[LINK] Beyond this project [WAS: Battery back-up mandatory for NBN?]

[David Boxall]

On 6/11/2010 11:50 AM, Tom Worthington wrote:
> ...
> Within a few years the NBN will be rendered obsolete by technological
> and market developments.
No more than roads have been rendered obsolete by developments in motor 
vehicles and transport markets.
...
> Providing fibre to the home to some of Australia will be useful,
> although I don't think this is the future of telecommunications. Smart
> phones are becoming affordable and very popular (the Huawei IDEOS is
> less than US$200). There are numerous tablet computers for under $400
> being released for Christmas 2010. These devices will cause an explosion
> in the demand for wireless communications.
I don't see it as an either/or question. Most people will have mobile 
devices. Most premises will have (and need) fibre connections.

> It will still be handy to have a high speed fibre connection for
> watching TV at home, or for business. But the major use of the fibre
> will be backhaul for the wireless network. ...
I doubt that the bandwidth of mobile devices will ever develop to the 
point that they become the major load on the NBN. The killer application 
is probably something none of us has yet imagined, but interference-free 
video and audio is one obvious possibility.

The NBN and the Opposition's cheap patchwork are both regarded as 
projects with an end point, or so it seems to me. Is that a healthy way 
to plan national infrastructure? After this, then what?

-- 
David Boxall                    |  Any given program,
                                |  when running correctly,
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  is obsolete.
                                |       --Arthur C. Clarke