Thread: Why do need NBN?

Originally Posted by neksmerj

Have been informed that NBN is now available in my street. Why do I need it?

My computer is lightning fast anyway. I don't download movies.

Ken

You'll need it because the copper network will no longer be maintained and sooner or later it will break down or be turned off as they won't want to maintain both systems.

Originally Posted by BobL

You'll need it because the copper network will no longer be maintained and sooner or later it will break down or be turned off as they won't want to maintain both systems.

Not true. All networks age very quickly as technology moves on. Copper has been the most robust technology with proven resilience through natural disasters and has well and truly repaid its original investment. Lack of investment in maintenance of networks causes failures.

The reason you "need the NBN" is because of pollitical decisions and subsequent legislation that created a telco carrier or transport network vested in NBN co.

The original technology proposed was for fibre to the home, that has proven to be costly and slow in the build phase. The current proposal is for a multi technology mix of part fibre to the home, fibre to the node with copper for the "last mile" and even using existing carriers networks such as HFC -originally designed for "cable TV" and other technologies.

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

Not true. All networks age very quickly as technology moves on. Copper has been the most robust technology with proven resilience through natural disasters and has well and truly repaid its original investment. Lack of investment in maintenance of networks causes failures.

If you look carefully above that's sort of what I said. The one on our street has received no maintenance for some time and when we lost phone connectivity in 2012? the technician told me we got the last available working connection and because NBN was coming they were not going to do anything about it. When our connection failed again a year later we had to wait until someone gave up their connection which luckily happened within a couple of months.

That 'connection' actually refers to the computerised switches at the exchange Bob. Even Telstra have been piking out on spending money on supplying adequate computing at exchanges. My last place of employment actually had the exchange in the corner of our property (appropriated by HM Govt some years ago off the former owner) and we had trouble getting a new #, not because of the line, that was there, but because Telstra didn't want to spend the money on a whole PC box for one extra service, mongrels

You do not "need" the NBN (well, for the short future at any rate). But you will be forced to use it within the next 18 months.
The government has decided that the current telephone system and method of bringing phone (and of later years) the internet to your house is out of date and decided it all needed to be updated/upgraded.
Fibre optic cable (mostly) instead of the existing all copper cable is the method decided upon. As a very broad statement, this fibre method of supply is called the "NBN"
In some cases the fibre is run to your house and the existing copper wires are not used. This gives the fastest possible connection speed In other cases the fibre is run to a new box in the street near your house (and the other houses near you) and the existing copper wire that enters your house now is connected to this box and not to the exchange . Because of the short length of copper cable, the speed of the interned that is possible is increased over the current max speed, but is generally not able to be as fast as fibre to the house.
You have no say as to what method you will be supplied with, that is decided by the government company set up to install all the new stuff - NBN Co.
Now you have NBN available, the existing phone service you have will be automatically cut off back at the exchange in 18 months from now. So you need to switch over within this 18 month period.
You need to contact your current phone/internet provider (or take the opportunity to switch to a new one) to arrange the switch over to the NBN connection. You can keep the same phone number you currently have, and the same internet provider but generally the "plans" are dearer than you are paying now.
It is possible to have a "phone only" connection via the NBN but I guess you do not want this as you seem to already have an internet connection.

There will be a need for new electronic box/boxes in your house (and maybe new "phone/internet cabling), differing upon what type of connection you have been provided with by NBN Co, so expect more expense for this also.

An addendum, well really back to answer the original question. You don't Ken, and probably never will.

Technology moves all by itself, by new things being put to market, the market either liking them enough to go bananas over it (iPhones) or saying 'nah' (Blackberries)

My kids, four of them, are all tech savvy and love all things tech. One of them, a real gamer, is on NBN, that's her life, so she pays premium price for high end NBN. The others are actually only using their smart phones, no ADSL, no NBN. At home here we are waiting the development of neighbourhood wifi and will probably ditch the home phone and ADSL at that point too, going effectively totally mobile.

Here lies the Achilles heel of all the NBN calcs out there. Probably only 20 to 30% of end users will be interested in high speed fixed internet by 2020. the $2000 to $3000 cost per point that NBN is running at then has to be amortised over say only 25% of potential users (the rest are on wireless/mobile). that jacks up the capital cost to $10,000 per actual user. That cost won't be born by the user of course, but by the tax payer when we see the $50 to 80 billion dollar network privatised and the government recoups say $20 billion.

Lest someone say that business is the big driver, well i retired recently from a Ford dealership and we coped really well with ADSL. Businesses by and large transfer data, which doesn't need NBN. We never had a problem with upload/download speeds, even for remote based cataloguing with graphics.

Originally Posted by neksmerj

Have been informed that NBN is now available in my street. Why do I need it?

My computer is lightning fast anyway. I don't download movies.

Ken

Ken once an area is NBN declared as "service available" you must contact your existing service provider or a new one of your choice to transfer your service to the NBN co's network as the wholesale carrier within the declared change over period. Your service provider will become a retailer of their products using the NBN co network - wheter it be fibre to the home, to the node etc. You can't opt out unless you ditch your land line and go mobile or wifi.

"Once the nbn™ network is available in your area, you will need to contact your preferred landline phone or internet provider to move your home and business services over to the nbn™ network. You will not be automatically connected to the nbn™ network. If you are in an area where the existing network will be switched off, we will notify you by direct mail that the new network is ready and advise the date on which the old network will be discontinued. To keep using landline phone and internet services in your home or business, you may need to move those services to the nbn™ network well before that date.‡"

In Townsville we have been fortunate to receive fibre to the home, but it has been far from a seamless & smooth process.

Best thing you can do is visit Check your address | nbn - Australia's new broadband network and follow through the trail or trial....

If you do nothing and your suburb is declared as "NBN service available" your existing land line service will eventually be terminated.

In fibre to the node designs the existing copper network ownership will eventually transfer from telstra ownership to NBN co and will still be used for the "last mile."

Ug, I guess I am really in the 30%. I want it and can't get it. Those that can now get it don't appreciate it.

just think one day I will click a link on the woodwork forum and be able to immediately read it. One reason I no longer dutifully read all posts on the off chance that I might offer assistance it just takes too long.

Hi,

The best answer so far. Some others here have been misleading

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

Ken once an area is NBN declared as "service available" you must contact your existing service provider or a new one of your choice to transfer your service to the NBN co's network as the wholesale carrier within the declared change over period. Your service provider will become a retailer of their products using the NBN co network - wheter it be fibre to the home, to the node etc. You can't opt out unless you ditch your land line and go mobile or wifi.

"Once the nbn™ network is available in your area, you will need to contact your preferred landline phone or internet provider to move your home and business services over to the nbn™ network. You will not be automatically connected to the nbn™ network. If you are in an area where the existing network will be switched off, we will notify you by direct mail that the new network is ready and advise the date on which the old network will be discontinued. To keep using landline phone and internet services in your home or business, you may need to move those services to the nbn™ network well before that date.‡"

In Townsville we have been fortunate to receive fibre to the home, but it has been far from a seamless & smooth process.

Best thing you can do is visit Check your address | nbn - Australia's new broadband network and follow through the trail or trial....

If you do nothing and your suburb is declared as "NBN service available" your existing land line service will eventually be terminated.

In fibre to the node designs the existing copper network ownership will eventually transfer from telstra ownership to NBN co and will still be used for the "last mile."

To clarify, what we were addressing was the disconnect between what Ken wants and what NBN wants to give him. What Ken doesn't feel he needs is to pay premium money for a premium speed connection. Yes, NBN will become the new service that he technically cannot avoid. But what he can do is simply tell his carrier he doesn't want to spend any more money than he already is spending. The lower tiers of the NBN services will be comparable to his existing service both in performance and cost. So to him and many other users NBN becomes a non-event. (He doesn't need what NBN was designed to provide him)

The thing being missed here is that once you go to NBN you no longer will have a landline and therefore you no longer have to pay a landline rental. This saves the average user $29.95/month.

In my case I was paying $29.95/month for the landline, plus calls, plus $50 for a very basic ADSL (not ADSL2) service. So $80/month + calls.

When we got fixed wireless we are now paying $40/month for a vastly superior NBN service (with double our ADSL data limit) + $10/month for VOIP which includes all calls, except to mobiles or OS. Calls OS are a fraction of the previous landline "service".

We are saving $30/month and paying virtually nothing for calls. Could save another $10/month if we dropped the VOIP which we hardly ever use as we usually use the mobile.

What is not to like?

Better service at lower cost, I wouldn't call that a "non-event".

If the government "forced" me to buy my electricity from them at a 40% saving I wouldn't be complaining or calling it a "non-event".

If you clock yourselves back to the early 20th Century, I'll bet everyone was having similar discussions when the PMG (Post Master Generals Department) said they were going to run telephone wires down your street. How many people back then said "Why do I need this new fangled telephone thing".

RoyG

Originally Posted by neksmerj

Have been informed that NBN is now available in my street. Why do I need it?

My computer is lightning fast anyway. I don't download movies.

Ken

Just to get to the heart.

The older technologies such as ADSL are going to be turned off once the NBN roll-out is complete so yes, you do need it. The price per service level is comparable with the old technology so it should be in the ball park of what you are paying.

In non-political terms NBN is simply a technology refresh, the same as Digital mobile was over Analogue, 3G was over GPRS and 4G is.

The problem with technology is that you don't "know" you need it until you find that you want a service provided by that technology and don't have it.

I am what you would call an early adopter so I can see the benefits way before a lot of other people can. Trust me - when the time comes you will thank me

Originally Posted by RoyG

If you clock yourselves back to the early 20th Century, I'll bet everyone was having similar discussions when the PMG (Post Master Generals Department) said they were going to run telephone wires down your street. How many people back then said "Why do I need this new fangled telephone thing".

RoyG

The only thing new under the Sun is the history you have not learned.