6 ms·

Why Murdoch's media is gunning for your NBN (2013)

41 points by dools 12y ago

gadders 12y ago
NBN? Anyone know what that is?
- tormeh 12y ago
  Australia's National Broadband Network. The gist of the article seems to be that Murdoch wants to kill off fibre in Australia because it's a threat to traditional TV.
  - dools 12y ago
    Not traditional TV, just Foxtel which is the biggest pay TV provider in Australia. Pay TV has much lower penetration in Australia than the US or UK, but if we had universal fibre access to every home, Foxtel would die pretty quickly. Foxtel is owned by Rupert Murdoch, and so is the Daily Telegraph which runs ridiculously overt front page articles against the Labor government and in favour of the Liberal government (for example, during the lead up to the last election the Tele had a cover that read, in very big letters "KICK THIS MOB OUT" referring to the encumbent government).
  - threeseed 12y ago
    Not "wants to". Did. What the Coalition did with the NBN is a national disgrace.
    - neumann 12y ago
      let's not even speak of the 2014 budget.
- hornokplease 12y ago
  I just learned of it in a comment on the discussion of Cringely's article on peering - more context here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7774936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7774936
scawe 12y ago
NBN(fiber to the premise) is already killed off. The new government is adopting Fiber to the node for future installations.
- etfb 12y ago
  The former government (centre-right Labor party) promised FTTH or FTTP (Fibre To The Home/Premises) but that was scrapped when the slightly-less-centre-and-more-far-right Liberal party got in and proposed FTTN (Fibre To The Node). The "Node" is a box at the end of every street, from which the existing (and rotting) copper network would theoretically connect to each home. Needless to say the idea is profoundly stupid. FTTH is still available if you want to pay thousands of dollars for your connection, of course. We call this FTTR: Fibre To The Rich.
- gelatocar 12y ago
  Not even purely fiber to the node any more, they are going with a "multi-technology mix"[1] So by the end of 2020, 98% to 100% of the population would have at least 25Mbps[2]. Which is maybe twice as fast as what we have now on average (as a guess). It is also way behind schedule and over budget[3], when being quicker and cheaper were its main selling points against the FTTP solution proposed by the Labor government. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/10/malcolm-turnbull-directs-nbn-to-mixed-technology http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/10/malcolm-turnbul... [2]http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/17/nbn-chairman-says-internet-speed-guarantees-have-lost-currency http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/17/nbn-chairm... [3]http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/12/coalitions-nbn-cost-12bn-more-four-years-longer http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/12/coalitions...
  - josephcooney 12y ago
    To be fair, the company executing on Labour's vision - NBNCo - was also going much slower than originally projected too.
    - dools 12y ago
      Yeah but by the time it finished, it would be far from being obsolete ;)
locusm 12y ago
The same reason data casting and any kind of innovation in the digital TV rollout was killed off in 2000. Don't upset the status quo. That was from Richard Alston back then, again the Liberal party.
- tacticus 12y ago
  Richard alston the worlds biggest luddite
tom_jones 12y ago
Interesting but it doesn’t get past the a priori objection to the NBN having been adopted without any economic or commercial assessment to justify it as a political fix when the election promise to provide better broadband at one tenth the cost of the NBN was shown to be hopeless and an embarrassing shambles. And it doesn’t demonstrate that the a priori probability that a proven entrepreneur in the field of Internet based services would be able to do the essential job more cost effectively.
- cylinder 12y ago
  I agree, there are many absurd components of the NBN, the most obvious being the idea that the government should spend $2 billion to launch two satellites into orbit just to provide internet to the 400,000 most rural customers who can't get cellular wireless (yet).
  - dools 12y ago
    It's not so ridiculous if you consider the fact that, with decent internet, that 400,000 might grow considerably in number, reducing housing pressure in the major urban centres and allowing Australia to grow without having to slather on MOAR INFRASTRUCTURE to Sydney and Melbourne's already groaning transport systems.
dools 12y ago
As a follow up, this is also interesting: http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-media-campaign-against-the-government-revealed,5071 http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-displa...
edgarallenbro 12y ago
Anyone else have trouble reading the upside down text?
- sjtrny 12y ago
  Pipe down or we'll give you the boot!

41 points by dools 12y ago

gadders 12y ago

NBN? Anyone know what that is?

tormeh 12y ago
Australia's National Broadband Network. The gist of the article seems to be that Murdoch wants to kill off fibre in Australia because it's a threat to traditional TV.
- dools 12y ago
  Not traditional TV, just Foxtel which is the biggest pay TV provider in Australia. Pay TV has much lower penetration in Australia than the US or UK, but if we had universal fibre access to every home, Foxtel would die pretty quickly. Foxtel is owned by Rupert Murdoch, and so is the Daily Telegraph which runs ridiculously overt front page articles against the Labor government and in favour of the Liberal government (for example, during the lead up to the last election the Tele had a cover that read, in very big letters "KICK THIS MOB OUT" referring to the encumbent government).
- threeseed 12y ago
  Not "wants to". Did. What the Coalition did with the NBN is a national disgrace.
  - neumann 12y ago
    let's not even speak of the 2014 budget.
hornokplease 12y ago
I just learned of it in a comment on the discussion of Cringely's article on peering - more context here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7774936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7774936

scawe 12y ago

NBN(fiber to the premise) is already killed off. The new government is adopting Fiber to the node for future installations.

etfb 12y ago
The former government (centre-right Labor party) promised FTTH or FTTP (Fibre To The Home/Premises) but that was scrapped when the slightly-less-centre-and-more-far-right Liberal party got in and proposed FTTN (Fibre To The Node). The "Node" is a box at the end of every street, from which the existing (and rotting) copper network would theoretically connect to each home. Needless to say the idea is profoundly stupid. FTTH is still available if you want to pay thousands of dollars for your connection, of course. We call this FTTR: Fibre To The Rich.
gelatocar 12y ago
Not even purely fiber to the node any more, they are going with a "multi-technology mix"[1] So by the end of 2020, 98% to 100% of the population would have at least 25Mbps[2]. Which is maybe twice as fast as what we have now on average (as a guess). It is also way behind schedule and over budget[3], when being quicker and cheaper were its main selling points against the FTTP solution proposed by the Labor government. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/10/malcolm-turnbull-directs-nbn-to-mixed-technology http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/10/malcolm-turnbul... [2]http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/17/nbn-chairman-says-internet-speed-guarantees-have-lost-currency http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/17/nbn-chairm... [3]http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/12/coalitions-nbn-cost-12bn-more-four-years-longer http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/12/coalitions...
- josephcooney 12y ago
  To be fair, the company executing on Labour's vision - NBNCo - was also going much slower than originally projected too.
  - dools 12y ago
    Yeah but by the time it finished, it would be far from being obsolete ;)

locusm 12y ago

The same reason data casting and any kind of innovation in the digital TV rollout was killed off in 2000. Don't upset the status quo. That was from Richard Alston back then, again the Liberal party.

tacticus 12y ago
Richard alston the worlds biggest luddite

tom_jones 12y ago

Interesting but it doesn’t get past the a priori objection to the NBN having been adopted without any economic or commercial assessment to justify it as a political fix when the election promise to provide better broadband at one tenth the cost of the NBN was shown to be hopeless and an embarrassing shambles. And it doesn’t demonstrate that the a priori probability that a proven entrepreneur in the field of Internet based services would be able to do the essential job more cost effectively.

cylinder 12y ago
I agree, there are many absurd components of the NBN, the most obvious being the idea that the government should spend $2 billion to launch two satellites into orbit just to provide internet to the 400,000 most rural customers who can't get cellular wireless (yet).
- dools 12y ago
  It's not so ridiculous if you consider the fact that, with decent internet, that 400,000 might grow considerably in number, reducing housing pressure in the major urban centres and allowing Australia to grow without having to slather on MOAR INFRASTRUCTURE to Sydney and Melbourne's already groaning transport systems.

dools 12y ago

As a follow up, this is also interesting: http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-media-campaign-against-the-government-revealed,5071 http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-displa...

edgarallenbro 12y ago

Anyone else have trouble reading the upside down text?

sjtrny 12y ago
Pipe down or we'll give you the boot!