The NBN in principle is a great idea. Great for business, hospitals, schools, Universities, Medical Research, the Government and anyone else who needs high speed internet access. New Zealand has a much better NBN set up where everyone has super high speed, fibre all the way. This is the future. The Government in its wisdom decided that a full fibre network was too expensive. I believe that eventually the NBN will have to be upgraded as the copper wires breakdown and at what cost? Well what are they going to do when the G5 mobile network is up and running and with very high speed internet access. As a consumer what would you sign up to the NBN (No Bloody Network) or G5 when it arrives. As mentioned in the earlier comments the NBN is like a road, a highway, schools, universities, hospitals and every other essential service it needs to be there for the benefit of Australian citizens and if Australia is to compete in the global marketplace and remain competitive or have a potential competitive advantage. Also what will happen when G6 eventually comes along? It just shows that sometimes a very good idea can be slowly turned into a white elephant. If I was able to stay on ADSL2 I would but the NBN shuts down all other options other than having the NBN or mobile internet access. The NBN is coming to Hurstville and I will unfortunately eventually have to switch over.
The funny thing is that, to achieve the phenomenal speeds, 5G relies on ultra-short wavelengths (millimetre waves - 24-86 GHz). Those wavelengths propagate very poorly. Achieving the promised performance requires a transmitter within about 200 metres. Wireless backhaul canât do the job, so each transmitter must be served by fibre. So your 5G network demands fibre to a 200 metre grid-spacing. Might as well just run it to the premises and be done with it.
There are lower-frequency variants of 5G. They donât deliver the speeds that will supposedly make the NBN redundant.
Those millimetre waves donât penetrate walls. To get service inside a building requires transmitters inside. How are NIMBYs who object to a transmitter in the neighbourhood going to cope with a transmitter in the room?
Itâs also another way if implemented to push users to upgrade at great private expense to a fixed line option. Some will always have worse outcomes due to poor signal, while others will see increased variability in performance.
One way to reduce congestion and have users fund directly the capital value of the NBN.
Coupled with the lack of fairness when the NBN uses your expense to upgrade other customers itâs all good for the NBN. Individual customers have little leverage on this at present.
It appears from the back down by the NBN on the NBN proposed $65 new customer FW plan, that the government is very sensitive to rural consumer sentiment.
Perhaps Choice might like to start a campaign to change how costs of technology choice outcomes are apportioned to a fairer outcome. Noted the NBN is also now proposing improved support to interested customers.
The other not often thought about limitation is the 5G bandwidth is shared at the tower (the total limit is a pittance compared to a single fibreâs bandwidth to your home. Mobile Networking makes sense when mobile and far less sense when in a premises (I am not talking about a home wifi service from a router connected by fibre in the mobile networking sense here)
According to one source:
âA single strand of fibre-optic cable can carry 20,000 times more data than the entire radio frequency spectrum combined.â
Another complication of which I was recently informed is that achieving the speeds takes a great deal of power at the transmitter. Around ten times that of a typical 4G transmitter. Thatâs going to cause problems.
That power and the bandwidth could perhaps give you a bit of âsunburnâ 
(5G only penetrates skin deep). 5G has as mentioned a great deal of problems passing through any objects in their wayâŠour skin blocks themâŠso glass metal plastic etc in your car will form a decent barrier so an external antenna may become necessary in future the further you get from a transmitter tower. But the biggest issue will be contention at the towers even if they are closely spaced. One user may get excellent service at very high speeds but add a few more and service will drop off markedlyâŠadd even more and it will be just the same as any congested 3G or 4G variants already in place but with far less ability to be received in enclosed spaces eg buildings unless they are fitted with internal transmitters as you noted.
Perhaps or just a way for NBN Co to provide a basic bare minimum as the LNP plan seemed determined to do service rather than spend the money on a real service.
I wish! The reality seems to be that if thereâs an asset to be sold - and mates whoâd like to buy it - thereâll be a future government to tell us itâs all for our own good.
This! This 100 times!!! If only a government since the 1980s accepted the idea of âpublic goodâ.
Unfortunately we live in an age where dollars rule and nobody cares about the sense.
I hate to have to point it out, but Keating was the first to the privatisation well.
Everything Defence spends affects GDP. What doesnât affect GDP are those hours you spend volunteering, or looking after a sick relative, or mowing your own lawn rather than paying someone to mow it. The exchange of currency is what matters with GDP. The originators of it created the concept for a wartime economy and shouted from the rooftops about how flawed it was for any other purpose - and we are still stuck with governments and media constantly focusing on what is happening to the GDP.
Mobile will never compete with fixed line. There just isnât enough bandwidth for everyone!
It is a shame that we missed out on a world-class fibre network. It is a shame we canât get a levy on the stuff that multinationals are digging out of Australia. It is a shame that we canât even manage to put a price on carbon. There are so many opportunities this country has missed, due to a few naysayers.
Keating began the privatisation of Telstra, for example. Howard took it to a ruinous extreme.
Privatisation was the faith of a certain time in Australian politics. That time is drawing to a close. Some still cling fanatically to the Market as Deity, however.
