Well Fuck It, I Didn’t Want That NBN Anyway.

Frankly I’m tired of the rollercoaster that the Coalition’s NBN has been. First came the dread the dread that when they came to power we’d end up with an inferior product, one that would be completely outdated by the time it was implemented. Then a small beacon of hope flickered with Turnbull stating fervently he’d wait for a technology review as well as a cost/benefit analysis before he’d move forward with any changes. Of course the review comes out and it’s deeply flawed, showing that the exercise was nothing but an excuse for the Coalition to go ahead with their inferior plan. All hopes that the Coalition would keep their promises from then on were dashed however many thought Turnbull would still hold off on any decisions until the magical cost/benefit analysis was completed (something which he continually lambasted Labor for).

Of course that turned out to be a fucking lie.

Worse still news comes today that the much vaulted minimum speed guarantee, the one where everyone would get access to at least 25Mbps “sooner, faster and cheaper” than the Labor NBN, is also fucking gone. This isn’t a case of them promising “up to” 25Mbps and all of us not remembering it properly, it’s right there on their website (I’ve also taken a screenshot for posterity):

While 25 mbps will be the peak speed on the satellite and fixed wireless services (under Labor’s plan for under the Coalition’s), it will be the floor speed under the Coalition’s plan and most consumers in the fixed line footprint will be able to access 50 mbps or faster.

So now we’re getting a NBN with a mix of technologies, some of which will require substantial remediation, that will still run predominately on the old copper network and the magical guarantee of 25Mbps (which we were all pretty sure was a lie anyway) has also disappeared in a puff of broken promises.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

I wish I could say I’m not angry, just disappointed (as we’ve all felt the sting of that line from a parental figure at one stage in our lives) but honestly I’m just fucking angry. They ran a whole election campaign on honesty and integrity and right after they get in everything they promised has turned out to be a complete and utter farce. It’s so bad now that even those who could’ve been called supportive of the Coalition’s NBN are turning on them and many technical news outlets are simply giving up, unable to trust anything the government says. I was pretty much of the same mind until I read that the speed guarantee was going away which just added yet another insult to the numerous injuries that the NBN has endured.

Worst part about all this? We’re stuck with this hypocritical, untrustworthy government for at least another 2 years and it’s clear that no amount of political toxicity will change their minds on the NBN matter. So the best case scenario is that NBN takes so long to transition to the new scheme that by the time the next election comes around the Coalition gets turfed and no substantial work on the shitty Coalition NBN has been done. It’s a fairy tale ending, I know (there hasn’t been an one term government in at least 80 years, as far as I can see) but it’s the only hope we have of getting something that isn’t a complete trainwreck like what the Coalition is proposing.

I could go on but I know all the ranting in the world on this blog isn’t going to change anything. All I can hope for is that Australia has its fill of an Abbott government by the time the elections roll around and they give him the boot he so rightly deserves. Of course that won’t stop me writing about the various fuckery that Turnbull and co get up to with regards to the NBN, but I know I’m preaching to the choir here.