Both technology ministers in our government are near, if not complete, luddites.
Joining Richard Alston, as luddite IT minister, is Helen Coonan, who recently went on the public record with the ABC, stating:
“The technical limitations are of course that the fibre doesn’t go beyond 1.5 kilometres of a telephone exchange or a node.”
Which is a complete load of shit.
FTTN can be simply described as bringing the telephone exchange (where typical ADSL equipment is housed) closer to the customer.
Now, you can ask Telstra, you can ask Optus, you can ask iiNet, you can ask BT, you can ask any DSL carrier in the world, what the limitation of DSL on an average copper line is.
They’ll generally respond with something like 5km. Which would be near true.
For around a 1Mbit connection, using ADSL technology, you want to try and be within 5kms of the ADSL equipment.
ADSL/2/2+ typically however, can provide services at up to 7kms from the exchange, at obviously slower speeds.
FTTN technology, would be used to bring ADSL equipment closer to customers. So, by that logic, if customers (such as me) can get broadband services of as fast as ADSL1 can go (such as me), at line lengths of approximately 3km from the exchange (such as me), then the point published on this ABC website, quoting Helen Coonan stating FTTN won’t work more than 1.5kms can be looked at as uninformed bullshit.
Then, in other news of technology ministers knowing little about technology, we have Conroy, being a luddite, just like Coonan, with comments such as:
“rural and regional Australia will be waiting 35 long years to reach the same level of investment in rural and regional telecommunications that Labor is prepared to do right now”
Which is also a load of shit.
OPEL’s network is offering wholesale backhaul access to providers, one of the big barriers to investment into regional areas, identified by numerous providers, except Telstra (who owns the backhaul network).
Using that wholesale backhaul network, providers will be able to justify investment into those areas, much earlier than the 35 years quoted by the idiot known as Conroy.
I said it before, I’ll say it again.
Idiots employed on the Coalition side.
Idiots employed on the Labor side.
Australia, you have idiots as choices to vote in at the election. Your vote is probably worth about 5c on eBay, because it really doesn’t matter who gets voted in, either way, we have idiots for technology ministers, incapable of even basic research. Those same problems follow through, right through to near the top of the party, where I suspect John Howard and Peter Costello, and Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan have at least SOME intelligence to use.
Enjoy!