back to article NBN Co correction: We're rubbish at broadband rollout and NEVER improved

NBN Co has issued a press statement assuring media that in spite of what looked like a favourable assessment of its fibre-to-the-premises rollout procedures, things really were dreadful until the new government commissioned the Strategic Review. Or perhaps things weren't dreadful, but they're really, truly, definitely better …

  1. dan1980

    The current management are there because they either share the government's position or are suitably obedient to toe the line.

    In that vein, they have been strongly supportive of the Coalition's plan and just as strongly critical of Labor's version. They have nailed their colours to the mast and can't afford to back down now as to do so would reflect very poorly not only on themselves but on the Government that hand-picked them.

    Whatever the real story, one thing is certain and that is that the NBN Co board are every bit as partisan in this matter as the Government that game them their expensive seats and so one must expect spin and rhetoric at every opportunity. (And the same may well have been true for the last version, but this is what we have right now.)

    Saying that NBN Co is independent (and therefor trustworthy) when they have their board appointed by the political incumbents has the same ring as News Corp claiming their outlets are neutral and unbiased when their editors and major opinion contributors* are chosen to match the current political leaning and aims of Murdoch.

    * - Think Andrew Bolt and Miranda Devine as recent local examples.

    1. RealFred

      Your comment about News Corp also applies to Fairfax press, Independent, Never. You only have to read their paper to realise their agenda is to take anyones side except for the government, hide the shit that labor left behind and censor comments left in articles on their news columns. They employ left lurching columnists, that can only see their labor Gods.

      Why do we need the government to build our communications network. Surely thats a shortcut to a surveillance state. I don't believe any government should own any communications infrastructure, as it makes it too easy to monitor what the population is doing. We should be letting private enterprise build it. That will produce competition, cheaper prices and better infrastructure.

      1. dan1980

        @RealFred

        No, it doesn't.

        Why not? Because I wasn't talking about a news outlet with a particular leaning, but one that changes based on the whims of the controllers. Fairfax was pro-Labor 8 years ago and is pro-Labor now. Newscorp was also pro-Labor 8 years ago but then changed and became pro-Liberal. They maintain that there is no bias or directive from above but the key is the people that Murdoch appoints and who they in turn hire - with the examples of Bolt and Devine*.

        That's the parallel I was drawing - not that NBN Co is like Newscorp because it is pro-Liberal, but that NBN Co is like Newscorp because its stance is dictated by the management and board of the company and that board is in turn dictated by those pulling the strings, with the end result that they become a partisan mouthpiece rather than an independent teller of facts.

        * - Devine was actually at Fairfax and was hired right about the time Newscorp started going hell-for-leather against Labor. Bolt was already with Newscorp but was a bit-player at the Herald Sun in Melbourne. Suddenly he has a whole lot more ink and his columns are appearing in four of the state papers. He (Murdoch) does the same thing in the UK.

    2. RealFred

      Funny,

      Miranda Devine was the darling of the SMH crowd until the moment she decided she'd had enough of a newspaper that you needed to fold into small pages so you could read it.

    3. Fluffy Bunny
      Coffee/keyboard

      What's wrong with them?

      You complain about Andrew Bolt and Miranda Devine as biased, which reveals your hard-core left-wing leanings. Only a socialist stooge would think either of them were biased. They are a refreshing breath of fresh air compared to the dungpit stench that comes from your average Fairfax journalist. And the average Fairfax journalist is very, very, average.

      1. dan1980
        WTF?

        Re: What's wrong with them?

        @Fluffy Bunny

        Andrew Bolt and Miranda Device were, generally, supporting Abbott's views and criticising Rudd/Gillard's views. That was my only point. I never said I agreed with them or not, just that THEIR views at that time accorded with Rupert Murdoch's political aims and thus he gave them space - in the case of Devine, by hiring her and in the case of Bolt, by increasing his print space and circulation.

        My argument was not that they were right or wrong, simply that the people who controlled Newscorp hired people whose views and articles were supportive of the position the newspapers were taking.

        I made this point not to condemn it (or them) but as an analogy for how the Coalition government AND THE LABOR GOVERNMENT BEFORE THEM made sure that the people on the board of NBN Co were people who supported the government's view.

        The whataboutery of slamming Fairfax is so beside the point as to be nearly nonsensical in this context. It doesn't matter if Fairfax papers are better, worse or exactly the same. It doesn't matter if they do exactly the same thing as Newscorp. The reason it doesn't matter is because I was using Newscorp as an ANALOGY (please tell me you understand that) rather than bringing them up for criticism.

        Whether Andrew Bolt is the most honest, straight, non-partisan, unbiased 'breath of fresh air' this country has ever seen is NOT RELEVANT. If you think it is then you have utterly failed to understand my point. Perhaps deliberately.

        ALL that matters is that his views (whether accurate, insightful, biased, untrustworthy, honest or outright fiction - it doesn't matter!) accorded with the political aims of those who gave him print space and circulation and directly correlated with the change of political aim of those same people.

        Not one part of that argument is partisan in any way because all I was implying was that the makeup of the NBN Co board reflects the government so this board says things that supports this government and the last board said things that supported the last government.

        Whether the individual members are partisan or not is, again, irrelevant. All that matters is that the views they are stating match what the people who hired them want them to say.

        1. dan1980

          Re: What's wrong with them?

          BTW - I didn't deliberately select the WTF icon - must have accidentally hit the mouse wheel - but I have decided to leave it as it does represent the reaction I had to your comment. I really do wonder if you read it properly given the response.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NBN in Melton? No, not really....

    "it took only 104 days to rollout Melton".... That's great, if it were only true. I live in Melton and it's not available to me - I'd love to have it, but it's not installed in my block. Melton is currently designated for a PARTIAL installation of NBN, so it's not covering the entire area of Melton, only the more central and southern sides.

    If NBN could actually cable up the entire suburb, that'd be great, thanks!

    1. RealFred

      Re: NBN in Melton? No, not really....

      The report is another lie from Fairfax, Independant, only if its pro ALP.

  3. TuffGuy

    The entire board of NBN Co are mates and former employees of Turnbull and were hired expressly to be yes men. Ziggy for example is on public record about 10 years ago saying the copper network was "5 minutes to midnight" and saying fibre was the way of the future. Sadly because he is now paid to be Turnbull's yes man his opinions are now predictably the exact opposite. They even sucked in Hackett to silence their most vocal critic. Turnbull has invested his own money overseas in fibre rollouts yet for reasons unknown to us persists in destroying the future digital economy of this country with his MTM which will predominately be HFC and FTTN. Has anybody ever asked him this question??? Hence this article where NBN Co will do anything to downplay any improvements and economies in the fibre rollout lest we follow up with demands for more fibre. And this makes the big question to Turnbull even more important as reality is the complete opposite of the Turnbull spin from NBN Co about flexibility and using the most cost effective technology.

  4. Winkypop Silver badge
    Unhappy

    The NBN is dead to me

    I've given it up.

    I'll just make do with the old copper shit on offer.

    1. Denarius
      Flame

      Re: The NBN is dead to me

      you have copper ? lucky b.

      1. Fluffy Bunny
        Facepalm

        Re: The NBN is dead to me

        If you don't even have ADSL over copper, you should be on the priority list for roll-outs. In fact, if the original contract signed by the Howard Government had been allowed to be completed, you would already have broadband. But KRudd wanted to buy a bunch of votes, so we are stuck with this abomination instead.

    2. Benno

      Re: The NBN is dead to me

      My residential address is still on the FTTP rollout schedule, but I'm inclined to agree with you :(

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