NBN Rollout Update : Central Coast NSW Australia

NBN Appeal update report

David Abrahams

February 25, 2014

Open Letter

I am writing to you as a signatory to the constructive CC NBN Rollout Appeal and to anyone interested in the $440 million infrastructure investment. There were in all 260 individuals, businesses & organisations that supported the appeal and 110 of you made detailed comments and suggestions.

The appeal was addressed to the Minister for Communications Hon Malcolm Turnbull, copies were sent to assistant Minister Paul Fletcher MP, MPs Lucy Wicks, Karen McNamara, Jill Hall, Senators Sinadinous, O'Neill & the Senate Committee investigating the NBN.

I would like to thank the signatories for their support of such a constructive regional appeal. Your collective support has undoubtably set the spotlight on investment on the Central Coast, it may very well be the catalyst to defending the hard fought infrastructure investment schedule. More importantly thank you for supporting a positive infrastructure development that will help decide the future of our region. A region so often forgotten in the nation's eye.  

Local News

With the announcements on Friday of a Fibre to the Node trial in Woy Woy/Umina it appears that our appeal has been largely ignored. Yet I still believe that our rationale is solid and that the coming trials of the downgraded technology will indicate the technical and financial flaws in the alternative.

• Interestingly the Peninsula Chamber has welcomed the solution, apparently happy for their business members to have only a fraction of speed and reliability of their Gosford based cousins.
• Gosford Council passed a motion to support the continued NBN rollout in late December.
• The Central Coast Business Review featured an article about the appeal in their February edition.
• The Peninsula News & the Gosford Community News have both had prominent articles in Feb.
• The ABC radio 92.5 has also had several discussions that featured our appeal.

International News

• It appears that our efforts have sparked some attention in that the Central Coast was featured in a prominent international telecommunications newsletter by the renowned international telco expert Paul Budde. http://www.buddeblog.com.au/frompaulsdesk/nbn-frustration-on-the-nsw-central-coast/

National News

• The Senate select committee investigating the NBN rollout has also picked up our appeal and have indicated their interest in travelling to the Central Coast in the near future to probe deeper into the issues. They may indeed contact some of you and request your views on specific situations. (Your contact details were not published publicly). Should this eventuate I trust people can come along to witness and/or comment. I know that Senator O'Neill has been key in pushing this to help illuminate the situation in this region.

Some articulate submissions

I'd like to share a few of the submissions. There were so many articulate and heartfelt responses, I've just taken a representative few to illustrate the broad views. I've abbreviated names for the sake of privacy.

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As a business we are absolutely hurting by not having access to cost effective and fast Internet connections. We compete with similar businesses in the bigger cities who pay a fraction of our monthly Internet costs for 10 times more speed and capacity. We are completely dependant on our internet connections and employ approximately 62 people for goodness sake!
D


Being a firm of accountants, we are performing more and more work with the aide of the internet. We process a substantial amount of account keeping and processing for both internal and client purposes and the current broadband service struggles to keep up with the requirements of our firm and as such, brings reductions in productivity and efficiency.
PP

Getting the NBN is a home business opportunity for me. In short, if I cannot get fibre to the home, I do not get the opportunity.
I do not see this as just an opportunity for myself; it is also an indicator of how the NBN will change the business opportunities throughout Australia.
John


As someone who moved up here from Sydney a few years ago to raise my young child in this gorgeous environment while also using my ambition and international experience to support local business and continue to work with international clients, it is difficult to fathom how anyone with a vested interest in regional business growth and opportunity could even contemplate disrupting the NBN rollout.
Ashley


I am a TAFE teacher. We have been continually told that our funding will be reduced, Campuses and courses cut. We are required to deliver more and more in the workplace. Our online training material are often very resource hungry and our students often have difficulty utilising online training due to poor connections and slow download/upload load speeds
Stephen


The NBN represents, for a remote island economy as Australia is; one last final opportunity to not only recover its failing economy, but to be THE leading economic country in the entire OECD, bar none.
Cathrine


As a company located on the Central Coast and growing it is very frustrating at the costs and more importantly the lack of high speed internet. We now have clients accessing our servers on connections many times higher than we can provide. Our whole business is suffering as a result as we try to serve as much data as we can.
Peter


We are a Voluntary Surf Lifesaving Club & we desperately need fast internet communication.At the moment we can't even get ADSL.
xSLSC


My suburb is ready [Kariong] has been readied and the residents and local businesses want the roll out to be completed as originally planned FTTP
Tom


I am concerned that the opposition to FTTP is based mainly on the fact that it was proposed by the previous government. Infrastructure projects of this magnitude should not be part of political skirmishes. If there are inefficiencies in the roll-out, address those, but do not deny residents and businesses the opportunity to be part of the 21st century because of ideology.
Kate


It is recognised worldwide that towns and cities with very fast fibre-optic internet services are seeing their economies grow substantially. The Central Coast economy is in serious decline with low GDP, declining business employment high unemployment, declining business numbers. We are now seeing rising numbers of commuters with the latest figures being around 40,000.
Edgar


Recent studies from Europe have shown FTTP to increase GDP, and reduce costs in delivering public services. Most such studies dismiss FTTN as not being a viable alternative. The longer Australia debates whether or not FTTP is even needed, the further we fall behind.
Patrick

20 previously unemployed young employees may lose there employment.
Ian


I am concerned that the changes to the planned NBN rollout of FTTN will greatly disadvantage people living in retirement villages.
Elizabeth


Its a ridiculous situation here on the Coast now with some properties connected to the NBN and others not. Places like Terrigal and North Avoca are no longer on the list to be connected to the NBN when they were prior to the election. Parts of the Coast will be privileged to get the fibre to the premises, those who missed out are going to get a substandard service. They just need to get on and finish the job. Lots of people on the Coast work from home and need this.
Michelle


Using a location such as the Central Coast would be an effective method of running a test-case of how the NBN could change for the better the nature of work and enable the education, leisure and health industries to deliver effective and user-focused services.
Marie



These are just some of the dozens of submissions that we received in those brief weeks. As you can see that this is truly a broad community based appeal.


I have presented this to several politicians including Ms Wicks MP and Senator O'Neill , unfortunately I've not been given an opportunity with Ms McNamara MP as yet, though she has received a copy of the appeal.


Minister Turnbull has as yet not replied.




Your Sincerely




David Abrahams
@digitdave
Local small business person
CC Broadband Alliance appeal coordinator.


PS. Several of you offered to assist. I like to think it is the roll of elected officials and the government agencies to prosecute the case for our regional telecommunications investments. Should these officials and agencies not wish to act, there may well be a case to put a coordination group together. It does appear that some of them are not up to speed yet, we should give people a good chance first.

Regional NBN Appeal for Central Coast NSW, Australia

Dear Central Coast Citizen,

I'm writing to seek your support for a constructive submission to the Department of Communications and the NBN review processes. I hope you can add your name to our regional appeal.

State of Play

As you know the Central Coast has an advanced state to the NBN roll out and the previously published maps by the NBN Company indicated that 80% of the region's premises were on the schedule. Already many premises in Gosford, East Gosford, Pt Fredrick & Springfield have access to the NBN. Construction is in advanced stage at Berkley Vale and surrounding areas and take up rates are healthy.

The new government is conducting reviews of the whole NBN project as indicated before coming into government. This includes seeking feedback from consultants, accountants and a new board. Minister Turnbull has also reached out and asked for constructive feedback to the NBN review process.

It is now very important that the new government hear our collective regional feedback to the reviews.

History

The NBN telecommunications upgrade that the region achieved was on the basis of a broad community, business, Fed MPs & councils business case. This was presented to the then government and NBNCo in 2011. The bid was successful and represented the one of largest investment schedule in the region's history. A historic success, celebrated by all at the time.

The successful business case articulated the following points

1. CC's old and patchy telecommunications infrastructure needs replacing.

2. CC's 40,000 plus commuters. (with a view to more tele-work + small business growth)

3. CC's depressed economic position and potential for economic growth.

4. CC's expensive service delivery in health and education could be reduced by reliable BB.

The business case was constructive, well articulated and importantly from a broad united front. 

Constructive Action required again

It is now time to put a similar case to the new government. It is important to be constructive and united. Any division will risk the further divestment and ultimately poorer services for much of the region.

I have made myself available to talk to business and community groups to guide them in coordinating their constructive contributions to the review over the next couple of weeks. 

What you can do?

1. Support the appeal petition CLICK HERE: 

2. Stay constructive focussed on the issue in letters to media and others.

3. Ask your local industry & community groups to support the appeal.

4. Email & Social Message people in your friends and colleagues group this email of this link to the Appeal Petition: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dF9aS3FyNjMtU2FaRXJOdFRyTDhtT0E6MA

5. Attend any meetings organised. I have been asked to speak at a meeting Nov 14, 6pm at CC Leagues Club in the Park View room, this is an open meeting.  I expect there may be a few other get togethers from other groups. I'm happy to do what I can to help.

Finally, thank you to all that have pragmatically stuck with and advanced our regional cause.

This infrastructure will make a huge difference to the profitability of businesses, the reduction of costs associated with service delivery for governments and importantly a renewed wave of optimism and innovation for young and old. 

Please feel free to forward this email. 

Dave Abrahams

Digital Economy Advocate

Heart felt regional issue - Questioning NBN investment - Worth considering

Dear fellow Central Coastian,

I'm writing to you about a incredibly important local issue. Asking you to wrestle with your hearts and minds for about a $440 million investment and carefully consider your belief in the Central Coast before you vote tomorrow.

By voting for a regional issue that will really make a difference to our lives, the local economy, our access to health care and education and reduce the region's reliance on commuting. 

Please feel free to forward this if you believe some body should know about this important Central Coast issue. FaceBook it etc.

I'm asking many of you to buck the current trend and vote for the unique regional issue. It's not about left of right, Lab, Lib, Green etc' it's about our region and very important regional infrastructure. It's really that simple.  

The NBN infrastructure enables local business to grow, local carers to monitor securely aged people in their home, local students to be involved with the best educators. It's about enabling working from home more often for our commuters. All of this is very well documented, industry designed and the investment schedule on the Central Coast is published. It's not theory. 

It's taken a great deal of work for over 10 years to get the investment here. I've been part of a real team of business and community leaders, councillors and of course the current Federal MPs to make it happen.

The NBN investment rollout is well underway on the Central Coast. Dozens of workers are building better, phone, mobile and internet services in our region right now. Already customers in Gosford, East Gosford & Point Fredrick report incredible reliability, speed and reduced telephone costs. 

Good if you're in; Gosford, East Gosford, Point Fredrick and Springfield you receive 100Mb speeds now and in December 1000Mb speeds.

Bad if you're in; Erina, Wyong, Woy Woy, Tuggerah, Kincumber, Foresters Beach, Avoca, Killcare, Narara, Lake Haven, Toukley etc etc, etc. 

You could receive a service offering just 2.5% to 10% of what will be in Gosford in December with the alternative plans. 

I'm not asking you to vote and reward the Labor party nationally per say as the Coast clearly won't effect the outcome of the national election this time. Though once in a generation people get the chance to help decide something that really makes a difference.

I am asking you to consider voting for local candidates that will actively defend our $440 million published local investment schedule. Not all Central Coastians know about this, they should.

Our Pro Central Coast investment defenders at present:

Deb O'neill & Kate Da Costa in Robertson.

Emma MacBride, Craig Thompson & Sue Wynn in Dobell

Jill Hall in Shortland

These good strong local candidates can defend published investments. Weak ones can or will not fight for the investment. The question is who will stand up to the de-investmnet gang and who will roll over. That's why whoever's in government we need strong regional advocates, people who support our regions investment.

NB: Sadly the Team Central Coast candidates Gosford Mayor Lawrie McKinna & Cricketer Nathan Braken are siding with the de-investment candidates, despite previous support for the published NBN the Mayor of Gosford is in effect voting down the region's investment.

It's regrettable this group has misunderstood the situation and is supporting the De-Investment of at least $220 million dollars. Ironically they were campaigning on a pro-investment ticket. The groups tactical & financial backer John Singleton boasted he'd "do no harm" to the region. Obs. 

To be honest I'm most disappointed that this telecommunications upgrade has become a political football. It should be a united national priority. Countries around the world are clambering for this infrastructure. 

Please consider voting for this unique Central Coast issue - and please pass this on to anyone who should know. 

Dave Abrahams

Local Small Business owner and regional investment campaigner.

web: www.davidab.info

Twitter: @digitdave

NB: I am not a Labor party member, donor or indeed a member of any party. I don't have millions of dollars to throw at posters and media adds. I respond to the power of positive ideas and sound information as I think most people do. Good voting. 

Click here for fuller report to Central Coast Councillors

NBN v 2.0 : A new railway gauge disaster

Skimping and changing track halfway through an infrastructure build is fought with disaster. Any student of engineering history will know the debacle of railway gauges in Australia. Could the same processes be at work with the proposed changing of the NBN rollout schedule.

Despite the constant discussions about technology the NBN is happening right now, it's happening! In 60+ regions across the country there are guys and girls everywhere rolling out fibre. The work's been done on design, the contracts have been signed, the workers are out in the field.

Should a new government decide to change the current model by compromising the current network design it will inevitably create network differentials. Some areas will fly with fibre to the premise and others will be compromised with whatever cheap / lesser technology is deemed fit.

Historical experience will tell us it will be the outer metro, rural and regional areas that are not currently under construction that will get the compromised service. Which ever way you look at it this is how the "get it faster for less money" policy spiel from Turnbull et.al will pan out.

So the new reality could be; areas with and without the gigabit speeds that the decades ahead will demand. Sure it's hard to think how we could use that throughput now, but one thing is certain, bandwidth demands will increase massively each year, as they have done historically.

A similar discussion happened in the 1870's with the roll out of the railway lines in the colonies of Australia. Almost every state ran their own track gauge widths, as they all never thought the railways would become a national network. 
In Australian Economics and Trade 101, this was THE example of infrastructure short sightedness. So much so, that the history lesson is taught in economic schools around the world. It was even a sticking point to the federation of Australia itself. Dumb with a ten foot high D . Differentiated rail gauges have cost the nation billions in replacement infrastructure and lost commercial opportunities.

So here we are with a similar logic applied by the grandsons of those railway gauge accountants in the alternative government. "Save money now" (with new cheaper differentiated technology deliveries) I hear them cry.

Should this come to pass (I'm not sure Mr Turnbull is so silly), historians would need to write a new chapter in Australia's infrastructure stuff ups.

The good ol' days maybe tomorrow -

Can the new National Broadband Network bring back the glory days to regional Australia? Perhaps skilled people of all ages and persuasions will retreat from the cities and seek a more productive and healthy lifestyle? Will they need to compromise their professional aspirations to do so?

Regional Australia often conjures up feelings of the good old days. A time when we had time for each other and contributed to our community. Days past when buying a decent family house was a commitment not a life sentence. When living in a healthy natural environment was taken as a given. Many of us holiday in regional Australia to keep a tenuous connection to these good things.

Though regional Australia is now also associated with compromise. Compromise in your professional career, educational opportunities and quality health services. Some would even cite compromises in the availability to fashionable clothes and accessories. All these compromises snowball across the nation effectively repelling people from seriously considering living in regional Australia for a long period. Sadly many young people from across Australia leave their towns and cities to redress these common perceptions.

Ready to retire: An old PMG phone line still used.

The cumulative economic effect of all this compromise severely limits the sustainable development of regional Australia. Successive governments have and do spend big money in redressing some of these perceived and real compromises, often in a vain hope of kick starting regional economies. Roads, railways, airports, schools, health services, sporting and cultural facilities have all been funded by governments. Sadly the perception of compromise still sticks and local economies are often stuck in boom and bust cycles.

The National Broadband Network investment is different in two major ways. First, the NBN is being built in the midst of the fastest growing market sector of the global economy, the digital economy. Subsequently has very real income streams are attached to it, unlike most other regional investments.

The NBN is unique too in that it will deliver services that will directly address the compromises associated with regional Australia. Health & education services, often the hardest services to deliver to regions are already being enhanced over the NBN. Professional development through teleworking and local business opportunities are starting to address stubborn regional compromises. Even amazing new ways of shopping for fashion items are being delivered through the NBN infrastructure. 

I believe many regions will become renewed hubs of innovative production and distribution, because of their lower cost base and motivated local workforce. 

In my own region and my own business on the NSW Central Coast we are already seeing benefits in renewed private investment and initiatives stimulated by our region's NBN rollout schedule. 

All these positives will lead to a renaissance for regional Australia not seen for over 100 years. Our metropolitan infrastructure may be slowing the nation down, though regional Australia will quite literally start growing at the speed of light.

Dave Abrahams

Chair

Regional Development Australia Central Coast

This article is part of the publication: 'Transforming Australia - The Broadband Revolution and the Digital Economy' ISBN 978 0 646 58138 5

Regional Mathematics of Digital Waves - NBN opportunities

An incredible set of innovations have washed over us in the last 20 years; Email, The Web, Mobile Phones, eCommerce, Social Media all have spawned industries, companies and opportunities that were not even conceptualised in the world we occupied previously.

Take a quick look at the current waves hitting the beach; YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter & Mobile Apps. All have some surprising similar traits. Key among them is they offer innovative (regional) populations a platform for real and lasting change, if they can 'surf the waves' for their own purposes.

So what are the mathematics of digital waves. The exact answer lies in the pure mathematical expression of sine or 'sin' eg. y=sin x , expressed below.



These pure waves go for ever on the horizontal x axis, and on the y axis oscillating between 1 and -1 may just represent the rolling nature of many things in nature and in digital world of innovations.

If we overlay the cosine of y=cos x to the graph this may represent the delayed effect in the real world change of these digital innovations.



These of course are perfect expressions and as such don't apply in the outside world, as there are so many variables that distort these waves. It is in these 'distortions' that we see the pitfalls or opportunities.

Imagine for example if a regional population could bring the blue line of digital reality closer to the red curve. This would in effect shorten the uptake time of a digital technology in the population and accelerate the real change, literally ahead of the curve.

More of this later.
t

NBN Evangelists enlisted for a virtual crusade

The federal government has decided to recruit NBN advocates from the community, business, education and association sector to help tell the public how a future NBN will work. Prominent advocates and high profile 'evangelists' including a chief scientist, a famous author, and the head of a major telecommunications users group.
The government announcement stressed the 'voluntary' nature of these appointments, supposedly meaning that these people are not the usual high paid crew of spin doctors and professional opinion makers.
This method might just cut some mustard in a slogan saturated public arena that always assumes that citizens are too busy for real and informed opinions. Regional NBN wishes the evangelists good luck and good communicating.