On Thu, 2016-03-31 at 09:27 +1100, Tom Worthington wrote: > On 30/03/16 09:51, Karl Auer wrote: > The Australian government is funding the construction of the NBN and > put in place a policy that city customers subsidize remote users. So > it is up to the government to decide what the network can be used > for. > [much snipped]
That's a truism. The government (at least in theory) is us. My view, apparently not yours, is that the government should not presume to tell citizens what they can and cannot use the network for. If there are TECHNICAL barriers to use of the network that force the government to prioritise traffic - such as inadequate bandwidth or data quotas - then the correct solution is to remove the barriers. It's not necessarily the cheapest solution, but it is the best one - on a great many levels, starting with the economic activity of construction, the increased value of well-connected areas, the greater participation and visibility of remote communities, the creation of new educational and economic possibilities for people in those communities... By no means a complete list. > No, remote users get less broadband due to geography. Australia has excellent international connectivity, in spite of quite a lot of geography standing between it and the rest of the world. Much of said geography is even under water. Remote users get less broadband because of lack of political will (IMHO stemming from an abject lack of vision) to spend money on them. There are no actual insurmountable technical issues. The initial cost is high - but the payback over the many decades that the fibre would serve would be many times greater. Geography is just an excuse; it's not even a very good one. >> Perhaps you mean "official" health care and >> "official" education ... >> >> Yes, I like to get my health care and education >> from people who have been trained and tested >> through an accredited system. A very deftly fashioned straw man, but I see what you did there. Health care consists of more than visits to health care professionals and information received from accredited sources. It also consists of, for example, talking to others about their experiences, giving and receiving emotional support, and a myriad other things. These days that happens online - snapchat, skype, whatsapp, instagram, twitter, facebook. Things that you would see throttled - for technical reasons, but throttled all the same - in favour of a very limited set of approved traffic. Similarly the vast bulk of any person's education comes not in the form of his or her formal education, but through interacting with the world. Everything from pub discussions through newspapers, art and even sport. Professional education continues through the reading of professional journals, interaction with peers and colleagues, participation in conferences. All of this stuff is now happening online - we learn through webinars, podcasts, forums, online demos, ebooks. Your straw man tries to make all those activities second class. They are not second class at all; they are essential activities for the citizens of a civilised, educated country. Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B Old fingerprint: 3C41 82BE A9E7 99A1 B931 5AE7 7638 0147 2C3C 2AC4 _______________________________________________ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
