The NBN'S 500-page fairy tale
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Fairy tales take place in some distant land of dragons, knights and damsels in distress. They are not concerned about complex political situations, incumbent telcos and angry shareholders. Building an NBN there would be a comparatively straightforward process and they'd all live happily ever after.
Unfortunately we don't live in Fairyland, so the NBN has a less straightforward future. Yet KPMG and McKinsey, paid a handsome $25 million to produce a 500-page implementation study, has concluded that it's all good news. "Yes" it can be built and "no" we don't need to fight the angry blue monster.
Yet the document seems to ask more questions than it answers. It adds to the mounting evidence that the whole thing is more complex than the government had ever envisaged and there's no shining knight coming to the rescue. It could all end in a rather bloody mess. Not at all the stuff of children's stories.
On today's Twisted Wire, three cynics, four if you include me, question the value derived from the NBN implementation study and ask whether it provides enough ammunition for the government to push ahead with the whole exercise.
On the panel:
- John Filmer, former director of Enterprise at Optus
- Kevin Morgan, independent telco analyst
- Stilgherrian, from ZDNet Australia's Patch Monday
Running time: 33 minutes, 33 seconds