Rant on a Sad day for 'Regional' people re the NBN

[Dinwiddie]

If you live in regional area, and possibly some outer suburbs, and believe the NBN is going benefit you with high speed fiber optic cable - don't hold your breath.
Our council has informed us via their weekly newsletter that our 'Regional' town of M'bah (with about 10,000 pop within easy cable reach), a whole 25 K's from the Gold Coast will not be getting fiber cable.
Next week NBN will be sending their marketing team to flog the wonders of the NBN to our town. All with nice glossy brochures, and BS about the benefits NBN's 'Fixed Wireless' will bring us.
According to the iinet plans this will produce a 12/1Mb/s speed. That's just so close to the fiber speed - not.
And 20+20GB (bundled) for only $70/month . Impressive ???

From the outset of the NBN I was under the obviously misguided impression that we 'Regional' citizens would finally get broadband parity plans and pricing with the city folk once the NBN rode into town.
It's not bad enough that the gov. decided to not wholesale NBN themselves, but give a cartel, or "triopoly", to three companies, but now we are going to get a Mobile Broadband (AKA - 'Fixed Wireless' in the new market speak) upgrade instead.
No mention of new servers for our overcrowded exchange either, just a cheap arse quick and nasty upgrade to overpriced mobile broadband.
I though this setup was to be a fix for those in genuine, out there regional/outback areas, not outer suburbs.

NBN is creeping closer to T Abbott's idea of how our Broadband should be setup. Alan, you got it right. Julia is a Liar.

btw - I'm not personally affected by this (other than over crowded exchange that sees my speed drop from 20Mb/s to 4Mb/s second at peak periods) as I currently live only 450M of cable from the exchange, and when I move around the hill in a year or so and have more cable between me and the exchange I may still get better speeds than 12/1Mb/s , even on copper.
I just believe the regional areas should get parity with 'city' locations regarding price and limits.
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[RaTTuS007]

State and federal goverments couldn't give 2 hoots about regional areas, it definately sad.

[Sathias]

Fibre is being built to 93% of the population, has been from when the FTTH NBN was announced. The government published an aim of 90%, and NBNCo looked at the geography and said they reckon they could do 93%. NBNCo published a list of what country towns will get what tech years ago.

Just because you didn't understand the policy properly, it doesn't mean that "Alan was right" and "Julia is a liar" it just means you didn't understand it properly. And you finding out the truth today doesn't make today a "sad day for regional people".

And it is pretty clear that you still don't understand the nature of the fixed wireless being offered. This isn't "overpriced mobile broadband". It is FIXED wireless, it just uses wireless as the last mile to a fixed position. The nature of the NBN is such that city connections should subsidise rural connections, so even if you do get wireless, it should be the same price. Wimax in my area (in suburban Adelaide) is actually faster than ADSL2, at a similar price.

It is all fairly academic anyway, as it is most likely that Abbott (the truth teller) will win and we will all stay on the same **** broadband anyway. Hooray!!!

[Sathias]

To be honest I think you've jumped to conclusions anyway. There is nothing to indicate that this area will ONLY get fixed wireless, it appears that this is the part that is being built before the fibre does. Again, academic if the project doesn't go ahead.

[SaNE]

While you're sad that you're getting a sub standard solution, the speed will increase when they launch the satellites they are commissioning for the NBN, for the interim they are reselling Optus which doesn't have the bandwidth to give larger and more reasonably priced plans.

If they had done the right thing (and not changed it to get the independent vote), they wouldn't even be running the NBN to regional centers yet and would be working their way out from the cities to get the customer base, as that's how you make a profit to then give the regional area's where they make no profit and have to waste so much time laying the network.

As for the assumption that it's 'creeping closer' to the coalition plan that would be incorrect, the coalition are creeping closer to the NBN plan; that is when they aren't changing their minds every time they speak about it as they can't just agree with them as that would be weak and wouldn't be 'differentiating themselves' from Labor.

[diamondd]

same story as usual, Labor have a lot of great ideas but couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery.

having said that, I do agree with what Sathias has said that what is happening isn't straying too far from the original plan. BUT as you say the original plan is not exactly what the sound bites you would have heard during the last election would have you believe.

[revengous]

State and federal goverments couldn't give 2 hoots about regional areas, it definately sad.

I dont think they care anywhere, loving my 400kbs adsl2+ in Adelaide

[Werewolph]

When the satellites are launched for the Fixed Wireless broadcasting, you'll be scrambling over your neighbours in a massive bid to sign up first. 20MBps? Pfft. Satellite will trounce that easy. Current satellite tech for Australia? 6Gbps. Upcoming tech (ie: 2015) 80Gbps. That is far more bandwidth available to push through to it's regional customers, granting you access to more bandwidth. And if you want more download limit, ADSL isn't going anywhere yet, so do your best to get your neighbours on the NBN Fixed Wireless to open up ports at the exchange.

[Sathias]

btw you probably missed this announcement by NBNCo, they are now saying they will be able to provide 25/5 over wireless

http://www.nbnco.com.au/blog/nbn-co-to- ... peeds.html

[PalZer0]

Think you've got it bad? The area I'm in hasn't even got any plans for the NBN.

[Sathias]

Think you've got it bad? The area I'm in hasn't even got any plans for the NBN.

You don't live in Australia then?

I think you mean your area hasn't been announced in the three-year build.

[skitzor]

btw you probably missed this announcement by NBNCo, they are now saying they will be able to provide 25/5 over wireless

http://www.nbnco.com.au/blog/nbn-co-to- ... peeds.html

yep. 25/5 is extremely respectable for the next 5 years or so. I would say the large majority of fibre customers will be on a speed like this, or lower for quite a while. fixed wireless customers have nothing to complain about. under a private solution, they would be lucky to get anything.

also, have you tried people other than iinet? the whole purpose of the NBN is that they provide the infrastructure, and the operators all compete on price. take a look at internode ( http://www.internode.on.net/residential ... nbn_plans/ ), or take a look at some other operator that is cheap and gives you less features.

it is simply not economically viable to roll out fibre to every single person in Australia. people already complain about the cost, imagine what it would cost to give everyone fibre. going from your attitude, you would probably complain about the cost.

as people have said, this was always the solution. nothing has changed. what will change is if the Liberals get in power. they will relegate more people to fixed wireless, and rely on the piece of **** HFC network for some areas. Gillard is not a liar (also, someone in her position deserves to be called by her surname, like you do with Abbott, and not her first). there was never anything more promised to the regional areas. they have actually exceeded their promise by being able to provide 25/5.

and the good thing about the technology they are using is that speed increases are possible.

I dont think they care anywhere, loving my 400kbs adsl2+ in Adelaide

no. Telstra doesn't care about you. that's what leaving this **** to private companies gets you. Telstra have had little reason to upgrade their wired infrastructure, so they haven't. the most telling sign of this is their LTE network kicks the absolute **** out of their wired alternatives to the majority of the population.

Think you've got it bad? The area I'm in hasn't even got any plans for the NBN.

likely because your area already has some sort of broadband alternative. NBN is taking a roll-in strategy to give broadband to the people that don't currently have it.

the over-politicisation of NBN is **** ridiculous. most things I hear about it in the public arena are wrong, and said to prove their point about how useless the government is. sad to see. this project is the only option that provides what this country will need in the long term.

[Matty]

State and federal goverments couldn't give 2 hoots about regional areas, it definately sad.

I dont think they care anywhere, loving my 400kbs adsl2+ in Adelaide

Same here. 5 mins from the city too.

(Having said that the NBN is as of February being rolled out in my area. I should buy a lottery ticket)

[diamondd]

I have great speeds on ADSL2+ in Adelaide, am I the only person who checks that before applying for houses?

[Artful-dodgeR]

Getting nbn installed next week in our street. Will be nice, only getting 20mbit at the moment.

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