Turnbull 2.0

I am thrilled at the news of Malcolm Turnbull’s appointment as Opposition communications spokesman. I do believe that he is qualified to hold the post and he will do well in his endeavour to keep Stephen Conroy on his toes. I mean, the man has his own iPhone app for crying out loud! In his “acceptance” blog post, he highlighted the $43 billion cost of the ALP’s National Broadband Network, which is a great concern. I do notice that no mention has been made of the Coalition’s broadband model, which has been largely (and rightly) rubbished since it was announced during the election campaign. I can only hope that he goes back to the drawing board, and realises that FTTH is the way to go – but that it must be done with a close eye on the purse strings.

What does worry me (as usual) is the first comment on the blog post:

As an IT professional working from home do I need a 100MB connection? Absolutely not. Does my 76 YO Mum need 100MB? No…

This argument is so short-sighted that poster Craig should be ashamed to call himself an IT professional. If there is any profession that changes on a daily basis, it is the IT profession. The 24 MBit connection serving my office today is just enough for me now, but would it have been too much 10 years ago? Absolutely. Will it be adequate 10 years from now? Absolutely not.

Craig also misses the defining point of the NBN, which is that it is universal. France recently recognised broadband as being a basic human right, and I am certain that in the future it will the the case in every developed nation. To leave it to private enterprise to roll out the last mile is to consign rural Australia to the dark ages of the Internet, making the tipping the balance of rural/urban living again strongly in favour of the urbanite.

I’ll say it again: the NBN is a necessity for Australia. Even if you don’t appreciate a personal benefit from it, there are millions of Australians out there who will.