GASP! SHOCK! HORROR! Australian NBN winner...

[crenn]

And the winner of the Australian NBN is..... NOONE!

This came in about 30 minutes ago. The Australian government has scrapped the NBN tendering process and has announced to build the NBN themselves.

http://whirlpool.net.au/news/?id=1843&show=all
http://www.dbcde.gov.au/communications_for_business/funding_programs__and__support/national_broadband_network

The semi-scary thing, the government could use this as a loophole to force their ISP level filtering (which almost none of the population wants) onto the population. But that's only a thought, not a fact.

If you don't know what the NBN is here is a rough explaination. Australian broadband sucks to say the least, Telstra used to be government owned until the previous government sold them off, and the cost for Telstra services are quite high. There is very little competition to be honest. The NBN is a national broadband network for all of Australia, the original plans were for FttN (Fibre to the Node) and at least 12mbps to 98% of the population. Except before the winner was announced, the tendering process was scrapped. The above is the result. It still has to be put through the senate, but if they keep their promise (and don't force ISP filtering) then this is a dream come true for many Australian tech users.

EDIT: I'll keep on updating this post:
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,25301755-15306,00.html
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25301686-5014239,00.html

[simon275]

Seriously good luck building the NBN without telstra. The government will be like can we run a cable through here and use this manhole? Telstra will be like no dig your own as we are not part of the network. :O

If they do put in filtering it will shoot themselves in the foot as the network will chug.

It will probably take years to role out and the government will mismanage it and it will cost 4 times as much.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Australian broadband sucks to say the least.

Amen brother.

I was hoping they would go the fibre optic way but we all know the Aussie government is stingy lol. If they filter our conetion than they would have to be bloody insane, China and Korea have done it only because their governments own all the ISP and telecom providers, Japan tried and failed cos people stopped using their products haha, I can see the same thing happening here.

If we do get good net then my 54mbps will be more than enough for gaming lol. My wireless connection never falters, it's the crap line coming into our house than fails.

[crenn]

Seriously good luck building the NBN without telstra. The government will be like can we run a cable through here and use this manhole? Telstra will be like no dig your own as we are not part of the network. :O

It will probably take years to role out and the government will mismanage it and it will cost 4 times as much.
Can I suggest reading the articles? ;)

[crenn]

This is now getting very amusing.

According to this:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25318940-5013871,00.html
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25317958-14743,00.html

If the original FttN NBN went ahead, then the projected costs with compensation for Telstra, is in the ballpark of $30-45 Billion (Project cost of $10-15 billion and compensation of Telstra of $20-30 billion). OR, the new FttH NBN which is $43 Billion and fix the Telstra problem (The new NBNC will be wholesale only).