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April 5, 2011
One conception of development is giving the property developers in the capital cities what they want, even if that means the state government overriding the wishers of residents and a lower quality of life in the city.
Another kind of development is the long terms one of making the transformation from an industrial economy to an information one. The National Broadband Network signifies such a transformation, as it means opening up regional communities (eg., in Queenstown, Tasmania) to high-speed internet access.
The old world shock jocks in NSW have their heads in the sand with respect to the NBN, as this allows many business people and other professionals, who were facing the prospect of having to move into bigger cities, to continue to live and work in regional communities.
Mobile broadband works. I'm typing this on my Apple MacBook in the caravan park in Queenstown using Telstra's pre-paid mobile broadband. It works a treat. However, it is far too expensive for long term use if you are a resident in this isolated community. You need fibre optics and low cost entry points, especially for those on struggle street. The NBN is coming to Queenstown.
This highlights the flaw in the standard argument that wireless broadband access is growing at such an alarming rate that there is no need for the NBN to be built using fibre and so who would want a fixed-line connection when you can have the flexibility of wireless access? So argues Malcolm Turnbull.
Turnbull is wrong as people want both fibre and wireless not wireless at the expense of fibre. Wireless is supplementary technology.
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As a member of the "Save St Clair" group in Adelaide, can I loudly commend you on the first part of the post.
With Turnbull's effort one suspects "attention deprivation syndrome".