[LINK] How to not repair Australia's telecommunications infrastructure

[David Boxall]

"... fast and reliable internet service was potentially more important 
in rural areas."
I've often said that the value of telecommunications is inversely 
proportional to population density.

Farmers forced to go to extreme lengths to access reliable internet
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-26/farmers-forced-to-go-to-extreme-lengths-to-access-internet/8460590>
> When the Sky Muster satellite service is not up to scratch and the NBN 
> seems light-years away, what does a farmer have to do to get online?
>
> A south-west Queensland cotton grower has spent the recent school 
> holidays building a 53-metre tower that will allow him to access high 
> speed internet from a nearby town.
>
> It is an innovative solution to the data drought plaguing so many in 
> rural Australia, and Andrew Sevil hopes it will future-proof his property.
>
> "We've always had a requirement here for decent internet," he said.
>
> "I'm not comfortable with Sky Muster due to latency using the 
> satellite technology, so we made a decision a couple of years ago and 
> it's just been a project we've been working on for a little while."
>
> Mr Sevil said he was motivated by the need for a good, reliable 
> internet connection.
>
> "We rely on technology so heavily here for our tractors and running 
> the farm generally," he said.
> "Needing reasonable speed internet comparable to what we're achieving 
> with ADSL2 and what our cousins in the city are getting is important 
> to us."
>
> He said fast and reliable internet service was potentially more 
> important in rural areas.
>
> "The big buzz word around agriculture is big data, and big data is big 
> in volume," Mr Sevil said.
>
> "So the requirement for large files to be sent quite quickly and 
> communication with the tractors, it all requires low-latency, 
> high-speed connections."
> The erection of the tower is the culmination of several years of work, 
> and will hook into the best available technology with the flexibility 
> to update and change.
>
> "At this stage, it will be wireless broadband out of Dirranbandi," Mr 
> Sevil said.
>
> "We're looking at not only the internet. It can potentially be used 
> for guidance [technology], for networking the property — things like 
> tank level sensors, dam sensors, channel sensors, electric fence 
> testers, cameras.
>
> "All of those sorts of things in the future can and will be connected, 
> even livestock.
>
> "It all relies on communication and the ability to set up a network 
> across your property and going into the future, this tower will allow 
> us to do that," Mr Sevil said.
>
> Meanwhile, fellow St George cotton grower Glenn Rogan has plans to 
> construct a tower of his own, and has purchased old metal from a gas 
> company for the project.
>
> "If we get enough height we can be fully-serviced on-farm, so we've 
> got 18-metre towers and 11-metre towers and that will give us complete 
> coverage on-farm," Mr Rogan said.
>
> "We're also looking into the future; we want to be able to do farming 
> into the 21st century."
>
> Mr Rogan said he believed Sky Muster would have the same overcrowding 
> problems as previous satellite services.
>
> "The more people that went onto the service the worse it got, and I 
> can't see anything different happening this time," he said.
>
> "We've been down that road twice trying to correct our systems and 
> with no long-term joy so we don't believe that is the solution."
>
> NBN Co admits its Sky Muster satellite, which is designed to connect 
> remote farms to fast internet, has had problems with drop-outs and 
> reliability.
>
> Spokesperson Kylie Lindsay said since the Sky Muster satellite service 
> was launched almost a year ago, more than 70,000 users have signed up.
>
> "In that time, NBN has been working to stabilise the service, 
> deploying around 140 network fixes and configuration changes," Ms 
> Lindsay said.
>
> "While the NBN Sky Muster satellite service covers approximately 
> 400,000 premises across Australia, NBN has always expected around 
> 240,000 premises to sign up.
>
> "So, it isn't unusual to hear stories of people choosing to make do 
> with other solutions."

-- 
David Boxall                    |  Australia's problem isn't fake news,
                                 |  it's fake government.
http://david.boxall.id.au       |                        --Ross Gittins
                                     Sydney Morning Herald 27 March 2017