Quote: Original post by WanMaster
May I ask why that is? Australia is modern and wealthy nation with large urban agglomerations, I would expect it to have a decent network infrastructure.

I'm not 100% sure exactly why myself. I only know a little about how the communication systems developed here, and very little about how they were managed anywhere else.

Basically though, I agree that our government just generally doesn't seem to care that much about our technology. Rolling out fibre isn't exactly the leading reason in how people cast their votes.

It also didn't help that we privatised our communication systems at roughly the same time the internet really took off. Back in the era of rotary phones and cardigans, our phone lines were handled by Telecom, a single government run monopoly. It tended to be a bit bureaucratic. During the nineties we allowed more competition, and Telecom became Telstra and then was sold off. There's competition now but Telstra is still the biggest player, controls the bulk of the key infrastructure such as the wires in the ground, and despite being privatised they still tend to drag their feet.

Plus we haven't got that many cables connecting us to the rest of the world. It's getting better though; more cables are being laid. We probably won't have another ocean trawler cut the entire country off the grid again. [rolleyes]

Quote: Original post by Trapper Zoid

Quote: Original post by WanMaster
May I ask why that is? Australia is modern and wealthy nation with large urban agglomerations, I would expect it to have a decent network infrastructure.

I'm not 100% sure exactly why myself. I only know a little about how the communication systems developed here, and very little about how they were managed anywhere else.

Basically though, I agree that our government just generally doesn't seem to care that much about our technology. Rolling out fibre isn't exactly the leading reason in how people cast their votes.

It also didn't help that we privatised our communication systems at roughly the same time the internet really took off. Back in the era of rotary phones and cardigans, our phone lines were handled by Telecom, a single government run monopoly. It tended to be a bit bureaucratic. During the nineties we allowed more competition, and Telecom became Telstra and then was sold off. There's competition now but Telstra is still the biggest player, controls the bulk of the key infrastructure such as the wires in the ground, and despite being privatised they still tend to drag their feet.

Plus we haven't got that many cables connecting us to the rest of the world. It's getting better though; more cables are being laid. We probably won't have another ocean trawler cut the entire country off the grid again. [rolleyes]

Well actually Telstra is still 51% government owned, and because they laid all the cables they try to protect their monopoly with overt anti-competitive behaviour, and strangely enough get away with it more often than not. This is most of the reason why no company can be bothered filling the gap, because the market here is relatively small compared to other countries, and a lot of their profit margin goes to Telstra. Telstra needs to be split into two companies, a standard phone company like its competitors and an infrastructure company that either needs to remain the property of the government, or has no provisions to give Telstra better deals than anyone else. Until that happens (like it was actually meant to years ago), we're all screwed. The goverment can pretend all they like about rolling out new infrastructure, but it all belongs to the company with the monopoly.

Oh, I like buying boxed retail, because sometimes my hardrives crash and I lose a lot of stuff, and I'm lazy and don't back things up. So like when I lose EQ2 next, I'll have a many-Gb patch to download (if I ever resub).

Quote: Original post by WanMaster

Quote: Original post by BLiTZWiNG
It doesn't matter which side gains power, neither are tech-savvy

If it makes you feel any better, I don't think there's a tech-savvy government anywhere in the world. Except of course that all MPs have Twitter accounts nowadays, 'cause that's what all the cool kids are doing. [wink]

Is the lack of wiring or a lack of good service providers? I can't imagine that cities like Sydney or Melbourne don't have the proper infrastructure. And if it's the providers doing a poor job, I can't believe nobody has jumped into that giant gap in the market yet. Looks like a good business opportunity.

Sorry to dwell on it, I'm just a little curious. [smile]

Ah but this is where it gets fubar my friend. :)

Our biggest service provider is called Telstra. They where, up until the privatisation of it over a decade ago government owned and run. They where also in charge of maintaining the hardware, telephone and wiring networks.

Now Telstra is privately owned and still in charge of most of Australia's telecommunications hardware. They have a stranglehold on the country. They are also one of Australia's most hated corporations. Ask any Australian.

Take my predicament for instance:

I live out in the suburbs of Melbourne. I want fast, reliable internet.

Heres the issues with trying to do so:
- I live in an apartment, thusly I can't obtain cable. I have to get ADSL2+
- To get ADSL2+ I require a phone connection. Telstra are the only installed phonelines connected to these units. [oh I forgot to mention, If you want to use a separate provider that doesn't piggyback off Telstra you have to get new hardware lines installed.]
- So now i've got a phone with Telstra. If I wish to go with a third party provider who has better deals. Telstra charges a $20 AUS fee for them using their hardware out in the suburbs. Thus in point making any savings I would garner from a third part service completely redundant.
- Telstra caps the quality of third party services that use their lines. So if I wanted the fastest internet. I have to go telstra, which is also the most expensive.
- Naked internet is only available in the core of most cities. Anywhere past 10km of the CBD is out of the question. And as telstra owns the hardware and cable HUBs you can see how slowly that'll take to change.

Obviously I wouldn't have an issue if I lived in the city. But the majority of Australians live in suburbs around the CBD and city. This is where the money is made.

In short; Australia fucked itself over by making a critical government service privately owned and let it retain it's hardware control over the country.

Thanks for the thorough explanation guys!

So it's the old story of a monopoly holding all the strings. Too bad you're not part of the EU, the European Commission seems to love these cases. [grin]

The others have already explained why internet in Australia is so terrible.

The good news is that the current government appears committed to rolling out new infrastructure. The National Broadband Network (NBN) was originally a plan to upgrade the existing telephone network to provide ADSL at ~20mbps to 98% of the population. The government opened the project for bidding from private enterprise last year.

A few months ago, the govt. decided that none of the private proposals fit the requirements, so they decided to scrap that idea and built it themselves. The new plan is to have 100mbit fibre-to-the-home (like Verizon FiOS in the 'States) available to 90% of the population.

Construction begins this year I believe, and is scheduled to be fully rolled out across the country in 8 years. God willing, this much-needed infrastructure upgrade will actually come to pass and we'll finally be able to come out of the proverbial internet stone ages.

Quote: Original post by Sc4Freak

Construction begins this year I believe, and is scheduled to be fully rolled out across the country in 8 years. God willing, this much-needed infrastructure upgrade will actually come to pass and we'll finally be able to come out of the proverbial internet stone ages.

I hope it all goes to plan. My only concern is that, with any project that spans longer then one government term, that the project is consistently funded and managed all the way to the end.

Still, 8 years to get to where the rest of the western world is at now. bleh...

Quote: Original post by Yann L

Quote: Original post by BLiTZWiNG
I just went into EB here in Australia during my lunch break. This will come as no shock to 99.99% of you, but the number of PC games in there is getting really sad. Sure they had some great specials, but, there were so few games.

Are there still people buying physical boxed PC games in this day and age ?

Me o/

Personally I am not a big fan of Steam & Co., and tbh, I don't "own" a single steam-powered game. I am anyways not playing too much these days, mostly classics like Civ III (and most recently I took the step to try out that contrast-poor and unfamiliar Civ IV I disliked for years, after grabbing it for 10 EUR) or the Total War series. I really like my games boxed in the rack, even if only stored in a cheap CD-ROM case, ready to be grabbed out upon demand, with no need to register online or having to configure internet at all on the playground-box, which often is not even a physical box.

But maybe I am just out of fashion.

I love Civ 3 and 4. I also just downloaded one of my favourite C64 games, H.E.R.O. Even though I've just been playing Crysis and GRAW2 on my new GTX275, I still love the old games.

I have no faith in our government successfully rolling out the NBN before the next election, when the people will have decided that KRudd hasn't kept his promises and we go back to a liberal government and it gets scrapped in favour of dial up.

Steam shits me to tears. If I could install a "steam free" version of my steam games I would...

Quote: Original post by WanMaster
May I ask why that is? Australia is modern and wealthy nation with large urban agglomerations, I would expect it to have a decent network infrastructure.

Until 6 months ago, I lived 5 kilometers from the center of Sydney, and had 512kbit/s downspeed + 4GB/month cap.
Now that I've moved to an ADSL-capable area, I've got 8mbit/s downspeed + 50GB/month cap.

Most of the network infrastructure was sold off to a single private company, who have a monopoly and make money by restricting progress.

Adding to the previous stories - when I moved I thought I would "vote against the monopoly" by getting a phone line from the main competitor, Optus.

However, Optus were even worse - once the phone was connceted, all the ISP's told me that they can't provide me with internet on that line! I could only use Optus as my ISP (and they are twice as expensive as other ISPs)! So I was forced to disconnect the phone-line and get one on the Telstra network in the end...

Quote: Original post by Hodgman
Adding to the previous stories - when I moved I thought I would "vote against the monopoly" by getting a phone line from the main competitor, Optus.

However, Optus were even worse - once the phone was connceted, all the ISP's told me that they can't provide me with internet on that line! I could only use Optus as my ISP (and they are twice as expensive as other ISPs)! So I was forced to disconnect the phone-line and get one on the Telstra network in the end...

It depends on the ISP, but if you look here is a list of ISPs that can use Optus DSLAMs. Getting good broadband in Australia requires a fair amount of research, actually, and is one of the reasons Telstra can keep their prices high - most people aren't interested in doing (or are unable to do) the required research.

I, too, hope the NBN will save us. But I'll believe it when I see it...