Re: extra costs
god you have no idea
"The cost of "keeping up the copper network", as you say, are nothing compared to the costs of ripping out all that working cable and replacing it with fibre."
so remediation works for copper, which will be ongoing as copper ages, is what but wasted money if your end game is FTTP? Telstra are doing what they need to do as a public company and bending the Govt over for access to copper that will be ditched in 10-15 years. Why you could possibly support this is fucking nuts - or you're a Telstra shareholder. Between gaining access and the ongoing upkeep cost which hasn't been reported at all - but hey lets have another report on labors FTTP - this copper network is going to be the most expensive part of the MTM, eclipsing all only to be binned in a decade.
Turnbull has already admitted FTTP is the end game, and this MTM is to get things up and running faster. However as someone in an area that is getting NBN this political bullshit has stalled the rollout. There are locations that are NBN enabled that can't get the lead-ins down for 4,5,6 months, and I've been told it's the uncertainly for jobs thinning staffing, so noone on the ground do the work.
So MTM is doing nothing positive. NOTHING. NOT A DAMN THING. but you'll act as though you're saving money, even though labor underwrote FTTP with bonds, taking it off the budget and meaning not a damn cent of our taxes were paying for it, if it got to making a profit at least. Now though we are destined to pay Telstra for a copper network they were largely gifted from the govt, its almost as if this whole thing has been a corporate welfare scheme. I'm sure MTM won't run at a profit so this will come out of the budget in coming years too. BUT THE BIG SCARY NUMBERS ARE LESS BIG IF YOU LISTEN TO MALCOM, right?