[gracer]

Posted a blog up on the site this afternoon from a very disgruntled consumer who is outraged at the National Nroadband Network scheme in Australia.

It's an impassioned read, so I'd be interested to see whether anyone out there in forum space has another view on the topic. Or, do you agree?

G

[Dylstra]

Yes, the author has done quite well to wring a whole article out of what is essentially a footnote.

[Ken Gracey]

In a nut shell the entire NBN is a waste of money, typical useless labour government at its best again, wasting tax payers money on rubbish we don't need.

[bitingmidge]

Ken Gracey, on 25 October 2011 - 04:35 PM, said:

In a nut shell the entire NBN is a waste of money, typical useless labour government at its best again, wasting tax payers money on rubbish we don't need.

Yep!

I am pretty much permanently mobile, so don't have nor can I see a time in the future when I will have access to a landline. I have a nifty little pocket Telstra Elite WiFi unit, and frankly have broadband pretty much everywhere there are more than half a dozen people living in one spot. Isn't that national and broadband enough?

The only downside is that it's a little expensive! ($80 per month for 12Gb on a casual plan- meaning I can cancel in six months when I leave for Europe again)

NO provider is prepared to provide me with the sort of arrangement I need!

The NBN can go jump!

Cheers,

P

[Dylstra]

The NBN will provide infrastructure that the whole nation can use. Particularly for commercial applications that would choke wireless bandwidth.

[bitingmidge]

Dylstra, on 25 October 2011 - 08:01 PM, said:

The NBN will provide infrastructure that the whole nation can use. Particularly for commercial applications that would choke wireless bandwidth.

By "commercial applications" I presume you mean "television delivery"! It seems to me that that is the most important part of the whole catastrophe.

Television does seem to be very important to this government!

Cheers,

P

[Stubzee]

My concern is that as i i am with Optus i will have no choice in the matter as they have signed a deal to migrate all their account holders across to NBN.
Gordon

[Ken Gracey]

Let us know how it goes Gordon, I see some people saying it over rated and others saying its ok, my stance is i don't need it or what it.

[Islandhead]

Personally, I will be signing up for it ASAP. But I do understand that some people think its a waste of money.

[JZ]

yeah i agree head man, i'm all for super fast internet.

and we'll all need it if apple makes a TV, (hopefully it'll be internet based no need for the ugly tv antenna on my roof)


jz

[Ken Gracey]

It's a total waste of money, as long as we have people lined up on trolleys waiting for surgery, people living in poverty or homeless, spending 40 billion, on something that makes me surf to a page 20% faster is a total joke and a disgrace, that will haunt this government forever.

[Dylstra]

The company I used to work for installed its own fibre optic cable (over 40 kms worth just for our location) because no other internet option was good enough.

The NBN isn't for the average person to load pages quicker nor is it for people who think that their current needs exhaust the future of the internet.

The NBN will be of real benefit to companies that operate in more than one location around Australia. To begin with, the benefits for average private customers might be considered frivolous, but that is neither the point, nor future.

[Ken Gracey]

Whatt's the point in blowing 40 bill on something that will be second rate in 12 months after thing is finally fully installed, damn I still remember buying a 14.4 modem, and being told it was the future, for let me see 2 months until 28.8 came out and then 33.6 and on and on it goes.

[BrianB]

I totally agree with Ken. A complete and utter waste of money. There was a time when I thought it would be awesome, the more speed the better.... But that money could be going back into healthcare etc to help improve the quality of life for a lot of people.

Typical labour.... I can see another recession coming our way.

[Dylstra]

Data travels through fibre optic cable at nearly the speed of light. It'll be a while before that becomes obsolete.

[Dylstra]

BrianB, on 26 October 2011 - 06:22 PM, said:

Typical labour.... I can see another recession coming our way.

By that reasoning, you must admit that it was Labor's good economic management that kept us out of a recession while the rest of the world buckled under the GFC?

If Australia is indeed destined for a recession there will be a million reasons more vital than the NBN. Now I'm not going to list them all, but here are a few:

1. Decreased demand from Asia for Australian resources.
2. Any number of European countries going bankrupt.
3. The $700 billion that the US used to bail out their financial system turns out to be inadequate.
4. Effects of climate change.
5. The declining oil supply.

[Dylstra]

Stubzee, on 26 October 2011 - 06:17 AM, said:

My concern is that as i i am with Optus i will have no choice in the matter as they have signed a deal to migrate all their account holders across to NBN.
Gordon

You won't have a deal with the NBN. You will still have a deal with Optus. The NBN is a wholesale enterprise. Telcos will be able to choose between maintaining their own infrastructure or buying the services wholesale. It will be much the same as when Optus first started. Optus had no infrastructure of their own but a change in legislation meant that Telstra had to allow them access to their network.

If Optus (or any ISP) thinks that they can make more money by maintaining their own infrastructure then they will do that. But the fact is that the NBN will be vastly superior to anything any of the Telcos could manage on their own.

The biggest loser is Telstra and that's why they've been so prickly throughout the whole process. Telstra's greatest advantage has been its network. When the NBN is rolled out Telstra will have the same network as everyone else. (For cable internet at least, mobile phones are a different matter and to be honest I'm not sure of how that's to work out.)

[clinton1550]

I must say I am appalled at the majority consensus in this thread. Are we not users of the internet? Do we not have to download increasingly large software updates? Are we not consuming ever more online content? Are we really happy with the current state of internet infrastructure in Australia? Would you rather still be on dial-up?

Pigs the NBN is a waste of money! Australia *needs* better internet infrastructure. *Rural* Australia desperately needs better internet infrastructure. The NBN is a win for everybody, us as consumers, users, education, health and businesses. Telecom companies have done nothing to improve the infrastructure of this nation, we’ve been wasting away on cable, ADSL and 3G. We need a national fibre-optic network and if we can’t rely on the telcos to do it the government has to.

I don’t care if it costs an arm and a leg, this is an investment in our country’s future, I’m all for it.

[bitingmidge]

clinton1550, on 26 October 2011 - 11:05 PM, said:

I must say I am appalled at the majority consensus in this thread. Are we not users of the internet?

Yes, and we manage to do that without government funded infrastructure on a user pays basis.

Quote

Do we not have to download increasingly large software updates?

Yes, and thus far, free enterprise has risen to the challenge of providing a robust and comprehensive network which is continuing to decline in cost.

Quote

Are we not consuming ever more online content?

Well yes we are, and should we not be expected to pay for the cost of what we consume? Since when has it been government's role to provide the means for consumption?

Quote

Are we really happy with the current state of internet infrastructure in Australia? Would you rather still be on dial-up?

Why do you ask if we would rather still be on dial up? Private companies have provided the infrastructure to meet demand. Is the NBN backbone going to be capable of handling the available technology when it is completed?

There are many other bits of infrastructure that seem on the surface to be a little more important in the medium term - how about roads and public transport for instance? There is a crisis looming regarding depletion of the world's fuel supply for instance, perhaps some proactivity in that area might be preferable?

Quote

Pigs the NBN is a waste of money! Australia *needs* better internet infrastructure.

Why? So that television corporations can deliver more mindless dreck? So that "social media" can consume more time that would be better devoted to more productive things?

Quote

*Rural* Australia desperately needs better internet infrastructure.

Does it? Why?

Quote

The NBN is a win for everybody, us as consumers, users, education, health and businesses.

Please explain how.

Quote

Telecom companies have done nothing to improve the infrastructure of this nation, we’ve been wasting away on cable, ADSL and 3G.

Well it's hardly true to say the companies have done nothing, the cable, ADSL and 3G came from somewhere, and I can only see more wasting away with more content. What possible improvement can be made to my life?

Quote

We need a national fibre-optic network and if we can’t rely on the telcos to do it the government has to.

If there was sufficient demand for the service, and there was sufficient profit to be made from maintaining it, the Telcos would be falling over themselves to provide the infrastructure. The reality is that Communications companies are not about providing some sort of altruistic service, they are there for one purpose (as is Apple) to make a profit. There is nothing wrong with that, that is how our society works, but the cost of maintaining the NBN will be born one way or another by the consumer.

Quote

I don’t care if it costs an arm and a leg, this is an investment in our country’s future, I’m all for it.

I don't have any arms or legs to spare I'm afraid. Will technology stand still while this magical backbone is being installed? How is it possible that someone in a darkened room understands what new technologies will arrive over the coming decades, what demands those technologies will place on infrastructure, and what demands the population will place on it as well?

I too am a firm believer in the need for infrastructure, I just don't think a government, particularly an Australian government (of any political flavour) which bases its decision making on ad hoc consensus policy is capable of providing it! Note the above is based on opinion, not fact (as I suspect was the post to which I have responded.

Would someone be kind enough to demonstrate what the demands will be in 2020 and how the NBN will meet them? All I can see is that it will deliver on demand television and that's hardly something that a nation needs to get terribly excited about!

Cheers,

P

[Islandhead]

Biting post BitingMidge.

Love the complete (and a bit cheeky i thought) generalization of the Poster sitting in a darkened room because he uses the internet.

Do you really think the NBN is just about TV on demand? No big picture at all? People have mentioned healthcare, I am pretty sure I mentioned a few pluses to healthcare the last time we had this same rant (sorry, discussion) about the NBN.

Certainly seems to be a hot topic.