I for one have no need for it in the immediate future. But i definately want it in place. How many of you said dial-up was enough when DSL was around and charging $100+/mth for giving you only a few GB's about 10 years ago? You think you could browse SMH, Youtube, eday and FB all day on dial-up today? I know you all would say yes but i can bet it wouldn't be enjoyable. So by now, most of the city dwellers have jumped on to the DSL bandwagon paying decent prices and they're all happy again.
Now imagine another 10 years ahead when content providers are producing richer higher quality media or applications requiring fast response times. Do you think DSL is going to be enough? And if you thought Telstra was going to come and future proof our broadband needs. Then think again. They were only going to implement Hybrid Fibre Coxial (HFC) cable. The maximum speeds you can achieve on HFC is by far less than optic fibre. Also, NBN has placed a limit on sharing a single fibre. Telstra will place as many customers as possible on HFC. If any of you came by an article a German research managed to send an equivalent of 700 DVD's in one second over 50km. Thats just to give you an idea the possibilities of optic fibre in the future. We still haven't found the speed limits of optic fibre yet.
As for prices initially, it maybe expensive. Don't forget the infrastructure is open access which will create new businesses and competition. NBN has no say which company you must join up with, thats your choice. Just like 10-15 years ago, unheard of companies like iiNet, Internode, TPG and the like started making a name for themselves when they had access to Telsra copper phone lines. They competed with Telstra and prices began to fall gradually. I think we will see the same happening again. Like all technologies, prices come down.
So to all nay sayers stop thinking what it will do today but think what the possibilites are in the future. You too would be pleased that you had fibre when your mate uploads an uncompressed 1 hour footage fighting a marlin in 1080p at 60 fps.