How can you afford it?

[how.about.another.slice]

After being away several months, I notice many of the same faces are still spending all day posting, despite their assurances that they work. One even spent a whole day waiting until 5.30 pm before posting just to prove she is employed!!! (only people unemployed or on benefits for years would assume the average work day is still from Nine-to-Five LOL!)

My question is, how do you afford to be here so much? Do you live off savings, an inheritance, divorce settlement, or do you simply chat from a library or a second hand notebook on limited internet usage?

To get a decent computer costs at least $2000 and without good internet connection, chatting on a forum isn't even worth it, so are these regulars going into debt over the boards? Would a bank even loan or credit them enough to supplement their activites and time usage here?

It's all very puzzling...

[freakiness]

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@poddster wrote:

Do you happen to have the current level of the NBN FTTH uptake?

You might like to include the uptake at each tier level

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Approx 100,000 and no I don't have the breakdown of tiers at hand. I do recall the higher tiers are exceeding expectations and the interim satellite is near capacity.  Read the business plans if you want to know about it. 

[poddster]

How about building nuclear shelters for the whole population in case a nuclear war breaks out?

Is that being prepared. Where does it stop LL?

A stimulus for the country, more worth then tin halls for schools 🙂

[freakiness]

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@poddster wrote:

Just about anyone can predict "might"

"'Might " is not being a visionary and at the time there was no "Might" about it.

Pretty expensive "might" huh ?

Is the FTTH NBN in the same category? People "might" use it,  was the reason to make it a monopoly so people would have no choice but to use it

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Actually, one reason for making it a monopoly was to avoid the debacle of duplicated HFC networks where  Telstra and Optus competed to supply to the same people while the rest miss out.  Telecom was a monopoly, as is Aus Post.  There is nothing wrong with natural monopolies of utilities with the population size and density of Australia.  Do we want 2 sets of electricity cables, water, sewerage or roads?  So why multiple sets of communications networks when we can have retail competition?

[poddster]

100, 000 out of how many?

Is this true by the way?

The National Broadband Network Company has kicked off what it described as a “promotional” initiative which will see it pay retail Internet service providers $108 per end user customer who signs up to the network by the end of June, a period shortly before the next Federal Election is to be held. The news was first reported over the weekend by The Australian newspaper, and is detailed in a letter to ISPs from NBN Co sent last week (PDF), as well as an update to the company’s product catalogue document (PDF) which describes the way it interacts with its retail ISP partners. The updated document states: “Subject to the conditions in this section 3.2, NBN Co will provide to Customer [the ISPs] a Trial Migration Offer Credit for each eligible activation which occurs during the program period.” NBN Co’s document explicitly states that the purpose of the ‘Trial Migration Offer Credit’ is “to encourage higher rates of activation and use” of the company’s services, and that it expects value from the deal to be passed on by ISPs to end user customers – although NBN Co left open in the contract terms how ISPs would choose to do that.

[*crikey*mate*]

so will the government own the NBN?

[freakiness]

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@crikey*mate wrote:

so will the government own the NBN?

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It's a GBE, so yes the govt owns it the same as it owns Aus Post.

[*crikey*mate*]

so it can be sold in the future?

[lakeland27]

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@poddster wrote:

How about building nuclear shelters for the whole population in case a nuclear war breaks out?

Is that being prepared. Where does it stop LL?

A stimulus for the country, more worth then tin halls for schools 🙂

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 when does being prepared stop ? that's a reasonable question, but it requires a scroller you won't read as an answer.

being unprepared however is foolhardy, especially with basics like water. the water where i live was pretty much exhausted last time, and what there was was so full of chemicals (to kill algae blooms) it was rendered pretty much undrinkable.

[poddster]

Any truth in this?

Figures released under Freedom of Information have confirmed that one third of existing premises NBN Co had counted as being "passed" by the fibre network as of the end of June this year could not order a service on the NBN.

In rollout figures released in July, NBN Co said that it had met its revised target of passing between 155,000 and 175,000 existing premises by fibre at 163,500, and the company had also met its target of passing between 35,000 and 45,000 new premises by fibre at 44,000.

There had been controversy at the time of the announcement, as NBN Co would not confirm the number of premises included in this figure that could then call up a retail service provider and order a service on the NBN.

It had been speculated that as many as 55,000 premises in places such as apartment blocks or shopping centres were unable to connect to the service due to issues that NBN Co had with obtaining permission to access those lots.

ZDNet has confirmed through a Freedom of Information request that of the 163,500 premises passed as of June 30, 107,800 premises could order a service through a retail service provider on this date. NBN Co confirmed that the one third of premises that could not order a service were mostly located in apartment blocks, office blocks, or other multi-dwelling units.

"The majority of the remaining premises are MDUs (multiple dwelling units), which will be able to be connected in accordance with NBN Co's MDU processes."

All of the 44,000 premises passed in new housing areas were able to order a service according to NBN Co.

Despite the 55,700 premises passed that cannot actually order a service on the network, the company has defended its use of this terminology.

"A premises passed is a premises passed, even if that premises is, say, an office block that will receive services over the NBN outside standard order lead times," an NBN Co spokesperson said.

"We use the accepted industry definition of 'premises passed' — that is, homes and businesses passed by an active telecommunications network. That standard measure includes those complex premises that will receive services over the NBN outside standard order lead times."

[freakiness]

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@crikey*mate wrote:

so it can be sold in the future?

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It has to go through Parliament for approval before it can be sold so it depends on the Senate.