Computers & Technology with Matt James - June 2009
It's the ALL NEW National Broadband Network. As a tech-head this is like a dream come true. I've mentioned before my continuing disappointment with the slow speeds of Australian Broadband Internet. The internet is a dynamic network that can work at slow speeds or very fast speeds and switches speed all the time depending on available bandwidth. If you have ever shared an internet connection with other people in your house on different computers, you will have noticed that you can notice when other people are on the same internet connection as you.The new broadband network the government proposes to build will be a 'Fiber to the Premises' network rather than a 'Fiber to the node' network that was previously being proposed. The difference being more fiber. Fiber is fiber optic cable, a remarkable technology that allows massive amounts of data to be transferred between locations using light. Fiber optic can send data in larger amounts over greater distances and with less interference than metal connections. In a fiber to the node network fiber is run to the local telephone node which are those small concrete pillars you see all over the place. The last leg of the journey from the node to your place will be over the existing copper wire phone network. In a fiber to the premises network the fiber optic goes all the way to your home. When built the National Broadband Network will put Australia at the head of the class for true broadband and it's application.
The benefits of this new network are impossible to predict. Just as computers and the internet itself has been impossible to predict. The things we do every day on computers now were mostly not even thought about 10 or 15 years ago. It's not until faster cheaper computers became available that applications for that new technology started to be developed. Complete economic collapse aside, the whole world will eventually have fiber optic cable running past their house. If Australia can lead the way in this development then we can only benefit as individuals and as a nation.
Thanks for reading more next month.
Matt James - 2CH Overnight.
