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How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

nytimes.com

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Re: How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

#11

Post by Smerity »

marak830 wrote: post #8

I was born and raised in Australia, I left for Japan just as the NBN was beginning to roll out. It's an absolute disgrace how much it has been butchered. I have thoughts about returning occasionally, but going from 2 GB/s unlimited for Aus$ 40 ish a month, back to those speeds and prices is a major factor for me staying here. It is a massive quality of life difference to have amazing internet.

As an Australian now living in San Francisco paying $55 per month for 100/100 (WebPass, which would be the same price but 500/500 or 1000/1000 if I moved to a newer building), I have the exact same feeling.

When I journey back home and stay with my parents, it is impossible to get work done. Latency is the first killer - it'll never properly be solved if you're working with remote systems in the US or Europe - but then upload speeds slowly rip at your soul. Download speeds and quotas are no picnic either of course.

That Australia didn't end up with a future proof fibre to the home system given the amount of money spent is an absolute disgrace. I get angry every time I have to discuss it.

I wanted to move back to Australia sooner than later - and the FTTH NBN promised interesting start-up and other opportunities - but given it has been relegated to a copper backwater those plans are on indefinite hold :(

I usually point people to the Australian government debate regarding copper wire over iron wire from 1910 as an anachronistic comparison.

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/06/parliament-arguing-about-...

Re: How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

#12

Post by Neeek »

i336_ wrote: post #3

For people actually sad about the NBN: this mentions that people who want 1Gbps "will have an upgrade option" (I think they said it something like that). This was from Feb 12 this year. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/downloadthissho...

That doesn't really help the business side of things though. Collaborating across state requires just as meaty an upload pipe.

Re: How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

#13

Post by i336_ »

flukus wrote: post #9
i336_ wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lead singer in Midnight Oil sung "How do we sleep / While our beds are burning" in 1987... and in 2009 the same person (Peter Garret), in his position as Minister for Environment Protection (among other things), was the driving force behind a home-insulation scheme that was found to be the cause of 224 house fires. You basically have to have a humorectomy to be able to follow Australian politics. Otherwise you go…

> was the driving force behind a home-insulation scheme that was found to be the cause of 224 house fires. House fires went down statistically. The absolute number of fires was higher because more homes were getting insulation, but fires per insulated home went down. The real cause is business efficiency, hiring cheaper workers and not training them properly. You can't hold the government responsible for every grunt…

>> was the driving force behind a home-insulation scheme that was found to be the cause of 224 house fires.

> House fires went down statistically. The absolute number of fires was higher because more homes were getting insulation, but fires per insulated home went down.

Oh. I didn't know that. So you mean this occurred after the installation...?

> The real cause is business efficiency, hiring cheaper workers and not training them properly. You can't hold the government responsible for every grunt a private business hires.

Absolutely, yeah. I was trying to get at that idea but didn't quite articulate it. (Thanks.)

> You don't hear the current lot taking direct responsibility for the recent shooting in our offshore detention facilities.

Indeed :/

(I have to admit I honestly just don't understand why the offshore detention system has to be the way that it is. But this is largely due to my ignorance of the various variables and difficulties of the situation.)

Re: How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

#14

Post by MichaelGG »

marak830 wrote: post #8

I was born and raised in Australia, I left for Japan just as the NBN was beginning to roll out. It's an absolute disgrace how much it has been butchered. I have thoughts about returning occasionally, but going from 2 GB/s unlimited for Aus$ 40 ish a month, back to those speeds and prices is a major factor for me staying here. It is a massive quality of life difference to have amazing internet.

How do you wire up or use 2Gb/sec at home? Do you get a GigE switch and connect separate devices? Multiple wireless APs? TenGigE?

Re: How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

#15

Post by i336_ »

Neeek wrote: post #12
i336_ wrote: post #3

For people actually sad about the NBN: this mentions that people who want 1Gbps "will have an upgrade option" (I think they said it something like that). This was from Feb 12 this year. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/downloadthissho...

That doesn't really help the business side of things though. Collaborating across state requires just as meaty an upload pipe.

Mmm, that's true. :/

If you have such requirements, I'm genuinely curious what they'd come back with (solution/$-wise) if you told them what you needed.

(My current awareness of commercial internet is that you can currently get 500Mbps SLA'd fiber for $499 in urban Sydney. Yay? Not so much.)

Re: How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

#17

Post by craigvn »

As an Australian, I think it can be summed up by two reasons.

1. All large scale infrastructure rollouts are difficult and subject to problems and blowouts.

2. It was made a political issue. New government decided to make major revamps for no reason other than it was different to the previous government so they could use it as an election issue.

Re: How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

#18

Post by moronicalox »

MichaelGG wrote: post #14
marak830 wrote: post #8

I was born and raised in Australia, I left for Japan just as the NBN was beginning to roll out. It's an absolute disgrace how much it has been butchered. I have thoughts about returning occasionally, but going from 2 GB/s unlimited for Aus$ 40 ish a month, back to those speeds and prices is a major factor for me staying here. It is a massive quality of life difference to have amazing internet.

How do you wire up or use 2Gb/sec at home? Do you get a GigE switch and connect separate devices? Multiple wireless APs? TenGigE?

He has to be talking Gbps, not GB/s right? Right?! I might move to Japan.

Re: How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

#19

Post by tp3z4u »

marak830 wrote: post #8

I was born and raised in Australia, I left for Japan just as the NBN was beginning to roll out. It's an absolute disgrace how much it has been butchered. I have thoughts about returning occasionally, but going from 2 GB/s unlimited for Aus$ 40 ish a month, back to those speeds and prices is a major factor for me staying here. It is a massive quality of life difference to have amazing internet.

I can't deal with the 400ms latency. That and the rest of it is why I left and never went back. It's a tech backwater :( So much for Turnbull's 'ideas boom.'

Re: How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

#20

Post by shusson »

> Average speeds have more than doubled since 2013, according to Akamai, but other countries are connecting their populations faster, meaning Australia’s lag with the rest of the world has grown.

The article is very light on numbers. It would be nice to actually see solid metrics around speeds and costs across the whole of Australia.

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