Fibre to the home - oh, how exciting and taking NZ to the forefront of that technology revolution thingie. First, they'll need a big jamboree. Check. Then they'll need lots of big salaries, perks, important job titles, government guaranteed pensions and training in Going-Forwards speak. Check. We'll need a Commerce Commissionariat Competition empire to decide on prices and profits. Check. Hey, make the boss a woman or a Maori because we need women to run things because they have got great gender and Maoris are really special too, doing hakas and karakia at the drop of a hat. Check. Transgender people are especially good in running governments. Check. We'll close the digital divide [which has admirable alliteration] by sticking fibre right into the digitally divided's brains if needs be. Check. We'll need a commission of enquiry on why people aren't buying it. It's shovel ready and lots of people can get a piece of the action. Fun for everyone.
There's one problem. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it think.
Yes, they are the boss because they are the government. The Kremlin was the boss of the biggest country on the planet with nukes and ICBMs and gulags galore. But somehow, being the boss and very bossy and having a great salary and perks isn't enough to make things great, even with splendid 5 and 10 year plans.
Zenbu's business isn't fibre to the home, it's megabytes to users. Fibre is an excellent way of delivering megabytes.
So, a few years ago we asked Vector if they wanted to sell us pipeline access to their fibre. Indeed they did. They are very important people who go along with the above on "How to do things right".
That doesn't preclude power outages, waste and profligacy, but it does ensure they keep prices good and high where they have been taught in MBA school that prices belong.
So Zenbu went with so-called "broadband" carrier pigeons instead, supplied by a similar entity, Telecom New Zealand Ltd which was run by somebody with really good gender for several years, and which is subject to many government departments getting a piece of the action. Telecom was a government department and has that legacy, combined with worldwide "telecomthink" which is "see how expensive things can be". Have a look at cellphone "plans" to witness telecomthink.
Between Telecom, Vector, government departments and sundry kleptocrats, NZ has very expensive megabytes and fibre. Kordia [another government department] is considering installing fibre under the ocean to get past the Southern Cross monopoly [Telecom, Singtel and co].
Velocity is another fibre owner, in Hamilton. We literally laughed at their high-priced offer to connect Zenbu routers to their fibre. With Ubiquiti Nanostation2 antennas, that would have provided good coverage at high speed. Oh look, they've got a "for a limited time" special offer. velocitynetworks.co.nz They didn't even bother checking their typing.
Imagine how many meetings and how much market research and marketing cost was involved in coming up with that [I haven't bothered reading it as the law of nature is that it'll be some dopey scheme - they smoke a lot of dope in Hamilton].
So two of the big fibre owners haven't got Zenbu connected. How will rolling out more fibre at great expense be helpful?
Giving it free to Maoris, people with great gender, schools and other government departments, [about 70% of the so-called "economy" in NZ is government], and friends of people in high places, will perhaps ensure the "Knowledge Wave" and "innovation" and "world class economy" and all those good things are delivered on Cargo Cult Airlines [government owned of course] to the crowds on the wrong side of the digital divide. And maybe it won't.
I thought maybe I should read the special offer by Velocity. There isn't one. We have to telephone them to get details.
<Hamilton based Velocity Networks is a broadband provider that offers a range of some of the best broadband plans available in New Zealand. Partnered with Hamilton Fibre Network (HFN), Velocity is a collaborative project led by Hamilton City Council, Wintec and Telco Infrastructure Investments Ltd, with support from the University of Waikato and Environment Waikato.
Their combined fibre networks span the city, providing ultra-high speed broadband internet access (also referred to as Metro Ethernet) to commercial buildings at speeds of up to 1Gbps (1000Mbps).
Operating as an 'open access' community network, users are free to subscribe to services and broadband plans from a range of application and internet service providers (ISP's) that operate on the network.
The project has a number of implementation phases and is expected to be completed by 2010. The initial rollout of the extensive fibre network has been funded by a $3.3 million grant from the Ministry of Economic Development, as part of the Government's Digital Strategy. >
New Zealand's "top decision-makers" had a lot of fun at the "Knowledge Wave" jamboree: knowledgewave.org.nz It's a case of too many chiefs and not enough Indians It looks as though they gave a lot of speeches to other important people. We have been too busy creating the Knowledge Wave to read about it. I'm sure they were excellent speeches.
Dr Elder understands more than anyone: <“Our ultimate vision would be to provide fibre to every business, education and health facility, and home in New Zealand because fibre will enable huge productivity and efficiency gains, provide major benefits for health and education and help strengthen our communities.
“As we are regional and have long had existing infrastructure in place, we understand the local challenges better than anyone,” says Dr Elder. >
Dr Elder has understood the challenge well and has figured out how to get $billions from the government to pay for more fibre.
Mqurice |
