IvanM

Another way of looking at is how to break Helstra's monopoly on regional backhaul and bring fibre to where it is needed ie business and housing estates where the copper will deliver dialup speeds.

BTW most people were happy with 56k modems until they got 256k and napster. Then ADSL2 and bittorrent and media players. Technology pay off is there when the need and speed match. Video on demand will be the home need. The business needs are endless.

BristolBeary

You mean Murdoch's business needs are endless. You do realise the government are his bitch.

IvanM

Murdoch is probably dreading it as it bypasses Foxtel which BTW is partly owned by Helstra. He will of course make money out of it even if Foxtel loses its monopoly.

Anyhow I do stress the real winners of NBN will be business.

Broad Shoulders

Oh I see your angle. We should not bother investing in infrastructure coz the Liberals are only going to go and privatise it and create more monopolies?

Which govt also allowed the big four banks monopoly that we have right now?

BristolBeary

No it doesn't, those shiny Foxtel HD boxes are internet ready and waiting for your hard earned cash. He has been pushing this for a while now. Do some research for yourself instead of listening to party lines.

Board to Murdoch: But sir, we need a content delivery system thats going to cost $43 billion+ to role out.

Murdoch to board: I give you the NBN - and its free.

IvanM

Nice informative post!

Wol

Funnily enough, the SMH today (16th Aug) has a piece entitled "The country can't face the technological future through copper wire", written by Eggleton & Moss.

They wax lyrical about how we can't afford to be without this, and how it will "increase business by 1% and therefore pay for itself almost immediately" - but, like all these forecasts is woefully short on exactly *what* is going to be boosted. They mention remote operations - but, let's face it, these are exclusively performed in urban centres which have adequate broadband now.

The authors are professors at the ARC centre for ultrahigh bandwidth, U of Sydney.........

IvanM

A good study on the pay out is what I want to see. I have no doubts that the bandwidth will be used and consumed but what is the real benefit to the economy. I am glad someone is on to that side of the discussion.

Two remote operations come to mind
Rio Tinto's robotic mining fleet run from Perth and remote keyhole surgery. Broadband is like a motorway. Build it and they will fill it. Will it be like the Cross City Tunnel and not pay off or will it be like the M4?

What would you describe as adequate broadband for home and business use? For urban areas there are too many black holes too far from the exchange for DSL variants. Having worked in retail about 95% of stores we had could be connected to DSL. This was in a chain of 500 around Australia. Not statistically representative but gives you an idea that too many are left out in the current situation.

themerlin

What about 3D porn?

keel

Combined with Smell-O-Vision

Keel

Amazulu

This can be run using existing capabilities - in fact they already exist. Mine sites we are designing now have FO cables coming into them. Rio's desire to have driverless trains can be achieved with existing technology. A recent project that I was involved in was looking at using ethernet control systems - definitely the way we are heading. High bandwidth is not required though.

IvanM

Correct. Rio with Telstra has laid a lot of fibre. Low latency, high quality commas are needed for this. The idea of NBN is to give more of Australia this capability. My point is again to demonstrate it is more than home users that news broadband. Other industries as well as education, government etc without rios pockets would love access. Rio would also love the redundancy a decent backhaul would bring. The users are there but what is the best cost quality outcome?

bcworld

As an example, I have a client in Alice Springs, a not for profit, essentially funded by the taxpayer but providing essential services. At present they have no choice but to stump up for very expensive WAN optimisation devices (most of the infrastructure is in Darwin) & even then the experience for their users is fairly dire. The current cost for more bandwidth is fairly outrageous from the numbers I have seen.

BristolBeary

It certainly is a solution looking for a problem. I'm all for highspeed broadband, it keeps me in a job! What I struggle with is all the problems being banded about that the NBN will solve.

There is not a single thing right now that needs it, or even any ideas for what it can be used for. Does that mean we shouldn't do anything - no.

What I will not accept though is debates saying who'd of thought we be using Skype, watching HD movies, downloading music, sharing files. All these concepts are 150 years old! It's taken that long to economical make that technology available to the masses.

I think the TV was invented in it's most raw form in the 1830's.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

It's been said before in this thread, but it's still worth repeating. If you chose to live in places like Alice, basically the arse end of the planet, then you shouldn't expect to get first world infrastucture.