Why the NBN satelites are needed

[mantra]

It would be interesting to see what it's cost so far to connect to 18,000 homes. There's only another 10 million connections to go. Will it become cheaper as connections increase or will there continue to be outrageous cost blowouts?

I can't see it ever being completed in our lifetime.

[Neferti]

It would be interesting to see what it's cost so far to connect to 18,000 homes. There's only another 10 million connections to go. Will it become cheaper as connections increase or will there continue to be outrageous cost blowouts?

I can't see it ever being completed in our lifetime.

I think you might be right, Mantra.

[Mattus]

I can't see it ever being completed in our lifetime.

I think this is a significant issue.

I do not doubt that the need for very high speed internet, and that its availability will trigger significant advances in productivity and quality of life. Already we have begun to move to cloud rather than local hosting of most data, this provides collaboration and mobility previously not possible. In order to access that data the restriction will not be the speed of your computer, but the speed of your computers connection to the internet. Communication on the internet is already moving away from text based interactions like twitter and this forum with it's retarded emoticons to internet 2.0 video and audio. As we move forward, any device which is currently instrumented, can and should be networked.

Think about that for a minute. Your alarm clock will receive data from your calendar telling it what time your first meeting is and where. It will check weather and traffic reports, it will ask the light switch what time you turned the lights out last night and wake you up at the appropriate time. It will then tell the coffee machine if you hit the snooze button or not.

Cool huh?

But that's a lot of data going back and forth. Not to mention the other stuff. Netflix is already beamed in from the cloud. TV will go that way too (already has with TiVo, but don't expect that to be hosted in a box in your living room much longer), all the while you are no doubt downloading actual things with your 3D printer. Yes indeed higher speeds are needed. Much higher. 12 mbps is not nearly enough.

The problem with Labor's NBN I guess is twofold. Firstly, that like Mantra I'm seriously starting to doubt they'll every actually deliver it before I die, and secondly, that even with pure diamond encrusted gold carat genuine optical fibre from door to door, that won't change the speeds at which Australia and The Rest of the World are talking. Your alarm clock talking to your fridge? Fine. But all your data hosted in the cloud? NBN won't help you there.

[mantra]

But that's a lot of data going back and forth. Not to mention the other stuff. Netflix is already beamed in from the cloud. TV will go that way too (already has with TiVo, but don't expect that to be hosted in a box in your living room much longer), all the while you are no doubt downloading actual things with your 3D printer. Yes indeed higher speeds are needed. Much higher. 12 mbps is not nearly enough.

It would depend on the percentage of the population who need those speeds - certainly not the average household. I doubt the instigators of the NBN are concerned about households anyway, but are beholden to the various multinationals who develop and install the technology. The sales pitch to us plebs has been very wishy washy and if there are problems now with outdated technology in a state like Tasmania - it's a bit of a worry about the massive cost blowout before the scheme has even got under way properly.

I can see the NBN being put in the too hard basket in a couple of years after $20 or $30 billion has been wasted.

The first customers to sign on to the National Broadband Network (NBN) may not have access to the NBN's fastest connections since those who signed on early in three Tasmanian towns were connected using technology that is not compatible with that used for the nationwide NBN rollout, according to a report by The Australian.

In all about 4,000 customers in Smithton, Scottsdale and Midway Point will likely miss out on the next generation of service packages because of compatibility issues with both the small box in their home, known as an Optical Network Termination unit, and the technology used to bring the service to their homes.

Telstra Corp has said it cannot deliver the latest commercial services to the three towns until the technology used for the trial period is upgraded.

The Coalition criticised the government over the issue, accusing the government of over-spending on technology without sufficient research.

NBN Co said last night it would begin swapping the old Tasmanian NEC boxes for new Alcatel ones by the end of the year, according to The Australian.

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs. ... ontent_nbn

[Super Nova]

Mattus,

You can get a lot of compressed data on 12Mbps.

I don't buy that in the next 10 years the average home consumer needs mote than 12Mbps.

I agree that the exciting stuff will be the wireless comms. It connection between things in and around close to you, in your home and as you move around the world.

[Jovial Monk]

SN, read what Mattus wrote without your biases writing in things he never wrote.

Web2—data going both ways

Audio and video, huge chewer uppers of bandwidth.

Families might have 4, 5 people each connected to the net.

Since the copper is past it end of life it has to be replaced. Optical fibre is the logical choice, HUGE bandwidth. Once the fibre is laid and the RSPs have run more backhaul I doubt anyone would have less than 100/40 because it won’t cost anymore than 12/1.

People will be watching TV, video on their TV from the web. Broadband is always on and there are people already utilising this: with a screen and a camera set up they can sit in their dining room say and chat away to friends or family, easy as that. Not to mention gaming. That needs pretty damn good UPload speed, something neither ADSL nor wireless can deliver. No matter how fast wireless gets contention always kills it. Heavy duty data shifting will always be done by fixed line.

Another thing, the huge bandwidth will allow people to work from home properly, telepresence making up for in-the-flesh contact to a marked degree.

Small businesses can use the NBN to really sell their goods and services.

So the NBN really does need to deliver 100/40 to just about everyone. Wireless bb suck by the way. I use it. If there are some clouds in the sky I get dropouts galore.

Mantra, those multinationals already have fibre and re paying through the nose for it! NBN fibre will drastically reduce the cost of broadband for them, less cost of doing business. Not only that but a branch office or sales outlet can send and receive data lightning fast to head office in the CBD.

Allowing ageing boomers to stay at home much longer via teleheath will save do much money on hospitals and nursing homes that that alone will pay for the NBN. 1/10th of govt outlays for ten years, chickenfeed.

Very likely, if you move house, an email to NBN Co or your RSP will mean you can use the NBN at your new home straight away. Probably the same thing will apply when touring around Australia.

Re overseas. There is plenty of capacity, and more being rolled out contention won’t be an issue. Latency, due to light having to travel all the way to China/US/Europe and back will be a problem for gamers (and to those on satellite.)

[Mattus]

Re overseas. There is plenty of capacity, and more being rolled out contention won’t be an issue.

You'll have to convince me. I'm no expert at this stuff, but I understand the Southern Cross cables to US have 1.2 Tb capacity. And that's when every cable is working (which they aren't) and the routers are being sensible and not sending our shit through Guam (which they do constantly for some reason).

1.2 Tb is 1144409 Mb, yeah?

Given that each home under NBN will supposedly have 100 Mb capacity, our undersea cables can deal with... lets see... 11,444 people in Australia using the NBN to USA at the same time without shaping speeds. That seems to me to be out by a couple of orders of magnitude.

If that's right, then "100Mb" will in reality be 1Mb for anything useful. I have that now.

[Jovial Monk]

There are a lot more cables than that, much more capacity and not everyone will be on to the US. Will try and get some data on those cables. Gaming will still suffer from latency but within Australia will be better. A lot more stuff will be mirrored here so a lot will be lightning fast.

[Super Nova]

Apparently there is a lot of dark fibre around the world.

We will need to distribute core data to be physically closer to the end user. Like have a cached copy of all non realtime data in each country asa minimum. I think Goodle do this anyway.

"

[Jovial Monk]

Yeah, its called mirroring. All those data centres being built.