tony abbott not up to speed...

........on information superhighway

"In 2004, Telstra said that the copper network had maybe another 15 years of life left. That 15-year expiration date comes up in 2019.

So the Liberals' scheme is two-thirds the cost, at best one-tenth of the speed and most of it will need to be replaced in 2019. Bravo."

full article........

N 1977, Ken Olsen, president of the Digital Equipment Corporation, announced: "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home."

In 2013, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott proclaimed that he is "absolutely confident that 25 megabits per second is going to be more than enough for the average household".

Just watch: Abbott's comment is going to prove to be as stupid and as wrong as Olsen's.

An internet speed of 25Mbps is almost enough for the average household to do what it needs right now, but when you're talking about a project like the National Broadband Network that goes into the tens of billions of dollars and takes years, planning only for right now doesn't work. And his comment shows Abbott doesn't understand what the internet is for.

Yes, it's great that a family of four could each download an HD movie at the same time, but not only is that not all the internet is about, the world is moving on from HD and into 4k. 4k TVs will be on sale in Australia later this year and will have four times the resolution of 1080p full HD TVs, with the files weighing in at four times the size.

Basically, 25Mbps won't be enough by the end of the year. How quaintly antique will it be in when they finish installing the national network?

But the internet isn't just about downloading videos. It can be used for teleconferencing, saving businesses thousands of dollars a year in travel costs and the Earth thousands of tonnes of carbon and fossil fuel. It can be used for education, with interactive classrooms and remote teachers. There are huge innovations in health where people in remote areas can see a doctor without having to leave the house and doctors can even perform surgery from 10,000kms away.

The future will have refrigerators that can order the groceries, ovens that tell you how to cook and gadgets that can keep an eye on your health and warn you when you should see a doctor. With enough speed, the internet can be used for anything.

In case you missed it, Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull announced their counter proposal to the NBN last week.

Under Labor, the NBN replaces the ageing copper network with fibre to the premises, giving most of the population access to speeds of 100Mbps, with the possibility of up to 1000Mbps. NBN Co has estimated that it will cost $44 billion and take until 2021 to complete. The Liberals have said they will build fibre to the node (a big box on street corners) that uses the existing copper network and will give most people access to 25Mbps. A few lucky people will get up to 50Mbps, with the possibility of fewer still getting 100Mbps. The Liberals estimate it will cost $29.5 billion and will be completed in 2019.

In 2004, Telstra said that the copper network had maybe another 15 years of life left. That 15-year expiration date comes up in 2019.

So the Liberals' scheme is two-thirds the cost, at best one-tenth of the speed and most of it will need to be replaced in 2019. Bravo.

There is a quote floating around the internet that is often wrongly attributed to Bill Gates, that "640KBs of RAM should be enough for anybody". As I type this on my laptop containing 16GBs of RAM, I wonder how much Abbot's quote will be mocked in 2021 if Labor has the opportunity to finish the NBN properly.

On the flipside, I wonder how much Abbott will be cursed for holding Australia back if he gets his way.

According to NetIndex.com, Japanese households had a mean speed of 31.02Mbps in the last month, putting them at seven in the list of top 10 countries.

Hong Kong came in first with 44.04Mbps, with Sweden rounding out the top 10 at 28.99Mbps. So 25Mbps wouldn't even have Australia in contention now.

But Labor's plan would make us the envy of the world. People and companies like Google would do business here because of the world-class internet available. For the first time, Australia could become a leader in technology.

But the Liberals want to spend billions of dollars to give us a substandard product - one that was out-dated the day they announced it.

herald sun