Australia needs a very fast Broadband network now, there’s no doubting that! While the Australian federal government spends $4 billion annually on our roads, in comparison, it’s quite amazing really, to understand why they’ve elected to only allocate $4.5 billion on a new Australian Broadband network? Some of the guidelines stated in their new network prospectus show that ‘it should be upgradeable’. Why then develop a slower Fibre-to-the-Node network only for it to be superseded down the track by a possible faster Fibre-to-the-home network? We all know that new technology is being developed almost as frequently as it becomes obsolete in some case, so could it be probable that Wireless or Satellite Broadband may replace fibre at some stage too?
Considering the various factors that are vital to Australia’s future economy and prosperity which partially sit behind the IT & Telecommunication industry, some of us are left dumb founded. This includes various Broadband experts who are continually sending out warning signs that suggest that it may already be too late unless Australia acts intelligently.
Below are some quotes and statistics taken from The Age article ‘Broadband expert warns Australia’.
if that situation is to change, the Government has to encourage investment in taking optical fibre cables not just to street corner nodes, but all the way to homes
The broadband speed available to Australian home owners can be as low as 256 kilobits per second although 1 mbps or so is becoming more common for users within a few kilometres of Telstra telephone exchanges.
“If we all want the line rates currently delivered to office desktops — namely, 100-1000 mbps, then a fibre to the home (FTTH) network will be required,” Mr Campbell says.
Read the entire article at The Age
