When shown a telephone in the 19th century, US President Rutherford Hayes reportedly said ''it's a great invention but who would want to use it anyway?'' In 1943, the chairman of IBM is said to have predicted that there would be a worldwide market ''for maybe five computers''. In 1977, Ken Olsen, co-founder of Digital Equipment Corp found no reason to believe that anyone would want a computer in their home.

With the power of hindsight, we laugh at these observations from supposed ''visionaries''. Yet I fear we are repeating the mistakes of the past as we debate the value and make-up of the national broadband network. The differences seem technical but they are important.

NBN fibre optic cable gets installed in South Morang, Melbourne.

The government proposes fibre cabling to the home (FTTH) while the Coalition proposal relies on fibre to the node (FTTN), where existing copper cables connect premises to the network.

No one doubts the much higher speed of FTTH, but we ask: does anyone really need the higher download speed to simply watch videos? How can we make an informed investment decision without a proper business case? Will it be possible to recover its cost? And why should the taxpayer pay for it, not businesses?