Round 7 (final)

Shadow Minister – I think we might wind this saga up. No doubt it’s boring the hell out of anyone who is still following this thread.

So what you now admit to is, under the Turnbull/Rabbott NBN the low income consumer in Sydney would have to pay to upgrade the service to the level currently being offered by the existing NBN scheme. Your words “If any consumer who has had his network upgraded from 1Mb/s to 50Mb/s wants to upgrade to the more expensive NBN fiber 100Mb/s then he needs to pay for it.”

Shadow Minister I had a quick look at all your posts to see where you asked “why does a low income consumer need 100Mb/s” I’m sorry I could not find it. Could you give me the time and date of that post please?

It was a hypothetical question and I didn’t have anyone in mind but let’s make one up.

The low income consumer is a war veteran that was injured from Agent Orange in Vietnam and is on a pension. The individual’s condition requires him to be hooked up to machines to survive. The machines are monitored by specialists only located in WA. The veteran also needs a high bandwidth as his only form of communication is video conferencing. He needs at least 80Mb/s. He cannot afford the connection and data costs that the large telecommunication companies are charging to upgrade to fibre.

Yuyutsu – You might still have copper but you do not have an analogue phone. The analogue system was switched off during the Howard government which included Mr Rabbott in the late 1990’s. They put you on digital and you didn’t even know.

Now you have to vote Labour as per your previous post. Can I suggest you don’t, Vote independent if you have a good one. Keep away from the god bothers because they have imaginary friends and don’t deal with reality.

Thankyou it’s been fun.

Dear Producer,

<<The analogue system was switched off during the Howard government which included Mr Rabbott in the late 1990’s. They put you on digital and you didn’t even know.>>

Correct, so that's why I bothered to write explicitly (above):

"Overall, it seems to me that AT THIS POINT IN TIME, of the two, the red team is more fanatic about that 'progress' thing."

That's why AT THIS POINT IN TIME, I'm going to give my preferences to the blue team. I'll keep an open mind, so if the tiger changes its stripes and Ms. Gillard (or whoever replaces her) promises to let me keep my copper phone-line while Mr. Abbot (or whoever replaces him) threatens to take it away, then surely I will vote the opposite.

Producer,

You are exactly right this is a question that is so hyperthetical that it is impossible. Please explain how your war vet needs more than 50Mb/s as the functions you describe could easily be met by present capabilities of 1Mb/s. Unless you required HD video conferencing, 100kb/s covers basic video conferencing, and 400kb/s covers standard services, and full HD video conferencing requires only 8Mb/s so stop talking out of your backside.

You have invented a need that does not exist that you want the taxpayer to fund for everyone.

All I see is someone who has no clue of what is speaking about. I would guess you are a liberal arts nerd.

As for your weaseling please refer to:

"2 The coalition's plan would raise connection speeds from about 1.5Mb/s to 50Mb/s which should cover all the needs of a small business. I work for a large company with dozens of engineers and racks of computer systems connected to the outside world with a 100Mb/s fiber connection that very seldom sees anywhere near full capacity useage."

SM says: "The coalition's plan would raise connection speeds from about 1.5Mb/s to 50Mb/s". The LNP claim was a 25Mb/s 'minimum' at the launch of the proposal and the latest Turnbull claim is his hybrid network would be 'capable' of reaching 80Mb/s in download speeds! Better adjust, SM, Malcolm has outbid you! Fibre to the premises works at 100Mb/s, unquestionably, but Malcolm wants us to live on faith while clearly his job is simply to remove the NBN as an obstacle to Abbott's pathway to The Lodge.

Also, according to SM's LNP songsheet: "Labor is on track to build us a state of the art $40bn network for $90bn...."

It's worth listening to someone qualified to comment on these statements. I have posted the following link elsewhere with SM dismissing it simply as biased (i.e. differing from his LNP viewpoint).

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-09/experts-criticise-coalitions-internet-plan/4619506

Mark Gregory, a senior lecturer in electrical and computer engineering at RMIT and quite capable of comparing the alternative proposals. He has something very significant to say on both SM/LNP claims above.

Over time, all node-to-premises copper will have to be replaced with fibre, so why not just do it cheaper in bulk instead of more expensively piecemeal? It will become like a triaged public hospital queue that becomes a national equity issue with some having to wait a decade or more for fibre to reach them than than do others (unless they pay for the privilege at piecemeal rates. Bulk buying is always cheaper, despite SM's false assertion to the contrary just to strengthen his case).

Crikey, why do we have to endure the LNP stupidly playing politics with this just because it wasn't its idea? It really hasn't come very far from its original position of opposing the NBN outight given that copper to-the-node has to be replaced soon enough anyway.

Dear Luciferase,

<<Over time, all node-to-premises copper will have to be replaced with fibre,>>

That is an ideological statement, not a technical one.

Every cable breaks down one day (fibre too!): what (if any) it is then replaced with, is a human decision reflecting one's values, not a technological necessity.

If my phone line breaks down while I'm still alive, I'll be happy to pay to replace it with another copper cable.

Labor wants to push the digital way of life on us by hook or by crook. I can see at least 4 reasons for that:

1) It's part of their communist ideology to "destroy the old world".
2) Analogue technology could possibly be used subversively to connect people bypassing the official, Big-Brother's all-knowing network that never loses a bit.
3) Internet addiction, gluing people to their chairs and removing them from the real world, tend to make people docile and obedient, less inclined to revolt.
4) It provides jobs for their comrades and their families.

Yes, if they have their way and stay in power they will have all copper replaced - using police-force if necessary to break and enter people's premises and forcibly replace their copper connections, arresting those (like me) who would try to oppose them. It is in that sense, and only in that sense, that your harrowing statement is true.

Geez, Yuyu, you've got the makings of a great sci-fi movie right there! Copper Luddite Saviours vs The Optical Fibre Monster, coming to a non-digital nickelodeon near you!

Thanks for the laugh.