Book Notes: "Far Away and Long Ago" by William Henry Hudson

Far Away and Long Ago by William Henry Hudson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


It took me a while to get into this book but once I started I managed to keep up the momentum. The story about the story was interesting but it is difficult to comprehend Hudson's lot until he deals with Darwinism and his own inclinations as a naturalist. Delivered as the story of one's boyhood, it is not until after finishing the book and reading the preface, one reflects and Hudson's genius comes to light.



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My latest on "The Conversation"

NBN cost-benefit analysis signals the end of an era

By Michael de Percy, University of Canberra

The long-awaited cost-benefit analysis of the National Broadband Network suggests the days of politicians shooting from the hip with taxpayer dollars are numbered.

As Labor’s NBN unfolds amid reviews and revelations, it’s apparent the NBN was a political move based on romantic notions of policy-making ending in Labor’s electoral defeat in 2013.

In government, the Coalition called for a strategic review of the NBN, revealing a number of problems with the project’s implementation. Malcolm Turnbull also promised to deliver an independent cost-benefit analysis of the economic and social costs and benefits of the NBN.

The cost-benefit analysis (of the NBN as it is now, not the analysis that should have been provided back in 2007) reveals the multi-technology mix (MTM) model will provide the most bang for the taxpayer’s buck. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, the analysis also shows Labor’s NBN would have been nothing short of extravagant.

But the panel of experts who conducted the cost-benefit analysis are not alone in pointing out the shortcomings of Labor’s romantic ideas about deploying infrastructure.

A recent Productivity Commission report on public infrastructure criticised the NBN for its investment in infrastructure without the use of a cost-benefit analysis. Further, NBN Co’s failure to achieve key targets suggests a lack of detailed analysis in the original proposal.

Even the authors of Labor’s implementation study were at pains to make it clear the study did not “undertake a cost benefit analysis of the macroeconomic and social benefits that would result from the implementation of a superfast broadband network”.

But what about the legacy of Kevin07 and the NBN?

Broadband since Kevin07

The promise of faster broadband played a major role in the 2007 election. The Coalition was caught on the back foot with Australia at the wrong end of the high-speed broadband stakes. Rudd’s promise to deliver ubiquitous fast broadband was clearly a political winner at the time.

An implementation study was conducted to find the best way to meet the government’s policy specifications. A “Rolls-Royce” fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) model was selected as a clear technological winner. In the absence of a cost-benefit analysis, Labor over-confidently decided the NBN should be taxpayer funded and wholly government-owned.

But by the time of the 2013 federal election, the NBN was behind schedule and the costs were mounting. And despite several years of intense policy focus, Australia had not caught up with the rest of the world in access to (Figure 1) or speed of (Figure 2) broadband services.

Figure 1: Fixed-line access per 100 people (Source: OECD, December 2013)

Figure 2: Broadband speeds >15 mbps, (Source: Akamai, Q1 2014)

The move to NBN (lite)

What emerged from Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s promise of a strategic review of the NBN became known as NBN (lite). Instead of FTTH, a fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) network would utilise the multi-technology model to provide consumers with fast broadband (at speeds somewhat slower than Labor’s NBN), but sooner.

The NBN cost-benefit analysis looked at three different scenarios for government action. Each scenario was tested against the net benefits of a base scenario of no further rollout of the NBN, which would result in a net cost of A$24 billion, as follows:

1. Unsubsidised rollout of NBN. This would provide taxpayers with a net benefit of A$24 billion by avoiding the costs associated with no further rollout.
2. Adopt the MTM model. This would provide a net cost of A$6 billion relative to the first scenario.
3. Adopt a FTTP model. This would provide a net cost of A$22 billion relative to the first scenario.

A key finding of the cost-benefit analysis is that delivering broadband services sooner rather than later means benefits accrue while the rollout occurs. Assuming the network is upgraded at some later stage, the benefits continue to accrue while the network is developed. Yet the net benefits of the more expensive FTTH model are less likely to be realised and more likely to decline over time.

Countries such as Canada and the United States have MTM broadband networks and the figures indicate the approach is working. But what rarely appears in the debate about broadband in Australia is a simple fact: some broadband is better than no broadband.

The NBN cost-benefit analysis is long overdue. Although the net cost of the MTM model is some A$6 billion, most of this cost is to serve rural and remote regions with satellite and wireless services in place of fibre.

Taxpayers expect that government will support the bush, and A$6 billion in net costs is hardly a bitter pill to swallow. But taxpayers may well change their tune when ultimately they fund a net cost of A$22 billion for a FTTH model, which in most places won’t be operational for years to come.

Labor’s NBN was a big idea. But without a cost-benefit analysis, it was a reckless use of taxpayer funds made by politicians with no idea. Given the recent findings about how NBN was conceived and implemented, it would take a particularly brave (or foolhardy) politician to ever again implement infrastructure policy on the basis of romantic ideas of what can and cannot be achieved in politics.

While some may lament the end of Labor’s NBN, the cost-benefit analysis reveals the shortcomings of its romanticism. Economics may not be all that romantic, but taxpayers may well be glad the NBN romance is over.

Michael de Percy does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Australia's Broadband Situation in Perspective

© Depositphotos.com/@reborn55

My formal research project comparing communications technology outcomes in Canada and Australia ended in September 2012. A great deal has happened since. The Coalition came to power and the NBN changed from a predominately FTTH model to a mix of technologies utilising FTTN. For several years, broadband has been firmly fixed on Australia's policy radar. But what difference has it made?

Here I broaden the comparison to include Australia, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore. I wanted to provide a mix of countries that share several characteristics. While I have always argued that you cannot make judgements about Australia's broadband when compared with countries such as Korea and Switzerland, these countries are proving to be some of the most wired jurisdictions on the planet. However, Figure 1 below demonstrates the significant differences in population density that must be taken into account when making global comparisons. These simply cannot be ignored in any comparison of the effectiveness of broadband policies.

Figure 1: Population per square km

As you can see, Australia and Canada with 3 people per square km cannot possibly achieve the same return on capital investment in broadband infrastructure as Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea. Even New Zealand and the United States, with 17 and 32 people per square km respectively, are in a different league.

Next, we need to consider broadband penetration. Figure 2 shows the number of fixed-line broadband (classified as a minimum download speed of 256kbps - which is not really broadband anymore) connections per 100 people. A better measure is connections per household and while this figure is a more accurate measure of penetration, it is difficult to obtain and the information is not readily available for all countries.

Figure 2: Fixed-line broadband connections per 100 people

Of course, fixed-line broadband is only part of the story, although the usefulness of wireless devices for e-health and e-learning applications is somewhat limited. None of my students, for example, have ever managed to use their e-text successfully on their iPhone, but some broadband is better than no broadband. Figure 3 shows the number of wireless broadband connections per 100 people.

Figure 3: Wireless broadband connections per 100 people

Next, we need to consider broadband speeds. Measuring the highest speed or simply using advertised speeds is not enough: a friend of mine who is connected to NBN and pays for the 100mbps is lucky to get 25mbps, so relying on market information alone is insufficient. In my view, Akamai's use of servers to measure speeds across the globe seems to make a lot of sense. Two measures are useful for comparing cross-country outcomes: average speed and average highest (peak) speeds (based on highest speeds per individual IP address). Figures 4 and 5 below show these measures (respectively).

Figure 4: Average Broadband Speeds

Figure 5: Average Peak (highest) Speeds

Figures 6, 7 and 8 below show the increasingly sophisticated speed groupings based on >4mbps, >10mbps and >15mbps respectively. This tends to show a more robust picture of the speed of broadband services in a particular jurisdiction.

Figure 6: Broadband connections faster than 4mbps

Figure 7: Broadband connections faster than 10mbps

Figure 8: Broadband connections faster than 15mbps

As you can see from the above, Australia, despite some seven years of policy attention directed at broadband, is still at the wrong end of the league tables. Except in wireless broadband, which I believe is due to more competition and a lack of government interest (or perhaps less government intervention) in telecommunications where it is not hard-wired. Indeed, for many Australians who are unable to obtain fixed-line broadband services, wireless is in many cases the only alternative.

It is unfortunate that the tables above do not help to explain why Australia lags and continues to lag. In my PhD research, I compared Australia with Canada and I found that except for mobile telephony, in telegraph, telephone, radio, television, satellite, broadband - you name it - Canada was ahead of Australia in communications technology outcomes in every instance. So the problem is not just a matter of a broadband problem, it is much deeper. Look out for my book on this issue coming soon.

In the meantime, I have blogged about the comparative statistics of communications technologies in Canada and Australia before. As you can see from the comparisons above, despite NBN, Australia's broadband situation has not changed much at all.

Links to data used to develop the above graphs:
     Akamai State of the Internet Report Q1 2014
     Broadband Commission State of Broadband 2013
     OECD Broadband Portal
     World Bank Data 2013
     World Economic Forum Network Readiness Index 2014