The National Broadband network.

[santiago]

I have not put a lot of thought into this but i was thinking about it.

My personal feelings about the matter are screw faster internet download speed and put 40 billion into renewable energy, in reality what will faster internet achieve.......watching you tube faster, having doctors guiding operations from their golf cart. Im not sure........it all sounds a bit selfish, the me generation just needing everything faster.

But then it dawned on me as i approached my 2 gig monthly download limit. What if i had a national broadband network...........wow i could easily bang that 2 gigs out if i wanted to in 30 minutes or less. sometimes my download speed is bps instead of kbps.....how the hell can any company reasonably make any money out of me when i cant spend it fast enough.

just think of it like a game of paintball, i used to play with the single shot pump action and was able to conserve my bullets(because they cost me money to rebuy)............however when i switched to the automatic machine gun style.............................boom boom boom, hundreds get used and i gotta constantly rebuy.

so in esscence i feel its not a service to us consumers, its a clever way for us to spend more money........surely the government is just like a business, build roads yes.....but more roads more cars more rego and tolls and fines, the governments not going to plonk 40 billion just down the drain to entertain our kids with faster wiggles downloads, i feel its a carefully mapped out scheme to tax us even more and to herd us into the pretty consumers that we are.

surely the gov will have its finger in the pie of every single company who uses the broadband network........and every company that uses the broadband network will be trying to scam us for everything we have.

what will fill up a pool faster.........a garden hose or a fire hydrant.....dont think of it as water, think of it as download speed and your money.

i wonder if vodafone or telstra once the broadband is up and running instead of the 2 gig for example per month for say 30 dollars will automatically adjust it to 200 gigs per month for the same price to compensate for the faster speeds your network will automatically run at...........i dont think so.

[herbologist]

Sorry if I'm missing your point ( I am quite drunk ) , but 200gig @ 400kbps for $60 a month ....(unlimited once I go over 200gig @ 200kbps ) is well worth my while.

Get a better provider??

[santiago]

herbologist

dont know how you interpretid that.....its nothing to do with my current provider or netspeed

its about the government creating a broadband network so they can make easier money out of the increasing use of the internet by users........increased speed = increased download=increased profit......you cant make any more money from the current download speed unless you increase the current download speed.

which is fine if companies increase the free limits or adjust accordingly.

ok let me put it to you another way......when my internet is running slow sometimes hours of usage might only use up 800 kilobytes of data usage

when its running fast doing the same thing on the internet can quickly go into megabytes for the same time usage

so if it runs fast always then there is better scope for companies etc to get people to use more internet data faster which in basic terms means MONEY MONEY MONEY.

[ThunderIdeal]

i get where you're coming from, but even without adsl2 you should be able to pump loads of gigabytes in a month. if you're trying that is. to get less than a megabyte over several hours would be slow even for a 28k modem, so you have some real speed issues. i'm back on regular adsl now but to not use up 50gb in the month is quite challenging.

again though, i get what you mean. i don't know if this 40 billion dollar scheme involves increasing the amount of data coming in and out of the country. if the conduits to australia aren't widened/increased, theoretically the price of gigs to the consumer will stay about the same.

[C_T]

mate i consistently get 1.2mb per second and on an unlimited plan... last month i downloaded something like 160gb's without trying.

i think you need a new isp... or perhaps your rural and telstra are being bitches and not offering proper coverage? they tend to corner the market in less populated area's.

[santiago]

i could only imagine those speeds c_t, im not complaining about my speed......its way faster that 10+ years ago, i think its a curious anomoly of the computer world that downloads can be measured in chargable units, however mainstream media like tv/radio isnt.....perhaps, and i summarise perhaps everything is moving towards digital......so we can be charged, per unit...........the ancient free to air we enjoy now, may soon be sized up in bitesize little media packages for sale.

the broadband network is nothing more than a smokescreen designed to keep information chargable, accountable and secure, digital will be its pimp....

what can you do, nothing. it will be really good to see once the system is in mainsteam connectivity how fast it really is...........it better be damn fast after all that money and hype.

there's just something to good to be true feeling about it, like somethings being hidden......im sure the big wigs have looked at each other across the parliamentary table with the accountants and stockbrokers and advisors going................this will triple its money in 10 years......and why wouldnt it.

[C_T]

so tv is free huh, all those mcdonals ads you have to watch? same with radio...

so you pickup your home phone and don't get charged for that call? call overseas and its not charged by time? and no line rental? you walk to a pay phone and it just works huh? no cost per call? that call is data being sent across a line...

Edit: you'll find out of most countries, aus is one of the few that actually has download limits, everyone i know overseas has unlimited. but this is a combination of telstra milking the public using outdated technology for the cost of new tech, and the fact they take advantage of people who don't know any better.

example. You ring up about a plan and they will go "oh we have a great plan, only 19.95 a month and you get a whopping 200mb's a month!!! (small print says each mb over is 1$ extra or something stupid)

when you could just shop around and get 50 gigs for same price. no hidden charges. Its called sales people making money off people who don't know any better... certainly not the first or only business cashing in on the unsuspecting.

Edited October 13, 2010 by C_T

[Slybacon]

if the conduits to australia aren't widened/increased,

 

I doubt the focus is on hardlines. I would imagine its all going wireless country to country.

[ThunderIdeal]

sorry i meant conduits in the sense of, however the data comes in. there is a limit to how much data australia can send and receive, in other words there is a conduit with a maximum capacity. portions of that capacity are sold to ISPs, and i believe often ISPs have oversold themselves, eg giving 100gb connections to 1000 customers, when their share of the 'conduit' is not 100,000 gb. i don't know much about all this, but for such a rich country, compared to other rich countries, australian internet is shit. i'm not saying the whole scheme isn't a scam, just a few days ago the papers were saying there is going to be some big issue with people keeping their current landline providers or something. however, australia is lagging and i don't think its a bad thing to get our internet up to scratch with the first world.

[Symbiate]

Unlimited plans in Australia have just started coming out, and iiNet have released their first 1TB plan. I myself have 400GB (a year ago it was 100GB, it has been incrementally upgraded for free), which I can no longer use within a month.

Once the NBN is rolled out, I believe that unlimited plans will be readily available, and competition between the major ISPs will push down prices over time.

If anything, faster Internet is a good investment. There are many businesses that make their profits from sales or services over the Internet, and having faster speeds and more availability will allow these businesses to expand and compete.

I understand the points you're making, but I wont be surprised if the Internet becomes a major cog running western society. Finland has already made broadband a basic human right.

[FancyPants]

If given a choice - which we're not - I'd prefer to keep the current speed and use the money they're spending on it to focus on catching the child/unconsentual/violent (without consent) pornographers and use the rest for other things like our decrepit healthcare system, roads, education, blah blah blah.

Is this NBN going to be focusing on wireless connections? I saw an IT dude on TV (so who knows if it's spin anyway) saying a broadband cable network would be defunct in a couple of years anyway since everything's going wireless.

[jay6785]

National broadband network is how governments around the world figure they will solve all this internet freedom annoyance. It is harder in a democracy to get all the ISP's to filter stuff etc. without pushing difficult legistlation into parliment, so the solution is an all powerful government netowrk with centralised controlled and logged access.

After the NBN expect torrents to be blocked while redirecting you to channel tens 'premimum content website' and drug forums to be directed to health.gov.au. or liquour land.

Edited October 15, 2010 by jay6785

[C_T]

bull, all data currently goes through canberra already...

[Symbiate]

Is this NBN going to be focusing on wireless connections? I saw an IT dude on TV (so who knows if it's spin anyway) saying a broadband cable network would be defunct in a couple of years anyway since everything's going wireless.

 

From the NBNco website, it says that 93% of households will have 100mbps fibre connections, with the remaining households connected via 12mbps wireless. If there are households where neither fibre or wireless is an option, they will receive 12mbps satellite connections.

[rosetta stoned]

heh they will proberly sell the NBN off a couple years after its complete

i think high speed internet will decrease the need for people to commute into the major citys itll have a few benefits but its alot of money to spend on one idea

[AndyAmine.]

Improving out internet access is 100% necesary to continue keeping any kind of pace with other 1st world economies, its pretty simple IMO, if we dont get things up to standard we will be fucked within a decade or so.

We are already an internet back water right now let alone in the near future.

Is the current NBN scheem a good option, no I dont really think so but its better than what Abbot was offering, personally I think we should have multiple infrastructure in place over many smaller smart grids, as should our power because if that goes down so does everything else.

[jay6785]

bull, all data currently goes through canberra already...

 

Does it? How does this happen? I thought the traffic went to ISP's, then to the great sea cables. Why would traffic go through Canberra at all? Not being sarcastic I am actually really interested to know.

Don't know if I needed the neg vote for having a difference of opinion though

I don't think it's that much of a conspiracy to believe they will control, just pollie point scoring leading to a strict filter for christians voters as well as listening to the demands of the AMCA.

Edited October 15, 2010 by jay6785

[jay6785]

bull, all data currently goes through canberra already...

 

Does it? How does this happen? I thought the traffic went to ISP's, then to the great sea cables. Why would traffic go through Canberra at all? Not being sarcastic I am actually really interested to know.

Don't know if I needed the neg vote for having a difference of opinion though

I don't think it's that much of a conspiracy to believe they will control, just pollie point scoring leading to a strict filter for christians voters as well as listening to the demands of the AMCA.

Edited October 15, 2010 by jay6785