The Budget revealed how much it would cost to cancel the NBN rollout, the Coalition cried foul on the numbers and the wireless versus fixed argument flared up in this week’s NBN news.
• The big news for the NBN this week was the Federal budget, as it answered one frequent question in the ongoing NBN debate. If you wanted to cancel the NBN right now, the bill for tax payers would come to a rather uncomfortable $2 billion. [Gizmodo]
• The Coalition wasn’t happy with the Government’s budget numbers, with Malcolm Turnbull back on the offensive. He’s claiming that the cost of the NBN has blown out by $400 million more than the December 2010 corporate plan… [Computerworld]
• …as well as returning to the issue of whether the NBN should be seen as a budget expense item or not. If it was — and Turnbull’s clearly in the camp that says it should be — he reckons it’d wipe out the budget surplus entirely. [Delimiter]
• Think NBN and you probably think data, but it’ll also act as the nation’s voice gateway once the copper is decommissioned. Takeup for voice-only NBN has been light to date, but NBN Co’s started fast-tracking user authentication for its voice only services, making them easier for providers to offer to consumers. [Gizmodo]
• Wireless 4G can be quick, although rarely in a consistent fashion and with other issues including latency, but that didn’t stop one newspaper from declaring that existing 4G services had already ‘eclipsed’ the NBN in Perth. [Gizmodo]
• Bourke was picked as one of ten towns across the nation that’ll host a satellite ground station as part of the NBN’s wireless network infrastructure. [SMH]
• On the subject of wireless networks, NBN Co’s indicated that it plans to provide satellite services capable of delivering 100GB plans to end users; current capacity constraints mean that providers can’t offer the same sized plans over satellite, at least according to NBN Co’s fair use policy. [CRN]