While the recently published results of the House of Representatives investigation into the role and potential of the NBN were predictably split along party lines, the reports from both the majority and the minority stressed the importance of the demand-side activity of the NBN.
The majority report called for the need of an overarching strategy on how the NBN should be used. It further recommended that the government should:
- continue coordinating the implementation of the national digital economy strategy and require departments to report annually against its goals;
- keep implementing broadband-enabled technologies into its own services; and
- develop a comprehensive public engagement strategy to promote the uptake of broadband and digital technologies during the NBN rollout.
From as early as 2005 I have argued that the only reason the government should become involved in what is now the NBN is to facilitate the use of this infrastructure for the national good. So while an infrastructure policy was needed it was our view that a parallel trans-sector policy should be developed and implemented for services such as e-health, e-education, smart grids etc. We argued that if the government was only concerned about fast internet access it should not spend $37bn on it.
But if the aim was to assist social and economic reforms in sectors such as healthcare, education, etc, then that was a perfectly good reason to make the investment.
We pointed out what other national, government-funded infrastructure investments have done for the good and the wealth of the nation (electricity, water, roads, trains, etc). It is not about how much money you can make from this infrastructure – it is about the enormous economic value of that infrastructure to society.
The value of electricity is much more than the total of the electricity bills we all pay.
We agree with the minority report in that it is unfortunate these issues have been placed at the top of the agenda at such a late date. Admittedly the government has taken some excellent initiatives in the meantime, but they are not an integral part of NBN Co business plan.
As the report states, any cost benefit analysis should be based on the social and economic benefits of the NBN. To take that point a bit further – within that context prices set by NBN Co should reflect these benefits. In other words, what is more important – an ROI on their telecoms investment, or the social and economic return on the infrastructure.
We know that e-health can save us $10 billion, and that combining the NBN with smart grids can save us $2 billion. So we are doing things the wrong way round. We should have thought about the social and economic benefits first; calculated (roughly) those benefits; and then built an appropriate/a suitable business model around NBN Co.
Having said all of this, nothing will happen without a national broadband network. The previous government had eleven years to work something out and it was unable to do so. Given the short-term nature of political thinking the reality appears to be that these issues will be much easier to solve with the NBN in place than not, and once we start understanding the benefits of the NBN, the rest of the NBN Co model can be adjusted.
It's good that the importance of these broader social and economic benefits has been recognised, along with the fact that much more work needs to be done. Hopefully this will put pressure on the government to strengthen its national digital economy strategy.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Paul Budde
Quelle/Source: Technology Spectator, 29.08.2011
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