Connected or NOT!

Anyone who understands real estate also has some understanding of the importance of infrastructure. Dwellings and commercial and industrial buildings must be supported by roads, sewerage, water, electricity supply, rubbish removal, and many other basics of modern life and business, not least of them information and communications technologies (ICT) infrastructure.

To say that ICT underpins modernity is to state a truism. It is ubiquitous and essential and the modern world as it is would not function without it.

ICT infrastructure is an umbrella term. It covers telephone lines, satellite communications, Wi-Fi networks, mobile phone towers, computer networks – public and private and the Internet, and in Australia the NBN, the national broadband network.

The NBN originated in 2006 when federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley announced a commitment by the Australian Labor Party, if elected to government, to build a 'super-fast' national broadband network. Prime Minister Rudd later confirmed the NBN would proceed and NBN Co was established in 2010 to take charge of what was billed at the time as the ‘largest infrastructure project’ in Australia’s history.

To date the NBN has connected slightly less than half of eligible households and performance is barely moderate rather than ‘super-fast’. The level of complaints to the NBN over the service is high at greater than 1% of customers. The cost has gone from an initial $4.7 billion to $49 billion and that’s after scaling back from the original scheme where the estimate had expanded to $72 billion.

Paul Budde, one of Australia’s foremost experts on telecommunications explains why fast broadband is important:

“It is still a battle to extend the perception of the importance of high-speed broadband beyond fast access to the internet or to Netflix. But the social and economic benefits are equally important, especially looking towards medium- and long-term future development of the region. The healthcare, government services and education sectors are undergoing massive transformations, and more and more of these services will be delivered via broadband.”

And, as Budde also points out, cloud computing, which depends upon fast broadband, can reduce traditional ICT costs by around 30%. Farmers and many other small businesses stand to benefit from such developments not just government and big business.

Source Newco Financial services.