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Re: Nbn
At the simplest level the fibre to the node option (FTTN) was so they didn't have to connect every single house to the NBN fibre as they were rolling it out. They could roll it out to a block and then connect it to the existing local network that distributes it to the individual houses. In most cases this is copper, but in some cases it's faster HFC. Essentially the benefit was two fold, it meant effectively connecting NBN to about 100,000 points across metro Australia instead of about 4 million, meaning they could get more people connected quickly rather than having to wait a decade or more in many cases, plus they were having huge amounts of trouble actually connecting the fibre to individual houses meaning it was much slower getting people connected, and it was going to cost 10-20 times more than had been originally claimed (though it was going to cost multiples more regardless of how easy it was to connect the fibre to houses).
The downside side is the last remaining metres from the street to the house would be mostly copper connection, which is slower than fibre, and the copper is decaying and will need replacing eventually. The problem is regardless of the type of connection point to the actual house, the capacity issue that's causing slow speeds would exist anyway.
The option that's being rolled out is the sensible one. It's gets more people connected now with adequate speed, at far lower cost, and it can be upgraded down the track. If underground fibre cables are considered the long-term internet strategy, then the copper can be replaced street by street, house by house, extending the fibre from the block corner (FTTN) to the individual houses (FTTP) and in turn upgrading the theoretical speed (but not resolving the actual problem that currently exists). In the meantime people would have vastly better theoretical capacity than the ADSL2+ network we'd been using. If wireless evolves to the point it can supply satisfactory capacity, then internet will be beamed wirelessly from centralised points to a receiver at each house and the physical fibre network (along with the copper & HFC) gets binned.
At the simplest level the fibre to the node option (FTTN) was so they didn't have to connect every single house to the NBN fibre as they were rolling it out. They could roll it out to a block and then connect it to the existing local network that distributes it to the individual houses. In most cases this is copper, but in some cases it's faster HFC. Essentially the benefit was two fold, it meant effectively connecting NBN to about 100,000 points across metro Australia instead of about 4 million, meaning they could get more people connected quickly rather than having to wait a decade or more in many cases, plus they were having huge amounts of trouble actually connecting the fibre to individual houses meaning it was much slower getting people connected, and it was going to cost 10-20 times more than had been originally claimed (though it was going to cost multiples more regardless of how easy it was to connect the fibre to houses).
The downside side is the last remaining metres from the street to the house would be mostly copper connection, which is slower than fibre, and the copper is decaying and will need replacing eventually. The problem is regardless of the type of connection point to the actual house, the capacity issue that's causing slow speeds would exist anyway.
The option that's being rolled out is the sensible one. It's gets more people connected now with adequate speed, at far lower cost, and it can be upgraded down the track. If underground fibre cables are considered the long-term internet strategy, then the copper can be replaced street by street, house by house, extending the fibre from the block corner (FTTN) to the individual houses (FTTP) and in turn upgrading the theoretical speed (but not resolving the actual problem that currently exists). In the meantime people would have vastly better theoretical capacity than the ADSL2+ network we'd been using. If wireless evolves to the point it can supply satisfactory capacity, then internet will be beamed wirelessly from centralised points to a receiver at each house and the physical fibre network (along with the copper & HFC) gets binned.
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