Tuesday, February 16. 2010Wireless Broadband Continues To Make 'NBN2'.....John Linton ......look like the the political stunt it always was. I read this earlier this morning: not in the context of anything wonderful but just as the typical technology advance that is associated with any technology - technologies just keep evolving to meet ever more demanding requirements. It always surprises me that the dummies who comment about wireless broadband seem to have come down in my grandmother's "last shower of rain" in making their comments about how "wireless bandwidth will never be enough for ADSL users" and "wireless speeds will never be enough for ADSL users". Are they really so ignorant of the development of technology generally, and communications technology in particular, that they have forgotten or have no knowledge of the evolution of data over copper? Have they forgotten that in the very early 1970s that the speed of data transmission was 2400 baud (remember that word usage?...used by Emile Baudot when he was pioneering the development of data transmission in the first years of the 20th century). 2400 is close enough to bits per second which began to replace baud as the bit transfer rate leapt to an incredible 4800 bps in around 1972. Of course by the time 'commercial' internet emerged in the early 1990s the rate had doubled again and throughout the dial up internet 'era' it kept increasing until it was a massive 56 kbps!!!! )f course knowledgeable people were aware of the Bell Labs development by two young engineers in Chicago in around 1992 of commercial modems that could deliver 2 mbps x 2mbps over the same copper lines and had been selling those services to business customers in Australia for over a decade before Telstra finally got around to introducing their super fast residential internet service at a massive 512/128 kbps. So now residential internet can run over copper at 20 mbps down and 2 mbps up in ideal conditions some 40 years after it began to be used in Australia but the dummies (who may well have come down in the last shower) don't either know anything about wireless technology, don't bother to inform themselves before commenting or are, well, just dummies in every aspect of communications technologies. For those with less than total short term memory loss you will remember that it was only an election ago that Krudd thought promising 12 mbps speeds to 'most' Australians within 5 years was a pretty amazing election winner. I was one of the few really stupid people who said that wireless would deliver those speeds to a lot more Australian users in a lot shorter time and at no cost to the tax payer. Currently there are something like 3 million wireless broadband users, a fair number in rural and regional areas, paying a lot less than the prices mooted for the 'NBN2' - well BEFORE THE FIRST 'NBN2' USER HAS BEEN ACTIVATED! Telstra's 'stunt' announcement today/yesterday is irrelevant other than it illustrates how fast wireless broadband technology is moving and, with the testing of LTE in Australia later this year by both Telstra and Optus how quickly it will continue to move. It is not beyond reasonable possibility that there will be more wireless users than their will be ADSL users before the first 'NBN2' mainland user is activated - and that will have been accomplished without a single tax payer dollar being spent....let alone several tens of billions or whatever the current wild estimate is. For the nay sayers (who have zero knowledge - just a couple of unattributed sould bites) the 'NBN2' has become a reality before anyone has either costed the build and ongoing maintenance or sorted out how enough customers can be found to make a sensible (non-government subsidised) selling price even vaguely attractive. The amount of column inches printed saying positive things about the viability (financial and commercial) of Krudd's face saving stunt would probably reach from Sydney to Alpha Centauri and back - and every one of those column inches have almost certainly been written by a 'journalist' who hasn't got even the basic understanding of communications technologies or Australia's communications user bases and their requirements and their financial limitations. What would happen if Krudd spends the future of Australia on a pipe dream network that nobody wanted to use?
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It's not about the speed (atleast for me), that's just a big dick contest with very few runners. Telstra themselves say its 8mbps real world currently, yet advertise it as 21mbps. So this is 16? Yep. Fast. But data is expensive. And unless they sell off enough spectrum, and have enough equipment in the towers (in some places unlikely as local tin-foil hatters oppose locations, atleast in my area with Optus currently), then there is little change of it taking over from ADSL as it *COULD*.
The counter arguement in a way is that data, when ADSL was first here, was expensive, so in time, given Telstra enough profit and market share to secure its near monopoly on the entire telecommunications market, data may come down in price. Unlikely. We need more carriers, and therefore more equipment to being prices inline with what we are paying now for the data we use, and then, for people like me, latency issues need to somehow be addressed (I play online alot). Comments (2)
The point of my post was not that Telstra can't deliver 42 mbps but that it can deliver a faster speed than yesterday.
It just confirms what has always happened - that any technology continues to improve until the time it is overtaken by a new technology. pre the last election Krudd promised an "Australia wide speed of 12 mbps' which I ridiculed at the time as being less than wireless would deliver before an expensive tax payer spade hit the soil to start such a build. There is still no "NBN" but wireless speeds have increased four fold since the original Krudd promises and will continue to increase. Comments (7)
Point taken. I actually had not looked at it like that.
Comments (2)
Real world speeds through Optus wireless are still slow and variable compared to ADSL, and data allowance is still very low by comparison. When these issues are adressed, and providers like Exetel can offer us an improved wireless experience, then that is when I will call the NBN2 a white elephant.
Don't get me wrong. I love the wireless technology. But I only use it occasionally for email and a bit of surfing. It will still be a way off before I cancel my ADSL1 service. But I look forward to that day... Comment (1)
As fast as the speed is increasing with regards to wireless technology, how has the latency improved?
I have no idea what the percentage is of internet users who place a great emphasis on latency, but with the increasing popularity of online gaming via consoles I suspect its going to do nothing but increase. Speed is all well and good, but if latency makes the experience frustrating for things beyond email and basic browsing its not a REALLY a replacement for wired. Though I guess that begs the question: is the immense cost of the NBN2/3/4 justifiable on latency issues alone? Comment (1)
"Network latency will also improve, from as much as 200 ms today to 5 to 10 ms with LTE". Taken from article below.
http://mobiledevdesign.com/tutorials/lte_next_step_cellular_3g-1027/ Article was written in 10/2008 and has dubious claims of speed, however, LTE looks like the go for gamers. Yes, I am concerned about latency also. Davester. Comments (2)
Latency for wireless is well within acceptable limits for everything but the most 'precious' game players. Even VoIP quality is fine.
If prices were cheaper and bandwidth more consistent (I'm sure Optus are trying to squeeze as many users as possible onto their 3G network... they really need to upgrade the quantity of cells they have), I would switch to 3G wholesale. Comment (1)
When John Howard announced the plans for OPEL I was ecstatic. I feel it was the best most well thought out plan possible.
OPEL would have given immediate relief to regional cities with ADSL2+ and at the same time roll out wimax towers all over australia. It would have put us as number 1 (for once) in wireless broadband. Not to mention it was only a fraction of the cost of this 43 billion dollar NBN plan. Didn't they spend millions just to figure out using copper would be a stupid idea? I am stuck, at the old bald hills exchange in brisbane. There is only telstra. The problem with telstra is the high access costs. This is the exact same problem the NBN will have if they spend this much money on fibre optic. We will be paying $90 just to get access to the bloody thing let alone bandwidth. I get the feeling telstra played a part in the killing of opel. Comment (1)
Purely a Krudd decision.
No need for Opel with der fuhrer's final solution for Australia wide communications. Comments (7)
Does the wireless with these faster speeds have better stable pings to gaming server or just to servers.
this is one of the reasons i will not go with wireless as (in my experience) pings are crap for gaming and where u are playing CSS (counter strike) u need a lower ping to be able to kill the other players etc. Comment (1)
Today, wireless is unsuitable for playing games in many coverage locations.
That will change over time. Comments (7)
Totally agree, latency will improve over time.
At this time, FPS gaming is unplayable on wireless. Agree, VoIP is fine on 3G No I am not precious, BF2 is unplayable on wireless. However, it is most satisfying on ADSL. Comments (2)
Thought his might be of interest to you:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1236346&p=47#r940 Regards, Harry. Comment (1)
harry,
Thank you for the reference but I didn't see anything of interest. It probably didn't help that I have no idea who MaxoTel is. Comments (7)
John Lindsay of Internode disagrees, saying "that the way mobile operators and fixed-line operators use terminology to describe internet speeds is inconsistent and creates an unrealistic expectation that wireless technology can match terrestrial services."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/opinion/add-one-more-modem-and-the-whole-thing-comes-crashing-down/story-e6frgd0x-1225832340574 Comment (1)
I'm not sure how there is any relevance in that unascribed comment to the general concept that technologies become faster and more usable over time - which is undeniable.
What some moron chooses to say along the way about speeds and capabilities doesn't change anything. Comments (7)
Hey John,
That "moron" happens to be John Lindsay of Internode! Comment (1)
It wouldn't matter if it was Albert Einstein, Bill Gates or Lady GaGa - the fact is that all technologies continue to develop throughout their life time and what is true one day is not true subsequently.
Technology will always find a way - to misquote Dr Ian Malcolm. Comments (7)
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