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Lets build the National Broadband Network
A vital piece of infrastructure for Australia's future
Just fifteen short years ago, the internet was a novelty. A scientific tool that became a mildly entertaining and infuriatingly slow addition to the personal computers of a small portion of the population. Today, it's almost universal, and the primary reason why a person buys a computer. Over those 15 years, typical speeds in Australia have risen from a mere 14 kilobits per second to over 12 megabits per second. That's an increase of almost 1,000 times!
But we've hit a roadblock. The old copper telephone lines that carry our access to the internet have reached their limit. The fastest standards for copper data (known as ADSL or VDSL) have been stuck at their present speed for 7 years now. Despite spending millions of dollars on research, scientists can't get our copper lines to reliably carry data any faster, except over extremely short distances of a few hundred metres.
As much as we may wish it weren't so, DSL has reached it's use-by date and nowhere is it more apparent than in a sparely populated country like Australia.
Fibre Optics
NBN Connection in Tasmania
The solution to this is the widespread rollout of a fibre optic network to replace the copper. Fibre Optics have been used for decades to carry vast amounts of data. Constant upgrades to fibre optic technologies have seen typical speeds increase from less than a Megabit per second two decades ago, to over 100 Terabits per second today. And these huge improvements do not require replacement of the fibre optic cables themselves. Engineers simply upgrade the equipment at the ends of the cable, and the speed is increased. This makes a fibre-optic network the fastest and most future-proof solution available, and it's why all major data transmission in the world (including between telephone exchanges and wireless towers) is done over fibre optic cables.
Countries like Japan, Singapore and South Korea have already rolled out fibre optic networks to almost their entire populations, while The USA, The United Kingdom, various European countries and New Zealand have also begun constructing fibre networks.
The Australian Government has begun constructing our own Fibre-To-The-Premises (FTTP) network, called the National Broadband Network. It will deliver initial speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second to 93% of the population via fibre, and a minimum 12 Megabits per second to the remaining 7% via fixed-wireless or satellite connections. Because fibre optic cables are easily capable of much higher speeds, the network has the capability to be upgraded when even higher speeds are required in the future.
What about wireless?
One of the biggest misconceptions in the 'debate' about the need for the NBN is that mobile broadband is the boom segment of the industry, making the NBN redundant. During the 2010 Federal Election campaign Tony Abbott chimed in on this topic, citing as evidence "all the people you see in cafés on their laptops". Apparently unaware that "all those people" are generally using WiFi networks, connected to fixed broadband services like the NBN.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, while the number of mobile broadband connections (AKA 3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax etc) is indeed booming, the amount of data users are downloading is not. In 2009, mobile subscribers doubled but the volume of data they downloaded halved. That means (on average), mobile broadband subscribers used a quarter of the data they used 12 months earlier. By contrast, while the number of fixed broadband connections only increased marginally, the volume of data downloaded increased by 50%.
The shortage of radio spectrum
Compared to fixed services, mobile broadband is slow, unreliable and massively expensive. But that's not the biggest problem. For that, you need to look at a physical limitation: Spectrum.
Every user added to a wireless network uses more radio spectrum. And spectrum is a finite resource which is already being stretched by the low volume of data being transmitted over mobile networks. Put simply, a wireless network cannot replace a fixed broadband service for a large number of users, for a large amount of data.
The CSIRO recently developed a new experimental wireless system which is 10 times more spectrum-efficient than 4G. But even this system can only deliver 12Mbps to 12 users at the same time, per radio channel. In five years when the analogue TV channel spectrum is released, it will provide about 20 more channels of spectrum, which would be enough to give 12Mbps to just 400 people in the range of each radio cell, even assuming all of the spectrum is allocated to mobile broadband services.
But wireless is already achieving 100Mbps!
42Mbps wireless broadband?
No, it isn't. At least not for end users. The picture to the right is a good example of the difference between theoretical and practical wireless speeds. It shows that (even in a suburban area with excellent coverage), Telstra's supposed 42Mbps NextG wireless broadband delivers a download speed of 1.1Mbps. About 1/40th of it's claimed capability.
When you read reports about the new 4G mobile networks giving speeds like 100Mbps, you need to know that these speeds are theoretical, and subject to weather and geographic conditions. What's left is divided amongst all the users of the mobile cell. So if the network is capable of 100Mbps, and there are a hundred people connected, then they each get a maximum of 1Mbps. And that's in a perfect world where there are no walls, no mountains, and no bad weather.
The bottom line is that while wireless is a fantastic complementary technology, and it will continue to boom in user numbers, it is not (and can never be) a substitute for a fast fixed-line service for a majority of consumers.
Build and customer costs
Building the NBN won't come cheap. The forecast cost of construction and maintenance is $36billion, of which $27billion will come from the Federal Government. Once compared to other government spending however, the $27bn investment in the NBN over 10 years is a relatively small amount. At an average of ~$3 billion per year, Government spending on the NBN is dwarfed by annual spending on defence ($20bn), Education ($50bn) and health ($100bn). Unlike this other spending though, the NBN will earn revenue and return all of the Government investment (plus interest). It will also leave us with a valuable asset.
For most subscribers, the NBN will provide a phone and faster internet service for a lower price than they currently pay. As I write this, iiNet offer 25Mbps NBN broadband for $29.95 per month in Tasmania, plus $9.95 for a VOIP phone with all local and STD calls included. This would mean customers would be paying under $40 per month for all their internet and phone needs, with the only extra charges being for calls to mobiles or international numbers. This compares to a typical bill of $80-120 for similar services on the copper network.
A Cost-Benefit Analysis?
Calls for a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) are primarily coming from Malcolm Turnbull, and associated commentators. On the face it may sound like quite a reasonable request for such a large project. However, unlike basic infrastructure such as a road, many of the benefits that will come from the NBN cannot be quantified because they haven't been invented yet. To use an analogy, let's look at the existing telephone network:
When the PMG (now Telstra) began rolling out the copper telephone network, no-one could have imagined the social and financial benefits that would result from it. As such, they could never have measured those benefits. Computers hadn't been invented yet, let alone the internet. Think for a moment about all the technologies and applications that have been developed around the copper network. Telex and FAX machines, the 000 emergency line, Automatic Fire Alarm and security systems, the internet itself. Now consider the value to society of those applications.
Just as there are people saying the NBN is a "white elephant" today, there were people saying the same things about the telephone system 100 years ago. The chief of the British Post Office said that "Britain has no need of the telephone, because we have plenty of messenger boys"! While in the US, the boss of telegraph operator Western Union said "the telephone has too many flaws to be seriously considered, and has no value to us". With hindsight, these statements by respected and intelligent people are looked at with ridicule, yet we see similar statements made about the NBN today.
One would be a fool to assume that the internet and it's applications are mature, and that there are no more innovations to come from this technology.
It's not just about faster internet
While the NBN will most certainly make the internet (as we know it) much faster, that's just the start of what it will deliver. The NBN is an enabling technology. That is, applications will be developed around it's existence that would not otherwise be invented. While NBN detractors criticise the "build it and they will come" argument, the fact remains that almost every technological advance in human history is built upon previous enabling inventions.
The internet is still relatively new, yet we have already witnessed it enable thousands of new technologies over the last 20 years. As the countries of the world roll out superfast broadband networks, applications that we have never imagined will be developed around this new capability. If Australia abandons the NBN, we will languish until we finally realise we've been left behind. By then, it will be a decade too late.
Do your own research
There are a growing number of sites that have been set up at a grass-roots level to inform the public about the benefits of the NBN, and why it's a necessary part of our future infrastructure. There are also many opinion pieces from experts in the industry. To learn more about the NBN, check out the following well-referenced sites:
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