in New York City. Google had only been public for two years and its stock price was soaring. By 2006, speculation was running rampant about Google’s ultimate goals. In addition to building the world’s largest Internet search engine, Google was furiously buying up so-called “dark fiber,” the unused long-haul underground cable left dormant by the dot-com crash.

When Google moved into 111 Eighth Avenue, the former Port Authority building, New York took notice because that giant facility is one of the most important “telecom carrier hotels” on the East Coast. A “telecom carrier hotel” or colocation center, is a major physical network node that allows tech and telecom firms to share space in proximity to improve network service and speed. There are just a few dozen in the U.S. (Here’s one in Los Angeles.) As it happens, 111 Eighth Ave. sits directly on top of the point where the critical Hudson Street/Ninth Avenue fiber highway turns right, before heading north-east toward the Upper West Side. In New York City, fiber-optic cables are bundled together in large clusters that snake underneath the sidewalk.

So why was Google buying up all that “dark fiber” and situating itself on top of key points in the nation’s telecommunications grid? Did the still-young technology juggernaut have designs on becoming an actual internet service provider? (Ultimately, Google bought 111 Eighth Ave. for $2 billion.)

On Thursday, six years later, we got our answer. And it’s still no. Google’s goal, by building the fastest city-wide broadband network in the country, is not to compete with the giant national cable and telecom firms. Rather, it’s to shame these legacy giants, including Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, AT&T, and others into improving U.S. Internet performance. Why is that important to Google? Because the more people who use broadband Internet, at faster speeds, the more Google searches get executed, and the more money Google makes. So think of Google Fiber as a kind of proof-of-concept public-shaming that Google is performing in the heartland of America, demonstrating to the country — and the world — that better Internet performance is possible.

Read more: http://business.time.com/2012/09/14/with-google-fiber-search-giant-issues-public-challenge-get-up-to-speed/#ixzz26i5MxSZT



Of course the coalition led by little shit Abbott is still in two minds about the steam engine... One day, it might catch up and start turning on some electric lamps in the streets... See toon and story at top...