So bbender you think everyone who supports the NBN is an idiot. Well thats most of the population then as we nearly all want faster internet and the NBN is the only way many of us outside urban areas are ever going to get it.
You raise many spurious arguments comparing fibre with copper. The fact is that extreme weather can damage either of them and it comes down to how well they are installed. Generally though fibre should withstand flooding better because its better sealed but again it depends on how well it is installed.
Regarding power both copper and fibre would rely on battery backup during a power failure, so again there is no difference except that the copper system draws more power than the fibre one. Very few people still have phones that don't need power to operate and nearly everyone has a mobile as well so fibre not delivering any power would not be an issue for 99.9% of the population.
The complete telecommunication failure for everyone north of Bundaberg recently indicates a major failing in network design and construction in that locality, not a failure of the materials themselves but in how they were used. If Telstra was totally responsible then it needs to do some urgent redesigning to ensure it's backup systems work.
