It’s a been a week of political upheaval, and as a result, the NBN has been kicked around like a partisan-football, so what was the score at the end of the metaphor-laden match?
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd rose up again this week, and with the help of Caucus, took power of the Labor Party and the country back from the now ex-Prime Minister Julia Gillard. From a tech perspective, that meant key Gillard supporter and NBN Champion, Stephen Conroy, was out along with several other key members of Cabinet. Conroy’s legacy will be the idea that the nation needs high-speed, ubiquitous broadband, no matter how it is delivered.
Meanwhile, on resignations: the head of the NBN roll-out committee, Rob Oakeshott, is also up for retirement come September 14, as is his Independent cohort and fibre-fanboy Tony Windsor.
The argument du jour with the NBN right now is whether the government takes the fibre to the home option proposed by the current government, or the fibre to the node idea proposed by the Coalition should it take power in September (or whenever it will be now). Interestingly, the argument strikes similarities with a discussion about copper versus iron wires to deliver telephone service in 1910. Imagine if we’d been stuck with an iron network this whole time!
Meanwhile, on the actual technology front: the folks who maintain the Telstra copper network on the ground have come out to say that David Thodey is dead-wrong. The network won’t last for 100 years, in fact, it’s being held together by plastic bags right now. Oh dear.
Finally, we leave you with a bit of humour to get you across the line into your weekend: Tony Abbott congratulates and thanks Malcolm Turnbull for “virtually inventing the internet in Australia“. Oh dear.