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Time for some smart thinking?

Right now, the UFB is being rolled out around New Zealand - but few people seem to be in much of a hurry to hook up to this uber-fast data connection.

As an early adopter, I was itching to get wired up to fibre-based internet -- until I did a cost/benefit analysis and realised that there were far too many hooks and downsides to justify switching at this stage.

I've written before about the crappy data-caps that accompany most UFB plans and I'm also unimpressed that when the fibre goes in, your copper comes out -- so there's no turning back.

Even though my ADSL connection is far from optimal (barely hitting 5Mbps), I've been able to find a modem that can squeeze enough bandwidth out of it to serve my needs -- so what would I gain from having *more* bandwidth than I need?

I suspect that there are an awful lot of other consumers who are thinking like myself.

Why do I think this?

Well here in Tokoroa, a fairly sizable chunk of the community now has UFB at their doorsteps yet although many of the people I've spoken to have talked about it, not one of them has actually taken the plunge and hooked up to it.

Like myself, they're scratching their heads and asking themselves "why would I?"

Even with a paltry 5Mbps we're able to watch HD streaming video most of the time without any issues and when it does start to stutter and buffer -- well we *know* that this isn't the fault of "the last mile", it's the lack of backhaul and international bandwidth at fault so UFB won't fix or change that.

It's no wonder Chorus is spitting tacks over the fact they're going to have to reduce the price of ADSL -- because it will make UFB even less attractive, at least for the time-being.

It would seem that, for the vast majority of people, UFB is an expensive, artificially constrained (by way of data-caps) solution in search of a problem.

So what can we do to change this?

How about the NZ government runs a "challenge" in which it offers a paltry (for them) but very worthwhile (for the winner) sum of $1m to whoever comes up with the best UFB-based application which will cause people to flock to the UFB.

We have plenty of really smart people out there who, due to their "amateur" status, are denied the massive "grants" that already successful companies get for R&D activities. Lets give those people the incentive they need to put their thinking caps on and burn the midnight oil in a quest to win a 7-figure sum.

Given the amount of taxpayer money the government wastes on a daily basis, a $1m prize is a trifling amount -- yet if it was able to turn the UFB from a bit of a white elephant into a "must have", it would be a fantastic investment.

Come on government -- embrace the concept of technology challenges and through them, share some of the taxpayer's support for R&D with the little guys.

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(Sorry, forums are stuffed at present)

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