In August 2010, the then NSW Minister for Rural Affairs, Steve Whan announced the towns of Berridale, Dalgety & Jindabyne would be the first beneficiaries of the NSW Rural Broadband Development Program. This program which has funding of $11.5m, is to roll out fixed wireless broadband to some 200+ towns (populations < 5,000 people) across NSW over the next five years.
While breathtaking in its approach, we are left scratching our heads at the mathematics of this initative. If you take $11.5m and divide it by 200, that gives approximately $50,000 per town. However, the three towns mentioned above, are the benficiaries of $2.5m which equates to around $830,000 per town.
… and at $830,000 per town, we just cannot work out the mathematics (based on the cost for the first three towns/villages) to achieve fixed wireless broadband coverage to the 200 towns that have been promised service under this initative.
Update: Jan 2012…… Still waiting……..