Umm seriously? You're actually trying to compare re-wiring your house to rewiring a national network? That's like saying "I sail in a dinghy so I know it can't be that expensive to build an air craft carrier".
It's not just a case of replacing the cables, you've got to upgrade the termination points, exchanges, software and a whole bucket load else. James Purser On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 11:00 AM, David Lyon < david.lyon.preissh...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 10:07 AM, Warren Seen <warren.s...@gmail.com>wrote: > > >> You are right that NBN is replacing the existing copper "last mile" >> network, but that's no longer a "telephone system" so calling it an upgrade >> to that is not appropriate. Telstra's copper phone line business is losing >> money year on year, as people have discarded their extra dial up lines, then >> moved to mobiles and disconnected their fixed line phones in favour of >> VOIP+Naked DSL products. I won't even begin to get into the rort that was >> ISDN broadband... >> > > Well if the 'copper-wire' division was losing money for years, it makes a > lot of > sense to get some-one else to pay for an upgrade of the technology. Despite > all the moaning about Telecom.. err Telstra.. we must acknowledge that the > country is simply enormous and the population is relatively small. It's > been > a good achievement having a relatively modern system for the last decade. > > Telecom/Telstra is facing massive changes. Their payphone division is one > example of something that almost has no raison-d'etre in the world of > mobiles > as people don't need to walk to the payphone anymore to make a call. > > Yes, people are moving to VOIP/Internet and Mobile solutions. We know we > are. All these services run better on Fibre Optics and through Codecs. > > So it *is* a replacement for the copper telephone system of the last 80+ > years. > > >> Hitting the reset switch like Oz has done with the NBN is a brave move, no >> doubt, but ultimately it is in the best interests of consumers. Consider >> that Telstra, for literally 10 years crippled ADSL network performance to a >> maximum of 1.5Mbps, if they had been allowed to continue, we may very well >> have been looking at no real improvement in broadband speeds for another 10. >> > > > That's perhaps a good point. > > > Is it not a reasonable expectation for us to ask to be included in >> > something that might be a worldwide hit? >> >> Ask whom to be included in what exactly? >> > > Silicon Beachers and the 'Tech' community. Lots of us do software and > web stuff and networking etc. Many here make a living from what runs > on broadband. > > > There's not really anything to debug on the hardware side - the > technology > > is mature and off the shelf in nature. > > If that is your argument then how come it is so expensive? > > > > Why waste time and money trying to reinvent the wheel? As a taxpayer, I'd > > > rather the NBN utilise the most cost-effective gear available, rather > than trying > > to brew up some solution of our own in the name of protectionism. > > That's my point. > > So how come we are being asked to pay a figure that is roughly the same > as a moon landing to lay some fibre-optic cable to replace some copper > cable. > > Many of us who have rewired our buildings networking, replacing CAT-5 etc > know that it isn't so hard. > > Maybe the cabling goes aren't going out in the cold like my grandfather did > in a tent for 10+ years and are instead choosing to stay in the Hilton > every > night till the job is done. > > If so.. then I can understand the price tag... > > David > > > > >> > >> > In 25 years time.. will Australia be selling Fibre Optic telephone >> > and Broadband upgrade solutions around the Globe? >> >> You seem to be under the impression that the NBN is something other than a >> massive (MASSIVE) civil works project. The bulk of the expense is going to >> be in the labour required to roll out the hardware. The fact that there is >> huge demand for people who can drive trucks and operate earthmoving >> equipment in the mines means that the longer we wait, the more danger there >> is of cost overruns due to a wages blowout. In terms of the actual end user >> connections, there are plenty of datacomms and electrical tradies out there >> who can learn to do this work, it's not rocket science. >> >> In short, there's very little R&D to be done in this area, so very little >> IP that can be monetised. Expertise in managing large scale brownfield FTTP >> rollouts might be able to be capitalised on by consulting on network design, >> but again, this is more of a civil works than a technical problem area. >> >> Outside of the NBN though, Australia is doing some great, dare I say >> world-beating, research in the optical switching and optical computing >> field, which is already well supported by the Aus Govt through the ARC. >> http://cudos.org.au/index.php >> >> The best place I think to be looking for opportunity is conceiving and >> developing applications (either software or hybrid projects with plug and >> play hardware) that are only possible with 50Mbps++ connection speeds. Bonus >> points if it can be geographically contained within the AU network >> (preferable due to speed, latency and international transit costs) >> >> Cheers, >> >> Warren >> >> -- >> 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<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
