[LINK] The PLAN, and broadband speeds?

[Karl Auer]

On Wed, 2007-06-27 at 07:10 +1000, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> Karl Auer wrote:
> > for any interactive application, satellite links are absolute poo-poo.
> >   
> Karl, I think there might be an excess of idealism in this statement.

No, it's fact. Try managing a remote system in a X-window via satellite.
Poo-poo doesn't even begin to describe it. If your window is remote too
it's even worse. Only a small portion of that is down to X's ack/nak
protocol. Or try playing a networked game over a satellite - forget it.

> Satellite links are acceptable for interactive apps. People can and do 
> adjust for the delay.

<rant>People shouldn't HAVE to bloody well "adjust"! Sheesh!</rant>

> Satellite plus TCP/IP is a problem, but if it's a choice between 
> satellite and nothing?

Well, duh. Why should people face that choice? Run fibre. Everywhere.

> To put an idealist position - every place must have the best available 
> and nothing less is acceptable - is simply not tenable.

Not only is it tenable, it's a good solution, and one that would have
far-reaching benefits for the country as a whole. NOT just for the
"remote recipients of the cities' largess" as some people are painting
it.

>  As for 
> bandwidth, one-way satellite is no longer the only option.

Never said it was. But they have double the latency. And even one-way
has too much latency.

> Yes, you get delay - 
> but it is at least a backfill for places that simply can't get any other 
> connectivity.

Such places are very very few. If there's a road, there should be fibre.
If there's power or rail, there DEFINITELY should be fibre.

> It's also worth remarking that we don't have "copper everywhere" in 
> Australia. We have copper "nearly everywhere". There are, according to 
> the ACMA radio license database, several thousand remote Telstra 
> customers whose "last X miles" connection is already a point-to-point 
> VHF radio set. So it's probably worth remembering that such places exist 
> even today...

100% coverage may not be possible. But for goodness' sake, it should at
least be our aim!

Vision, people. Vision.

Regards, K.

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