Why I care about the NBN
First of all, yes I'm a general Greens / Labour supporter so it's not surprising that I like the NBN. I work in a tech field (specifically datacomms) that also generally supports the NBN. I have plenty of reasons to support the NBN from those, but here's the "how it affects me" ones.
I live in inner-city Sydney, specifically Ultimo, literally in the afternoon shadow of (probably) the most wired building in the country, the GlobalSwitch datacenter, yet on a bad day I get 1Mb or so through my Internet connection.
I do have two basic options for a home Internet connection where I live, both through Telstra's infrastructure, either their HFC cable network, or classic copper. As Telstra (last time I tried) were unable to sell a real business-class service on HFC I use ADSL, and since I consider IPv6 support a requirement, I use Internode (there's other reasons I use them as well, but IPv6 sadly is still hard to get from other providers). Due to the location of my apartment 3/4g services aren't an option even if they were fast enough (or affordable).
Sadly the copper in Ultimo is in a sad state with high cross-talk and attenuation. I suspect this is likely due to passing underground through Wentworth Park[1] which is only a meter or two above sea level so water damage is highly likely.
Even on a good day I only barely sustain ~8Mb down, ~1Mb up, with no disconnects, on a bad day it can be as low as 1Mb down, with multiple disconnects per hour.
It's the last point I particularly care about, regular disconnects make the service unreliable and are the aspect that is most irritating.
Speed, although people often want it is of limited value to me, once I can do ~20Mb down and ~5Mb up that's enough for me, handles file uploads fast enough and offers a nice buffer for video conferencing (yes I really do join video conferences from home). I suspect I will subscribe to a 50/20 plan if/when NBN is available in my area. In theory NBNco should have commenced construction in the Pyrmont/Glebe/Ultimo/Haymarket area this month (per their map), but I'm not aware of anyone who has been contacted to confirm this.
Because I'm in an apartment complex it's likely that the coalition's plan would have a node in the basement (there's already powered HFC amps in the basement car parks so it wouldn't be unprecedented), this matches some versions of the NBN plan, although the current plan (last I saw) is fibre to each apartment. Once a node is within a building cable damage due to water is unlikely and I'd probably be able to sustain a decent service, but if I ever moved to a townhouse then I'd be back to potentially dodgy underground cable.
I don't believe forcing Telstra & Optus to convert their HFC networks into wholesale capable networks is a sensible idea for a variety of reasons, the two major being would they still be able to send TV, and the need to split the HFC segments into much smaller sections to be able to sustain throughput. Even with the current low take-up rate of cable Internet I know many people in Melbourne who find their usable throughput massively degrades at peak times, something that would almost certainly get worse, not better, if HFC became the sole method of high speed Internet in a region.
I also still maintain my server and Internet service at my old place in Melbourne, and will get at least 50/20 there, should it ever be launched, when I first got ADSL2+ service I managed to sustain 24/2 but now only 12/1, presumably due to degrading lines, which makes me wonder about how fast and reliable a VDSL based FTTN would actually be.
1: The only real alternate path would add a kilometre or more of cable to avoid that low lying area.
I live in inner-city Sydney, specifically Ultimo, literally in the afternoon shadow of (probably) the most wired building in the country, the GlobalSwitch datacenter, yet on a bad day I get 1Mb or so through my Internet connection.
I do have two basic options for a home Internet connection where I live, both through Telstra's infrastructure, either their HFC cable network, or classic copper. As Telstra (last time I tried) were unable to sell a real business-class service on HFC I use ADSL, and since I consider IPv6 support a requirement, I use Internode (there's other reasons I use them as well, but IPv6 sadly is still hard to get from other providers). Due to the location of my apartment 3/4g services aren't an option even if they were fast enough (or affordable).
Sadly the copper in Ultimo is in a sad state with high cross-talk and attenuation. I suspect this is likely due to passing underground through Wentworth Park[1] which is only a meter or two above sea level so water damage is highly likely.
Even on a good day I only barely sustain ~8Mb down, ~1Mb up, with no disconnects, on a bad day it can be as low as 1Mb down, with multiple disconnects per hour.
It's the last point I particularly care about, regular disconnects make the service unreliable and are the aspect that is most irritating.
Speed, although people often want it is of limited value to me, once I can do ~20Mb down and ~5Mb up that's enough for me, handles file uploads fast enough and offers a nice buffer for video conferencing (yes I really do join video conferences from home). I suspect I will subscribe to a 50/20 plan if/when NBN is available in my area. In theory NBNco should have commenced construction in the Pyrmont/Glebe/Ultimo/Haymarket area this month (per their map), but I'm not aware of anyone who has been contacted to confirm this.
Because I'm in an apartment complex it's likely that the coalition's plan would have a node in the basement (there's already powered HFC amps in the basement car parks so it wouldn't be unprecedented), this matches some versions of the NBN plan, although the current plan (last I saw) is fibre to each apartment. Once a node is within a building cable damage due to water is unlikely and I'd probably be able to sustain a decent service, but if I ever moved to a townhouse then I'd be back to potentially dodgy underground cable.
I don't believe forcing Telstra & Optus to convert their HFC networks into wholesale capable networks is a sensible idea for a variety of reasons, the two major being would they still be able to send TV, and the need to split the HFC segments into much smaller sections to be able to sustain throughput. Even with the current low take-up rate of cable Internet I know many people in Melbourne who find their usable throughput massively degrades at peak times, something that would almost certainly get worse, not better, if HFC became the sole method of high speed Internet in a region.
I also still maintain my server and Internet service at my old place in Melbourne, and will get at least 50/20 there, should it ever be launched, when I first got ADSL2+ service I managed to sustain 24/2 but now only 12/1, presumably due to degrading lines, which makes me wonder about how fast and reliable a VDSL based FTTN would actually be.
1: The only real alternate path would add a kilometre or more of cable to avoid that low lying area.