#U/C: $43billion FTTH NBN

[Edgar]

The PIPE Networks runs between the US and Australia, which I believe should increase our speed and bandwith significantly for contents coming from Americana continent.

However, what about Europe and Asian continents? I am pretty sure, the contents are as big, if not, bigger, than the US itself.

I am hoping that the infrastructure will at least be the backbone support for many decades to come, unlike Cable which was pretty shortlived, and never got working on it's best efficiency. I've read somewhere, the speed for Cable could have match the speed of ADSL2+ if not because the infrastructure itself was lacking.

You are right, moving forward, we'll see more of online streaming than the traditional free-to-air broadcasting, our local ABC iView, is as far as I am concerned, the leader in the market for online streaming. Most of the Tier 2/3 ISP even offer free iView streaming, however, I am extremely dissapointed that the Tier 1 ISP aren't.

Let's just hope whatever future video streaming features we have, do not perform as poorly as YouTube after it was taken over by Google. The whole thing just pisses me off with the advertisement bar appearing on each video and the fact that the buffer/streaming rate is so slow it puts me off.

[Howie]

However, what about Europe and Asian continents? I am pretty sure, the contents are as big, if not, bigger, than the US itself.

If there's money to be made, you can be assured someone will lay more undersea cabling.

There was talk of something like a potential return on investment of around $80m on a cable that was laid by optus.. in the future these pipe lines will serve absolutely everything the globe has to offer... so the potential for money to be made for whoever has the capital is enormous. Having internet will be like having petrol in our cars, and gas and electricity in our homes. The demand will always be there. Put it this way, if a company went to the asx to raise capital to build a pipeline to the asian and european continent I would be putting my money there.

[Aidan]

However, what about Europe and Asian continents? I am pretty sure, the contents are as big, if not, bigger, than the US itself.

If there's money to be made, you can be assured someone will lay more undersea cabling.

There was talk of something like a potential return on investment of around $80m on a cable that was laid by optus.. in the future these pipe lines will serve absolutely everything the globe has to offer... so the potential for money to be made for whoever has the capital is enormous. Having internet will be like having petrol in our cars, and gas and electricity in our homes. The demand will always be there. Put it this way, if a company went to the asx to raise capital to build a pipeline to the asian and european continent I would be putting my money there.

I wouldn't. Demand will come, but the communications industry has stiff competition, so returns are likely to remain marginal.

[Edgar]

However, what about Europe and Asian continents? I am pretty sure, the contents are as big, if not, bigger, than the US itself.

If there's money to be made, you can be assured someone will lay more undersea cabling.

There was talk of something like a potential return on investment of around $80m on a cable that was laid by optus.. in the future these pipe lines will serve absolutely everything the globe has to offer... so the potential for money to be made for whoever has the capital is enormous. Having internet will be like having petrol in our cars, and gas and electricity in our homes. The demand will always be there. Put it this way, if a company went to the asx to raise capital to build a pipeline to the asian and european continent I would be putting my money there.

I wouldn't. Demand will come, but the communications industry has stiff competition, so returns are likely to remain marginal.

Aidan, I think Howie is referring to companies who goes public for investment in this under-sea network cabling programs. Not those wholesaller / reseller of the internet services.

This is the big player in the market which provides the bandwith for data coming from outside of Australia, and then the local ISP would subscribe to them for their bandwith allocation.

So yes, competition may be a bit stiff in between the ISPs, but not between the companies who lay those under-sea cables. There is only a few around at the moment.

[Howie]

Looks like every state except SA are bidding to become the HQ of the new NBNC.
http://www.whirlpool.net.au/news/go.cfm?article=7718

It's absolutely ridiculous that our government hasn't put together a proprosal, especially given our expertise in science and technology, and our flagging IT sector in SA.

Victoria has already scored a $50m broadband research institute.. and Brumby is pushing hard to make Melbourne the 'natural' home to the new NBNC HQ. http://www.theage.com.au/national/melbo ... -dl8f.html

Do something about it Rann! Our industry is dieing here....

[Edgar]

This news is very dissapointing for the people of SA.

And we start asking why young people move out of SA? Simply because the state government had not done enough to retain or to create a more fascinating job prospects locally.

[Vee]

Looks like every state except SA are bidding to become the HQ of the new NBNC.
http://www.whirlpool.net.au/news/go.cfm?article=7718

It's absolutely ridiculous that our government hasn't put together a proposal, especially given our expertise in science and technology, and our flagging IT sector in SA.

Do something about it Rann!

Asleep at the wheel perhaps??
Agree we need a strong IT industry and good job prospects (well paid, futures oriented) to keep our young and highly educated folk here. Not just mining and defence. Diversity is the key. Internode is one of the nation's leading and well respected ISPs with outstanding leadership and SA has a good reputation for innovation.

SA needs a stake in such an important and valuable industry as well as new green industries. Visionary leadership wanted.

[Prince George]

What does the HQ of this corporation actually bring to its location, what benefits are going to come from having it? Is it something more than just a few specific jobs in that specific building - will it attract other businesses to that location as well? That was the problem with Motorola - it created some jobs within itself, but it wasn't stimulating other industry around it. To my mind, more important than the headquarters would be getting traction on implementing the network locally.

[Howie]

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/sto ... 19,00.html

Sydney the logical spot for broadband HQ: Rees

Correspondents in Sydney | July 23, 2009

NSW has launched its bid to have the headquarters of the federal government's $43 billion national broadband network (NBN) in Sydney, saying it's a logical fit.
Premier Nathan Rees says Sydney will be bidding against strong contenders in Brisbane and Melbourne, and NSW needs a united front from business and government to "get us over the line''.
He says former Liberal MP turned Sydney Chamber of Commerce executive director Patricia Forsythe and the state's chief scientist Professor Mary O'Kane will head NSW's bid.

The premier has rejected any suggestions Sydney will be disadvantaged by a perceived notion NSW is considered a basket case, especially when it comes to delivering infrastructure.

He says he will take a ``personal and hands on approach'' to ensure the NBN headquarters are built in Sydney.

"We are head and shoulders ahead of any other city that might be bidding for this," Mr Rees told reporters.

"We believe that on the facts we have the most compelling case.

"Sydney's track record of delivering big projects is a clear advantage over other cities - we delivered the Olympics, not the Commonwealth Games."

Mr Rees said 43 per cent of telco research and development occurred in NSW, and the state was home to the largest pool of information and communication technology professionals. He said he expected the federal government would announce in coming weeks the process for selecting the headquarters.

[Shuz]

Why on earth is SA not bidding for this again? :s

[Howie]

What does the HQ of this corporation actually bring to its location, what benefits are going to come from having it? Is it something more than just a few specific jobs in that specific building - will it attract other businesses to that location as well? That was the problem with Motorola - it created some jobs within itself, but it wasn't stimulating other industry around it. To my mind, more important than the headquarters would be getting traction on implementing the network locally.

Let's put it this way. Say you're in IT or you have an upstart company and want to build applications to go on every single desktop in the world. Where would you go? If i were in the states... i'd move to one of two places... my first choice would be where you hail from Sunny Seattle. Or silicon valley (although not great these days).

Why Seattle? Two words really... Microsoft Redmond.

Take that analogy, apply it to the Australian NBN. You're a content provider and want to distribute to 100% of Australian Households. If the NBN HQ were here, the two words would then be NBN Adelaide.

Microsoft and the tech companies have had a profound effect on 'little' seattle. Some would also argue Seattle has had a profound effect on the world... the computing world pretty much revolves around what happens in Redmond. Also, if you compare Seattle to places like New York, you'll find that Seattle often fares better. Something like over 50% of people in Seattle hold a bachelors degree, and many are employed in technology.

[Prince George]

If I was starting a company, tech or otherwise, I want to be close to something that's going to be useful to me; I'm looking to get better access to some important resource. If the HQ for the NBN means housing a bunch of business planners, legal reps, and a finance department, then big deal - that's not going to be important to my new whiz-bang company (*). The network itself will be useful to me, but not the headquarters unless that would give me access to something that I wouldn't otherwise have (some special infrastructure, some special people).

For comparison, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo were all going to build enormous datacenters in Quincy, Washington ('were' because a change in state taxes put all that in doubt). Why? Because it's right next a hydro-electric plant and they want cheap electricity. They don't build them next to the power co's headquarters.

Or take Boeing, the original Seattle giant. Back in 2001, they moved their corporate HQ to Chicago. But the major centres for engineering are still here in the Puget Sound: the people that moved had degrees in business, not engineering.

So, I'm interested in the network and I can see how it can spur other companies, but I'm ambivalent about the HQ unless it comes with some other benefits. Other than the corporate operations, what does the HQ mean?

(*) with the exception of me trying to sell them something.

[Howie]

You're suggesting that the HQ will be the home to the number crunchers and not the base of operations? I think for this to work, they will need technical capabilities in close proximity to the HQ. If that is indeed the case, there would be opportunities in training facilities, ability for partnerships such as the ones that exist with SAPAC, ability for smaller companies to help with development and deployment of the fibre technologies and wireless deployment to the rural communities, construction and maintenance of several data warehouses similar to the ones currently built/proposed by Internode and Adam Internet, ability to integrate public/private hospitals, gps, pharmacists to the new ehealth initiatives. We could develop and be the testbed for countless number of emerging technologies with the help of NBNC, not talking about just having fibre piped to our homes/businesses, but real support from the board on the NBNC.

[Brando]

I am shocking with internet and companies etc. I am currently on Telstra 12gb cable for $69.95 a month with no land line connection. Anyone out there can please tell me who are the better servers out there these days..?

I have tried my own investigations, but i'm curious to hear from you guys as to the best providers these days.

Any help via here or PM would be muchly appreciated...

Thanks guys.

[Howie]

I am shocking with internet and companies etc. I am currently on Telstra 12gb cable for $69.95 a month with no land line connection. Anyone out there can please tell me who are the better servers out there these days..?

Hey Brando.. lucky you, at least you can get cable. Unfortunately if you want to stay on cable there's not many other options besides Telstra and Optus. If you want to go ADSL2 however, i'd be looking at a local crowd like Internode... i'm on Adam Internet myself, but will be changing back to Internode shortly.