Obviously a political commentary, it could as well describe the problems of the Howard campaign as the debate about WiMax technology in Australia. 'Course, it's alll sorta tied in anyway.
Howard caught flat-footed
The Internet caught the Howard government. In the last year, Labor candidates Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard used FaceBook to kick off their team candidacy for PM. Rudd and Gillard are far more attractive onlne than Mr Howard, who seems to have a very hard time giving a straight answer.
In 2000, John Howard resolved all of Australia's questions about the Internet with: "The Internet in Australia is just fine." --and that, was that.
In those days, only 30% or so of Australians had access to the Net; and nearly all of those were on dialup. Dialup over phone lines that needed to be replaced, either because they were old or because they were poor quality when installed.
NBT
The NBT (next big thing) in Australian politics is always either the 'Bush' - referring to regional Australia -or the Aboriginies. References to anything positive in those directions are good for a short polling bump, at least.
Internet access to the Bush is an active debate right now because big name competitors are looking to supplant Telstra's highly politicized and outdated efforts.
Behind the scenes, a lot is going on.
Telstra wanted in 2002 to dismantle its CDMA and HSPA systems without offering the 3G alternative. That would leave millions in the outback without reliable access to the Net. For once, the regulators stepped in for the consumers and forced Telstra to keep the old system running until NextG was available.
Telstra owns about half the exchanges in regional Australia; the rest belong to AusStar.
OPEL (Optus-Elders consortium) has won the $959 million tender to provide WiMax to the Bush, and urban areas. Telstra was pointedly forbidden to be part of the bidding, and has launched a public campaign against WiMax.
What is WiMax?
Confused yet? You should be. Seems everyone else is.
Intel will introduce chipsets for WiMax in 2008. When something has been committed to mass produced hardware, you gotta think it really is "coming." ('Scuze the sarcasm, pls...)
An information sheet issued by the government says: "WiMax chip sets will be incorporated in a range of electronic devices, including PCs, cams, personal music devices and PDAs.
Chinese techs call WiMax "4G". They're installing it all across the country.
Is it WiMax?
Technically, WiMax is not 802.11n. It is 802.16e. Another source of confusion is 802.11n - incorporating advances for wireless networking devices - covers a similar radio spectrum (bands 2.3GHz, 2.4GHz and 3.5GHz, and 5.8GHz.) Experts are all over the Net saying 11n will make all cabling, even fibre optics, obsolete - and many writers are calling 11n 'WiMax.'
Further complicating the issue is that all of the radio spectrum is regulated in Australia. In the US and Europe, many countries leave these frequency bands open for public use.
Then the fine print tells us the proposed Australian WiMax rose will only encompass the 2.3GHz, 2.4GHz and 3.5GHz bands.
On Friday, (Communications Minister Helen) .. Coonan tried to downplay debate over standards, saying people did not care about the technology, only the service they received.Too true.
That dog bites both ways, Ms Coonan. Ignoring the technology for spin is not a decision-making process. Someone in the government has to understand the technology and make the right decsions.
Last year, the raging debate over who would provide FTTN (fibre to the node) only served to disgust the public with the whole process. In the end, no one could decide. Telstra and OPEL-lite were further undermined in their submissions by a German company that had already done FTTN for a decade.
Best answer
No matter what technology is employed, it will still mean shared bandwidth. Shared bandwidth means congestion at times. It doesn't seem too hard to see that whatever system is chosen it has to provide for expansion and for high peak traffic.
The fact is no matter what wireless protocol is pursued, it will have to be supported by a reliable connection, and that connection is obviously a fibre optics cable system. This simple fact seems to have escaped the debate somehow.
If dear reader, you want to delve deeper into this morass, I'll give you the link to my search on AustralianIT. Enjoy the great white cloud.
Before Australia can be competitive in the Asian or US-UK markets, the country needs reliable access to the Internet at speeds that make the Internet more than an aggravation.
SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. There is too much room for spin in this debate. It really is like a swirling old biplane about to crash. Sphere: Related Content
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