NBNCo announces new 3-year schedule

The Announcement

NBNCo have announced a new 3-year rollout plan where work will be commenced on getting premises connected to the NBN.

Over the next three years, construction of the fibre optic component of the network will be underway or completed in areas containing 3.5 million premises in 1500 communities in every state and territory in Australia – up to one third of the nation’s homes and businesses. – Source

Now things are really ramping up. It’s even more awesome news that where I live is in the 3-year plan, although construction isn’t due to start until June 2014. NBNCo has stated that the average time from commencement of construction in an area to a premises being connected to the NBN is 12-months though obviously this will vary wildly depending on where you are in relation to how they’re rolling it out.

Addressing criticisms

Now I need to get a load off my chest here. Thanks to the coalition’s “Say ‘No’ to everything even if we have no alternative” campaign and the media’s continued beat-up of falsehoods, the NBN itself is facing criticism and push back that is completely unjustified. No matter how much facts you throw into the discussion, it’s clear that people aren’t listening and the media’s doing a bang up job deliberately leaving out the most pertinent of facts so that when you try to have a discussion, people just bleat out what the media have said rather than listen to the truth.

Some of the comments include:

“I see they’re rolling it out to only the Labor seats, leaving the Liberals out”

“I hate Labor and the NBN is a massive waste of money and I’m a staunch Liberal supporter but don’t stop the rollout until I get it”

“Why isn’t [insert suburb name here] getting it first because of [it’s a black spot/other areas that are getting it already have cable/ADSL2+/etc]?”

“I see they’re rolling it out to only the Labor seats, leaving the Liberals out”

Senator Conroy said that there were 67 Labor electorates, 61 Coalition electorates and six crossbench electorates included in this phase of the rollout. He said this would cover 139 out of 150 lower house seats at this stage, and acknowledged that those who missed out will be disappointed. – Source

“I hate Labor and the NBN is a massive waste of money and I’m a staunch Liberal supporter but don’t stop the rollout until I get it”

I lack the words to describe this form of stupidity.

“Why isn’t [insert suburb name here] getting it first because of [it’s a black spot/other areas that are getting it already have cable/ADSL2+/etc]?”

Well, in this rollout schedule, 1/3 of Australia’s premises are being connected. This means that 2/3 won’t. Welcome to the facts of life. A line has to be drawn somewhere. Just keep in mind that once the NBN is completed (I’m ignoring any politics), everyone in Australia will be connected to it via fibre, fixed wireless or satellite. If you wish to know more about how the sites were chosen, conveniently, the NBNCo’s website explains it. What a shock! To quickly sum it up, they’re building the sites near the mandated PoIs and then expanding outwards from them. Just bear in mind that there are 121 PoIs and this number and their locations was mandated by the ACCC. The NBNCo (along with a significant amount of ISPs) wanted just 14. Those arguments have been done and covered elsewhere for a while so I’m not going to bring them up here.

Conclusion

I’ll simply quote Mark Newton (@NetwonMark) from his twitter feed today regarding the NBN:

• Here’s a free tip to pols from both sides: The #nbn is not about 100Mbps, fibre, digging up lawns, overhead cabling, ducts, Telstra & ACCC.
• That’s just implementational detail. What’s really important about the #nbn is this very simple concept: “Broadband for everybody.”
• Doesn’t matter what speed, doesn’t matter whether it’s on glass or copper, doesn’t matter whether it’s overhead or underground… #nbn
• Doesn’t matter if it’s a monopoly or a competitive market, doesn’t matter if it’s eHealth or cyberElectricity. “Broadband for everyone” #nbn
• #nbn So remember: It’s “Broadband for everyone,” and politicians from both sides SUCK AT THEIR JOBS. That’s all you need to know

http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbn-co-announces-three-year-rollout-plan.html