Saturday 18 May 2013

NBN: Political pressure. When facts aren't facts.

I got a long (2200wds), unpleasant letter from a Turnbull staffer objecting to a recent piece I'd written.
If it had cited facts, data or errors-in-logic, you'd be getting a post about that with retractions as necessary.
I'm more than a little concerned at what I read implies: these people are binary - "you're for us or against us" and they can do no wrong, in their own eyes, whilst everybody else is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Do they understand "Democracy" and all that implies? The need for respecting other viewpoints and allowing expression of opposing ideas... Apparently they've met with God, personally, and are transmitting The One True Word, so the rest of us are Infidels, Heritics or Ignorant Savages.

Here's what he thinks of me and what I write, I'm interested in reader opinions and comments as well:

Stephen Ellis wrote on 18/05/13 11:39 AM:
I could go into more detail or onward to another article, but I can't be bothered.  Honestly Steve, you are better than this.  You should be ashamed of yourself about the misrepresentations above, given the utter cynicism and contempt that you treat what you see as 'politics' from others with.  Whether you meant it to be this way or not, there is nothing except politics, fabricated data and spin in your piece

Yet unwitting people who know much less than you read it and think it's all true.  It's shameful.

Regards,
And more insults from another person:
Oh Steve stop this "poor little me" act. It is pathetic. You have the attention of the architect of the policy you obsess over and now it is all about poor little Steve Jenkin trying to work his way through the darkness. You were just given more information than anyone else on the planet about the Coalition policy and you are STILL throwing a little tantrum. I certainly learned something from Stephen and no I don't have the answers, which is why I and ... asks hundreds of questions of scores of people ... every working day and then  ... (communicate them)! Seriously. Grow up!
That "more information" was a bunch of bald assertions ("WRONG". yes, in All Caps).
No spreadsheet showing the cost breakdown nor a pointer to a documented source of the claims.

4 comments:

  1. If you're absolutely sure it's from Turnbull's office, you might post the entire email. Just check your source though, it could be a honeytrap. If unsure of legal consequences, maybe just forward it on to several media outlets and let them run with it if they want to. As it stands, there's insufficient excerpts to expect comments.

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  2. I've been corresponding with both authors for a while.

    There is other content which wasn't intended for publication, which I'm respecting.

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  3. They are panicking, mate. Sh**ing themselves because the truth is out there! You can always tell when you strike a nerve - it's when they start to try and run you down, or make out you are some sort of liar. Believe me, I have forwarded your blog to many, many people. Not one has ever come back with a negative comment!

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  4. Steve,

    As a fellow IT professional (15 years of Networking experience) I'm impressed with your level of detail and your ability to remain impartial to the politics of the broadband and the NBN.

    My biggest complaint with the Coalition is Turnbull's arrogance and refusal to entertain that perhaps he's got it even a little bit wrong.

    Investing in Ozemail as he did in the 1990s doesn't make him Mr. Broadband, just a bloke who had some spare money to invest.

    There has been no invitations to participate in any discussion, nor has there been any invitation to participate in any discussion about the technical merits of FTTN vs FTTH by Turnbull or any of the Coalition MPs or advisers.

    Turnbull is using deception by omission. It's what he's not telling us that concerns me. Having lived in the UK for a number of years and having used the BT Infinity service (FTTN) I can assure you that if (as it seems it will be the case) the BT model is the one that Turnbull instructs NBNCo to use then:

    1. There will be no self service installation. A Telstra/NBNCo technician will have to come to each house to do the installation.

    2. BT supply the VDSL modem. You can't buy one for $50 at the corner shop as Turnbull suggests.

    3. A line qualification test must be performed on each copper pair to determine if the line is even capable of providing VDSL.

    Additionally, Turnbull's belief that HFC is good enough for now is again flawed. DOCSIS relies on and HFC network that was never designed for data, purely to provide television channels. Trying to force open access and guaranteed speeds via HFC is a recipe for disaster.

    ReplyDelete

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