Australia NBN uptake dependent on adult content says developer

While eHealth, government services and remote working are the main proposed benefits of the NBN for Australian users, adult content could be the main driver for uptake,according to a content and apps provider.

According to a ComputerWorld report, Jennifer Wilson, director of content provider the Project Factory, claimed that personal entertainment use, adult entertainment specifically, will drive the uptake which will be vital to the success of the NBN project.

“The single most important factor is the porn factor because pornography has always been at the cutting edge of technology,” Wilson told the Australian Computer Society (ACS) forum in Sydney. “If we cannot get porn on the NBN than we will have trouble getting consumer acceptance and uptake.”

Wilson accepted that children needed to be protected from adult content but claimed that pornography on the NBN was essential as it was always the main driver of adoption of a key technology, citing Blu-ray’s dominance over the HD-DVD optical disc format.

“The main reason Blu-Ray took off was because the adult entertainment industry chose the format over HD,” Wilson said. “No one is going to install the NBN on the basis that one day they might need e-health services but they will use that as a justification for getting the service in order to download movies and watch TV.”

While the theory that adult content was the key behind Blu-ray’s success is dubious, telecoms analyst, Paul Budde agreed with Wilson, stating that use of the NBN would be more likely if it provided faster access to adult content. However he was concerned that conservative elements” in the federal government would enforce censorship.

The NBN recently signed a crucial deal with incumbent Telstra worth $11bn for use of the operator’s copper network, which it will reuse to lay down optical fibre. The government backed project also paid $800m to SingTel for access to its fibre optic infrastructure.