The government has just released it's business plan for the roll out of the National Broadband Network ( NBN ) - and cynics will suggest that this be taken with a large grain of salt.
The commercial distributing companies will pay $ 24 a month, but they will charge consumers at least $ 56 a month for the most basic, low end service. Superior service levels will attract a much higher monthly charge.
The government is spending $ 35.9 billion to lay NBN across the nation and all the distributors will be doing is installing monitoring equipment to measure the use of each consumer - and for that they are going to charge over double their access cost !
We are not going to get Broadband tomorrow. The roll out completion will not happen until 2021 - and we would be unwise to think that figures projected that far into the future are any more than a figment of the imagination - but on the surface it looks like Broadband is going to be a very expensive option for users.
The sad thing is that it is going to be forced on consumers anyway. If the government is spending that sort of money they will not leave ADSL or wireless as an alternative. They claim that their figures return a margin of 7% to taxpayers - something to again take with that grain of salt.
The main problem is the vast chasm between what governments plan - and what they deliver. The NBN seemed like a very good idea when it was first mooted, but we live in a fast changing world and we live with incredibly fast changing technology.
Let us hope that before the 2021 roll out is complete the boffins have not made broadband redundant and moved on to another form of communication technology.
It is a brave soul that has faith in their crystal ball's future projections in this day and age !
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