It was a big week! Here’s how Pay TV could look in an NBN world, Internode lists its NBN pricing, and Malcolm Turnbull explains how he’d deliver you super fast broadband…
NBN Prices: Why Is Everyone Already Freaking Out?
The big news this week was Internode’s possible NBN prices. But boy did that get out of hand fast. So much so that I wrote this separate in-depth look at how Internode is just one medium-sized, premium ISP, and cries of “NBN fail!” from Turnbull and some quarters of the media are far too premature. More »
• Otherwise, the week started with news that Netflix is reportedly looking for an Australian ISP partner to launch here ahead of the NBN. [Gizmodo]
• Australian Personal Computer had a good look at the top 10 benefits of the NBN. As they point out, it’s not all about streaming video and gaming. If handled properly, fibre will revamp remote healthcare, learning and videoconferencing. [APC]
• But what about pay TV? Turns out that the Australian consumer watchdog isn’t happy about Foxtel buying Austar — and it’s because of the NBN. Right now, if you want pay TV in Australia, you’ve basically got Foxtel in the city, and Austar if you’re in a rural area. But under the NBN, fibre will allow each company to expand anywhere, and letting them merge now could create a monopoly. Full breakdown at: [Lifehacker]
• Earlier in the week, former minister under John Howard, Peter Reith, submitted a report to the Liberals on what lost the 2010 Federal election. Failure to properly explain broadband policy was listed as one of the reasons. [Liberal.org.au]
• The next day, Malcolm Turnbull announced what’s effectively been deemed as the Coalition’s new NBN policy. In it, Turnbull suggests he would halt the NBN mid roll-out in favour of a mix of fibre, copper and other technologies. “I’m talking 50Mbps to 60Mbps downloads, 5Mbps to 10Mbps uploads…You will struggle to notice any difference because there are not applications that require very, very high speeds over fibre to the home.” [ZDNet]
• Playing perfectly fair, Turnbull did make some solid points about the competitive landscape, though his speech is still only the beginnings of a policy with real depth. Interesting food for thought at: [Delimiter]