back to article No FTTH under alternative Oz NBN plan, says Oppn. leader

The last possible imitation of sanity has abandoned Australia's National Broadband Network debate, with opposition leader Tony Abbott accused of abandoning his party's “DIY fibre” policy to save Australians from exposure to asbestos. Which it cannot possibly achieve. The FTTN-plus-DIY policy was already subject to criticism …

COMMENTS

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  1. Steven Roper
    Pint

    Nice writing Richard...

    "And thus does knee-jerk opportunism take the potting clay of policy and of it, craft the very image of the village idiot."

    I'm sure Shakespeare himself would be proud of that line!

    1. mikeinnc
      Happy

      Re: Nice writing Richard...

      Actually, I think it is demeaning of the village idiot........

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. Denarius
    Flame

    stop this nonsense immediately

    If this sort of article is to be published, it needs to be crass partisan, vitriolic and utterly irrelevant to the practical world of infrastructure. It raises the debate to a level the news networks will incur severe suffering trying to trivialise. And getting one issue sensibly before the voters is simply not to be considered. They might start thinking...

    well done Richard

    1. blearrgh
      Thumb Up

      Re: stop this nonsense immediately

      Seconded. Good column in Crikey today as well. Keep fighting the good fight for basic sanity in this bizarre debate.

  4. FlatEarther
    Alien

    Opposition Broadband Policy:

    1. Whatever Labor says, we're against it

    2. Malcolm Turnbull will never be Prime Minister or Lead of the Opposition (again)

    3. What is Broadband.

    4. Malcolm Turnbull will never be Prime Minister or Lead of the Opposition (again)

    1. Paul 129
      Big Brother

      Labor Policy

      1. Whatever will get us a vote

      2. Go the Man

      3. Polls are irrelevant.

      4. The Plebs only have the memory of a goldfish

      5. Truth is whatever we say it is, today.

      Its scary, the scale of the corruption/incompetence (delete the most uncomfortable term)

      I'm just delighted we still have a constiutional democracy. If this lot had the Governor Generals Powers we could kiss goodbye to any semblance of democracy.

  5. Goresh

    ""pits and pipes "will not be touched" over last 500m,""

    Actually, this would rule out any FTTN deployment also. You would struggle to do nodes and it positively rules out mini-nodes.

    Seems the coalition NBN will consist of ADSL only.

    1. Abel Adamski

      And

      Dialup

  6. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    In Other Words...

    "NBN" under a coalition government stands for "No Broadband Nearby". Got it.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    NBN credibility

    It seems the Libs have not a shred left.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fascinating circle jerk going on here

    but I suspect that far too much attention is being paid to the supposed offhand remark (reported second hand by an opposing politician), reportedly made by a self-confessed non-expert who will be delegating all that to someone else when* he wins the next election.

    *That is the only thing in this discussion of which there is no doubt.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thin cable, long distance, but high speed? Rubbish!

    Hand on a mo, the Liberal Party FTTN proposal is now going to put the node at least 500m from the customer? And they expect 25Mbps from this minimum distance using the existing Cat1 cable plant?

    It just isn't possible.

    (Anon because I'm a network engineer, and no one wants to get offside with an often-vindictive political party.)

  10. MrDamage Silver badge

    Libs FTTNH Network

    Fruit Tin and Twine to the Neighbour's House

  11. John Angelico
    Stop

    Wrong Headline

    The problem is in the title (as Sir Humphrey would have it).

    Should read "Asbestos hysteria halts NBN deployment" because there is minimal actual risk of asbestos related afflictions from what has been built into those pits.

    Check this rundown of the madness (apologies for the broken text of the link - it's a longish one):

    http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/asbestos_risk_choose_reason_or_ray_hadleys_scare/

  12. TimChuma
    FAIL

    Dig up stupid!

    What really is happening is that they are only now finding all the things that actually need to be fixed in the telecommunications network that were not looked at before. It costs thousands of dollars even to drain the pits and look in them.

    I enjoyed this summation of the policy of the, lets face it now incoming government at the next election

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-6E5yX1E0U

  13. fredds
    Happy

    FTTN

    Two weeks ago, got ADSL2 via FTTN; speedtest, 17Mbps.

    This is basically what the libs are offering.

    I am 2Km from the node, and 5Km from exchange, with crappy lines.

    As I live in a small country town, estimate FTTH would arrive at my place in 10 years.

    Fast enough for me

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