Government may go it alone on NBN

Speculation from an industry consultant suggests the Australian government may 'go it alone' in building the NBN. This is not such a bad idea, with the tender process already fraught with political strife. There are opportunities for the government to build such a project in a way that benefits citizens, rather than entrenching interests which will add another legacy to the already ailing system.

It is still speculation at this stage, but it is about time the public debate changed its tune. It would be great to see such important infrastructure built in the public interest, but determining what the 'public interest' should be, however, is another story.

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World's fastest consumer broadband

The New York Times is reporting that the fastest consumer broadband connection in the world at the moment is Liberty's J:Com service in Japan. At 160mbps, the speed is no doubt blistering. At $20 for the upgrade to pass each home, it is cheap, too.

I am not convinced that the prices are not subsidised by the Japanese government, but the NYT article makes a point that one of the reasons blistering Net speeds are not available in the US is that it may impact upon the cable providers' subscription TV services.

It will be interesting to find out the details of Australia's NBN and whether similar technology will be available here.

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BroadbandNow: Lights on, but nobody's home

Recently, I made a personal commitment to blog regularly. As nothing really happens on a Sunday, I thought I would have a look at the Australian Government's broadband portal. After stumbling upon Telstra's criticism of the previous government for excluding the major telco from the information on broadbandnow.gov.au, I thought I would try it out.

It seems broadbandnow.gov.au is no longer available - it says that access is restricted, even though the Regional Entry Point still says it is the place to check the availability of broadband.

So I thought I would give the government a break and see if there was a new consumer site for checking broadband availability. Maybe the website was simply out of date. I found the Broadband Service Locator here.

I entered my address (in the Gungahlin region) and found that Telstra was not listed as a provider (even though I subscribe to BigPond). Naturally(!), cable Internet access is not available in this area. The Broadband Service Locator suggests that the only available ADSL 2+ services in my area are from iiNet or NetSpace. When I used NetSpace's locator service, ADSL 2+ is not available.

It seems that the only ADSL 2+ services (according to the government's locator) are Telstra (not mentioned) and iiNet. It was an interesting exercise, and if I wasn't travelling for an extended period later in the year, I may have changed providers (I dislike being locked into a contract).

Nonetheless, the exercise proves a point from an earlier post - side issues are affecting the government's ability to focus on the demand-side issues concerning broadband access and take-up. The lights are on, but nobody's home!