QLD Government leaves broadband to Katter

Sep 1, 2010 3:50 PM
Filed under Telco/ISP

New state representative?

The Queensland Government said today it would rely on independent Bob Katter to broker a good broadband deal for the state, not just for his electorate.

The state's ICT minister Robert Schwarten indicated that although the State Government favoured the existing NBN over the Coalition's "much more limited plan", it would "look to Member for Kennedy Bob Katter to tell Canberra what Queenslanders wanted".

"I am sure Bob Katter will continue to express his views forcefully, no matter what type of government is chosen for this nation," Schwarten said.

"The Bligh Government will work with whoever forms government in Canberra to get the best high-speed broadband network for Queensland."

Katter and other independents were negotiating with the major parties on how a government would be formed after last month's election.

QLD Government leaves broadband to Katter

7 comments in this discussion

"Yes, Ry, some (types of) people sadly are very predictable. Oh well, every circus. . ."

By anonymous

Tags

queensland, government, broadband, katter

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Comments: 7

btone Sep 2, 2010 5:28 AM	W...T...F...? Yet another reason why lifelong Labor voters who can spell 'computer' and press an 'on' button voted for the Greens in the senate. Labors IT credentials, with the exception of the (hopefully not for long now) sidelined Kate Lundy, have the credibility of the average gnat, and that disparages insects rather savagely. The other side differs in that they have none at all. Abrogating broadband responsibility to the kebabic cowboy smells like political leveraging on Julias behalf, but that gives Swartskopf way too much credit for basic intelligence. Pathetic...
hellfire Sep 2, 2010 8:03 AM	Here are the technical reasons that the NBN will fail : 1) fibre optic cable has a maximum theoretical lifespan of 25 years when installed in conduit. Over time, the glass actually degrades(long story), and eventually it cant do it`s bouncing of light thing any more. But when you install fibre outside on overhead wiring (as will be done for much of Australia's houses, except newer suburbs with underground wiring), then the fibre degrades much quicker due to wind,temperature variation and solar/cosmic radiation. The glass in this case will last no more than 15 years. So after 15 years, you will have to replace it. Whereas the copper network will last for many decades to come. Fibre is not the best technology for the last mile. That`s why no other country has done this. 2) You can not give every house 100Mbps. If you give several million households 100Mbps bandwidth, then you have exceeded the entire bandwidth of the whole internet. In reality, there is a thing called contention. Today, every ADSL service with 20Mbps has a contention ratio of around 20:1 (or more for some carriers). That means, you share that 20Mbps with 20 other people. It`s a long story why, but there will NEVER be the case of people getting 100Mbps of actual bandwidth. Not for several decades at current carrier equipment rates of evolution.The "Core" can not and will not be able to handle that sort of bandwidth. The 100Mbps is only the speed from your house to the exchange. From there to the Internet, you will get the same speeds you get now. The "Core" of Australia's network is already fibre (many times over). And even so, we still have high contention ratios. Providing fibre to the home just means those contention ratios go up. You will not get better download speeds. 3) new DSL technologies will emerge. 15 years ago we had 56k dial-up. Then 12 years ago we got 256k ADSL, then 8 years ago 1.5Mbps ADSL2, then 5 years ago 20Mbps ADSL2+. There are already new DSL technologies being experimented on that will deliver over 50Mbps on the same copper we have now. $zero cost to the tax payer 4) 4G wireless is being standardised now. The current 3G wireless was developed for voice and not for data, and even so it can deliver up to 21Mbps in Australia. There are problems with it, but remember that it was developed for voice. The 4G standard is specifically being developed for data, and will deliver 100Mbps bandwidth with much higher reliability (yes, the same contention issues apply mentioned earlier). $zero cost to the tax payer 5) The "NBN" will be one of the largest single networks ever built on earth. There are only a few companies who could do it -Japan's Nippon NTT, BT, AT&T;, Deutsche Telekom etc. Even Telstra would struggle to build something on this scale. Yet we are led to believe that the same people who cant build school halls or install insulation without being ripped off are going to to do it ??? At Telstra, they are laughing our heads off !! Because when it all comes crumbling down, after they have spent $60+billion and the network is no more than 1/2 complete, it will be up to Telstra to pick up the pieces !
den Sep 2, 2010 10:00 AM	I am sorry for this rant but it has finally got to me. Helfire, unless you are "a network architect for one of Australia ’s largest Telco’s" what you have written is a copy and paste from someone else's totally uninformed email. I don't think there is even one accurate statement in what you have written. I am not going to waste my time here but if anyone is interested in the demolition of your arguments please go to http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1515125 and have a read. Have a good day.
umbria Sep 2, 2010 10:42 AM	@hellfire obviously didn't read yesterday's desperate plea by telco execs to deploy wireless and restrict fibre to schools and hospitals only. Of course they want to keep selling PSTN phone calls for $1 and a gigabyte of data for $10 over wireless instead of seeing a mass market of regional fixed broadband users make 10 cent national phone calls. Briefly, (1) fibre has improved over the 40 years since Corning developed it, and the jury is out on its longevity. Half a century is a widely accepted estimate. FTTH rollouts only began in the past decade, which is why only a few countries have large deployments, which are now increasing rapidly. (2) The bulk of bandwidth will be video. The NBN natively includes multicast technology for local aggregation of IPTV, so only one backhaul stream is required. And remember that the fibre once laid can deliver ANY future bandwidth increase simply by using the faster switches that will continue to emerge. The record set on 25 March 2010 was a 69.1 TERAbps stream delivered over a single fibre for 240 km. This is not off-the-shelf just yet, but it will happen. (3) As you are well aware, 20 Mbps ADSL doesn't exist. The median user gets 6 Mbps (not even enough for one HD TV stream), and half of users get around 2-3 Mbps. It dies after 6 km, and your 50Mbps tweak only works for 500 metres! Australia is not Singapore, so this is not for us, unless you want to electrify and install DSLAMs in a million street pillar boxes. (4) Wireless users compete for very limited bandwidth, the signal is susceptible to atmospheric conditions, every house beyond 7 km needs a fixed mast and today's decoder hardware, VoIP doesn't work, mobile devices only work close to the tower, blah, blah, blah. How many times must it be said even for futureware in the wireless space, it will only ever be a blackspot and limited mobility solution, and will depend upon fibre to do the heavy lifting. (5) So what if it's big? The tyranny of distance was conquered by Cobb and Co, the Overland Telegraph, the copper network and now it's the fibre network's turn. It's what we do in Australia. Telstra won't do it, because it has moved on to being a media player and retailer, with little interest in building in areas of low short-term profitability. NBNCo appears to be running its budget very well, perhaps because it was entirely isolated from the clumsy cash management of the government.
anonymous Sep 2, 2010 2:50 PM	@hellfire, don't worry, be happy, just move along. Oh and by the way, that tripe you happily quoted in full has been floating around the Internet for a couple of weeks now, where the informed opinion is still divided about whether it is purely political or whether it's an attempt at corporate payback because somebody doesn't like the NBN. Whatever it is, it's wrong.
rycrozier Sep 2, 2010 3:45 PM	I was wondering when that email chain letter might appear on the forums. And here we are...!
anonymous Sep 2, 2010 4:58 PM	Yes, Ry, some (types of) people sadly are very predictable. Oh well, every circus. . .