# wrote on Sep 11^th, 2010 at 11:54am:


It's not so much the equipment, which is costly but a necessary investment, but the downtime involved in repair.  Look no-one will care if their internet services at home are cut for a couple of dyas; it would be a minor inconvenience; however imagine South East Queensland has no internet communications for 3 days; disaster of a magnitude no-one really understands.

To answer my question posed earlier for those unfamiliar; Australia's most valuable terrorist target is a 12 story building smack in the middle of Kangaroo Point Brisbane, most Brisbane residents would be familiar with the eyesore that is the Telstra communications hub directly across the road from the Gabba, the ugly grey building with only a handful of windows.  If that building gets taken out Australia loses communications to the entire eastern seaboard.  QLD, NSW & VIC would have no comms capabaility; nothing; zip; nadda; zilch.  The country would come to a grinding halt which could take years to repair.

I'm not for a second suggesting that significant improvements in connectivity and speed won't lead to the suggested improvements and nor for a second am I suggesting that those in the bush shouldn't have access to high speed broadband; but if FOC is to be the carrier it needs significant redundancy built in to it to avoid the comms disasters that will occur many times daily when it is cut in various locations.

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Sure. fibre won't replace mobile phones, which is the network used by USB modems, and won't work on your laptops, so that technology will continue to work.

qikvtec wrote on Sep 11^th, 2010 at 12:19pm:

What makes you think fibre will be cut more often than copper is?

qikvtec wrote on Sep 11^th, 2010 at 1:49pm:

What makes you think that the network has been designed without an appropriate level of redundancy?

qikvtec wrote on Sep 11^th, 2010 at 1:29pm:


So why do you think it matters if copper gets decommissioned? Do you think we should stick with inferior technology so that it forces us to maintain other inferior technology?

Bobby. wrote on Sep 11^th, 2010 at 10:10pm:

As with all such projects, the network has been designed with an appropriate level of redundancy.
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In remote areas, cables are ploughed into the ground. No"pipe". By the way, the "pipe" is called a duct. Access to Telstra's ducts is one of the things the government is paying $11 Billion for.
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Yes, each cable holds many fibres. Single fibres are used mostly within structures. For difficult situations, they can be blown through confined spaces.
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Which differs from copper, how?
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In view of your demonstrated ignorance, I'll take that with a grain of salt. I'm reliably informed (by people who do the job, so they know what they're talking about) that, with the appropriate equipment, there's little difference in the time it takes a skilled operator to repair damage to fibre to what it takes to repair similar damage to comparable copper.

Paradoxically, with the best equipment (which is admittedly very expensive), a less-skilled operator can be quicker with fibre than copper. Which surprised me.

Bobby. wrote on Sep 12^th, 2010 at 10:23am:

Of course you do. For some reason, you're pushing a case beyond the bounds of logic and evidently well beyond the bounds of your knowledge.

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And with copper, they jump out and wave their (metaphorical) hands?

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For heavens sake, get an Australian spell-checker.