Rebooted NBN shuts down full fibre dream
NBN Co chief executive Bill Morrow is hoping that he will be whistling a far more upbeat tune by this time next year. A tune that lets him cast the National Broadband Network (NBN) in a whole new light.
The deals with Telstra and Optus will be set in stone, millions of premises will be on the network and NBN Co just might start leveraging the fixed wireless and the satellite component of the network to carve out new revenue streams.
One potential avenue that Morrow hinted at, in his recent speech to the Trans-Tasman Business Circle in Melbourne, is NBN Co satellites providing connectivity to the likes of Qantas and Virgin Australia.
Another could be a foray into the Wi-Fi space, which has already got the attention of the local telcos (Telstra, iiNet, Optus).
The fixed wireless component of the NBN is also set to play its part, with Morrow saying that NBN Co was ready to launch a backhaul product for mobile carriers, allowing the likes of Optus and Vodafone to expand mobile coverage by piggybacking of NBN infrastructure.
It's something Morrow pushed for during his tenure at Vodafone Australia and he's still clearly committed to the idea.
“I believe in providing a product to the mobile operators that lowers the cost of their backhaul, that leverages our existing NBN infrastructure,” he said at the Trans-Tasman Business Circle lunch.
“We do have a product that we're about to announce that's a cell site tower product to be able to help the Vodafones and the Optuses -- and if Telstra wants it too, to get backhaul to their towers.”
Of course, the clear and present challenge for NBN Co is to actually build the network, a process that has been stymied by the length of the negotiations with Telstra and the time taken to rehabilitate the construction product.
It's still a work in progress and there are still no guarantees that NBN Co will be able to meet its targets, that is unless Telstra steps into the breach and is handsomely recompensed or its trouble.
As for the additional products, flagged by Morrow, there are question marks about how much it will be allowed to do. It's unlikely that Telstra will be pleased with the prospect of NBN Co turning into another version of the incumbent telco.
However, Morrow says that while NBN Co needs to be a monopoly to get its feet off the ground, there's no reason why that needs to be case in the medium-term, especially as parts of the NBN are divested to third parties.
Morrow told those gathered at the Melbourne event that Fibre-to-the-Node (FTTN) services could easily co-exist and compete in HFC areas, if and when NBN CO's HFC division is hived out.
“Add to that other satellite opportunities or fixed wireless opportunities and you can start to see how ultimately we could get into an infrastructure competitive environment,” he said.
With the entire NBN process seemingly in stasis, Morrow at least is exhibiting a clear sense of purpose when it comes to monetising the infrastructure that his company is building.
And the first step in that thinking is a very conscious effort to put the copper versus fibre debate to bed. Arguably, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has done a very good job of demolishing the full fibre dream via his stage-managed reviews and cost benefit analysis, but Morrow is keen to reiterate that the debate around technology needs to stop.
He has a simple message for those still espousing the cause of full fibre -- get over it or pay for it.
Instead, the emphasis is on universal access and using existing technologies to meet the burgeoning bandwidth needs of this nation.
It's almost certainly going to prove inadequate in the long-term, but that's not really an issue that the current Coalition government is going to waste too much time worrying over.
Fibre on demand will, by NBN Co's own admission, follow British Telecom's template and the high costs involved make it unlikely to be the choice for your average household. NBN Co has said it is willing to work with councils on fibre and while most would be underequipped for such an undertaking, it will be interesting to see which intrepid local council puts its hands up.