A lot easier to get a data connection to the Internet, and listen to your choice of radio station through streaming. Broadband speeds are now becoming available via satellite if the cell phone / xG network doesn’t provide the coverage.
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I had in mind in my car - where satellite isn’t an option and where, depending on where I am driving, mobile is patchy.
At home, sure, I would be happy to use the internet. However in my car is about the only time I listen to the radio.
(My car does have DAB+ support. However I haven’t worked out from the user interface how to tell whether, at any given time, it is receiving FM or DAB+. The band toggle is just between AM and FM/DAB+. So for the latter you get what you get. Maybe this is just BUOD though.)
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Please excuse the divergence.
The NBN Co will be pleased with that assessment? 
Is it also time to shut down all broadcast radio services and auction off the spectrum for other purposes?
For the NBN and other broadband internet service providers, it would also push every last customer to their web. With only way to listen to the radio or watch TV, optimally as a paid for streaming service. Also a great way to kill off the minnows of the industry (SBS and ABC) for a 100% commercialised free enterprise future. We should be careful what we suggest is possible.
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Couldn’t agree more. But my comment was about getting my choice of radio station by some delivery means. The only one globally is data streaming and the Internet.
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I’m with Vodafone and find I can get a data connection anywhere in major cities, almost all country towns and the more populated country areas. Plus anywhere I can use WiFi. I understand coverage is better with other providers but my plan is the “right price”.
Does DAB provide coverage outside those areas? It’s pretty edge case I would imagine. Can’t imagine why radio stations would invest just for that.
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Your experience is better than mine.
I did say (subsequently) that I was talking about use in a car - so WiFi is not typically applicable. I can’t even get WiFi in my garage.
That is probably the crux of it.
Do radio stations invest in DAB+ or do they invest in streaming? (and perhaps, long term, abandon RF transmission completely)
Or do carriers (or governments) invest in mobile coverage?
However a move away from FTA RF transmission to online streaming may not be in the interests of consumers, for two reasons:
- cost
- privacy / security
The cost angle is that what was once free (to you) now may not be, either due to mobile access costs or even subscription costs.
The privacy / security angle is that these days many radio stations encourage you to install their proprietary app. You have no idea what that app is doing. However more than likely it is collecting marketing information about you.
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One aspect tippy toed around but implied, an AM/FM/DAB+ signal is not likely to install malware on my receiver, unlike anything ‘connected’.
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No, and it would be expensive to provide. I personally don’t think a radio station will spend potentially 10s billions to cover say the eastern coastal strip from Cairns to Adelaide, Tasmania and SW western Australia (repeater transmitters ever 50km or so)… That is an enormous amount of advertising that needs to be sold.
Current coverage is here and possibly won’t change much over time. Maybe larger regional cities/towns could be added, but not areas in between.
https://www.digitalradioplus.com.au/can-i-get-digital-radio
Streaming via mobile is significantly cheaper proposition as it piggybacks on there infrastructure to achieve high potential coverage. Bandwidth requirements is also comparably low as it is sound which is streamed. Station investment costs are also comparably low.
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Which leaves out most of the nation.
No. The frequencies involved do not propagate well. DRM might.
Not in most of Australia.
For the broadcasters, perhaps. For the listeners, not so much.
DAB+ is limited and expensive to implement. Outside of very lucrative markets, it isn’t a solution.
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True. Another use that AM is still critical for is emergency broadcasts (think the 2019 bush fires). If your local transmitter is out because the power has gone down then AM is the only technology which will keep you informed.
A lot of people found out the hard way how important it is to have a battery powered transistor radio around.
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I have (and prefer) AM/FM… I also like to listen from time to time, to Radio National. I have a small Sony trannie. I also have a larger radio into which I can plug my old iphone 3GS or 4 (32 pin connector) but I don’t. DAB+ radio sets have been available to buy here for years. And we dont even have the availability of DAB+. Wonder how many refunds were issued…
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I have three DAB+ digital radios purchased in 2010 (two are battery portables using rechargeable batteries or a plug pack) which work happily in Highton (suburb of Geelong). Sometimes, I have to position a radio to get reception. Otherwise, no problems. I know there is “No coverage” if one looks up the web site, so, I would not recommend going in blind.
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We live in the country (Margaret River, WA) where reception is difficult and the choice of available stations is limited. So we have 3 internet radios which allow us to select (and preset) stations from both Australia and the world. Two of them were under $120, but you can pay a lot more if you really feel you need to. Their sound can be enhanced by the simple attachment to any Bluetooth speaker or audio system. I noticed today that there are hundreds available on Amazon.
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The places I listed (cities, almost all country towns, more populated country areas) cover 95% to 98% of the population. If you go with Telstra you get more coverage again. It is true that there are large unpopulated arid areas in Australia but those don’t constitute most of the people!
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Internet streamed radio is not free. One needs to pay for a service. There’s still a digital divide between the urbanised Australian’s and those not so.
In the instance of storms or power interruptions, or worse. Most of us not in suburbia loose internet. That can also include the local Telstra or other mobile provider’s mobile phone/cell towers.
When all else fails a battery AM radio and ABC 612kHz has good coverage of our area.
It’s worth considering that in severe emergency conditions we can be asked to limit our mobile service use to emergency calls only. The providers can also block users from data services as needed.
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There’s a problem with that article. By and large it assumes that multiple self-aware entities must be simulated, but this is not the case at all.
I cannot prove my wife’s existence any more than I can prove the existence of any of the so-called ‘intelligent’ contributors to the CHOICE fora (/ducks)! All that is needed is a consistent set of inputs to me, and a consistent treatment of outputs from me, for the simulation to be realistic.
If you really want to go easy-mode, don’t even bother with the Earth’s rotation - just have a big ball of light that rises and sets in a predictable pattern, and another ball that is more erratic and does not look like a ball most of the time.
It would not take extraordinary computing resources to simulate the world around an individual - just look at the documentary about Truman Burbank for a low-tech version of it.
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Of course it could all be the ongoing experiment by the pan-dimentional hyper-intelligent Frankie and Benjy.
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