[LINK] Wireless Internet Popular in Australia

[Craig Sanders]

On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 09:22:37AM +1000, Tom Worthington wrote:
> However, popularity of wireless raises questions as to the need
> for and viability of the fixed fibre optic National Broadband
> Network. Other statistics:

no it doesn't. no more than the popularity of motorbikes raises
questions as to the need for and viability of cars.

they're different tools that suit different uses and different needs.
there is some small amount of application crossover but they're not
substitutes for one another.


that's the single most annoying line of argument from the anti-NBN
brigade - that wireless internet is or can be a substitute for fixed
line internet. there is an adamant refusal to acknowledge the facts
about it because it's the basis for their demand to drop the NBN and go
with wireless instead.

wireless or mobile internet is slow, unreliable, and a shared-bandwidth
medium that doesn't scale at all well - it doesn't take many
simultaneous users to degrade performance and reliability even further.
(and at the moment, it's ridiculously overpriced - with data charges
even worse than telstra's internet volume charging gouges of the mid
90s).

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>