fish.01 Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 Every independent expert I have read on this topic says wireless is in no way an alternative to fibre. The spectrum is crowded, it cost a fortune, will lag far behind in speed, is far flakier, not scaleable enough for the future. Wireless is already struggling to keep up with current demand without becoming the main provider of internet in people's homes as well. it is a complementary technology, not a backbone technology. Fibre scales massively. The speed offered today will increase hugely in the future using the same cables. There is no way wireless can compete. The idea that fibre will be made redundant by wireless is a political slogan that is ignoring the technology. The argument that we already have fast enough Internet does not address the following: - many parts of the country still have poor internet "including" metro areas. There are people all over our big cities with poor Internet let alone large regional cities/towns and country towns. Private industry cannot deliver a backbone network...we can see that from the mish mash of broadband service people have today. The copper network is only country wide because it was built with public money and then sold already complete into private hands. The private ISP's could not deliver broadband today if not for the past decision to build a universal copper network with public money. - the NBN is for future applications, not just current. Downloading a video a bit faster is not the end game of the NBN. Comprehensive fast broadband to most of the population will allow all sorts of new applications/services to be delivered via the internet. Many of these have not even been thought of yet. It is not accurate to talk about today's and tomorrow's technology just being about solving yesterday's problems. - the copper network is old, dated and almost maxed out. It will not serve the next 100 years like it has the last 100. We have squeezed it to death to get it this far. The NBN also will bring what the ISP's have been crying out for for a decade...the separation of Telstra's uncompetitive advantage where they have not only owned the network but could then sell access to that network cheaper to Telstra's retail arm to make an uncompetitive market between ISP's. The NBN deal includes Telstra agreeing to separate into two separate companies. This will promote even competition between all ISP's as they will all have access to the nations backbone network at the same price. This has been a great win for competition and the ISP's have been celebrating it. With an aging population governments around the world are seeing nothing but issues in providing govt services to us all in the future. They have identified the internet as one of the few ways to continue to provide the services we enjoy today and meet future needs. Countries that have invested in high speed universal fibre networks (and many already have with more on the way) will be best placed to deliver all sort of innovate services at a lower cost to the taxpayer through the use of economies of scale, remote access, health programs that proactively monitor and improve our health, education, social support, entertainment, community interaction, movement of population skills remotely to where needed, full utilization of home bound population, inter business communication, trade etc etc. The potential is unlimited...look at the changes in our lifetime...the future will bring things we can't see yet and we need to be in the group of countries that can grab it. It is even more important for Australia given our small disperse population. It has taken a very brave and rare govt decision to build us our future network...I am still amazed it was taken...these sorts of decisions are very hard to make in todays overly negative political climate...we shouldn't let it get away. Finally the money. The money being paid for the NBN is buying the taxpayer an asset. The government intends to sell this asset in the nearish future (just as telstra was sold) and a lot of the money will be recouped. It is not just an expense with all the money thrown down the drain, as many would have you believe, it is the purchase of an asset with future sale value. This should be taken into consideration. We will have to build it either way, the future will demand it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest siamsusie Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 Excellent post as usual Fish x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabo Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 Thanks for your input Fish. Very helpful. With respect to your comment below about Telstra's uncompetitive advantage - is it accurate to say that the $9B agreement last week between NBN and Telstra was, in effect, the Government (NBN) buying back the part of the Telstra network that the NBN would be in competition with had an agreement not been put in place? The NBN also will bring what the ISP's have been crying out for for a decade...the separation of Telstra's uncompetitive advantage where they have not only owned the network but could then sell access to that network cheaper to Telstra's retail arm to make an uncompetitive market between ISP's. The NBN deal includes Telstra agreeing to separate into two separate companies. This will promote even competition between all ISP's as they will all have access to the nations backbone network at the same price. This has been a great win for competition and the ISP's have been celebrating it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabo Posted July 2, 2011 Author Share Posted July 2, 2011 The man from Del Monte says 'Yes!' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petals Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 Shareholders have to vote on the deal before its done and dusted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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