[LINK] ADSL to reign in Australia

[Tom Worthington]

At 04:46  30/10/00 +1100, Ross Kelso wrote:
>... how will we ever get a broadband (ie. optical fibre) customer access 
>network
>- eg. fibre-to-the curb (as with TransAct in Canberra) ...

TransAct is fibre-to-the-back-fence, rather than the curb.  ;-)

That aside, do we need broadband access for the present? What are the 
services it will deliver? If it is just more TV channels, then there are 
better ways to do it. If it is for web-type interactive services I am not 
sure that more bandwidth is the best way to achieve better service.

>What steps do we have to take so that a truly broadband future for
>Australians can ever come about??

On 15 November I hope to saddle up all my hobby-horses at the International 
Web Accessiblity Summit in Melbourne 
<http://www.webaccess.iii.rmit.edu.au/> and propose we develop a good 
medium speed wireless service: 
http://www.tomw.net.au/2000/bat.html#implications

This can combine the development of new web tools, provide accessibility 
for the disabled, deliver affordable Internet services to rural areas, 
provide wireless devices for high net worth users, provide low cost 
services for the third world, boost the Australian IT industry, rescue the 
Australian dollar...  ;-)


Tom Worthington FACS tom.worthington@tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd ABN: 17 088 714 309
http://www.tomw.net.au PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617
Visiting Fellow, Computer Science, Australian National University
Publications Director & Past President, Australian Computer Society
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Web Accessiblity Summit, 15 Nov http://www.tomw.net.au/2000/bat.html