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In this Issue:

• Featured Site - Pro-Duct Pty Ltd
• Kev the Broadband (Bob the) Builder
• Video: The NBN reaction
• NBN expert, ACCC reports to remain secret
• Rudd puts mega bite on taxpayers
• Quotes of the Day

Featured Site  

Pro-Duct Pty Ltd

Established in 1983 Pro-Duct is a leading Australian duct manufacturer and distributor of air distribution and ventilation products. We stock Australia's largest range of grilles and associated accessories.

We are 100% Australian owned, and our One Stop Shop operation has everything needed for ducted air conditioning and ventilation installations.

Our specialised sheetmetal fabrication shop can fabricate customised ductwork and specialty products.

Pro-Duct - a major force in the Australian Air Conditioning component market...A series of acquisitions over the past 25 years has seen Pro-Duct evolve into a major force in the Australian air conditioning component market.

Visit the Pro-Duct website...

Kev the Broadband (Bob the) Builder  

Listen to the podcast, click link below...

You'd have to have been living under a rock to have not heard this week's broadband announcement. During one of his rare visits to this country, Kevin Rudd said his government has ditched the NBN tender process and, instead, the government will build its own fibre-to-the-home solution as a private-public partnership.

So is this a good thing? The industry at large seems to say yes. The Opposition is less sold on the idea, as you'll hear from Nick Minchin.

Here's the line-up of guests on this week's Twisted Wire:

• Simon Hackett, MD of Internode
• Senator Nick Minchin, shadow communications minister
• Anne Hurley, CEO of the Communications Alliance
• Ravi Bhatia, CEO of Primus

Is it a realistic proposal? Will it be built? Are you annoyed by the delays? Add comments on what you hear in the Talkback section. ZDNet Australian April 2009. more >>>

What will your computer look like in 8 years? What will the new broadband look like in 8 years?

Video: The NBN reaction  

What does the everyday person on the street think of the Federal Government's plans to build a $43 billion National Broadband Network?.ZDNet Australian April 2009. more >>>

NBN expert, ACCC reports to remain secret  

The Federal Government today confirmed that it would not release the full National Broadband Network expert panel or Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recommendations as an opposition Senate motion had appeared to require.

In February, Shadow Communications Minister Nick Minchin submitted a motion to the Senate which would have had that report and the regulatory report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission released the next day. A compromise led to the motion being amended today that the documents would be tabled "the day after the winning bid is announced".

"The remainder of the expert panel's report contains confidential commercial information so will not be released," a spokesperson for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told ZDNet.com.au this morning. "The ACCC report also contains confidential information. The minister will be asking the department whether or not there may be aspects of the report suitable for release." ZDNet Australia April 2009. more >>>

Rudd puts mega bite on taxpayers  

JUST like water, taxpayers' money is an extremely scarce resource in the current climate. Yet Kevin Rudd just goes on spending as if there is a giant money tree growing in a corner of the prime ministerial courtyard.

A worrying trait of Mr Rudd and his ministers is the way they talk about taxpayers' billions as though they are millions, and the bigger the numbers the looser they are on detail. This suggests a disturbing disconnect from reality.

You only have to watch the incredible performance of Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner when he was asked on Sky News to add some flesh to the Government's bare-bones commitment to establish a new government-majority company to build a $43billion fibre-to-the-premise, satellite and wireless national broadband network (take two).

Could he give an indication of projected take-up rates? After dismissing this as a "pointless exercise", when pressed for an estimated price users could expect to pay, Mr Tanner said: "It's too early to predict."

In the most painful moment, he completely gave the game away. So we won't be seeing any projections of likely revenue? He paused and responded: "Ah, no." AustraliaIT April 2009. more >>>

Quotes of the Day  

Getting caught is the mother of invention. Robert Byrne

The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced. Frank Zappa (1940 - 1993)

History is more or less bunk. Henry Ford (1863 - 1947)

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945), radio address, Oct. 26, 1939

Brought to you by The Quotations Page

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