National Broadband Network (NBN) Project in Australia

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Table of Contents

Background
The Positive Implications of the National Broadband Network (NBN)
The Negative Implications of the National Broadband Network (NBN) Project
Conclusions
Reference list

Background

Most governments in the world have taken a bold step towards developing policies on broadband infrastructure to improve the accessibility and availability of broadband networks to businesses and the public in general. As a result, there has been a massive increase in the number of broadband network projects in most European countries, which form an integral part of EU’s Lisbon Strategy aimed at meeting the objectives of the Digital Agenda for Europe 2020. Furthermore, to meet the objectives of the Digital Agenda for Europe 2020, the European Commission set aside about one billion Euros to support the implementation of rural broadband networks (Ergas, 2009, p. 79).

Therefore, the Australian government saw the urgent need to develop a nationwide broadband network with the assumptions that the project would improve the country’s economic and social status. As a result, Australia developed the National Broadband Network (NBN), which is worth AUD 43 billion to supply Internet services to 93% of Australian residential premises, businesses, academic facilities, and health care facilities through fibre optics. In addition, the remaining premises and businesses in Australia particularly in the rural areas will be connected with the rest of the world through wireless networks and satellite technologies (Willson et al., 2009, p. 797).

The initial NBN project began in Tasmania in 2009 and by July 2010, the first round of broadband Internet services was fully operational. On the other hand, the national broadband networking program began in June 2010 with the signing of a non-binding agreement by Telestra to take part in the construction project. Upon its completion, the National Broadband Network will be characterized by Access and Download speeds of about 1GB/second for fibre networks and about 12MB/second for wireless and satellite technologies. In addition, the network will be an Open Access Network managed by the government for a period of 8-10 years considering that the government will own 51% of shares. Furthermore, the network operates on a universal pricing platform irrespective of the location thereby creating an additional 47,000 job opportunities and upgrade more than 25,000 jobs per annum (Cavill & Miller, 2009).

However, regardless of the good intentions and numerous benefits of the National Broadband Network (NBN) project, some critics still think that the government’s proposal to inject an initial amount of AUD 43 billion in direct investment would be a waste of the tax-payers’ money on a project that the government itself cannot certainly outline its direct benefits to the economy. Therefore, this essay presents an in-depth discussion of the pros and cons of the National Broadband Network (NBN) relative to the proposed economic and social benefits of the project.

The Positive Implications of the National Broadband Network (NBN)

Considering that the NBN project is a long-term investment, most telecommunication analysts recommend that the public should use an aspect of vision to envisage the benefits of the project. For instance, the economic growth of many nations in the world has been supported by the general infrastructure over the centuries. Therefore, considering that the manufacturing industry in Australia is not strong enough to support the economy, there is the need for the government to develop knowledge-based industries such as the broadband network to support the country’s economic growth (Madden at al., 2006, p. 1049).

However, an obvious and notable benefit of the NBN project is that it gives Australia the opportunity to be ranked at the same level as other technology leaders in the world such as Finland, Korea, and Sweden. Despite that there is no clear-cut connection between the broadband infrastructure and the economic growth; studies show that the world’s best economic performers are also technology leaders. Therefore, it is probable that broadband networks just like other aspects of Information and Communication (IT) technologies are imperative in terms of improving the standard of living, economic growth, and social communication and interrelationships (Rheuban, 2006). Furthermore, OECD studies show a positive connection between the adoption of broadband infrastructure and the GDP growth. Additionally, the same studies, which consider specific cases, note that the GDP growth is attributable to the positive contribution of the broadband network to creation of employment opportunities, establishment of new business enterprises, and increased revenues. As a result, the broadband networks do not single-handedly contribute to economic growth but they complement other technologies and economic tools to create the network effect in economic growth (OECD, 2007).

Furthermore, the broadband network plays a pivotal role in economic growth through enhancing human communication, organizational behavior, and social interactions. As a result, the NBN project will play a major role in enhancing human communication and social interactions through eliminating inequalities in Internet service accessibility and bridging the digital divide. Here, the role played by the broadband network project involves enabling businesses and premises, which are poorly serviced to gain access to universal high-speed Internet connections. As a result, those businesses that could not grow or start due to lack of strategic locations and telecommunication services will open and expand thereby promoting the economy (Picot & Grove, 2010). Conversely, bridging the digital divide entails overcoming the spatial barriers and distances, which slow down the growth and expansion of businesses through connecting online business enterprises and services to their potential offline customers in different locations. Therefore, it is probable that elimination of the digital divide will have a positive impact on the economy (Le & Chiu, 2007, p. 13).

In addition, adoption of the broadband networks will not only improve Australia’s economy, but it will also enhance the delivery of health care services across the nation. Thus, considering that Australia faces major shortages of health care workers particularly in the rural areas, there is the need for the government to develop various telecommunication-based initiatives to cater for the insufficiencies in the number of health workers in the country. For instance, the broadband networks can support Australia’s Tele-health initiative, which aims at using the telecommunication systems to develop a network of interlinked clinicians and patients (Le & Chiu, 2007). In addition, the network will also link clinicians to important patient and health information over a wide geographical area. As a result, the Tele-health initiative contributes to quality and efficient health care services, which are delivered at fast speeds over long distances. Furthermore, the interlinked health care services will reduce the cost of service delivery because patients will no longer be required to travel long distances to seek professional care. Another important characteristic of broadband networks in health care is that it will reduce the time wasted in conducting unnecessary diagnostic procedures because health information will be readily available and accessible at high-speeds (Le & Chiu, 2007).

Apart from improving the quality of service delivery in terms of consultation service delivery, health care information management, and diagnosis, the broadband network project will also enhance the delivery of mental health care services. For instance, the use of the Tele-psychiatry initiatives by the South Australian Health Commission (SAHC) to manage the mental health care services through the Tele-medicine department has demonstrated the potential of telecommunication innovations in improving the quality of psychiatric assessments, patient management, and consultation services (Rheuban, 2006, p. 45). To achieve the set objectives, the Tele-psychiatry services use video-conferencing technologies to interlink mental health care practitioners with their patients and patient family members and in so doing, the health care professionals facilitate and oversee the management of psychiatric patients. As a result, preliminary evaluation studies show that the SAHC Tele-medicine facility has demonstrated high standards of patient satisfaction and patient management.

Overall, the national broadband network is projected to act as a trans-sector government investment, which encompasses several sectors in Australia such as the economic sector, the health care industry, and the education sector. In the education sector, there has been a notable increase in the number of ICT applications in curricular and institutional administration in Australia. As a result, the introduction of high-speed network connections will not only offer real-time delivery of lectures, but it will also enhance the delivery of educational materials and accessibility of student information over a wide geographical area. In addition, the development of educational programs that offer courses through ICT-based group communication and information transfer will ease the faculty shortage encountered in most Australian institutions of higher education (OECD, 2007). Furthermore, the broadband networks have the potential to ease shortages in the health care sector by facilitating the training and development of professional health care practitioners. Here, some of the Tele-health applications such as Health-Net are projected to address the shortage of professional health practitioners in rural areas through facilitating real-time delivery of specialist health information and exposing the current health care workers to professional courses that help them to provide high quality and evidence-based health care services in their localities (Le & Chiu, 2007).

The Negative Implications of the National Broadband Network (NBN) Project

Even as the NBN project enjoys the support of the Australian Labor party, Federal independent factions, business associations, Australian Greens, and 75% of the Australian population, some critics are still adamant about the untimely and unwarranted investment of huge sums of taxpayer money in the NBN project. As a result, the critics of the NBN project are quick to note the lack of well-researched and documented evaluative studies on the cost-benefit analysis of the government sponsored broadband project relative to the proposed economic and social benefits (Willson et al., 2009). In fact, even as the proponents of the NBN project make conclusive business prospects on the potential economic benefits of broadband services, it is not possible to assess the feasibility of some of the proposed initiatives because most of the plans are in their infancy stages. Therefore, to make such conclusive remarks about the positive implications of the NBN project, there is the need to conduct an evaluative study on several initiatives relevant to the implementation of the project to assess its economic and social benefits.

Furthermore, a closer look at the project design and development program shows that the NBN project does not give room for evaluation of some of the project initiatives. As a result, the project design limits the ability of researchers to evaluate the benefits associated with the proposed initiatives and therefore, provide conclusive remarks on the potential benefits of the broadband project (Picot & Grove, 2010). For instance, studies show that Tasmania lags behind in terms of the number of people who are adopting the broadband services with about 38% of the total Tasmanian households using the broadband networks. Consequently, the low rates of broadband adoption in Tasmania is a potential barrier to the implementation of the NBN project in Tasmania and it will take time to convince the public to change from their traditional ways of service delivery. Therefore, the government would have done much better by carrying out a study aimed at collecting data relative to the broadband penetration indicators, economic indicators, social indicators, and environmental indicators at a regional level. As a result, the data collected and analyzed will give the regional governments the opportunity to assess different assumptions and limitations of the proposed initiatives and therefore, develop alternative initiatives, which address the economic and social needs of the local populations (Willson et al., 2009, p. 798).

Moreover, there is the paramount need for the proponents of the NBN project to realize that the proposed high-speed broadband networks can also have negative impacts on the society and different sectors. For instance, studies show that the youth who are fond of playing games on the Internet are potentially exposed to technology addiction. As a result, their academic, interpersonal, communication, and social skills can be adversely compromised particularly with the availability of high-speed and uncontrolled Internet access (Madden et al., 2006). Additionally, instances of violence in the young people and cyber-bullying are attributable to availability of violent materials and creation of favorable environments, which expose the youth to social vices through high-speed Internet services. Therefore, even as we rally for the adoption of broadband in Australia, we should give the critics of the NBN project the opportunity to give their perspective of the implementation program and offer a level playing field, which is after all the main objective of the NBN project.

Conclusions

The essay presents an in-depth discussion on the pros and cons of the National Broadband Network (NBN) project in Australia relative to its proposed economic and social benefits. From the discussions above, it is notable that the broadband networks present several economic and social benefits to the Australian population through enhancing service delivery, creation of employment opportunities, and facilitating the expansion of current and new businesses in different sectors such as the health care, economic, environmental, and the education sectors just to mention but a few. Conversely, it is notable that in the government’s quest to provide fast Internet services to its citizens, it fails to consider various barriers and negative implications of the project, which can potentially hinder the process of project implementation and disrupt the socio-economic status of different local communities. Therefore, there is the need for the federal government to give both the proponents and opponents of the NBN project the opportunity to contribute positively towards the most probable ways of implementing the proposed broadband initiatives without attracting a conflict of interest.

Reference list

Cavill, M. & Miller, S., 2009. The potential impact of government online service delivery on rural and remote areas. Melbourne Victoria, Australia: Centre for International Research on Communication and Information Technologies (CIRCIT).

Ergas, H., 2009. Infrastructure Australia, A report to the Council of Australian Governments. Agenda, 16(1), pp. 79-80.

Le, Q. & Chiu, C., 2007. Spatial distribution of Tele-health network and its prospect in the national broadband network. Australia: Department of Rural Health, University of Tasmania.

Madden, G., Savage, S. & Simpson, M., 2006. Information inequality and broadband network access: an analysis of Australian household data. Oxford Journal of Industrial and Corporate Change, 5(4), pp. 1049-1066.

OECD 2007. Information infrastructure convergence and pricing: the Internet. Web.

Picot, A. & Grove, N., 2010. Closing gaps in the information society: providing high speed broadband access to rural areas. Australia: Milan European Economy Workshops.

Rheuban, K. S., 2006. The role of telemedicine in fostering health-care innovations to address problems of access, specialty shortages and changing patient care needs. J Telemed Telecare, 12(2), pp. 45-50.

Willson. P., Marshall, P., Young, J. & McCann, J., 2009. Evaluating the economic and social impact of the National Broadband Network (NBN). Australia: School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Tasmania.

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