NBN’s $3bn fibre revamp is great news but don’t Australians now care more about price than higher speeds?
The announcement of the demise of NBN’s fibre-to-the-node technology will be welcomed by those who have endured poor speeds and service for the past few years, but making the internet more affordable would have a much bigger impact,When Tony Windsor sided with Labor in the 2010 election, he put the NBN as one of the key issues, saying famously: do it once, do it right, and do it with fibre,It’s taken nearly 15 years but we have just about met Windsor’s last point, with the Albanese government announcing on Monday that about 95% or 622,000 homes currently accessing the NBN via fibre-to-the-node (FTTN, which uses existing copper lines from the node to the premise for connection) will be able to upgrade to full fibre by 2030 at an additional cost of $3bn,The Coalition’s promise (which we can see echoes of in the nuclear debate today) when they came to power in 2013 was that the multi-technology mix, as it was called, would be rolled out quicker (it wasn’t) and would be more affordable (it also was not),Years of successive governments giving NBN Co funding injections, or loans, has meant that incrementally the NBN by 2030 will now more closely resemble the original plan but has ended up costing a lot more.
On a business level, Monday’s announcement is a smart plan: FTTN has historically been much more expensive for NBN Co to maintain,In 2022, the company said FTTN faults were four times higher than fibre-to-the-premises, stating “a fibre-based network is therefore less complex as well as less costly to operate and maintain”,It also comes at a time when NBN Co is haemorrhaging customers who substitute their home internet with 5G or Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite option,Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news emailSince September 2023, the number of active connections in places that use a mix of fixed-line connections has dropped by almost 65,000 as of the end of November,This category, also known as brownfields, covers 7.
1m active NBN broadband services to homes and businesses that existed before the NBN was built and is a mix of FTTP-type connections as well as connections made under the Coalition’s revised plan that used existing copper and cable connections (which predated the NBN and was used mostly for pay TV),The then-chief executive of NBN Co, Stephen Rue, told Guardian Australia in May last year that poor FTTN connections were to blame,“The main reason for that is service and a desire for faster speed … customers who are at the end of the FTTN line,,.
they get 25 megabits per second, but they can’t experience a faster speed and obviously there are some copper lines that have unreliability,” he said at the time,While the government stressed families and businesses need the internet “at an affordable price”, that detail was missing from the announcement on Monday, and would be one of the factors people may be switching off,Aside from the customers on the hybrid-fibre-coaxial product, or those on fibre-to-the-building or fibre-to-the kerb connections that will still use copper lines and will be wondering when they’ll get an upgrade, the biggest issue facing the NBN is affordability,In response to NBN Co updating its wholesale pricing plan in 2023, major retail providers, such as Telstra, Optus and Aussie Broadband, hiked their prices across many plans in July last year,That resulted in up to 10% price increases on the most popular speed tiers, while they decreased the prices for the highest speed tiers (which cost more overall to sign up for).
During a cost-of-living crisis, and with Telstra, Optus and Vodafone offering 5G home plans that rival or undercut these prices, it represents an attractive alternative option for customers, and a growing threat to the NBN.The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, when asked about this point on Monday, said “that is their choice” for customers who want to use 5G, but that fibre ensures higher-quality services.Rowland said the government’s intervention in the wholesale pricing for the NBN ensured that customers were paying less than what would have happened if the Coalition had remained in government.“Under this government, we ensured that a special access undertaking approved by the ACCC was entered into, which means that NBN Co’s prices are actually set by regulatory standard and that means that they are set to inflation,” she said.“In contrast, when the previous government left office, they had a proposal on the table for price increases for NBN services of CPI plus up to 3% on some products.
”Which is true, but for an election that will likely be fought on cost-of-living issues that will be cold comfort for voters today.Cutting prices for the NBN would bring relief but also make sure the NBN can be an asset used and valued by the public.NBN’s pricing model is centred around the idea that the network will make a return on investment, which back under the Rudd Labor government was to make the network attractive for privatisation.The Albanese government is now arguing against privatisation of the NBN, going as far as to legislate to keep it public.Surely this means the pricing model should be reassessed with a focus on affordability.
Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for beetroot and celeriac gratin with goat’s cheese and walnuts | Quick and easy
I make variations on beetroot gratin all the time, and this one with celeriac, dill and goat’s cheese is an absolute winner. You’ll want to use a mandoline (very carefully) for the celeriac, to make sure it’s sliced thinly enough to cook through in half an hour (alternatively, do everything in a food processor using the slicing/grating attachment). If you happen to have a bunch of salsify, or spot one when you’re out, by all means peel, slice and add that, too. This gratin tastes even better the next day, so it’s definitely worth having leftovers.Prep 15 min Cook 30 min Serves 4½ celeriac, peeled and very thinly sliced2 fennel bulbs, trimmed and very thinly sliced280g cream cheese 100ml full-fat milk 20g fresh dill, roughly choppedSea salt and black pepper 300g raw beetroot, peeled and grated200g goat’s cheese log, finely sliced40g panko breadcrumbs 50g walnuts, roughly broken1 tbsp olive oil Juice of ½ lemonHeat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for pisarei, or leftover bread pasta | A kitchen in Rome
Just like the other three bowls on the top shelf, the wooden salad bowl is full. However, unlike the other bowls, with their pick’n’mix of clothes pegs, coins, aspirin, Ikea pencils, cables, wet wipes, sunglasses, business cards, Kinder Surprise figures and Sellotape chewed by the dog, the salad bowl is a holding (or dumping) place for just one thing: bread crusts. In Italian, the crust of a loaf of bread is sometimes referred to as il culo or culetto, meaning bottom or little bottom, making this a bowl of bottoms.Its position on the highest shelf, plus the depth of the bowl, means I can’t be reminded of what’s inside until there are enough crusts that they start rising, like brown icebergs, above the rim. Then follows a period of days (or weeks) during which I keep seeing those tips, and reminding myself to do something with them, but don’t, so they continue to rise, and when the morning sun hits the shelves, I can see the dust drifting and settling
Notes on chocolate: top marks, sparks fly at M&S
The supermarket chain’s new range is surprisingly delightfulRecently, for reasons we need not go into here, I hadn’t really been out much, having been confined to rest by an imaginary matron. So when my friend, Tamsin, offered to take me to a state-of-the-art Marks & Spencer in the next county (we live in the countryside) I jumped at the chance.It’s not as if I’ve never been to huge M&S in London – I’m a regular visitor to both of the big branches along Oxford Street. But not lately, because: matron.There is something intoxicating about being out and about after being largely confined to the house, isn’t there? I was like an overexcited child
Fonda, London: ‘An exuberantly good meal’: restaurant review
This new Mexican restaurant serves up regional dishes so well crafted that conversation stopsFonda, 12 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BZ. Starters and small plates £7-£14, larger plates £23-£29, desserts £6-£11, wines from £39At Fonda, a new Mexican restaurant off London’s Regent Street, the staff have vital information and, boy, are they determined to impart it. Usually, speeches about ingredients and the best way to eat your lunch, feel like a nail puncture purposefully engineered to let all the air out of any fun you were hoping to have. Lunch becomes an exam to be passed. Am I doing this right? Will the staff approve? Oh, the social anxiety
Soak up the rays: wines tasting of sunshine
Escape the gloom with these big red wines bursting with the flavours of warm countriesThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.Cuevas de Arom Altas Parcelas, Calatayud, Spain 2021 (£18.99, shelvedwine
How to turn store-cupboard staples into brilliant breakfast bars | Waste not
Today’s recipe is based on the pumpkin, mulberry and spelt breakfast bars in my book Eating for Pleasure, People & Planet. They were easily adapted for this column’s purposes, because they can be made with any bits and bobs in the store-cupboard that need using up.These are a nutritious and very tasty grab-and-go breakfast, so it was very welcome to see Emma Bread, an artisan sourdough baker from Cape Town in South Africa, recreating them on Instagram, not least because she called them “the greatest on-the-go breakfast going”, adding that they are “nutrient-dense and easy to change, depending on what nut, seeds and dried berries you have in the cupboard”.She gave her version an African twist with puffed sorghum, baobab powder and spelt flour, but you can make them with whatever flour you have in the house. There’s also no need to peel the diced squash, root vegetables or apples before roasting them, because the skin adds flavour, texture and nutritional value, including fibre
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