Why the NBN needs to go the full way
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Why the NBN needs to go the full way
1–10 of 80 posts
Re: Why the NBN needs to go the full way
#2Everyone in tech I know wants it, but the problem is also the speed of rollout - it would be several years on their current schedule before most people would get it. Probably a moot point too, given the likely outcome of the election.
Re: Why the NBN needs to go the full way
#3It's maddening to see a such a shortsighted attempt to cut costs by essentially un-future-proofing brand new infrastructure. Heck, why not replace the last leg with a couple of cans and a piece of string? It'd be even cheaper then! >.It's such a false economy!
Re: Why the NBN needs to go the full way
#4Everyone in tech I know wants it, but the problem is also the speed of rollout - it would be several years on their current schedule before most people would get it. Probably a moot point too, given the likely outcome of the election.
That's what's doubly ridiculous -- if you didn't do fiber on the last leg (to the residence) then it will be obsolete before it's even finished being built!
Besides, the asbestos in the pits* would have to have been cleaned up some time anyway.
* (was NOT unforseen, my mistake)
Re: Why the NBN needs to go the full way
#5Everyone in tech I know wants it, but the problem is also the speed of rollout - it would be several years on their current schedule before most people would get it. Probably a moot point too, given the likely outcome of the election.
That's what's doubly ridiculous -- if you didn't do fiber on the last leg (to the residence) then it will be obsolete before it's even finished being built! Besides, the asbestos in the pits* would have to have been cleaned up some time anyway. * (was NOT unforseen, my mistake)
Asbestos problems were mentioned in 2011 in the Senate:
http://safedesign.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/nbn-asbestos-rais...
Beyond that anyone who had looked at plans from the 1940s to 1970s would have known it was there:
http://safedesign.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/nbn-asbestos-know...
Either the NBN people were completely incompetent, which is highly unlikely, or the Asbestos problem was raised much earlier internally, probably as soon as people became serious about the project.
Re: Why the NBN needs to go the full way
#6I always thought it was a silly argument until I was using my laptop in London. Getting 20 meg downloads just blew my mind away.
For me, it changed everything. (Non technical) friends just didn't bother with torrents anymore. It was easier for them to download a movie legitimately instead of all the mucking around...
Re: Why the NBN needs to go the full way
#7I'm not sure that is all accurate (umm, light and electricity travel at the same speed ...), but I agree with the central idea: fibre is the next generation of technology, copper is the last. We can fully expect that just as massive speed increases were achieved on copper, so too will they be on fibre. Gen 1 of fibre is already 10x better than the last generation of copper - how much better will generation 2, 3, 4 be? And fibre is potentially even more upgradeable than copper - it's just a channel for light, the throughput is limited by the boxes at either end which can be incrementally upgraded at low cost.
The scary thing is that you only get to do something like this once every 20 - 50 years. So whatever you install needs to well and truly anticipate the future. Spending billions of dollars to install technology that is already at the end of its generation is insane. If people are voting thinking "well the time just isn't right for it", they have to realize - there is not going to be another NBN. It just isn't going to happen, (effectively) ever. Not least because every up and coming politician is watching and learning from this that you don't get rewarded for having any vision about infrastructure. All it does is open up opportunity for your opponents to propose something cheaper and accuse you of waste. It will be very sad if that is the take away lesson from this election.
Re: Why the NBN needs to go the full way
#8The most cost effective thing the Australian government can do to better the experience of Australians is to subsidise hosting in Australia. The cost of hosting a server in a data centre is 2-3x the US. If you've ever been in San Francisco you'd have experienced how all the web services feel like they're running on localhost!
Re: Why the NBN needs to go the full way
#9Everyone in tech I know wants it, but the problem is also the speed of rollout - it would be several years on their current schedule before most people would get it. Probably a moot point too, given the likely outcome of the election.
Yeah I live on the North Shore in Sydney and there are currently "no plans" for the NBN in my area.
Re: Why the NBN needs to go the full way
#10I always thought it was a silly argument until I was using my laptop in London. Getting 20 meg downloads just blew my mind away. For me, it changed everything. (Non technical) friends just didn't bother with torrents anymore. It was easier for them to download a movie legitimately instead of all the mucking around...
Keep in mind that Rupert Murdoch owns half of Foxtel which is the main cable tv network in Australia as well as owning most of the newspapers (he has a monopoly in several states). The argument that you can watch tv from companies like Netflix under an NBN is one of the main reasons the opposition is getting an easy run from the media here. Every year Rupert is spared that is millions more in the bank. The ALP were a bit disorganised and people might not like some of their policies but Australia's economic record under them is solid. Good enough for the Economist to give them the nod anyway.