[clug] Light entertainment for this morning (NBN)

[Michael Still]

Karun Dambiec wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Apr 2009 10:14:55 am grail at velocitynet.com.au wrote:
>>> The man is a professional troll (I can't believe he's really that
>>> ignorant and stupid - he must be doing it for the page views/letters to
>>> the editor)
>> Do you have any reason to believe that the $43Bn that Rudd has promised
>> will be spent on anything other than a white elephant?
>>
> 
> I dont see any real need for Australia to build a 100mbps  broadband network, 
> as I cannot see how this will allow Australia to keep ahead of the rest of the 
> world. As having faster broadband does not mean better productivity, research, 
> etc.

Why aren't there many big technology startups in Australia? Its mostly
because there isn't any venture capital there. The successful ones
either move overseas relatively early on, or get bought by someone big
and foreign.

So, where does venture capital come from? Mostly successful technology
entrepreneurs. The people who once ran startups of their own are now
funding other people's. The other main source of funding for VCs seems
to be retirement and investment funds. Australians save a lot less than
other countries, so those funds are smaller in Australia as well.

The problem with Australian technology space is that it hasn't
previously made it big commercially, which makes it less likely that it
will now. You can correct part of that problem by reducing the barrier
to entry for those companies which are underfunded compared with their
overseas brethren. Part of that is reducing the cost of bandwidth.

So, a national broadband refresh _might_ help, if it comes along with a
reexamination of the billing regimes used. However, Australia's habit of
spending more than it saves also needs to be addressed, as well as
finding ways to encourage successful Australian companies to stay here.

Mikal