Goodbye Labor, Hello NBN...

NBN "connection boxes" and Telstra T-Gateway™ inside house

For years residents of Palmerston via Gungahlin in the Australian Capital Territory have, in full view of Parliament House, suffered from the first-world problem of extremely slow Internet access. But in a stroke of good fortune, we were connected to the National Broadband Network (NBN) exactly one week before the major proponent of the NBN, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, lost his job at the 2013 federal election.

Although under the Coalition, fibre infrastructure will continue to be built to the "node" (FTTN) or a cabinet that serves a neighbourhood, those who have missed out on NBN proper can expect to have connection speeds that may vary depending on the type of last mile connection from the node.

At this stage, it is anticipated that fibre to the home (FTTH) will not be delivered by the Coalition government except for some 22% of the population which includes greenfield developments and existing NBN Co contracts. FTTN is expected to be provided to 71% of the population by 2015, with the remaining 7% to receive satellite or 4G services as per the original NBN plan. Under the Coalition's plan, speeds of 25 to 100mbps can be expected by 2015 with speeds of up to 100mbps by 2019.

In the meantime, we are now connected to NBN proper. It has certainly improved our connection speeds, but most noticeable is the upload speed - especially for uploading teaching content for my role at the University of Canberra - which previously was so slow as to be almost impossible. But there are a few downsides.

The NBN "utility box" outside

In particular, the ugly boxes inside the house. Apparently in new houses the intention was to have these boxes located in the garage or somewhere discrete, but we were stuck for choice and these are located in the lounge room. The outside "utility" box is located with other services so it is less obtrusive, although much larger than the old copper connection.

But the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. From my Alienware M14 laptop via Wi-Fi, I receive on average about 52-54mbps download speed.

Connection speed test via Wi-Fi

Via Ethernet, the connection is obviously much faster, but having a cable running through the middle of the lounge room is far from practicable.

Connection speed test via Ethernet

And my iPad 2 via Wi-Fi tends to be slower still, yet today it performed quite well with about 25mbps.

But the bottom line is that a 100mbps package hasn't really changed our lives. Even with the XBox and the T-Box connected directly via Ethernet, movie downloads and other streaming content tend to be delivered much more reliably, even if it still takes relatively the same time to commence watching the movie while waiting for the initial download. Most noticeable for me is uploading video lectures to Moodle, the University of Canberra's Learning Management System. Via a 6mbps ADSL connection, this was basically impossible, but now I have much more luck in uploading multimedia content. Aside from this, I am glad I didn't have to pay for the fibre connection, but at an extra $10 per month on top of our previous Telstra plan, it is certainly worth it.

Book Notes: "Flappers and Philosophers" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Flappers and Philosophers by F. Scott Fitzgerald

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I am still amazed at the intense life experience at such a young age. Even though the themes are often about "coming-of-age", FSF's depth of maturity and comprehension of the deeper side of social relations is evident in each short story. "Benediction" was particularly haunting and seems to pre-empt Hemingway's "iceberg" principle. Certainly worth a read and I must say I am now a convert to the short story...



View all my reviews

Book Notes: "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What can I really say about a classic? Better than the 1971 movie, but wish I'd read the book first. I'd rather Luhrmann had let it be... couldn't finish his movie.



View all my reviews

Why are we [still] waiting for the NBN in Palmerston via Gungahlin?

One of my major thesis findings was that Australia's centrally-controlled approach to enabling, coordinating and regulating communications networks invariably takes longer than Canada's decentralised approach to connect citizens. Yesterday adds a little more proof to the pudding.

In my previous post I mentioned how it was Telstra, not NBN Co., that informed me of the availability of the NBN in my area. Consequently, and with bated breath, we waited from 1pm to 5pm yesterday for NBN Co. to arrive. Finally, after years of slow Net connections (until only just recently) in Palmerston, we had high hopes that by Tuesday next week, we would be screaming over the Net at 100 mbps. But that isn't how centrally-controlled systems work.

By 5:30pm, we had heard nothing. No show, no phone call, no nothing. I decided to call Telstra to see if we could do something before our appointment with them on Tuesday to finalise the connection. I was given a direct number to call the next day if we had still heard nothing from NBN Co.

By midday today, I had given up. I called Telstra. Of course, we had to reschedule the appointment. And the next available appointment is: 23 October. It might as well be 23 October 2050.

So there we have it: no customer service, no nothing from NBN Co. Very much like the bad old days of Telecom. 

How this plays out is anybody's guess. But if history tells us anything, as long as the fascination with centrally-controlled telecommunications policy persists, Australia can expect a visit from the "ghosts of fraudbands past" with the next iteration of communications technology, whenever that may be.

Book Notes: "Death in Venice" by Thomas Mann

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I must admit to a dose of uneasiness with the protagnist's creepy paiderastial stalking, but I put it down to a sign of the times much like one would with the stalker-story lyrics in Daddy Cool's "Come Back Again". But as Appelbaum (the translator) suggests in the notes, in basing the novel on an the author's personal experience, Mann "preserved his decorum and his wits, or we would never have had a story", so the reader need not get too morally involved in the details. At first glance some recurring grotesque characters belie the Dionysion versus Appolonian development of the plot as Aschenbach's infatuation takes over. The title, of course, does not hide the ending. Nonetheless, Mann's interweaving of Greek mythology in support of the central theme neatly presents German philosophy in this rather deep novella. I have started to watch the 1971 movie based on this novel but I must say I am glad (as always) at having read the book first - the mythological figures which one can re-imagine after my initial reading of the characters is most certainly lost in the opening scenes of the movie - but that should come as no surprise.



View all my reviews