It was a shorter working week this week, but that doesn’t mean that things slowed down in NBN land. Here’s what happened with our national broadband network this week.
• Oh noes! The NBN and banks are creating an IT skills shortage in Australia. the good news is that demand is pumping up salaries of these IT pros. Which are probably you guys, right? In which case – congratulations on the pay rise! [Australian IT]
• You can’t please everybody. While most negativity around the NBN is based around the cost of wiring up 93% of the country to fibre, the government’s Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee is sad that we’re not rolling it out to 100% of Australians. Part of me agrees – I’d like to know I could get fibre no matter where I lived in Australia, but the cost blowout would be way too high. [ZDNet]
• Surprise! Business people think that the NBN rollout in Tasmania should have happened in cities first, rather than rural locations. Because that’s where business can make the most money, see? The problem is that the NBN is about universal broadband for everybody, and if we make the rural people wait until the city folk have it, they’ll fall even further behind. Sigh. [The Australian]
• The United Nations is a fan of the NBN, apparently. International Telecommunications Union secretary general Hamadoun Toure has said that in three to five years, Australia will be the number one place in the world for broadband. Let’s hope he’s right! [Business Spectator]
• NBN Co reckons that when all ISPs shift over to its fibre goodness, we won’t see the end of the one terabyte plan. There were concerns that with the NBN’s wholesale pricing model, ISPs wouldn’t be able to offer that much data to consumers. I think only time will tell to see whether or not that’s the case. [ZDNet]
• Some of the 2900 homes testing the NBN in the first active mainland site, Armidale, have apparently had the service go live this week. Enjoy your fibre, Armidale! [Computerworld]
• New Matilda dismantled seven myths being perpetuated by the NBN. It’s still a great read if you missed our link to it on Wednesday [New Matilda]
• During the testing phase at the five initial mainland NBN sites, certain customers will get access to the network for free. They’ll have to keep paying for their old internet connections though. [SMH]
• Turns out, the entire NBN is just a real world reenactment of Super Mario Bros. Watch the video in the link. [Gizmodo]