Old white guys & girls – stay away from technology

11 August 2010

So finally we have a difference in this election – it is between competing broadband plans. Labor proposes a $43 billion going on $60 billion Rolls Royce version which will provide 100 Meg speeds to 98% of the population – wow. The coalition is spending $6 billion on a mixture of wireless and cable which will provide the ‘spine’ of a system which the private sector can expand on at a later date. Numerous pundits have came out critical of the coalitions plan lambasting it as not taking Australia into the new communications era. However whatever system we decide upon, someone has to pay and with minimal cost benefit analysis serious questions need to be asked about Labor’s proposal.

Firstly cable in many ways is old technology. 3 out of every 4 broadband plans now sold are wireless and wireless speeds continue to increase. Labor is backing that consumers will go back to cable because it is faster. Though this assumes wireless will not get faster – a big and I would say stupid assumption. It also assumes that everyone is prepared to pay for these speeds, yet the only real benefits they have shown is in home health monitoring – which can be done now anyhow – and some dubious claims surrounding education. What gives old white guys the right to spend our generation’s future picking winners in our interests? This technology does not pay. It has not paid in Japan, South Korea, Singapoore and Sweden so why it would pay in the most sparsely populated nation on earth has me beat.

Stop spending our generation’s money. This is not your money – this is ours and you are gambling our future trying to pick technological winners. Such shoddy work would never be accepted in the private sector but such analysis seems to not only be tolerated, but indeed rewarded in Canberra at the moment. The question needs to be what will people do with the extra capacity. I can see benefits for entertainment, downloading movies and TV programs but will consumers pay for it? It has taken pay TV providers 15 years to start making money in Australia so I doubt it. As for any other uses for the average consumer, well never say never but a host of countries have struggled to find uses for it, so I do not know why we would be any different.

There will be definite business advantages with such infrastructure but if business wants these advantages then business should pay for them. Whilst I try and be apolitical on this site – at least the coalition are inviting business to put their money where their mouth is.

Ultimately old white guys who are former lawyers and political staffers can never really understand these technologies. What they need to understand is that money is not infinite and that our generation will need to pay for these monuments to their lack of knowledge.