NBN rollout. To 2014 we wait (unless we live in Gungahlin)

I recently attended a Canberra Business Council lunch at the press club (kindly paid for by one of my contacts who needed to make up numbers on a table). Michael Malone from iinet was there to gloat and reassure Canberra how wonderful it was that iinet owned Transact.

Anyway, one of the concerning points he made about the NBN (all points he made were glowing) was that areas of Canberra serviced by Transact fibre cable were going to be considered by the government as “serviced adequately by the NBN”. Argh. The Transact plans are awful – and awfully expensive…

I-filed said :

“Work commenced refers to the date that NBN Co has completed the Network Design Document for a locality and signals the beginning of our engagement with your local community an…. “

I think we can add another few years on.

What do they need to consult with the community about anyway? Laying the cables is an engineering problem.

rosscoact said :

how does one spell nah nah nah nah nah na?

already under construction, sweet

How do you spell nah nah nah nah nah nah, Gungahlinite? Here’s how I spell it:

“Takes me 7 minutes to drive to work at Parliament House from the inner north!”

how does one spell nah nah nah nah nah na?

already under construction, sweet

dpm said :

I’m pretty naive, but it’s a pity they don’t just buy TransACT which is already in place for almost everyone?

TransACT isn’t in place for “almost everyone” and most of it’s subscribers are on networks nothing like the NBN. Their VDSL network is antiquated, except for the small percentage upgraded to VDSL2. The ADSL2+ network is no better than every other ISP in town. Their FTTH network IS just like the NBN – but only services a couple of Gungahlin suburbs.

dpm said :

why did iiNet buy it, if in ~3 years there will be a full NBN cable rollout?

Mostly (but not entirely) to get the subscribers. Scale is important with the NBN.

Read some Whirlpool about it.

I-filed said :

That’s END 2014 before they START work – there’s absolutely no firm commitment other than Gungers. By 2016, how up-to-date will the technology be?

As up to date as any other rollout started now.

And once you’ve got the fibre in the ground upgrading the routing is comparably easy (just like they’ve kept the speeds on the copper network going up and up.

the problem isn’t the engineering, it’s taking what’s supposed to be interconnected networks and having on great big one prone to a single point of failure.

Read the fine print suckers! It’s all nonsense. “Work commenced” is just how they’re describing that they’ve done some basic design work and are ready to begin consultation and planning! And the map is useless – zoom in and the boundaries demarcating who will get NBN coverage conveniently (for Gillard & Conroy) disappears.

“These maps show the estimated likely coverage areas based on our rollout schedule, which may change following more detailed planning and design work.”

“Work commenced refers to the date that NBN Co has completed the Network Design Document for a locality and signals the beginning of our engagement with your local community and council that leads into the detailed design and field inspection work in your area. A rollout map showing the planned coverage area of the fibre or fixed wireless footprint in your community is issued within a month of work commencing.”

“* The boundary identifying areas where work is to commence within one and three years is indicative only. This boundary will disappear as you zoom into the map. “

They are rolling out to every one of the 6 independent’s electorates. Funny about that…

That’s END 2014 before they START work – there’s absolutely no firm commitment other than Gungers. By 2016, how up-to-date will the technology be?

cool Monash is going to be connected soon. once that happens, the rest of the rollout can take forever!!

According to the new roll out maps on the NBN website…. the very northern end (new section) of Watson is now included in the work due to commence in the next 12 months (Pink shaded area)!

Anyone know any more about this?
I’ve emailed NBN… to confirm.

I always suspected Canberra wouldn’t be getting NBN across the city until the last stages of the rollout… Labor can’t afford lots of bad media about this – so can you imagine the news stories – saying Pollies were looking after themselves here in Canberra, before ‘normal everyday Australians’ across the country!

But yes despite that phrase… many of us in the ACT are stuck behind old / bad technology and can’t even get ADSL2/2+ yet – and no sign of NBN either it seems

As a person with underground services that Transact decided to skip because it was going to cost them too much, I’m glad the NBN is being built. Although I do fear that It may take a lot longer to do the underground serviced houses…. I’m sick of my ADSL1 service. My only saving grace is i’m at least close to an exchange.

johnboy said :

Just watch for the terms and conditions of connecting to the NBN.

ownership is control, and the history of censorship in this country does us no credit.

johnboy said :

At the moment it will take legislation to implement filtering. Once the government owns the network it can happen with a nod and a wink.

The NBN infrastructure itself doesn’t give the federal government any more or less ability to implement internet filtering. They will still need to legislate to force ISPs to operate internet filters.

thatsnotme said :

c_c said :

thatsnotme said :

johnboy said :

At the moment it will take legislation to implement filtering. Once the government owns the network it can happen with a nod and a wink.

The Government will not be pushing data to end users. NBN is not a service provider. Unless the Government decides to implement a system that works the same as the Chinese one does, it’ll take a lot more than a nod and a wink to filter traffic to end users – it’s the ISPs who need to implement filtering mechanisms. Not the NBN.

Saying NBN doesn’t control the tap isn’t much good when NBN controls the pipe to the dam.

Look, I’m not saying that I’m not worried about what the Government may or may not do when it comes to internet filtering etc, but to suggest that the NBN suddenly gives them a back door to slip in whatever nefarious reforms they like is just laughable. The NBN is controlled by legislation, and it would take a change in that legislation to implement something like mandatory internet filtering. It would still require the ISPs to implement the filtering – it’s not like we’ve got this one huge pipe that sucks down all of our off-shore data, giving the Government a practical gate they can whack a bloody great filter on. Add to that the fact that the overseas links are not Government owned.

Again, I don’t trust the Government when it comes to censoring the internet, but I also don’t believe having the NBN in place makes it any easier to implement their plans.

Have to check that legislation carefully, there is such a thing as delegated legislation, which may vest the necessary power in the Minister or ACMA without the need to change the Act.

c_c said :

thatsnotme said :

johnboy said :

At the moment it will take legislation to implement filtering. Once the government owns the network it can happen with a nod and a wink.

The Government will not be pushing data to end users. NBN is not a service provider. Unless the Government decides to implement a system that works the same as the Chinese one does, it’ll take a lot more than a nod and a wink to filter traffic to end users – it’s the ISPs who need to implement filtering mechanisms. Not the NBN.

Saying NBN doesn’t control the tap isn’t much good when NBN controls the pipe to the dam.

Look, I’m not saying that I’m not worried about what the Government may or may not do when it comes to internet filtering etc, but to suggest that the NBN suddenly gives them a back door to slip in whatever nefarious reforms they like is just laughable. The NBN is controlled by legislation, and it would take a change in that legislation to implement something like mandatory internet filtering. It would still require the ISPs to implement the filtering – it’s not like we’ve got this one huge pipe that sucks down all of our off-shore data, giving the Government a practical gate they can whack a bloody great filter on. Add to that the fact that the overseas links are not Government owned.

Again, I don’t trust the Government when it comes to censoring the internet, but I also don’t believe having the NBN in place makes it any easier to implement their plans.

Terribly frustrating to have a government that is as terribad as this but doing something as good as the NBN. The coalition really do need to support the NBN instead of being against it “just cos” or spruiking ridiculous notions that wireless is just as good as fiber/fibre everywhere.

The NBN is this generations POTS rollout, it makes me wonder if they were rolling out the phone system these days if the coalition would be against that and insist that people would be able to make do with telegrams.

This isn’t similar in the slightest, you have high speed internet access available RIGHT NOW, and have had so for YEARS. The NBN is a guaranteed internet infrastructure for all houses, it isn’t a dramatic increase in speed. The worst part? It won’t be completely operational until years from now, it costs 43+ billion dollars, and we now have asbestos-like glass fibers under every single property in Australia that will cause the future generation a massive headache. But hey, at least you don’t have to rely on telegrams champ.

thatsnotme said :

johnboy said :

At the moment it will take legislation to implement filtering. Once the government owns the network it can happen with a nod and a wink.

The Government will not be pushing data to end users. NBN is not a service provider. Unless the Government decides to implement a system that works the same as the Chinese one does, it’ll take a lot more than a nod and a wink to filter traffic to end users – it’s the ISPs who need to implement filtering mechanisms. Not the NBN.

Saying NBN doesn’t control the tap isn’t much good when NBN controls the pipe to the dam.

Just watch for the terms and conditions of connecting to the NBN.

ownership is control, and the history of censorship in this country does us no credit.

Jungle Jim said :

dpm – iiNet just bought TransACT.

Yep, I was aware of that. I suppose my question is: why did iiNet buy it, if in ~3 years there will be a full NBN cable rollout? What will it then be used for? I suppose the same as now – zip?

johnboy said :

At the moment it will take legislation to implement filtering. Once the government owns the network it can happen with a nod and a wink.

The Government will not be pushing data to end users. NBN is not a service provider. Unless the Government decides to implement a system that works the same as the Chinese one does, it’ll take a lot more than a nod and a wink to filter traffic to end users – it’s the ISPs who need to implement filtering mechanisms. Not the NBN.

“It appears outside of Gungahlin and Mitchell we’re all going to be waiting until 2014.”

Sorry JB it’s 2015+ if you add in the 12 month completion times

dpm – iiNet just bought TransACT. Also, I’m not sure the fibre being rolled out for NBN is the same as the TransACT cabling in place already.

Also, even though there are only 7 primary suburb listings, they seem to encompass ALL surrounding suburbs too. The interactive map has Wanniassa listed for March 2014.

we will commence work in your area from Mar 2014 in phases with last work scheduled to commence in Dec 2014*

aidan said :

Anyway JB, the map is “within 3 years”, and that pdf says work will commence between April this year and 2015. Looks to me like it will definitely be starting soon.

Pretty sure they stuff marked for “within 1 year” and “within 2 years” will be going first.

As to the network, as a monolithic government owned infrastructure for communication it’s pretty much at odds with everything the internet is supposed to be.

Because it’s not like we don’t have:

— a goddawful history of censorship in this country, or

— plans to regulate even the smallest of blogs, or

— a recent example of media restrictions being used to allow the Government to crush resistance to its policies oppressing some of the most vulnerable people in the world, or

— plans to filter the internet based on secret lists of banned content.

So yeah, government owned internet provision for Australia. We can’t say it’s not part of the same old story, but it’s not as much of a forward step as you’d hope.

The coalition really do need to support the NBN instead of being against it “just cos” or spruiking ridiculous notions that wireless is just as good as fiber/fibre everywhere.

I don’t remember the Libs claiming wireless was ‘just as good as fibre’. Far as I can tell their position was about balancing fibre and wireless, and that we don’t need the expense of fibre rolled out to every home. I tend to agree given the rate at which people have dumped fixed line services in favor of wireless technology, and the relatively low NBN uptake in the first areas connected.

That being said I am looking forward to having fibre at my doorstep, however living in an area with underground services I highly doubt it will reach me by 2014.

I’m pretty naive, but it’s a pity they don’t just buy TransACT which is already in place for almost everyone? Or they could at least ‘rent’ some of it’s bandwidth for a couple of years while they got their cables put in place.
Instead, it just sits there basically doing nothing……

Terribly frustrating to have a government that is as terribad as this but doing something as good as the NBN.

Cognitive dissonance much?

Anyway JB, the map is “within 3 years”, and that pdf says work will commence between April this year and 2015. Looks to me like it will definitely be starting soon.