News & Discussion: National Broadband Network

[Vee]

That is one thing that does piss me off about the NBN rollout.
I live in an area where cable is not available, but areas with cable are scheduled to get NBN within the next 3 years(or already U/C), while areas without cable aren't.

But, Rev you are probably fortunate you don't have the old HFC cable. I have a relative who has it for Foxtel and broadband and it plays up eg sometimes during long weekends and rainy periods.

If you read the rest of the article in the Brisbane Times, it's uncertain what is actually happening under the Coalition's broadband. Cable users are low priority and could be left lamenting. See below.

Check more.

Mr Turnbull said he had not yet achieved a "meeting of the minds" with Telstra about its cable network and future upgrades would depend on "relative costs". European research has found it possible to upgrade cable beyond 1 gigabit per second, but at high costs, according to a report by Dutch consulting firm TNO.

"I am satisfied that we can acquire the d-side copper [sites between households and exchanges], but there are a number of options [for HFC]. We could simply take it over and integrate it into the NBN, that is probably the cleanest option."

Asked whether he has already started negotiating with Telstra for the Coalition's NBN rollout, Mr Turnbull replied: "I could not possibly comment".

Both Telstra and Optus' cable networks cover about 2.5 million premises with cable, but have significant overlap. Carriers do not publish detailed maps of their cable networks, making it difficult for voters to know what kind of broadband connection they would get under a Coalition government.
...
Both Optus and Telstra have signed commercial agreements with NBN Co to decommission their cable for a fee, but Telstra's deal allows it to keep the cable active for Foxtel transmission. These contracts must be renegotiated if a Coalition government wants to keep the networks alive.

"The fact that both operators are keen to close down their networks indicates that they most certainly don't see these networks as ideal infrastructure for the future," telecommunications analyst Paul Budde said.

Upgrading the cable and changing regulations so all carriers could sell services would "require long [financial] negotiations and lengthy regulatory processes", he added.

"If it was all that easy that would have been done 10 years ago."

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/it-pro/ ... hv1m1.html

[monotonehell]

Cable is a poor cousin for broadband.

Not only do you have to compete with the higher priority pay television data, but also the other people in your loop. It's such a shitty service that there have been advertising campaigns in the US playing on the frustrations of users there.

[Vee]

Trending topic on social media this afternoon - filtering.

The Coalition will require ISPs and mobile telcos to filter internet services by default unless a user opts out of it.

A Liberal National government in Australia would adopt the opt-out UK approach to filtering the internet for all Australians.

The policy comes less than 41 hours before polls open for voting in the federal election where the Coalition is currently expected to win. It is also almost a year after the Labor government abandoned its plans for mandatory internet filtering, and three years after the Coalition announced that it would not support a policy for mandatory internet filtering.

The announcement, buried in an AU$10 million online safety policy published online today (PDF) announces that under a Tony Abbott government, Australians would have "adult content" filters installed on their phone services and fixed internet services unless they opt out.

"We will work with mobile phone companies (such as Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, and their resellers) to develop online safety standards for smartphones and other devices with mobile network connectivity such as tablets, applicable to their use by children in two age groups: Children up to the age of 12 years and teenagers."

"As has recently been achieved in the UK, we expect these standards will involve mobile phone operators installing adult content filters on phones which will be switched on as the default unless the customer proves he or she is at least 18 years of age.

"The Coalition will work with internet service providers (which provide fixed-line broadband services to the home) to develop online safety standards for those services, recognising that they are very often accessed by children.

"As has recently been achieved in the UK, we expect these standards will involve the major internet service providers providing home network filters for all new home broadband services, which will be switched on as the default unless the customer specifies otherwise."

Pre-empting the expected criticism of the Coalition's backflip on internet filtering, the party has said that the filtering proposal is about empowering parents.
...
"The Coalition's approach aims to empower parents — by giving them the choice of whether or not to operate a filter at home, [and] by establishing the default setting as one which provides maximum protection."

http://www.zdnet.com/au/australian-oppo ... 000020270/

[Will]

http://youtu.be/jmD-uFgcvbU

[Vee]

Unbelievable stuffup!
Malcolm Turnbull explains the Coalition's opt-out Internet filter on TripleJ Hack earlier in the day (audio as per link in news item below) then backtracks and later says it was 'poorly worded', then pulls the policy document off the web - 'until I could ensure it was authoritatively corrected' (Turnbull tweet)

Tony Abbott says he 'read it quickly'.
Hmmmm

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-06/l ... ip/4939818

[monotonehell]

Yet another attack on a free (as in freedom) and functional Australian Internet.

Labor tried this a few years ago, it was rightly dropped - eventually.

"Filtering" is unworkable, suffers from false positives, slows the Internet down, and costs the end users more.
It's one step away from censorship. How long before the PTB decide to use the infrastructure that was installed to "protect the children", to start blocking other content?
The same infrastructure is an easy leg up for monitoring.

Poor man's NBN, and now filtering. Why do they want to break the Internet? Get your tin foil hats ready, kids. Because the conspiracy theorists are starting to be correct.

[[Shuz]]

Mono,

I'm of the understanding that the Coalition has scrapped the 'filtering' policy - although Tony Abbott said this morning that rather than adopting an opt-out system, he would like telcos and ISPs to provide for an opt-in system.

I'm genuinely surprised the Liberal Party, the party of (debatable) small 'l' liberalism, is even pushing for such a policy at all. This is truly the work of the Conservatives in the party.

[monotonehell]

Mono,

I'm of the understanding that the Coalition has scrapped the 'filtering' policy - although Tony Abbott said this morning that rather than adopting an opt-out system, he would like telcos and ISPs to provide for an opt-in system.

I'm genuinely surprised the Liberal Party, the party of (debatable) small 'l' liberalism, is even pushing for such a policy at all. This is truly the work of the Conservatives in the party.

I agree Shuz, filtering is about power. This is not coming from the libertarian (small govt.) side of the Libs. If that faction even exist any more. The current Coalition has none of the characteristics they had even as close in time as the Howard days. They used to be about rational economics smaller govt. These days they seem to be about emotional ideologies and ignoring evidence & rationalism. They'd rather sabotage the NBN and leave it up to the monopoly market than allow much needed infrastructure to be created.

Labor's not much better, but at least their gaffs have been due to good intentioned incompetence than actual calculated sabotage.

[Vee]

Extremely interesting article on NBN/high speed broadband by the ABC's Emma Alberici - for its content and timing - post election.

'Can the Coalition's NBN keep pace with change?'

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-09/a ... ge/4931864

Concluding paragraphs here:

The question the Coalition will need to answer now they've taken Government is whether digital innovation will be moving faster than Australia's capacity, through their cut-price NBN infrastructure, to benefit from it. Mr Turnbull has long argued that he can deliver 100 mbps by running the fibre network to a "node" 400 metres away from every premises. The existing Telstra copper wires will be used to take the data/videos and anything else all the way to the home.

In our recent Lateline debate between Mr Turnbull and Labor's Anthony Albanese, the Coalition spokesman said "the reason you keep that last 200 or 300 or 400 or 500 metres of copper is because you save three quarters or more of the construction cost and three quarters or more of the time [to build]. You can nonetheless deliver very, very high speeds. .. speed is only of value to you in so far as you have applications that need it".

Malcolm Turnbull often points to the BT example as one which Australia should heed as if fibre to the node is the sum of the British government's ambitions. Last year, the then culture secretary Jeremy Hunt was adamant that that is not the case: "where fibre to the cabinet (node) is the chosen solution, it is most likely to be a temporary stepping stone to fibre to the home". That aside, Mr Turnbull is adamant that it's "very unlikely" Australians will need 1 gigabit of download speeds. That's what they said about the World Wide Web.

The whole article is well worth a read. Pity it was not published (with more discussion) until after the election.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-09/a ... ge/4931864

[monotonehell]

And here may be the first step in Abbott's plan to deconstruct the NBN...

Former Telstra chief executive Ziggy Switkowski tipped to become new head of NBN Co
The Coalition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull has refused to confirm speculation that former Telstra chief executive Ziggy Switkowski will be appointed to head the company responsible for the rollout of the National Broadband Network. Mr Turnbull says any decision would have to be made by the Coalition cabinet.
“That decision would be taken by a cabinet and obviously if I’m the Communications Minister it would be on my recommendation," he said, "It’s not the first time Ziggy’s name has been flagged. He is obviously highly qualified and most people would regard him as an eminently suitable person but no decision has been taken by a Coalition government because we haven’t been sworn in yet.”
...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-10/z ... bn/4947470

In case you've all forgotten, Ziggy was the first step in Howard's deconstruction of Telstra. And we all know what a shell of it's former self that is now.

[Vee]

The horse has already bolted but ...
The Change.org petition to Turnbull and Abbott to please re-consider the FTTN NBN in favour of a superior FTTH NBN has gained over 100,000 signatures in a very short period of time.

The petition was started by Uni student, Nick Paine and includes some detail to support the petition and a number of supporting websites.

You may wish to read/add your signature in support, if you are one of the NBN supporters, passionate about the merits of a FTTH NBN. Who knows, the voices, including business and regions, may get louder in time as the difference between the 'haves' on fibre all the way and the 'have nots' creates a more obvious 'digital divide'?

http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/t ... r-ftth-nbn

[[Shuz]]

Signed!

114,000 signatures now. It'd be good if they got at least 500,000.

[monotonehell]

The horse has already bolted but ...
The Change.org petition to Turnbull and Abbott to please re-consider the FTTN NBN in favour of a superior FTTH NBN has gained over 100,000 signatures in a very short period of time.

The petition was started by Uni student, Nick Paine and includes some detail to support the petition and a number of supporting websites.

You may wish to read/add your signature in support, if you are one of the NBN supporters, passionate about the merits of a FTTH NBN. Who knows, the voices, including business and regions, may get louder in time as the difference between the 'haves' on fibre all the way and the 'have nots' creates a more obvious 'digital divide'?

http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/t ... r-ftth-nbn

Signed.

I urge everyone else to as well.

[rhino]

Who knows, the voices, including business and regions, may get louder in time as the difference between the 'haves' on fibre all the way and the 'have nots' creates a more obvious 'digital divide'?

I'd be surprised if they take much notice of that particular aspect, as every Liberal policy seems to aim at polarising society into the Haves and the Have Nots.

Hope it works, in any case.

[rubberman]

Signed!

114,000 signatures now. It'd be good if they got at least 500,000.

The Coalition policy was crystal clear, and simple so nobody could be confused about what they were getting.

They got something like six million votes.

I doubt that 500,000 signatures would move them one centimetre on the policy when they got six million votes on a very clear policy.

However, perhaps what they could do is concentrate on providing their FTTN technology to Coalition electorates first. IF it is as good and cheap as they reckon, then I think it fair that Coalition voters should get the benefit of it. With a higher price included to account for the extra maintenance cost of the Telstra copper.

If it is not, then Coalition voters will end up with a mickey mouse system forever, and the ALP can complete Labor electorates in FTTH later on, and with the extra capital cost included in a higher price in those areas.

That way, people can get what they voted for. (Not going to happen, I know, but I can dream, can't I)?