Simon Sharwood

Australia will spend at least $29bn on its National Broadband Network. But do you - or anyone - know if we're building it right?

The Register - one of the world's most-read IT news services - believes debate on the NBN has gone feral and does not offer Australians useful information. With an election coming up, that's not good enough.

We want to address that with an independent study to answer three big NBN questions:

* What do we REALLY NEED?

* What's the BEST TECHNOLOGY to build with?

* What happens AFTER we build the NBN?

We're crowdfunding this study because it gives Australians a chance to show they care enough about this colossal investment to inform themselves - and the nation.

Our study will see The Register work with respected analyst firms IBRS and Market Clarity to create a study that will clarify essential elements of Australia's broadband debate. The analysts have provided us with detailed project plans that outline hundreds of hours of consulting work needed to do this study right. Long story short, most of the money goes to their services, $100,000 answers the first question, $175,000 gets us to the second and $250,000 means we do the full study.

Can The Register deliver? We already do every day: we publish hundreds of stories a week, from three global newsrooms, and possess a big back office team to crunch the numbers, keep things moving and deliver the reports by email.

We've also got an audience to promote to: our global readership of seven million monthly readers includes 235,000 Australians. That gives us a grand chance of finding the audience we need to secure funding.

If funded, we'll publish the results on The Register and send you a copy if you contribute.

There's even a chance to become a part of the study, for just $10.

What have you got to lose? Except ignorance?