[LINK] Wireless Internet Popular in Australia

Craig Sanders cas at taz.net.au
Thu Sep 23 07:19:47 AEST 2010


On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 10:17:50AM +1000, Tom Worthington wrote:
> Craig Sanders wrote:
> >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 ...
> >
> >... that's the single most annoying line of argument from the anti-NBN
> >brigade ...
>
> I am a member of the " mildly enthusiastic NBN brigade".

sorry, I didn't mean to imply you were one of the antis.

> In my view we will likely end up with widespread use of both fibre and
> wireless. These should be complementary, rather than competing.

couldn't agree more. as i said, they're different tools for different
jobs - they're both needed and can't really substitute for each other.

the only reason why they are seen as competing is because of the pettily
adversarial nature of australian politics - Labor wants the NBN so
Liberals *must* oppose it (and drag the Nationals along unwillingly).
the argument against the NBN really has nothing to do with the technical
merits, or even the costs...it's purely about spoiling the plan so that
the other side can't achieve anything.

(that spiteful crap is the reason why i think the hung parliament and the
resulting minority govt is an exceptionally good thing for australia -
opposition parties are supposed to keep govts on their toes, not just
blindly spoil anything and everything. speaking of which, IMO the Libs
probably would have won if they had Turnbull as leader rather than
Abbott. he doesn't offend - or scare - people like Abbott does)


> However, wireless broadband is an alternative to fibre, for some
> people.

yes, it's better than nothing. and for some people wireless may even
suit them better than a fibre or DSL connection.

for most, though, it's not. and if too many people in one area want to
use it, both performance and reliability for every user will suffer.


craig

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



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