i...got a in ground copper line
that i dont use..because im not intrested
in paying over 30$ per month..just to let telstra ignore updating it

far as im concerned i payed acces fes for over 40 years
my fees helped pay for it to be built

yet im stuck on quater of a gig download per month
on a stick..from dodo..that dont work most times..
and cant even download an abc film-clip...
[when this was nothing when i had copper]

its much the same annoyance's with tv/radio
that are going digetal next year

its buy a new tv..or a set top box
and buy a digetal radio

and pay 30 dollars access
and pay a service provider

i will stick with my dodo stick..for 50 a year
rather than giveup to govt gone insane

they will soon 'freup'..the tv aspecrum
for what?..cause we all going to get fibre

not fibre to the node
but fibre to my door...lol

and i will still be on dodo
/%50 for 50$

and i still wont be paying
to conect to the darnn nbn/thing
cause im over paying EXTRA infastructure fees
on top of EVERYTHING*

let the big gig greedy..gig AB_USERS
PAY FOR THEIR huge/SPECTRUM abUSE

fee free...and 5 gig basic for free
anymore than that is simply playing mind/games
that others are paying for...

next year my tv wont work
nor my radio...[this is what govts do]
then tax ya till ya complain..then to court..and lock you in jail

where its all free
yipee

Dear Csteele,

You missed the main point:
Whether you already did, or whether you will in the future, use my tax-money for your personal and family enjoyment, I do forgive you - money comes, money goes.

My point was, why on earth, while you and your family are getting all your dreams fulfilled, would you want to deprive me of my only phone line and leave me almost totally disconnected from the rest of the world - no phone, no internet, no job, life practically coming to a halt.

I really need my copper connection and at present there's a company or two that are happy to provide it to me. I am happy to pay them even 10 times to keep my line and they would be happy to take my money and give me the service, but... Julia and her government would not allow it: Once the NBN takes away my line, I would need to find a payphone to make necessary calls and go to a public library to use the internet. I will not be able to receive calls from family and friends or even dial 000 in emergency. Is that fair?

'While fibre is technically better, it is becoming functionally obsolete'

You must concede though SM, that after the data gets to the tower, it then quite often travels along fibre optic cable. And there aren't many towers in Gulgong.

csteele,

I agree with the helping of rural areas to an extent, though I always argue nobody forces someone to be a farmer. You must take the good and the bad of city life as well as country life. Which is why I also like to admonish people who buy a house next to a pub (Or a home of partying backpackers) and then complain about the noise. This is part of the deal with inner city living. Deal with it. Slow internet could be said to be part of living in the country. As could nice clean air, no traffic to get to work. Swings, roundabouts.

The city people, in their greater numbers, could pay off more of the NBN investment via exorbitant monopoly broadband fees if it was rolled out first, and saving loan interest and making the whole project much cheaper by the time it is rolled out to the country. But I believe the country people need it more. I suppose it depends on how committed one is to finishing the project, not to mention what electorates independent MPs are from.

I think there is tremendous potential to decentralise the workplace and alleviate road traffic, but bosses don't trust workers, and never will. Remote desktop needs FA bandwidth, but is rarely utilised in the eternally suspicious boss world we live in. So that kills that argument for it.

So we're back to faster entertainment, and the supposed 'remote medical consultations' which I see as equivalent in likelihood to the 'paperless orifice', and 'leisure society' future-predictions. Crystal ball stuff.

I await a study in 2050 showing the pitfalls of online diagnosis affecting rural people and talk about their human rights.

Closing hospitals... like banks close branches.

Dear Shadow Minister,

You say; “The latest statistics show that nearly half new broadband connections are mobile wireless. While fibre is better a connection the lack of mobility is an issue. While fibre is technically better, it is becoming functionally obsolete.”

Before I got my IPhone I might have had some sympathy for your comment. But here is the reality of my situation. We have four mobile phones in our house. All with a 3G wireless broadband connection to their respective providers. We have only one broadband connection to our house but it services four computers, four mobiles and one T-Hub (yes I was stupid and weak). My phone has a 1GB data limit but I would gobble that up pretty quickly if I had to rely on that alone. All my heavy downloads like pod and vod casts, and applications I leave until I get home. I hardly ever watch any of my news apps on 3G nor upload pictures to cloud, it is mostly all done when connected to our home unit.

I am not claiming my reality is the same as others but it is becoming more of the norm. To get the level of service and download speeds I am currently enjoying from my home internet via wireless would be totally cost prohibitive, and this is without fibre to the home. 3G is not bad but it is a fraction of the speed and dropouts are frequent depending on the number of users on the network, interference and signal strangth

csteele, you may be getting your duvalakkies mixed up with your thingimawhatsits? You say you’re upgrading to 200GB? Does that make it faster?

Houellebecq,

Towers generally don't need to be mobile, and for this application fibre is far better suited.

90% of the cost of the NBN is the fibre to the homes.

CS, the cost of Mobile wireless is a fraction of what it was 5yrs ago, and is far more accessible. $40/m gets you 8G (heaps for basic access), at 3Mb/s which is cheaper and better than ASDL 5 years ago. With new 4G technology and upgrades, both the price and quality will improve dramatically over the next decade.

Fibre has been around for decades, whilst wireless is just beginning.