Hi Dave, Interestingly, my grandfather did actually spend 10+ winters out in the cold in Australia up the Eastern coast in a tent wiring the telephone network that we now have. It was hard work.. it was cold.. that's how the country was built.
Back when he reitred, he popped in at the Janalli office and was telling the yarn about when he started with the Post Master General doing that in 1930's. The response was a charmer.. "Tom.. we don't do that anymore. We just stick in a phone with a satellite dish". And that was in the '70s or perphaps '80s. We're a pretty clever bunch here at silicon beach. Maybe some of us have even wired up our own fibre-optic networking and know how much it actually costs. Some reports estimate that the cost to run fibre-optic right across the bottom of the pacific will cost around $500M. It sounds reasonable as across the pacific is a long way. See: http://blog.pacificfibre.net/press-release/pacnet-joins-pacific-fibre-to-build-trans-pacific-subsea-cable/ Then, to link that cable another 60km across sydney will cost another $20B... haha.. it would cost less than that to pack the whole city up and move it whole city on semitrailers to Byron Bay or somewhere else for example. Fibre optic cable isn't even as complex to connect to as copper as you don't need a 'pair' from the exchange to every line. It's not about arguing to use a saw or an axe. Its about giving the government $200,000 to purchase an axe when the going price on a 21st century chainsaw is $700.... If we didn't understand the costs of fibre optics ourselves then it would be a completely different matter. On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 10:11 PM, Trindaz <dave.trind...@gmail.com> wrote: > As with most infrastructure planning decisions, for the first 12 > months the problem is deciding how to implement it. After that we have > the new problem of believing the first problem needs to be solved, > when in reality we're spending years not deciding. > > We didn't spend years figuring out what perfectly scalable technology > would look like when telephones were invented, and we shouldn't be > doing it now with the NBN. Lets just build it. > > And for some extreme hyperbole, put another way: Some of us believe we > should use an ax to chop down a tree so we can build our houses, > others a saw. None of us realize that both are faster than spending 3 > winters out in the cold arguing about it, so who cares who is right. > > -Dave > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > Australia mailing list. > > Guidelines on discussion: > http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/msg/351e183e1303508d?hl=en%3Fhl%3Den > > No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > > To post to this group, send email to > silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<silicon-beach-australia%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Guidelines on discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/msg/351e183e1303508d?hl=en%3Fhl%3Den No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
