ABCDiamond

24,000 Mb/s, yes that's 24Gb/s... far fetched yes ???

Well, not according to the NBN ...

The head of the NBN has now announced a speed that's 1,000 times faster than Australians receive now. Based on the current 7.78Mb/s average that means 7,780Mb/s or, if it is 1,000 times faster than the normal maximum speed of 24Mb/s then we are looking at 24,000 Mb/s

Full interview transcript here: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2010/s2980278.htm
August 12th.

However, my guess is that he thinks that Australia's Broadband speed is currently only 1Mb/s. In which case he is out of touch.

Current average speeds:


Interesting figures there...

• 3.7 Million Australian individual users have tested their speed 4.4 times on average
• 11.2 Million British individual users have tested their speed 5.1 times on average

ABCDiamond

That article also mentions the costs to the user of the NBN:

That's about the same as current costs. My ISP charges $29.90 for 24MB/s.

Vash the Stampede

I bet the download quota on the fibre connection is lower than yours.

IvanM

Speed depends on distance from exchange, whether you are connected to a RIM or whether you can even connect to DSL or cable. The latter options seem unfeasible but are there and those users will not use speedtest. As you probably know ABC Speedtest is unlikely to be statistically reliable a comparison. Those without broadband will not test with it. The other part is Speedtest results are gathered from those with broadband and who are likely to use speedtest.

lancastrian48

.[/QUOTE]

Will end up as expensiveas Telstra.....S Korea the model

fish.01

24Mb/s is a theoretical maximum for adsl2+. The NBN fibre quoted speeds are far more realistic. The speed can also be both ways for fibre. The NBN sounds like a fantastic infrastructure project for australia's future.

It will change business and pleasure in ways we can't even conceive yet. Fibre speeds can be continuously improved without needing to change the cables.

The removal of the telstra infrastructure monopoly will also be great for competition. I still cannot quite believe we got a govt that had the foresight and will to build the NBN. I never thought it would happen.

BristolBeary

NBN - absolute waste of decent tax payers money. Watched Conroy do a press conference this week, he was explaining how only this model would allow your washing machine to get the best priced electric at 3am.

I'm not sure who is advising him but he talks pure bull shit, that is so far from the truth. You don't even need broadband for that use case.

How obvious can it be for a country basking in sunshine and surrounded by powerful oceans to become a global leader in solar/alternative energy?

B1K3R

I agree mate. The company I work with at the moment are laying fiber optics around the country. The technology used will be GPON and it will reach around 80Mb/s (which wont initially be offered to residential). It can even go up more depending on technology used and international cables.

It indeed will change many things. HD TV (which will include On demand movies) will be offered on GPON, IP phone and very fast broadband.

This will surely open new doors and opportunities to many businesses and I'm sure that people will benefit from this technology/service at home.

So, that's great, I am glad they are doing the same in OZ!

Cheers
B!K3R

Centurion

At the moment I have a fast ADSL connection. I have an Apple TV unit which I buy on Demand HD movies. I click buy and a minute later I'm watching my movie as it streams and downloads. No hanging about, its done. I can use my VOIP connection to connect to family in the UK. I can video conference via skype or apple talk.

The NBN will change a big fat nothing for me as a residential user. It would in fact cost me more per month for the same download allowance and add $55billion to the debt of a country with 22million living in it. The scale of that debt is mind blowing.

Let's forget that the take up of it has been so poor by the public that they are considering making installation mandatory to your home.

Meanwhile, on the other side of gotham city - the police are so understaffed and underpaid that they cannot actually say if they will respond to a 000 call. Healthcare despite being "reformed" is still a standing joke. Public transport is just a hilarity. Aboriginal communities fester in squalor, housing represents a serious danger to the economy with shortages and prices. The list goes on but nobody mention the sheer number of people living below the poverty line.

To top it all off, electricity prices are to sky rocket and we haven't even got a nice big carbon trading scheme. Give me some solar panels instead. That way I can afford to actually run my computer and I might consider then plug in vehicles because at the moment its probably cheaper for me to run the car on petrol.

In fairness the NBN does represent a massive investment in one form of infrastructure. But face facts, we dig stuff out the ground and shear sheep as our primary industries which keep our economy afloat. I could perhaps understand the point if we have the population density and primary industries of the UK for example, but let's face it - we don't and are batting out of our league.

Broad Shoulders

...except for the fact that your source is invalid. He is probably right.

That website, which I have used many times before does not test everyone in Australia, does it? In all likelyhood, someone who knows they are on a 512/128 plan will not bother to test their plans on that service...as, what's the point? They know it's crap....Whilst as, the first thing I did when I got ADSL2+ service was jump up on that site to test my speed and then proceed to brag to all my friends. Additionally, that site is also used in the commercial industry. I know our work use the site to monitor the different connections that we have....hardly representative of true Asutralian speeds, it it?

So in reality... What that site shows is that, of the people who have used that service to test their connection, the average speed is....

Broad Shoulders

Exactly! It doesn't come close to being a true representation

iamthecreaturefromuranus

I went with the solar panels. At the rate electricity is going up I won't be able to afford to turn on that fancy new broadband connection anyway.

Broad Shoulders

I agree with both of these. To think that this scheme will not make a world of difference to this country and the way it moves forward throughout the next 30 years is pretty narrow-minded. At the moment we cannot even conceive some of the technological improvements that will be possible because of this new infrastructure. Additionally, for the business community in particular, this is the equivalent of kitting out every major city with new 10 lane highways each. This is major infrastructure which cannot fail to make a difference....the possibilities are endless. Plus I agree with the point made that this will finally sort out the Telstra monopoly situation too.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Question is though... do you agree that the government should be paying for it?

Broad Shoulders

Yes, because the alternative is that we end up with another Telstra