How important is the National Broadband Network for businesses?
I personally am in favour of the NBN as infrastructure which will be critical over the next 25 years, but know that not all see it that way. How important or beneficial would the NBN be to you in your business now?
Are you currently restricted by the speed you can get, or the cost of the speed you need?
Do you see the need for greatly increased internet access speeds in the near future?
In 10 - 25 years I can see people using desktop computers LESS AND LESS maybe 5% or less.
I think the NBN in 10-25 years will be out dated technology.
Look at the upswing on:
- iPads use
- Mobile use
More people use Mobiles now compared to desktops for internet use.
In 25 years we will probably see Google Glass been used more and more, sound crazy but I think some type of see through Google glass will come out.
Also why not invest in FREE Wifi in CBD areas (if you have been to Europe numerous times you have top notch wifi every where and top notch mobile connectivity), BETTER mobile reach I mean I cant even get internet in the airport tunnel and I am on 4g WTF do people from overseas think when they arrive.
Sorry I think in 20 years NBN will be one BIG waste of money.
People are like YEAH go spend 100 billion on the NBN GREAT idea!!! But the thing is where is the money coming from, the mentality of the current government is to spend spend spend and worry about paying it back later when we are like Greece.
My advice is roll out NBN in a limited number of CBD areas, people in the country invest in friking mobile for them don't roll out billions of cable for them. Australia is not like Japan, Korea ect we are all not living close by.
Hi agree and had not thought of the NBN from this angle.
Hi Micha,
The NBN is critical to my business and future opportunities for growth. I run a corporate video production business and whereas in the old days clients came to our studio we now drop box edits for review. Without access to faster and more reliable broadband I will struggle to keep up with this and other trends. Other opportunities such as video hosting and offering services overseas will be limited.
Major fail for the Coalition. Malcolm Turnball has delivered a stinker of a policy - I think he knows it and we know it. Copper will fail (reliability is just as critical) so they will have come back to fibre - time and money will be wasted.
Great answer Steve, thanks. I agree, and I think (hope?) the Coalition have realised this as they have been very quiet on the issue. Hopefully they continue with the rollout as planned, but I think the very concept of a government owned infrastructure project makes them nervous.
Have you tried ADSL Broadband Bonding? It is a way to build a very fast business broadband connection by aggregating multiple ADSL connections together. This can be done across multiple ISP’s (Redundancy) and any number of connections and any type of connections may be bonded. So if you have the requirement you can speed up your network today.
I believe that internet connectivity is central to so many new industries and has the potential to open up opportunities to remote regions of Australia where unemployment is high. Imagine young people in rural areas being able to remotely work in IT support for example. I think the NBN is an infastructure that is too important to ignore.
The NBN would be of great benifit to my business. I am a photographer and I have corporate clients who require a hundreds of hi res event images uploaded quickly. I also have clients that require very large files of large format images for printing. Dropbox and you send it are too slow. Some file transfers take me 4-5 hours and I already have the best ADSL available.
You have framed your question in a very limited way - namely all about internet speed. The NBN is about much more than that. It is fundamentally a "open access" network for providers to connect with clients. As a provider (yes we are one, mainly in telephones), we have some great technology sitting in our data centre, however we really want this in people's homes or businesses. The NBN gives us that. It is a very low level data connection - allowing clients to appear to be on the same physical network as our server.
The internet is great, but there are some things that are hard to do over it - either because you need more reliability of data delivery (e.g. telephone) or because you need more control. A good example is remote management: because the NBN brings you right into a client's network, you can remotely configure devices from scratch. Just plug them in out of the box and they work (skip getting the IT guy in to configure it).
So all those things that you currently need a local server for in your business, you will be able to do over the NBN.
Arguing about internet speed is completely missing the point of the NBN (but I get it that everyone does).
I Concur with Stephen,
My business relies on the internet in many ways and I firmly believe that as the NBN is released I'll learn many more ways to benefit from the new levels of speed and depth provided (by the Labor version).
I don't believe that business isn't telling the Coalition that its NBN plan stinks. As has been said, let's hope that if and when they get in wisdom will prevail over the politics of opposition.
Hi,
Sorry I have to disagree :) Right here right now I believe that the majority businesses have little use for the high speed internet. Most businesses are lucky to have a website and very few have online ecommerce so a high speed would be of little use.
I do however think that we should try and get high speed to the likes of hospitals etc that can use the speed.
I think that what money we are going to spend will benefit a very few such as video on demand and tv channels etc why should we pay to help them make a profit. I have found that I am watching Catchup tv more and have no issues with the speed.
A question which I am sure someone will answer. What could I add to my website that I cannot already do that high speed will help? or is the high speed internet just for delivering to me or my business, if so, maybe they should spending the money on ways of getting it to me
Regards
Peter
Shaun Goethals, Director / Principal Consultant at The Trustee for Shaun Goethals Trust
I agree, it is a joke how our services for the internet are so expensive and so outdate compared to the rest of the world. I believe that the NBN is a waste of money it is going to be close to outdated by the time it is rolled out. Wireless coverage needs to increase across Australia.