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Australia's National Broadband Network To Go Ahead
angry tapir writes "After weeks of a hung parliament following the Australian federal election, the incumbent Labor Party has garnered enough support among independent MPs to form a minority government. Broadband was central to clinching the independents' support. Labor's victory means the $43 billion National Broadband Network will push ahead. The policy has generally been popular among ISPs and telcos — though some rebel operators preferred a policy that emphasized wireless technologies, similar to the proposals put forward by Labor's opponents. The primarily fiber-based NBN is set to offer Australians 1Gbps broadband."
Greens/Liberals/Independants hold the balance of power and are all dead set against the filter. It's a dead scheme stop mentioning it. There will be no mandatory net filter in Australia. The ETS and mining tax are probably also going to get blocked. They don't have the numbers to pass that sort of legislation anymore.
We can do anything anyone else can do with it.
The "small breasted porn" issue is incorrect sensationalism, and the idiotic filter idea - which was never going to get through the senate previously - will now not even make it past the house of reps, so I'd be very surprised if we heard anything about it again in the near to medium future.
We're a long way from anywhere and have only a limited amount of fibre connections to other countries (where I imagine most data will come from), this is reflected in the silly high prices we pay for data already ... So whilst it's great that we will have these kinds of speeds, how are we going to get data services fast enough to take advantage of them?
A lot of data/content can be cached on continent. Akamai claims that:
"Akamai routinely delivers between fifteen and thirty percent of all Web traffic, reaching more than 4 Terabits per second."
http://www.akamai.com/html/customers/index.html
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1511009 That will help answer your question.
NBN (Fibre Network) is supported by:
All independants
The Greens
Labor Pary
Therefore it is guaranteed to pass throught the upper and lower houses :)
Censorhip is supported by:
Labor
Therefore it will not be able to pass through either house of parliament unless the Liberal/National Coalition switch their position (which wouldnt surprise me)
Are Aussie Liberals the same as US Liberals?
No. Liberal here is supposed to refer to people with a somewhat Libertarian outlook. Small government, letting the market take care of things. That sort of thing.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
It's classical liberalism, so it's primarily referring to their economic platform. In the US it applies to social platforms.
Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your home!
But they aren't, that's the problem. They're neo-cons these days. Someone like Malcolm Turnbull would be a true "Liberal", Tony Abbott (the guy who knifed Malcolm Turnbull to run the Liberals) is definitely a neo-con. They run the party these days and cop a lot of shit from Malcolm Fraser (one of the Liberal greats) for it.
I have a legitimate question for any Aussies on /. Here in the US, the title "Liberal" refers to spineless douchebags who act like conservatives with their own money, property, etc., but who love to micromanage other people's money, property, and selves. Are Aussie Liberals the same as US Liberals?
Find out from the Liberal Party website. They have an overview of their party covering their beliefs, history, and party structure. They're conservatives who like liberal economics.
4. Australians will stick with their (possibly) slower current technology services when given the alternative of a faster, but significantly more expensive solution.
Not possible. Remember that "agreement" that the government reached with Telstra? They agreed to "sell" their customers to NBN Co. when NBN rollout is complete in an area. This means that once NBN is available in your area you will be forced to use it or use nothing, because all alternatives will be removed by law.
Or to paraphrase, "I have no idea about the NBN but the Liberals opposed it and therefore so do I so it must be crap."
1. Conjecture
2. Conjecture
3. Something better than fibre? WTF?
4. The copper network is being phased out so it's either fibre or shitty wireless for most people.
5. We have excess international capacity at the moment with extra capacity planned.
6. 93% fibre, 4% wireless, 3% satellite. Are you one of these tards that think the roll-out is crap because the Simpson desert won't be fibred up?
Given that the many "corporations" (small businesses and small ISPs save four) that currently offer internet access in Australia are in vicious competition with each other and services are improving yearly, yes. I would rather be able to say screw you Telstra 3g I'm going with Optus 3G because it's better, wait now I'm going with Internode because they're better than both.
Then say screw you government monopoly NBN ISP who has implemented filtering I'm going with....oh, all the other are gone or eye wateringly expensive now that they've lost most of their customers.
You live in a fantasy if you think you have more accountability over the Federal Government in Canberra than over a tiny ISP. And if you don't like corporations go with one of the many local ISPs.
And here's a tip for you: The majority of Australians *want* the Internet to be filtered, and the government is accountable to *them* not *you*. So now what?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
1. NBN is not a government department. I really wish people would understand how the NBN is structured, it really is very important. It will not be run by dept of innovation or any other department.
2. Government departments rely on legislation as a backing and don't make unilateral decisions. It more works the opposite of how you describe. If there is legislation stating that they MAY do something, then they might or might not. If there's no legislation stating that they may then they won't.
An easy example is the immigration department. The law states that the minister MAY grant citizenship if you fall into X/Y/Z categories. Based on this legislation:
-if you fall into X/Y/Z immigration department might or might not grant you citizenship
-if you do not fall into X/Y/Z categories, the immigration department WILL NOT grant you citizenship. They are not empowered to even though there's nothing in legislation stating they can't.
You're obviously not a public servant...
Senator Minchin pushed for the spill, with a view to getting Hockey into the top spot. Abbott snuck through as the surprise/compromise candidate.
Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
There's going to have to be take-up given the NBN involves ripping out all the existing copper, so there's no ADSL for it to compete against.
So if we crank that up to 100% it drops to $60. Or, y'know, have a look at the current plans: http://www.internode.on.net/residential/broadband/fibre_to_the_home/nbn_plans/
Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
Australia doesn't have the fuel processing infrastructure to make it worth it with the current technology (sad to say, without a military nuke infrastructure to leech off things are difficult with civilian nukes). That may change with technology that is under development or imported fuel could be used with current technology.
For most current designs it's not worth contemplating nuclear unless it's something really big to give an economy of scale (lots of steam), which is complicated because it is best to have small units for safety reasons (so you need a LOT of them). That really means one big plant between Sydney and Melbourne. I can't see anyone putting up that kind of money in Australia with such a small return and such a long wait for a return - government owned or not.
There is other stuff on the horizon that probably won't cost as much, but for now the NIMBYs are not the problem - bankers are.