The fiber NBN is 3 months behind, in a 10 year project, but it is not over budget (where did you get this from?) according to the last oversight committee.

Also, neither NBN is intended to be paid for by taxes. Both are to be paid for by their users, as part of their monthly Internet Bill.

And... are your satellites low latency, have they solved how to transmit signals faster then light?

Node NBNs guaranteed top speed is 25 mb/s, but fibers is 1000mb/s. Both can be upgraded in the future. That's 40 to 1, not 4 to one as stated in the article.

I see no prices for O3B in your article. How much would a 2tb of data cost (that's how much the fiber NBN is provisioned for every user)

Paragraph 2 has an error: the GPON fibre technology being installed has a top speed of 2.5Gbps, and NBN Co will be offering speed tiers of 250Mbps, 500Mbps and 1Gbps in December. Future upgrades will see 10Gbps available to 93% of the population if the Libs don't get in and ruin things.

Paragraph 3 has an error: They are somewhat behind schedule but as of Senate Estimates on June 30 they are not over budget. Come on, these are silly mistakes so far - basic research would reveal this.

As for the satellite plan, latency is the issue. Even terrestrial wireless (like 3G and LTE that is - point to point can be OK) has too high latency for a lot of applications, and satellite is worse again.

Stephen G says it all for me!
One can also add, credible reports tell us that the NBN is already earning export incomes, which return more profit to Australia and Australians, than the iron ore industry? And nobody is talking about handcuffing the iron ore industry, but rather, removing the mining tax impost from it!
Of course some will bag the NBN! But particularly, those who's financial interests could be harmed by it?
Murdoch, Google, Apple and other tax avoiding entities?
That said, there's nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition and another option!
Rhrosty.

Hi Rhosty - what report is that you're quoting - seems unlikely to me

Because they are low orbit satellites the latency will only about 1/4
of the synchronus satellites latency.

However as usual the practical comparisons of the FTTN & FTTH are knee
deep in waffle.
For instance how many times have you heard about patient monitoring
being possible with FTTH ?
Well, it can be done with dial up without any real affect on speed.
Most of that gear operates at 9600bd.
I recently had an xray and sonic scan and my doctor had the result
while I walked from the xray premises to the doctors surgery.

Country/city specialist consultation can be done now and is an every
day event.
Anyway the specialist won't look at it until comes back from lunch or golf.
There is a lot of waffle going on. The fttn can operate at 100 Mbit.
If a business wants 1000Mbit they are going to have to pay for it
whether they have fttn or ftth. It will cost big bikies and the
normal taxpayer will not wany anything like that.

Most people have no idea what 1000Mbit means or implies, they are
just captivated by bigger numbers.
Anyway, you cannot get data faster than the remote server can dish it out !

ahh Bazz, can you say

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." like Thomas Watson, the then chairman of IBM?

or

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home." like Ken Olson the then President of Digital Equipment Corporation?

or maybe even

"Everything that can be invented has been invented." like Charles H. Duell the Commissioner of the U.S. Office of Patents in 1899?

The one quote that is actually relevant is by Roy Amara who said:
"We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run."

I wonder if we would have ever built an electricity/phone/road/rail/etc network if we applied the same short term thinking that people are trying to apply to the NBN

Well Grumbler, from your comment I suspect you do not really have a grip
on the subject.

How many weeks of TV watching do you want to download each day ?

Many people just do not realise what those speeds mean in terms of data.
Crazy !

Sam Volkering lists the benefits of the O3b medium-earth-orbit (MEO) satellites in "The future of the Internet is in space" (2 September 2013). But he doesn't mention any of the downsides of the technology or the mixed fortunes of past communications satellite ventures. Satellite communications require a clear path to the sky and so do not work well indoors, or between city skyscrapers. O3b is not intending to service individual users, but mobile phone companies and Internet providers, so does not provide an alternative to the NBN. Past satellite services have had financial problems.

Grumbler you are so far off with your "I wonder if we would have ever built an electricity/phone/road/rail network". The whole point is "WE" didn't. Entrepreneurs did, not governments. If it is worth doing, & likely to be profitable let them do it.

Oh & is the suggestion that the future of the net is in space mean that it is all; pie in the sky?

From today's Australian. No need to wait for Labor's NBN as fiber to the node can do about as good a job today http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/telecommunications/malcolm-turnbull-model-installed-with-nbn-speeds/story-fn4iyzsr-1226709390846

This is really what the election is about. Labor pretends the Liberals want slower speeds, but what they want is a greater range of options, less cost and sooner. That's what we all want.

Yes GRaham, it is a system with the prefix "X".
Just forgotten the full name .

Had an idea it was to be installed in Canberra, but don't know what happened.
People are all a twitter (pun not intended) about speed but they simply
just do not know what it implies.
It is abit like buying a Lamborgini for $250k and finding that you can
get there very quick, but so what you still have to stay at work all day.

Bazz, the Fiber to the Node (FTTN) system in Canberra you might be thinking of is "Transact". This was installed in thousands of homes by an ACT Government owned company (much like NBN Co) around the end of the last century. My apartment building had a fiber optic note installed in the basement when built and copper cable to each apartment. You can read my "First Impressions of Transact", 1 May 2002: http://www.tomw.net.au/links/20020501.html

Transact worked very well and proved very reliable, even during Canberra's 2003 firestorm. But if building it today, it is likely Fibre to The Premises (FTTP) would be used (as with NBN), as it does not cost much more.

In my case, after a few years I found I was not using the bandwidth Transact offered and canceled the service, switching to wireless. The wireless service is much less reliable and much lower speed, but cheaper and more versatile.