Comments on: Howard’s broadband – a better mousetrap

By: David

David — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 22:08:57 +0000

I have worked in the IT industry since 1991. Wireless technology suffers from interference when confronted will large obstacles, inclement weather and detiorates over distance.The top speed is considerably slower than wired networks.
I work for a company in the southern suburbs of Sydney and we cannot get a wireless signal as a backup to our DSL connection. And this wireless network is going to be rolled out across the bush? Give me a break. Howard is just trying to plug a hole he’s ignored for years.

By: barney

barney — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:53:30 +0000

Graham,
To suggest that the Government’s broadband policy (even if it were superior which it’s not based upon technical assessments i have seen) is a reason to vote for the return of this government, is again clutching at straws.

By: Graham Young

Graham Young — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 22:55:06 +0000

Amazing number of people turned up to comment and rough me up. I have a friend who runs the Australian arm of a large multi-national company. Stayed with her a couple of nights in Sydney last year. She uses wireless for her laptop and has a mobile for telephony. No copper or fibre cables go anywhere near her up-market apartment. She’s not constrained by location, or position inside the building. That’s what I call superior technology.
If wireless was unreliable, I’m sure she’d install the cable – it’s not a money issue, but a convenience and practicality one. Just like it is for the many countries in the world that will never have a copper-wire network because they’re starting with wireless telephony.
Not that Howard is giving the wireless to most of us – we’ll be getting fibre, just like the ALP proposal.
What’s the bet if Labor wins the election they’ll dress the Howard variation up and go with that rather than the pig in a poke they’ve designed? And no-one will be saying that we can’t do it because we’d be the first in the world, they’ll be saying that being first in the world is what they’re about!

By: John Ryan

John Ryan — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:32:40 +0000

Dear Graham,Howards going to fix it all, what a load of rubbish,if it was as easy as he and you say why was it not done years ago.
Its typical Howard,just bullshit your way out,the sooner this man and his bunch of shify crooks are history the better

By: frank luff

frank luff — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:18:04 +0000

Two months ago I got fed up with telstra.
I had waited a month for an opinion on SAT. internet.
With no negative feed back I had installed a receiver and modem for an activ8 service.
A 1gig download per month costs $50, I pay 8cents per meg if I exceed the contracted price. Instal was free, I live country SA and the govt subsidy paid install cost.
I previously had ISDN price was high service slow and poor.
My average download speed is 209mb, twice that of ISDN.
enough to make me vote Liberal, well almost.
fluff

By: MLK

MLK — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:07:41 +0000

‘John Howard’s … broadband proposal is technologically better than Labor’s and is a third the cost.’
This is a sweeping claim that assumes the author understands, and has fully scrutinised, the technological evidence to back up his claim. Yet, this is doubtful as absolutely NO back-up evidence – technological or otherwise – is provided in the rest of the article.
As someone who fully admits to not understanding the technology or associated costs involved in either the Liberal or Labor proposals, I find this article a reprehensible and damning piece of bias on the part of the author. It is trading on the technological ignorance of people such as myself to push an unashamedly pro-Liberal electoral agenda.

By: bobby

bobby — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 07:42:01 +0000

The use of air interface to deliver service to a fixed point has always been seen an inferior / quick fix solution for telecommunications provision. There may be economic reasons you would use it but it is certainly technically inferior. The author of this article lacks basic understanding of fundamentals on this subject.

By: Jarryd Moore

Jarryd Moore — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 02:17:08 +0000

I have to agree with gandhi, the use of wireless technology is not technologically better than Labor’s proposed fibre to the node.
Graham, you obviously don’t understand the technology and you appear to favour a short term quick-fix rather than a long term investment in a superior technology.

By: al loomis

al loomis — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:16:57 +0000

so if you like lib’s bb policy, you should ignore their foreign policy, their ir policy, and the fact that it might indeed turn out to be non-core.
what a simple world it is..

By: vee

vee — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:17:12 +0000

Given wireless technology is dependent on the weather, its rather useless.