Bring on the NBN

By now, I think, the general public are probably sick of hearing about the NBN despite it being such a 'hot' election issue. Election? When was that? It was so long ago, I've forgotten, but we can still hear about the NBN.

Being a tech-head, I've done my share of cringing at the reasons people give for why it's a bad idea. Most average people I've polled say its a good idea but too expensive. To that, I'd like to quote an expert:

"The ubiquitous use of high capacity across the entire population is intended to alter the way in which services are delivered, in which we define work and entertainment and the way in which a relatively small population in the south Pacific Ocean defines its place as a developed and hopefully highly competitive economy in a global context. These are indeed great expectations and the price tag is entirely commensurate with the level of euphoric optimism that is associated with this national project." - Geoff Houston Chief Scientist at APNIC

I happen to agree. The NBN is the same style of public work as the original copper network was back in its day. Perhaps the same debate was had then but I don't think it was an election issue. The public wasn't asked to choose a technology solution for the nations future network.

That's what it comes down to. Each side has offered a solution and the public had been asked via an election to choose which they want. Of course the public is in no position to choose based on technical merits so instead they go with all they know, price. But how on earth does the public weigh up the price of an NBN? Can't find them at Coles or Woolies or even at Dick Smith Powerhouse!

I would like to state a simple reason for the NBN, we need it for all the reasons we can't think of right now. It's not about faster porn, or downloading illegal movies, though many might use those as arguments. Think more about providing cable TV to all those that don't have a big black cable hanging on their telegraph poles. Think about making a national community TV station. Think about having the ability to watch your recorded shows from your set top box at your mates place (copyright permitting).

These are things you can only do if most people have the same service. I remember a few years back trying to do the web cam  thing with my sister in the UK. We did it because it was nice to see a face but it almost always deteriorated into a frozen image because neither of us had the sort of bandwidth required. Well imagine being able to do something similar but with the quality you expect from TV, HD TV even, across the globe. That would make this planet we live on seem a whole lot smaller. It wouldn't be such a separation to live in another country from your nearest and dearest. But a broadband policy that merely seeks to add some more people onto our aging copper network is just not good enough.

Copper and even wireless have limits. The further you are from either, the slower it gets. The speeds 'suggested' for each are never obtainable, so whilst it might be said that everyone will get 12Mb, that's just a suggested figure and your millage may vary. Certainly my existing service is billed as ADSL2+ yet I only get 4Mb. There is very little chance they are going to build a new exchange close to my residence so I have nothing to look forward to. No Internet TV, no HD video calls.

So I for one, welcome our new NBN overlords...