Here comes the NBN. Whoopidy-Doo

Australia is blowing a planned $40+ Billion dollars ($27B or so of direct taxpayer dollars, and undobtably a lot more in overruns and bail-outs over the next several years) on upgrading the copper network to an optic fibre based network across most of metro Australia, and high-speed wireless or other services to the rest. A great many promises were made to get the green light to blow the cash on this project, and a lot of pain and suffering is still to come. This roll-out has a number of really big cracks that aren't getting much attention.

1. Cost to consumer. NBN may end up being a massive headache for the government which intends to shut off the copper network once the NBN is available online. So far speculation on the plan prices to consumers is not encouraging. iiNet released proposed plans for NSW of $60-190 per month. $60 won't get you top-speed, and only a 30GB transfer limit. (Right now I pay less than $40/mo for that.) Basically you're paying 1/3rd more for the same limit with the ability to burn it faster. Other providers such as Dodo have hinted at cheaper plans, but these are companies that have a reputation for burning customers. I.e. low price plans with ridiculous transfer limits, then huge fees for excess usage capped at a considerably more expensive monthly price.

2. High speed, provided you stay on the island. Most people say Australia's current internet backbone isn't adequate, and they're probably right. However, a BIG problem with internet in this country is the links to other content around the world. Australia shares one respectable pipe with NZ through to the U.S. but the pipes up to Asia/Europe are ridiculously outdated. An interesting look at the situation around the world. Perhaps ISPs will invest more in mirroring and proxies but performance to sites and services offshore won't be helped one bit by this huge investment unless they plan laying more cables. This problem is compounded by the introduction of "cloud" services, where already international companies are side-stepping Australia in favour of Singapore.

3. Australia has a housing shortage right now, and while new houses are being built there's one little "gotcha" in store for people, especially those in areas that the NBN rollout isn't going to be reaching any time soon. Telstra (telco) isn't rolling out any new copper connections. This means when you buy a new house, you don't get a phone line. You don't get an internet connection. Your *only* real option is to pay for a 3G connection. (which are ludicrously expensive if you need it for much more than e-mail) Included in the price of your house was a cost to prep the house for the NBN roll-out. You can bet your bacon that as the rollout reaches these supposedly prepared locations, something isn't going to be adequate and there will be further cost and delay to the home-owner to finally get hooked up.

4. All connections through one box. IMO this is an epic fail for the whole plan. Basically in your home you'll have a little box running off an AC plug which the NBN cable runs through then splits off for phone lines and data lines. Expect these boxes to last about 5 years or so before you need to replace them. (From what I've heard they're several hundred dollars) Worse yet, when the power goes out, you not only have no Internet, you have no phone. No emergency line out, nothing. Sure, most people have mobiles, but as we saw with the Brisbane flood, even before things got really bad, the mobile networks were unusable. Copper phone lines were powered so as long as you keep a regular corded phone in the house you could always get a line out for help. (Tough luck if you tossed them all out for those fancy cordless wonders :) )

5. You may be expecting to be on fibre, but might not get it. Fibre is good, it is fast and reliable. 4G wireless, will be slower, and certainly will be more tempermental and less reliable. Even living in a relatively built up area doesn't guarantee you're getting fibre to your home. My guess is that as costs blow out with contractors milking this NBN cash cow, more areas will be cut off plans to run fibre and stacked into the 4G pile. This means more than planned load on the wireless option making it even less reliable and more out-of balance with the fibre option. I don't know if NBN has provided any info or service to check if your address is expected to be on fibre or wireless but it'd be really interesting to get snapshots of areas over time and see if they start pulling back the fibre rollout.

If you want fast, reliable internet to the rest of the world and are waiting for the NBN to deliver it, then my advice would be not to hold your breath. Maybe look for opportunities to move to South Korea or Japan.