By the way, I saw this last night on the Chaser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGzleHwzmTQ

(18/08/2010 07:20 PM)Assassinator Wrote:  Seriously, wee already have like the shittest internet among all developed nations, and this guy thinks it's better to build wireless towers everywhere around the city instead of upgrading to fiber.  So when absolutely everyone is on 100mbit+, like 20 years later, wee will still be on 12mbit wireless (which you won't be able to get near that 12mbit peak speed unless at like 3am, is even slower than our current ADSL, and probably costs an arm and leg being wireless and all).

Technically, fibre is superior to wireless, there's no question of that.
But there are potentially a few other issues:
- trans-Atlantic traffic barriers - I believe there's currently like 3 trans-Atlantic cables which connect us to the rest of the world.  Giving everyone up to 1Gbps connections may require additional lines = further investment, short of there being congestion
- priorities?

The primary argument seems to be the cost, but I don't think there's any cheaper *good* solution To be honest.
Another problem is the older Australian population simply don't understand the necessity of a broadband upgrade.  I actually listened to some radio commentator yesterday who thought that copper speeds could increase indefinitely.

Then again, Labor have the stupid mandatory internet filter scheme still going on.