{"id":3243,"date":"2013-04-14T19:40:50","date_gmt":"2013-04-14T09:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/australiansforhonestpolitics.wordpress.com\/?p=3243"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:24:16","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:24:16","slug":"imagining-an-amazing-innovative-future-with-labors-nbn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/imagining-an-amazing-innovative-future-with-labors-nbn\/","title":{"rendered":"Imagining an amazing innovative future with Labor’s NBN"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

The choice of pill is most definitely yours…<\/p><\/div>\n

By Stephen Neate
\nApril 14, 2013
\nSource:\u00a0yathink.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

We are living on acreage and there is nature all around, made more alive and real by the fact that it never seems to stop raining. It is so green and alive we can smell and hear life all around us. The stage is set for some spiritual epiphany about Gaia, although all I can think of are concepts that appear to exist more in science fiction than my immediate surrounds.<\/p>\n

In another life I am sure I would have become an engineer or inventor, or perhaps that may come some time in the future. Either way, I believe the trick in life is to keep learning. Challenge your gray matter wherever possible, assume there is always someone smarter and more knowledgeable on any given topic than you, and just keep thinking. That – and a wish to be a Jedi in the future – is probably why I write software, enjoy coding and am passionate about this collection of computers tied together called the internet.<\/p>\n

This internet thingy and the proposal of National Broadband Networks in Australia by differing political parties has been on my mind a lot over the past few months. The recent piss-weak proposal by the LNP has galvanised me into unexpected action. This is the second article<\/a> about it I have written in a week. Normally my interaction online is very limited – hell I don\u2019t even bother with microphones when gaming (I also swear too much and apparently some take offence, bless their fucking little souls.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, the point of this article is to say: \u00a0The Australia of the near future that I want to live in needs the most state of the art top shelf broadband network ever invented.<\/p>\n

I do a have few reasons why, but before getting into them I’d would like to explain a couple of tech points.<\/p>\n

ALP = FTTH style NBN<\/strong><\/p>\n

LNP = FTTN style NBN<\/strong><\/p>\n

NBN –<\/strong>\u00a0The \u2018National Broadband Network\u2019 for all intents and purposes means the internet for most people. It\u2019s not actually, it is akin to saying that road outside your house is actually your work place. Unless you actually work on the road, that road merely provides a simple method for you to get from home to your work. The NBN is exactly the same. It allows your data request to go out and fetch information (email, movie, web page…) from a computer that is also connected to the NBN, as clearly all the information available to you is not residing in your house.<\/p>\n

FTTN –<\/strong>\u00a0Fibre to the node, a simple termination point of high speed fibre to a node near your premises. (home or business).<\/p>\n

FTTH \/ FTTP –<\/strong>\u00a0Fibre to the house or Fibre to the premises. As simple as it sounds – fibre running from the central exchange directly to the premises.<\/p>\n

Copper –<\/strong>\u00a0In relation to talks about the NBN this is the road outside your house. It is a seriously inferior product to Fibre Optics when talking about communication. It has worked well for countries all over the world, but just as we no longer use steam trains, the tech has advanced.<\/p>\n

Nodes –<\/strong>\u00a0Essentially they are the train stations for the NBN when switching between a 10 carriage train of bandwidth\/speed down to the passenger car delivery to your house. These are an essential aspect of the fibre to the node NLP option and only allow high speeds to a premises when they are within a few kilometres to the premises. In other words we need a fracking truck load of them across the country (60,000+) that all require service, maintenance and enough power to probably run some of our smaller cities.<\/p>\n

Fibre Optics –<\/strong>\u00a0The so called new kid on the block, and I say \u2018so called\u2019 as it appears that researchers at Corning Glass found out how to make it commercially in 1970. More on Corning Glass shortly. Put simply this is undoubtedly the future of our tech, leaving copper so far behind as to appear stone-aged.<\/p>\n

Bandwidth\/Speed –<\/strong>\u00a0This has been mentioned a lot recently and is to be referenced in light of the transfer of bandwidth across the NBN (pun intended). Both variants of the NBN talk in terms of 25-50<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Australia of the near future that I want to live in needs the most state of the art top shelf broadband network ever invented.\u201c<\/h3>\n

Mbs from the LNP (pitiful) and 100 mbs from the ALP (not bad for a start). The critical difference is actually in the road used.<\/p>\n

Copper will get some advances in tech (if heavily invested in) and may get speeds of up to an impressive 300 mbs\u00a0if you are less than 400 metres to the node).<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at Fibre for a moment – non-theoretical (boffins did this in 2011) 279,552 mbs\u00a0per second per channel. A cable core has hundreds of channels, and cable can have multi-cores, proven data transfer (in 2013) shows 1.1274e+9 mbs\u00a0bandwidth. Oh my freaking gawd, that number would allow you to download most of the 4+billion hours of videos on Youtube in a day (not very practical in a home sense of course, but stay with me please)<\/p>\n

Tech Summary –<\/strong>\u00a0Let\u2019s not argue tech. If you still think copper can out-class fibre please drop your computer off to Lifeline as you are not a child of this century and have no need for this modern technology (drop your smartphone off there as well for the same reason).<\/p>\n

Now, let’s ‘potentially\u2019 fast forward to the year 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

The enigmatic 34yr old, Jayden Alexopoulos ( who became ALP leader after selling his GM Crop software patent to Bio-oil\/CSIRO ) has just swept his party into power putting an end to the decade of the swing voter.<\/p>\n

Jayden\u2019s personal success and wealth has all been attributed to studious work alongside Open Universities. In the early days he utilised interactive video conferencing with lecturers all around the world and conducted experiments in laboratories with New Zealand and Danish contemporaries. To achieve all of this success at such a young age from the township Roma (formerly known only for producing Rugby League stars only) is a testimony to governments gone by and their investment in future generations.<\/p>\n

The first bill Prime Minister Alexopoulos is passing this week is to inject funds into the CSIRO\/MediAid\/Corning\/Google joint venture coined the \u201cP(ersonal)+\u201d SIM* . In short this new venture is to commercialise the development of each individual’s digital signature from the original simple medical alerts and tracking to a fully augmented real time experience. It is in part an extension of the mid 2010\u2019s tech \u201cGoogle Glass\u201d, although now fully realised because the nation’s last NBN upgrade has made talks of bandwidth speed finally a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

Back to reality for a second…<\/h4>\n

It would be amazing if the prediction (the tech side) could become a reality, but what most people don\u2019t realise is that we are knocking on its door now.<\/p>\n

If we look at the average family with 2 kids at High School, it is conceivable that they will already have these devices requiring bandwidth now: 1 Desktop PC, 3 Laptops, 1 or 2 Tablets, 2 to 4 Smartphones, 2 Smart TV\u2019s (ie: they can have internet) and at least 1 Gaming\/Entertainment device. I know some families with more than that already, although that is still NOT taking into account home office setups. This sort of scenario requires a lot of bandwidth today. Imagine what will be required just for the \u2018average\u2019 home shortly.<\/p>\n

Some of you would have seen a video or two on Youtube that does the viral pass around every few months called \u201cA Day Made of Glass\u201d. It is produced by Corning Glass Inc. and is a fascinating series of 4 videos<\/a>.\u00a0They highlight a very connected society, a very personally interactive one. A large percentage of Australians are using the initial versions of this daily right now (just use your smartphone, tablet, PC – it’s called Gorilla Glass<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Working from home the new Telework (telecommuting);<\/h4>\n

In the past I have mentioned the potential social and environmental impacts of fewer cars on the road due to more people working form home. I don’t know how to equate the impact into dollar\/environmental terms, but the fewer the people traveling to high density CBD areas should mean lower utilisation of public services. \u00a0I imagine wouldn\u2019t result in a lowering of numbers traveling, but more likely a plateau on the numbers, giving councils some time to evaluate and put in place better mass transport systems, as the general population grows.<\/p>\n

With FTTH NBN as the basis, Telework can become a reality for greater number of Australians. For this to work well bandwidth is what we need. With Australians working longer hours, I won\u2019t even go into the aspects of mental health benefits of not staying back late in the office because you can come home, do dinner with the family then catch up on work at home after the kids have gone to bed.<\/p>\n

Without going into the year 2026, let\u2019s look at what we can utilise today with a FTTH 100mbps down and 40mbps up connection (the expensive one at $165+ \/ month)\u00a0This is the first time I have mentioned upload (up) speed and the LNP will never mention it due to limitations with copper, but when working remotely you need this as much as down speed.<\/p>\n

Pretend I work for a small Travel Agency franchise ‘Flights are really cheap’ (FARC). The head office of FARC is based in Sydney, and they have appointed me to work with their Capricorn Coast based clients.<\/p>\n

Utilising a VOIP (Voice Over IP) phone, the national office can receive calls, transfer them directly to my VOIP or switch for regionally=based calls to ring direct at my end. The tech on this is fairly cool and is in use now. At its worst (shitty broadband speeds) you end up sounding like a telemarketer calling from the dark side of the moon whilst in the shower. At its best you would never know the difference. Clearly from a work aspect, you actually need the best option.<\/p>\n

The reason that Copper\/ADSL2+ speeds just don’t cut it are about to be obvious…..<\/p>\n

I take a phone call from Mrs Jones (80+ years old and bless her soul she has a lot of questions today).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs J: Hi Steve, just need to check about the dining arrangements on the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship we are doing next spring.<\/p>\n

Me: Yes Mrs Jones, what would you like to know (smiley voice of course, whilst I suspend three booking forms for other clients and open her file)
\nMrs J: Well as you know Darryl is on a strict diet and requires…..<\/p>\n

You can just imagine that call going on for 10+ minutes, then times that by many calls a day from other clients and you have a busy day in the office (at home).<\/p>\n

The reality of what my PC is doing teleworking effectively from home in that scenario:<\/p>\n