If you needed any indication that fibre is a broadband infrastructure for the future, look no further than this morning’s story that German researchers managed to transfer data at 26 terabits per second over a single fibre cable. NBN Co certainly feel vindicated in their choice of a fibre network.
Despite the fact that NBNCo is getting its funding (and there’s a lot of it) from the government, it’s important to remember that the company responsible for building our next-generation broadband network is still very much a startup. Which means that so far, we haven’t really heard too much in the way of NBNCo selling itself to consumers. But it looks like that’s starting to change.
The brilliant minds CSIRO have spent the past few years developing a new wireless technology to deliver high speed wireless internet to rural Australia. Now dubbed Ngara – an Aboriginal word from the Darug people that means ‘listen, hear and think”, the technology promises 12Mbps symmetrical speeds for six simultaneous users and is set to be demonstrated next week in Sydney.
Well, the stalemate was going to end in one of two ways: Either Labor were going to give in to Senator Nick Xenephon’s demands and supply the NBN business plan, or Conroy was going to go on a bloody rampage through the Senate until only politicians supporting the structural separation of Telstra were left to vote. The second would have made a more interesting telemovie, but with only a day left before Parliament goes on Summer vacation, the Government has coughed up a summary of the NBN’s business plan.
If you want the best possible network inside your home, you’ll need to run Cat6 cable through the home. Doesn’t matter if you’re on fibre, cable or ADSL, Cat6 running through your walls is the only way to get the best possible speeds in the home. Having it installed professionally will cost you up to $400 per room. And doing so has absolutely nothing to do with the NBN.
The Federal election has been sitting on the edge of a knife since we went to the polls on August 21, with neither party having enough seats to form government. But the real tragedy has been that with the deadlock, we’ve had no idea whether or not we’d be getting a nationwide broadband network built or not. Fortunately all that ended today, with independent MPs Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott joining with the Labor party to form a minority government, giving them the numbers to keep rolling out the NBN.
Wow. It looks like broadband is truly becoming an election issue, with NBNCo announcing this morning that they won’t just be delivering the 100Mbps speeds previously promised, but will instead deliver 1Gbps speeds to 93 per cent of Australian homes. Like I said… Wow.
