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The NBN is a tale of geography. If you live in the CBD mainland capital city you will get good coverage. Even that it's patchy. If you live more than 30km out access get mostly worse. If you live in the bush, the best you'll get is crappy satellite or your own jury rigged antenna to the nearest town.

If you were lucky enough to a) live close to the city b) have telephone poles c) live near a telephone exchange and were chosen by Telstra to get FTTN before the change of government you can get 100Mb+ access. [0] Otherwise you are out of luck.

This is largely a political issue that could be fixed by leadership. Australia has weak leaders of both sides of the political spectrum.

Market forces are supposed to fix this problem according to our learned leaders, but it won't. Australia is big, really big and we needed a federally funded optic fibre solution to the country even if it cost a lot.

   Here's my version of NBN... Exchange->fibre->POTS 
   https://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/tags/pots
Using technology developed during the early 1900s.

[0] Relative has NBN fibre to the node.



I live five minutes' walk from the Melbourne CBD, and we have no indication NBN is going to be rolled out here any time soon.


I did say patchy.


Err, no, you don't? Most of central Sydney is on ADSL, NBN has been rolled out primarily in new housing developments way out in the boonies.


Yeah very strange how they have done the rollout. Surely they would have been better off rolling out to densely populated inner suburbs first. Cover the most people and get those most likely to take up the service initially.


It was part of the deal Julia Gillard made to form a minority government. The NBN had to prioritise regional areas first.


Yes we can thank the greens for a large part of this debacle oh and the lack of carbon tax.


Interesting with Sydney. Highest density of fibre into the country and the reason google has their Aus HQ there. Be interested to find out just how much of Aus capitals w/o NBN access.


This isn't necessarily true.

I live in a new housing development (Zetland - Postcode 2017).

I tried to get NBN installed last week with Internode, one of our ISPs.

They said it was possible, they told me to be at home - I took half the day off WFH - then they ring me halfway saying, whoops, it's not actually connected for your building...err...we'll get back to you about the NBN.

I'm still waiting to hear back.

My parents are told it will be available between April-June 2017 - yet apparently they haven't even started planning it for their area yet. So they somehow hope to design, plan and roll it out in the next 30 days? I call bollocks.


> a) live close to the city b) have telephone poles c) live near a telephone exchange and were chosen by Telstra to get FTTN before the change of government you can get 100Mb+ access.

I check all those points but no NBN for me :(


I feel your pain, the rollout was interesting. Wonder if the NBN rollout in Melbourne related to electorates?


Yes the original rollout specifically targeted regional areas and at risk electorates (for labor)


My family lives in the wealthy eastern suburbs of Sydney. My mother can only get ADSL and it caps out at around 3.5Mbit. She can hardly have a skype call. They say she won't be able to get NBN until at least 2020.

I live in Northern Thailand and have 100/30 uncapped fibre for about $70 a month. I've got a friend who has gigabit and he lives out in some rice fields and its all dirt roads.


> If you live in the CBD mainland capital city

Actually just had a look at NBNco's rollout map; both Melbourne and Sydney's CBD are blank.


I was pleasantly surprised my place had FTTN (100/50 I think I can get if needed). Absolute boondocks of Tassie, mostly agricultural/tradesfolk I'd guess. Seems odd but I'm glad they did.


Thats because Tasmania was selected as the pilot location of the NBN roll-out[1] [2]

[1] https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-prepares-2015-finish-d...

[2] http://www.smh.com.au/national/devil-in-the-detail-20100201-...

[2]


"Absolute boondocks of Tassie, mostly agricultural/tradesfolk I'd guess. Seems odd but I'm glad they did."

Glad someone gets access. Start a software company in the bush.




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