[LINK] The PLAN, and broadband speeds?

[Karl Auer]

On Mon, 2007-06-25 at 11:16 +1000, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> > > money to do it right. There are NO technical barriers. If we can get
> > > gigabits across the trackless ocean between continents, we can get it
> > > anywhere.
> Of course it's technically possible. But the reason it is affordable 
> is aggregation of traffic to make it worth doing. Aggregation via 
> fibre/microwave hybrid to groups of people in regional towns may make 
> sense, both for service access and cost. But to run fibre to the home 
> of an outback station is ludicrous.

No, it's not. It's just expensive. It's certainly more sensible than
running centrally generated power to just about anywhere in this nation
on wind and sun.

>  I'd rather tax dollars support a 
> paediatrician in the base hospital or a minimum standard 
> school/teacher/accommodation and a doctor or two in an Indigenous 
> community. The bigger picture view reveals a lot of competition for 
> those dollars.

Do all of those and buy one less pointless submarine.

There is always competition for funds. There are always better, more
moral things to spend it on. Why should any one of us have broadband
while children in African countries are starving to death?

Now that we've put our petty wants in perspective, I'd rather spend a
thousand dollars on good infrastructure, that will support us for
decades to come, that will open up our country and bring us together,
than one dollar on boondoggles, pork barrels or weapons.

> [who is a big supporter of space exploration, owns a copy of the 
> Shuttle Operation Manual, has visited both Kennedy Space Center and 
> Johnson Space Center, hosted an astronaut program (many retire to 
> Phoenix) which led to meeting both Ron Evans and another member of 
> the Apollo 16 moon mission, and has an uncle who worked for NASA in 
> Ohio at the John Glenn Centre for many years]

Oooh! Nice cred. Don't blow it.

Regards, K.

-- 
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Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)