The National Broadband Network

The Internet was created in the 1950's as a way for the US military to communicate, but then it evolved into UseNet then the current evolution of the internet, the World Wide Web and it's fair to say that the internet is now a major part of our lives, and who could believe you could achieve all of this and more through copper telephone wires? The use of copper was great in the 90's for the Internet with Cable, ISDN and ADSL, but now most of the western world was replaced copper wire for the internet and replaced it with fiber optics which can acheive speeds copper wire couldn't handle. This has been used throughout Telco's over the last few years and used a method called FTTN or otherwise known as Fiber To The Node, which simply means fiber optic cable to your nearest exchange, where calls and other data are separated to individual homes.

The government, Left and Right, are responsible for the state the Internet is in right now in Australia. When Gough Whitlam from the ALP was PM, he established Telecom, which was a government owned corporation responsible for all telephone lines. In 1993, Telecom was renamed Telstra Corporation and ventured into providing Dial-Up internet to metropolitan and regional cities. When the Howard Government came into power in 1996, they started to privitize Telstra, giving the government less power over the company, meaning Telstra's board could decide how Australia should advance in telecommunications.

Advancement, however, has been quite conservative for over 1 decade after the conservative coalition came into power, letting Telstra screw us over in terms of service, price and quality. Now I'm sure you'd agree that if you own something, you should have control over it. This is the approach Telstra has taken, but they chose to be tightarse pricks instead of providng quality service and a quality product. Telstra have just now realised too late that Fiber Optics is the way go, not copper. If Telstra had introduced fiber optic cable years ago when other countries were bringing in FTTN, Telstra would be able to keep it's monopoly over telecommunications in this country.

The Rudd Government has made a wise, brave step in introducing FFTH, Fiber To The Home, which is basically fiber optic cables that will reach your home instead of Telstra's exchanges. We will be among very few countries in the western world to introduce this. FFTH is capable of harnessing speeds up to 100Mbps (Megabits, not MegaBytes), which is very fast. This will come at a cost to the government and taxpayers.

Unless private enterprise telcos buy shares, (the government will keep a controlling share) the NBN will not be viable financially to lay down fiber. The government must create a corporate model of how things will be handled in this new telecom corporation so things run smoothly. No one is sure currently how much it will cost customers to have fiber laid down at their homes, but the Federal Opposition estimates it will cost $200 a month, but the government has said this network will be wholesale only, so ISP's will have to lower their prices in order to have competition, which Australia lacks of because of the Howard Government's privatization of Telstra.

The flaws of this network is:

Towns with a population under 1000 will receive slower speeds, up to 10Mbps via Satellite, which will cost more to those not living near the coast.

Under this network controlled by the government, it is very possible that the controversial internet filtering scheme led by the Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy will have more of a chance to be introduced now and is plain irony at so many levels technically e.g the filtering will slow down the internet and will make online transactions less secure.

Unless private enterprise invest in Rudd's new broadband corporation, this project will collapse and we will once again be at the mercy of Telstra.

Currently this is cable only, so I don't know if there will be routers that will support fiber.


The benefits of this network is:

We will be able to receive speeds from 100Mbps downstream, so this is good news to Australians who download over torrent networks and speed can be increased over time.

VoIP will go to a new level in Australia, enhancing your phone calls over the net. The downside to using VoIP programs like Skype is in a blackout your screwed so keep that landline!

This will produce real competition, and since this network is Wholesale only, plans will be much cheaper than what they are now because ISP's have to attempt to offer cheaper plans that other ISP's.

If it is rolled out now, it will be cheaper to run in the long term.


Australia will be the first western country to fully implement fiber to the home. The only other countries to do this is Singapore and South Korea. Even though Telstra will be releasing 100Mpbs in Melbourne soon, this will only be available currently to Metropolitan areas, with regional Australia to suffer the same crap speeds and Telstra will still be using copper wires, so that limits the speeds that go through the wires. Fiber on the other hand is virtually infinite in terms of speeds. There is nothing after fiber optics currently and this cable will be valid for at least 50 years. This technology will change the way Australians use the internet and will lift limitations that currently plague us.

It's other competitor is Wireless internet. Not wireless home networks that use both Wi-Fi and Ethernet which then in turn are connected to ADSL cables, Wireless as in a USB stick or an installable card. The wireless network that currently operates in Australia is operated and maintained by Telstra, but have opened it up so third parties can sell the service to users via Wholesale, but Telstra controls a majority of what third parties can do since it's their network. Via this network you can achieve reasonable speeds, but as more people connect to it, the slower it gets. This network can be accessed via a Telstra Next G phone or a computer. This network though is more expensive to use than any cable network despite it's conveniences. You have to buy quota (download limit) and can cost from $10 for a 10 MB to $100 for 1 GB, so yes, Wireless is great on the go, but if you're thinking of downloading a torrent file while you are in the car travelling, then keep forking out the dough cause those totalitarians at Telstra will keep screwing you until you do.

Malcolm Turnbull thinks that Wireless internet speeds are sufficient. Not true. Despite the articles he writes occasionally for The Australian that oppose what Rudd wants to do with the network, people from the telecommunications, IT and video game industries are on side with the government and are debating the topic with the coalition. However, not all on the right wing of politics object the NBN with the Victorian opposition praising the Federal Government's decision to roll out fiber optics to 90% of homes.

There is also a struggle between 3 state governments that want the NBN corporation to be located in their states; Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales. I might be sounding biased but Queensland is the right state for the corporation. Victoria's already got Telstra (the greedy bastards), NSW does not have a majority of the IT industry in their state despite what NSW Premier Nathan Rees says but Queensland is the best state for it. This will create more jobs for our "Smart State" (Yeah right Bligh), and a lot of Queensland towns' economies are influenced by the Mines, meaning a majority of our state will be able to tackle the looming recession head on.

In conclusion, the NBN is important for our future. Let us not be an Internet Backwater. The government is doing the right thing on our part. If Pete Blasina and Simon Hackett from Internode say that this is extremely important, than the Coalition should listen and Telstra should move with the times.

Genesis...

Well this is my first actual blog which I will be updating regularly, unlike some I tried before that consisted of anime reviews, which never got off the ground due to hardware issues and time. I will be sharing my thoughts on the latest news to come out of the real and gaming worlds that are significant. Before I go any further, I'd like to give some shouts out to stuff you SHOULD be watching and listening to.

First of all is Good Game, a popular video gaming show on ABC 2 and airs on Mondays at 8:30 and on ABC 1 Fridays around midnight but the time slot is unstable, but it is just before Rage. Even though the show is 30 Minutes long, it is so cool and you can participate in the GG forums at http://www.abc.net.au/goodgame .

2nd is ABC News Breakfast, a new breakfast show on ABC 2 from 6 - 9 AM every weekday and is also streamed on their site, http://www.abc.net.au/breakfast and you can contribute over Twitter. Best thing about this show is that there is hardly any breaks, is unbias (Because the ABC is owned by the government) and is unsensationalist, so you won't see any of that shit from Sunrise and Today, which are both crap.

3rd is ABC Local Radio Queensland on the ABC Tropical North frequency: 101.1 FM. You can also find ABC Local on the AM Shortband too if your lucky. Been listening to ABC Local Radio for yonks and has got even better over the years. While the ABC has been going up in the world, commercial Radio and TV has been going down the drain. There are only a few decent shows on commercial TV nowadays e.g Good News Week and Two and Half Men among others, but that's about it.

I will be talking about gaming in the world of Nintendo, not Sony or Microsoft.

First blog will be about the NBN (National Broadband Network), which is supposed to deliver super fast broadband to 90% of the Australian population, then I'll be talking about the Nintendo DSi, the third in the DS family. I'd love comments, so comment on either my blog or Facebook.