Adventure Ausrama Blog

Technology: Telstra is being dishonest and is treating Australian consumers like fools. Telstra is doing something that the federal government did not foresee. The telco is only using half of the nation's copper wiring originally laid a century ago. In Australia there are two pairs of telephone wires in the cable laid to each house. This was to enable each house to have two telephone connections. The system worked well with ADSL: each phone could have its separate modem and ADSL service. With the NBN this has all changed. When the NBN began its roll out it allowed Telstra to set the rules. Telstra chose the rule: ONE PROPERTY ONE NBN CONNECTION. This is fine if you have a detached house. However, if you have a granny flat that has its own phone because the main telephone line has been split at the box on the house, one line will be scrapped and will no longer be used. It will lay dead in the ground forever due to Telstra's policy. Furthermore, if you rent out...

Netflix came to Australia and within a few months the entertainment landscape changed. All of the major free-to-air televisions stations now offer movie and program downloads at an exceedingly low monthly rate. Foxtel reduced the prices of some of its packages by 60 per cent. The Internet market per se is about to be hit as well. MyRepublic is coming to Australia. It has heavily condemned Telstra for its lacklustre provision of broadband Internet via the National Broadband Network (NBN). The Singaporean company will invest in its own network and provide super-fast broadband at prices lower than Telstra. The offer of 100 megabit per second at $80 a month is at the low end of Telstra much slower offer. The copper to homes from the node will hamper Telstra Mr Rodrigues of My Republic says. He says the government has been lying all along about the NBN's ultimate speed. Just about every Australian believes that the NBN rollout is a mess. It is the target of ongoing jo...

Development of Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) has been a disaster. Mismanagement by governments run by both major parties are at fault. The Coalition won office on the promise to clean up the mess and speed things up. Currently, the roll out is slowing down and it is still in a mess. Neither party knows how to manage a punch-up in a pub. Australia is falling down the international ranking of broadband efficiency. Industry is waiting for it to be working Australia wide. Completion will probably be 2030. The technology will be superseded by then and the investment will be a waste of money. There are pockets of users with fast broadband in the country. This is causing frustration and anger from those who cannot get it. Some people are actually buying houses in areas already covered. The poor miss out yet again. The Coalition has been accused of bypassing Labor electorates. This is disgraceful behavior. Leaving wire connections from the node was ...

If the National Broadband Network ever gets finished health care for rural Australians will improve. The Abbott Government has sacked the NBN board. It has also began an inquiry. When will this end and real completion goals be set? The previous government made the mistake of not having goals. This is what led to its demise in the last election - it had lost its way on most issues. An inquiry is seen as more "pussy-footing around". We need a clearly defined schedule.  All major construction projects have dates set out for finalization of each stage. Why does the NBN have to be any different? Surely they know how much time it takes to lay "X" amount of fiber optic cable. This is the problem with monopolies: they consume time and money. Why not put stages out for competitive tenders? Surely real competition can get things moving. The inquiry must come up with positive workable solutions. We cannot have another government mess up. Get rid of the bu...

We hear so much praise about progress of the new broadband network being rolled out by the National Broadband Network (NBN). The problem is - there has been little progress. Apart from the acclaimed network in a part of Tasmania, few customers enjoy ultra-fast broadband anywhere else. The Internet divide still exists between city and rural. Obviously the NBN will be laid out in city areas because this is where the greatest income will be obtained. As it now stands rural regions will not get faster Internet until way past 2020. Many people will be dead by then. How do we know if fiber optics will be superceded? Soon the ocean protection walls will be finished around Venice and there are cries that it is old technology and will not save the valuable city. Perhaps the same will be said about the NBN. In the present economic climate where will be few businesses left in populated cities to enjoy the improved communication. Only if the mineral sector declines and the Aussie dollar...

Australians will embrace streaming Internet TV when they get the service promised by the National Broadband Network (NBN). For most Australians this will be many years away, particularly for those living in the outback. Work has not yet begun on many suburbs of major cities such as Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Though streaming movies and TV is increasing, it is only in areas with a fast broadband service. Companies such as Quickflix are launching subscription offerings, but only in metropolitan regions. No matter how cheap these services are they will meet the "no-broadband" barrier. If the NBN continues at its present slow pace, the majority of Australians will be frustrated with their inability to enjoy the latest movies in their homes. Optus MeTV is going to charge $9.95 a month for TV that uses digital audio broadcasts. Many already know that outer suburbs of large cites cannot receive a decent DAB signal and there are no plans to further extend DAB. The only opt...

It seems odd for the Government to compensate Telstra for building the National Broadband Network considering fibre optic cable is a modern version of old copper. If a rival company in the market place builds a new factory with modern equipment established firms are not paid a cent. Besides, the copper was funded by Australian citizens and not by Telstra per se . Selling Telstra was a stupid idea anyway. People who bought shares should have known that the monopoly would eventually die. Perhaps John Howard saw the writing on the wall and decided to sell it. In recent times Testra has barely made a profit so it could no longer be relied upon as a cash cow. The Australian Government is paying Telstra $11 billion in compensation. Laws should have been changed to prevent this public liability taking place. Telstra's ownership of the copper should have been changed before the sale. It's control should have been altered to protection of the copper network which was paid...

Glenn Stevens the Governor of the Reserve bank says he supports a check on the National Broadband Network. You can't really take this man seriously. He obviously just said it to give a non-partisan, either party approach to government. Getting the Coalition off his back was his main aim. After all this time, he says this now. It is obviously late, very late indeed, with the legislation to change the structure of Telstra going through parliament at this very moment. The Labor Government wants to stop any further investigation into the full cost of the NBN, particularly now at the end of parliamentary sitting. It wants to go away and breath a sigh of satisfaction. All government projects end up costing more than was budgeted. The Coalition knows this and if it can keep the pressure for financial investigation going it is on a winner. Though, what it can achieve by this is unclear. Labor surely has support to pass anything that is needed to get this monster of a project up and running...