Comment Re:Patent trolling is the new iWhite... (Score 1) 696
I wonder, do the engineers and techs working at Apple feel ashamed all this trolling?
Probably not, aren't they all indoctrinated when they start working for Apple?
I wonder, do the engineers and techs working at Apple feel ashamed all this trolling?
Probably not, aren't they all indoctrinated when they start working for Apple?
"Why do people believe that our current broadband speeds, both wireless and wired, would remain at ADSL2 and even LTE for much more than another 5 years? I mean, there is already VDSL2 tech (ironically, the NBN plans on using this in multi-story dwellings), and wireless has had and is projected to have a bandwidth growth profile that is just incredible."
Five years ago I was paying $120/mth for 60G of data. Now I'm paying $100/mth for 200G of data. Fixed on-a-good-day-5Mbps. It started as 8Mbps but as more people have built onto the copper network the speeds have dropped. Private industry of all flavours have done nothing to make the copper faster - its the same pathetic copper network that has been in the ground here since the suburb was built 20 years ago. Those data prices have only fallen recently because NBNCo has added extra backhaul into the city which cuts out Telstra and their gouging.
Wireless, through Telstra since they're the only ones who provide coverage here - 3km from the CBD - will sell me 20G of data for $100/mth. If the planets are in the right alignment, that might give me 4Mbps. My parents who are only another few kms away from me cannot get a phone line. So no ADSL. But they can get a NextG dongle from Telstra and get anywhere up to 1Mbps.
Politically biased? No, biased against stupidity. One party's idea of broadband under the OPEL program was 12Mbps. They haven't changed their minds since 2007, they still think that 12Mbps should be fast enough for everyone. Except the rich. For the rich suburbs they'll be quite happy to spend the chunk of the 10-20B pork barrel to give them speeds of up to 100Mbps, delivered by a hodge-podge of cable and FTTN whilst maintain the horrendous regulatory environment that pretty much gives Telstra the power to do what-ever they wish whilst their competitors have to take all of the complaints to the regulator who can take months to make a decision. More of the "private industry doing it better" (where it = screwing over consumers and other companies).
NBNCo are working towards giving most Australians access to a fibre network with a regulatory environment that favours no single provider. That is a good thing. They are actively fixing broadband blackspots and providing a single, common price for bandwidth be it wireless or fixed. That is a good thing. They are doing what no private company will do (replacing copper with fibre) and doing it in a fair manner. That is a good thing too. They've also planned to make the network profitable, which is also a good thing.
Most importantly, suggesting that FTTH is overkill for Australia is down-right obnoxious. Australia can afford to do it. Australian's deserve the best solution for the money our Government is spending. Spending the money now means that future generations have the opportunity to put the network to uses that we haven't even dreamed of yet, much like the workers spreading the copper network 80 years ago had no idea that one day we'd be arguing about ripping it up because we can't get enough bandwidth out of it.
I'd like to apologise for the ill-informed comments from the "Aussies" above who think that Australia's current telecommunications infrastructure is "good". When areas 5kms from the cities CBD can't get broadband because of the incumbant telco, or are forced to use wireless that drops out when it rains, or aren't in the big three cities so there is no chance of broadband delivered by the cable network, or
The NBN is already delivering benefits. They've significantly altered the backhaul networks around Australia so anyone who doesn't live in Sydney or Melbourne have the chance of receiving ADSL at a competitive rate (for the non-Aussies, and people who live in Sydney/Melbourne, Australia is more than just those two cities). They've managed to get the incumbant telco to agree to seperate their wholesale and retail arms and hand over infrastructure to NBNCo. More importantly they are actually building infrastructure that will be used for generations and will offer a return to successive Governments.
The Coalition's plan is to sell off what has been built already (because private industry can do it better, the same private industry that sat on their hands for the last 20 years..) to deploy wireless to some places (and do nothing about the gouging which the private companies do with wireless data whilst offering blistering fast speeds of up to 12Mbps) and a combination of FTTN/DSL/Cable to marginal electorates. Spending anywhere from $11 - 20b in the process.
Happiness is twin floppies.