ATTN Aussies - Gov't Announces New Internet Infrastructure!

[DoFoT9]

Hey all!

Just watching the news and noticed that the Government announced a new broadband network that will Australia wide. It will take a good 3 or 4 years to complete.

It appears that when finished we will be able to have speeds of 100Mbps - something that I think will be STILL under par when finished. It is going to take a good 3 or 4 years when finished. Hopefully it will be able to be upgraded very easily.

Link - SMH

What is everybody else's comments??

Honestly I think this is pathetic. Other countries already have these sorts of speeds, we need something that is much much better. It's early days though, so time will tell.

DoFoT9

 

[mkrishnan]

Maybe I'm being overly generous, but 90% coverage of 100mbps + 10% coverage of 12mbps wireless service in a country with the size and geography of Australia sounds fairly impressive to me. How many countries have that kind of coverage level today? I mean -- how many countries have 90% of the country having access to speeds like that? It's not the same if some 5-10% of your urban population can get gigabit ethernet speeds and the rest of your population is at 256 kbps if they're lucky.

Certainly, to the extent that there are countries like that today, I'm guessing they're countries like Singapore with vastly different geographical concerns than you? And yes, it's not as ambitious as Korea's plan but again, unless my American geography education is once again sorely lacking, Australia is geographically quite a lot larger than South Korea and its population quite a lot more distributed.

How is the plan on upgradability? I could see the argument that, while the 100mbps / 90% goal is excellent, there should perhaps be a nested goal of a faster speed, like 1 gbps, for urban populations....

 

[Scarlet Fever]

Thank christ that its actually finally happening. I'm well above the australian average at up to 24mb/s with TPG. 100mb/s sounds lovely

DoFoT9, to be fair, Australia has one of the lowest population densities in the world. To get speeds faster than 100mb/s to everyone in the country would cost billions. I reckon this is a great step in the right direction.

 

[Nermal]

Thank christ that its actually finally happening. I'm well above the australian average at up to 24mb/s with TPG. 100mb/s sounds lovely

What is the Australian average? Over here most people are stuck at around 20 Mb/s and our government is doing something similar to yours to get fibre to houses. The plan is for at least 100 Mb/s with room to grow.

 

[Chundles]

Ergh, I've got good money this will eventually be built 5 years late and half the original capacity for twice the original budget.

 

[steve2112]

What is the Australian average? Over here most people are stuck at around 20 Mb/s and our government is doing something similar to yours to get fibre to houses. The plan is for at least 100 Mb/s with room to grow.

"Stuck" at 20Mb/s. HA! Many of us here in the US can only dream of such speeds. I'd shoot a man in Reno just to get those speeds.

(Just kidding, I'm listening to Johnny Cash )

 

[Chundles]

Maybe I'm being overly generous, but 90% coverage of 100mbps + 10% coverage of 12mbps wireless service in a country with the size and geography of Australia sounds fairly impressive to me. How many countries have that kind of coverage level today? I mean -- how many countries have 90% of the country having access to speeds like that? It's not the same if some 5-10% of your urban population can get gigabit ethernet speeds and the rest of your population is at 256 kbps if they're lucky.

Certainly, to the extent that there are countries like that today, I'm guessing they're countries like Singapore with vastly different geographical concerns than you? And yes, it's not as ambitious as Korea's plan but again, unless my American geography education is once again sorely lacking, Australia is geographically quite a lot larger than South Korea and its population quite a lot more distributed.

How is the plan on upgradability? I could see the argument that, while the 100mbps / 90% goal is excellent, there should perhaps be a nested goal of a faster speed, like 1 gbps, for urban populations....

Australia is the same size as the contiguous USA but with a much smaller (21m) population that is primarily located within a small strip around the southern coastline and a few outposts in the north-west. The rest of the country is essentially uninhabitable due to the heat, the dry and the lack of any water sources in the interior.

It's not that difficult to service 90% of the population, just do Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth and that's pretty much it.

I still don't think this is going to happen the way it's described, it'll be late, slow and less widespread than the government has planned because the bureaucrats will get in the way trying to get their little slice of the pie.

I'm sure Telstra will want some part of any legal action.

 

[Abstract]

I think it'll happen in 5-6 years rather than 3-4 years, since nothing on this scale is ever on time, but that's cool.

And I don't understand the complaining. 100 Mbps is good today, and it'll be good tomorrow. If they use optical fibers, there aren't many other ways to get a faster internet today, and if there is, it'll probably still involve optical fibers, so it's not as though internet speeds will be held static once this thing is built.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

What is the Australian average? Over here most people are stuck at around 20 Mb/s and our government is doing something similar to yours to get fibre to houses. The plan is for at least 100 Mb/s with room to grow.

Attached is a screenshot of my results from speedtest.net See my average vs australian average vs global average.

 

[DoFoT9]

back from shopping haha!

Maybe I'm being overly generous, but 90% coverage of 100mbps + 10% coverage of 12mbps wireless service in a country with the size and geography of Australia sounds fairly impressive to me. How many countries have that kind of coverage level today? I mean -- how many countries have 90% of the country having access to speeds like that? It's not the same if some 5-10% of your urban population can get gigabit ethernet speeds and the rest of your population is at 256 kbps if they're lucky.

well its not all that impressive.. 90% of the population lives in (at a guess) 2% of the size of the country.. so its not that hard to do. the rest will most likely be given over charged, low downloads satellite or their local exchanges will be upgraded to ADSL1/ADSL2+.

Certainly, to the extent that there are countries like that today, I'm guessing they're countries like Singapore with vastly different geographical concerns than you? And yes, it's not as ambitious as Korea's plan but again, unless my American geography education is once again sorely lacking, Australia is geographically quite a lot larger than South Korea and its population quite a lot more distributed.

How is the plan on upgradability? I could see the argument that, while the 100mbps / 90% goal is excellent, there should perhaps be a nested goal of a faster speed, like 1 gbps, for urban populations....

yes that's my thinking... i havent read much more on the planning of it, so i dont know yet, but i sure hope that the plan involves room for masive upgradability. by the time the network is finally built (a good 5 years away) other countries will still be faster then us by A LOT.

Thank christ that its actually finally happening. I'm well above the australian average at up to 24mb/s with TPG. 100mb/s sounds lovely

DoFoT9, to be fair, Australia has one of the lowest population densities in the world. To get speeds faster than 100mb/s to everyone in the country would cost billions. I reckon this is a great step in the right direction.

yes im on 20Mbps (telstra of course, they own the exchange.....). while it does sound great in theory, ive been thinking

a) about the upload speed
b) cost.

i doubt the upload speeds will be any higher than 20mbps...

What is the Australian average? Over here most people are stuck at around 20 Mb/s and our government is doing something similar to yours to get fibre to houses. The plan is for at least 100 Mb/s with room to grow.

not sure about room to grow, but our average will be somewhere around 1mbps.

EDIT: as the picture above shows, its around 4mbps.. wasnt that far off 4mbps = only 500kbps.. meh

Ergh, I've got good money this will eventually be built 5 years late and half the original capacity for twice the original budget.

2nd that!

I think it'll happen in 5-6 years rather than 3-4 years, since nothing on this scale is ever on time, but that's cool.

And I don't understand the complaining. 100 Mbps is good today, and it'll be good tomorrow. If they use optical fibers, there aren't many other ways to get a faster internet today, and if there is, it'll probably still involve optical fibers, so it's not as though internet speeds will be held static once this thing is built.

so thats true, and i hope that the system allows for massive upgradability! 100Mbps is GREAT for australia, but you go to places like taiwan, singapore etc you can basically get those speeds from free internets walking down the street... we are well behind everywhere else, and i can see the 100mbps plan easily costing upwards of $200 a month for really basic downloads (say 20GB-INCLUDING uploads)

 

[Nermal]

Attached is a screenshot of my results from speedtest.net See my average vs australian average vs global average.

I feel that I should clarify my statement before someone gets the wrong impression. Most people in NZ can get around 20 Mb/s however I'd also wager that the majority aren't paying for connections that fast. I'm sure that our Speedtest average is pretty low, like Australia's.

Personally I only get 3.5 Mb/s; waiting impatiently for 50 Mb/s down my street in September!

 

[DoFoT9]

I feel that I should clarify my statement before someone gets the wrong impression. Most people in NZ can get around 20 Mb/s however I'd also wager that the majority aren't paying for connections that fast. I'm sure that our Speedtest average is pretty low, like Australia's.

Personally I only get 3.5 Mb/s; waiting impatiently for 50 Mb/s down my street in September!

well i expect that would be the case, seeing as though how expensive it is!!

 

[jbernie]

Cover Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane and you have about 8.5 of 20 million covered, add in Perth & Adelaide and without covering Canberra or any other major regional centers you are at 50% so it isn't out of the question for sure.

I have long held an opinion that a Federal entity should control/maintain the telecommunications infrastructure (at least the wired portion) and all carriers from Telstra & Optus on down can access the infrastructure and pay the same rates. That would remove the conflict of interest Telstra has in opening up the infrastructure to competition etc.

Based on this, I don't have any objections to the Government heading in this direction for providing this service, ultimately it isn't infrastructure that can be effectively built/run from an economic point of view by an entity that needs to run a profit or have profitable motives behind it.

I will say I am concerned over whether or not the government will get the best deal cost wise as sometimes these types of projects end up a financial mess due to mismanagement and ineffective cost oversight more from the complexity of the project than incompetence of those running it. $10 here, $100 there all adds up over the long term and you can't always see these minor costs = major costs.

 

[DoFoT9]

well said jbernie, i agree with you on that topic, having he government create the new infrastructure will keep everything fair (as opposed to one single company having a majority).

i only hope that they plan it well enough for the future, and keep costs down! i can just see the top plans around $200 a month, with lousy downloads.

 

[Nermal]

Computerworld reports that customers could see price cuts of up to 40%.

 

[DoFoT9]

Computerworld reports that customers could see price cuts of up to 40%.

thats pretty interesting speculation, id like to see some solid proof though. also some data plans would be nice. hurry up government!

 

[sammich]

i doubt the upload speeds will be any higher than 20mbps...

so thats true, and i hope that the system allows for massive upgradability! 100Mbps is GREAT for australia, but you go to places like taiwan, singapore etc you can basically get those speeds from free internets walking down the street... we are well behind everywhere else, and i can see the 100mbps plan easily costing upwards of $200 a month for really basic downloads (say 20GB-INCLUDING uploads)

Apart from 'cloud' usage...what are you going to do with an upload speed much higher than 20Mb/s?

Yes, Australia isn't on the cutting edge of technology or telecom technologies (several other things come to mind). We should really be thankful for anything like this that represents a step forward.

Fibre like copper cables can have the link speed increased provided hardware at both sides is upgraded. Right? Just like: Dial-up, ISDN, ADSL, ADSL2, etc.

 

[DoFoT9]

Apart from 'cloud' usage...what are you going to do with an upload speed much higher than 20Mb/s?

there are many, MANY uses for high speed uploads.. most will be for business uses (e.g. workers at home), some will be for illegal uses.

Yes, Australia isn't on the cutting edge of technology or telecom technologies (several other things come to mind). We should really be thankful for anything like this that represents a step forward.

true... at least they are making it australia wide and not city wide

Fibre like copper cables can have the link speed increased provided hardware at both sides is upgraded. Right? Just like: Dial-up, ISDN, ADSL, ADSL2, etc.

correct. the limitations of fibre are nowhere near those of copper.. long distance fibre needs repeaters every now and then, but provided the repeaters are powerful enough the bandwidth of them can be amazingly fast. a lot of the country already has fibre laid out so they are sort of already started.

this upgrade (i assume) will include upgrading the exchanges, DNS servers, and the rest of them.. making it much much quicker overall - hopefully i can get my ping well below 100 too! haha

 

[doubleohseven]

Woot!!!

I already have speeds at 20000kbps+, but at least the government is doing something about Australia's internet. I am happy to hear about the price drop, I think I'm getting a little overcharged, but I can't complain. I'd say we're around 5 years behind when it comes to internet in comparison to USA.

 

[DoFoT9]

Woot!!!

I already have speeds at 20000kbps+, but at least the government is doing something about Australia's internet. I am happy to hear about the price drop, I think I'm getting a little overcharged, but I can't complain. I'd say we're around 5 years behind when it comes to internet in comparison to USA.

and only about 15 years behind places like Thailand

 

[mkrishnan]

Australia is the same size as the contiguous USA...

Sorry, I wasn't comparing Australia to the United States ... I was comparing it to South Korea, one of the few nations with an even more ambitious plan than yours. Are you and the others going on about how little of Australia is occupied honestly saying it's easier to reach 90% of the population of Australia than it is to reach 90% of the population of South Korea? Australia is some 78 times as large as South Korea. Even if 90% of your population does live in 2% of your land mass, 2% of your land mass is still larger than the entire footprint of Korea....

 

[DoFoT9]

Sorry, I wasn't comparing Australia to the United States ... I was comparing it to South Korea, one of the few nations with an even more ambitious plan than yours. Are you and the others going on about how little of Australia is occupied honestly saying it's easier to reach 90% of the population of Australia than it is to reach 90% of the population of South Korea? Australia is some 78 times as large as South Korea. Even if 90% of your population does live in 2% of your land mass, 2% of your land mass is still larger than the entire footprint of Korea....

whats the plans of South Korea??? if this new plan can reach 90% of the population (at 100mb), that would be a very good feat!

if South Korea is as small as you say, it would be no where near as hard to reach 90% of the population there - assuming that the resources are provided and all that of course.

 

[Abstract]

Even if 90% of your population does live in 2% of your land mass, 2% of your land mass is still larger than the entire footprint of Korea....

Don't worry, because "2%" isn't accurate. Besides, you can't just build fast networks in the 4 biggest cities and not build between them. It'd be pointless, and the government knows this. This would explain the massive budget.

I bet the plan is to build along the entire east coast of Australia. Of course they'd also build inland a bit, but not more than 100 km or so. That would definitely cover 90% of the population. Darwin, Broome, and Perth would have to suffer. Serves 'Perthians' right for living in the most isolated city in the world.

 

[dmmcintyre3]

I dont even get 1 mbps



Edit: forgot where I was. Grandma has slow internet

 

[mkrishnan]

whats the plans of South Korea??? if this new plan can reach 90% of the population (at 100mb), that would be a very good feat!

if South Korea is as small as you say, it would be no where near as hard to reach 90% of the population there - assuming that the resources are provided and all that of course.

SK's plans were linked in my first post in the thread. AFAIK, it's the most ambitious national-scale broadband delivery project in the world.