Dear Bazz,

The voice of reason here.

I may be naive in many areas and I certainly
don't have all the answers. However, I am
(like so many voters) so darn sick and tired
of the Coalition's constantly telling us what's wrong
with the government while offering us
nothing of any substance. As my father used to tell
me - "criticism is so easy - but how about offering
some solutions on how to fix things."

Lexi;
HMMM, well they did that !

Of course you won't get a full rundown until closer to the election.
Have you forgotten how the coalition used to taunt the labour opposition
on being a policy vacuum.
Oppositions never real their hand until the government makes its policy
speach.
So just be patient it will all come out from both of them sometime
after the budget.

The problem with the critics is that they seem to think the NBN is just about fast speeds for the citizens when it is about updated technology to link us with the world.

For heaven's sake, like whiney babies longing for the days of carrier pigeons and camels they still don't get the point.

Copper is dying, it is slow and inefficient and over crowded. It will be replaced with technology for the next 50 or so years that can be easily extended.

Has anyone else seen the reports that suggest fiber has a shorter service life than copper.

Could the NBN become the new Sydney Harbour Bridge, the first bit painted requires repainting before the whole job is finished.

Sounds like a good long term business. Replacing the first laid, now degraded fiber, before the whole network is finished.

Whoops Lexi;
I meant Conroy, not Combe.

Marilyn, no copper does not die.
In olden times the copper wires were insulated with paper and the cable
was lead sheathed. However earth currents corroded the lead sheathing
and caused faults by letting water into the cable.

This what Sen Conroy is talking about. He has just swallowed a story.

Cable installed in the sixty years or so years since have replaced
the paper/lead cables with teflon/plastic cables.
The cable in my street is as new.

Hasbeen;
I have not heard that fibre is deteriorating. They use it in the
international submarine cables, although it could be a different cable
I just wouldn't know.

I think it is the Rolls Royce solution, but I would settle for a Volvo.

saw this today.

In 2007, Kevin Rudd promised fast broadband for all Australians by 2013 at a cost of $4.7 billion.

Instead, Labor’s NBN is years behind schedule and is likely to end up costing over $90 billion. All this during a time when Labor has racked up a record debt of $300 billion - costing Australians $7 billion a year in interest.