A recent FCC report indicates that "a full 68 percent of "broadband" connections in the US can't really be considered broadband".

http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/10/fcc-report-finds-68-percent-of-us-broadband-connections-arent-r/

I was certainly surprised at the poor quality of Australia's "broadband" connectivity after I returned home from a few years living in the US and Europe. Even in the centre of Sydney, wireless internet connectivity can be poor, slow and patchy.

Mr Abbott, Mr Turnbull, Australia (and the US) needs high speed, high quality internet connectivity. Wireless technology just doesn't cut the mustard.

Even our friends in Great Britain recognize the fact that "superfast" broadband is a necessity.

http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/12/6/uk-promised-best-broadband-europe-2015/

Hi george, i am very much pleased to read your thinkings.
great post. I think Whether you've just left school, come from overseas or are attending university after working for a while, you've probably heard of lectures, tutorials, seminars and laboratories.
In this Trek, you'll find out what they really are and some hints on taking notes and getting the most from these classes. Then, try the Quiz!
Thanks
MichaeL
ccie Trainer

In collaboration with Assoc Prof Rick van der Zwan from SCU, my team is exploring the use of telehealth technologies for monitoring progression of motor function in Parkinson's disease. One of our test sites is in the Coffs Harbour region.

The next phase of our work will be to explore real-time video assessment of the Unified Parkinson's Disease rating Scale, the standard neurological examination performed by clinicians.

For this to work we require high-bandwidth, low-latency video signals, standard video conferencing over ADSL is simply insufficient for the task.

If anyone is interested in finding out more about this work please do not hesitate to contact me.

Stuart Smith
Neuroscience Research Australia
02 9399 1629

Hear Hear.
I support the NBN. I think you are absolutely right and it will no doubt improve the standards of education. It will also allow farmers in rural areas of Australia to provide live video feed of stock for sale, doctors to perform medical emergency procedures remotely via HD video link, schools around Australia to have a much better interactive learning experience, and businesses to thrive.
For the regular user, it means the ability to store more data on virtual servers, hook in to more HD ITV channels, and of course faster all round internet experiences.

Now, without getting political, it is a shame that the NBN could be stopped on Aug 21st if the Liberals get in to power. I am usually a Liberal voter, but I am swinging to Labor to support the NBN. (I don't want to get political, but the truth is the Liberals will scrap the NBN).

I guess if I say any more it will sound as I am getting too political. That is not the entire point of this I guess. Go NBN.

As an IT lecturer I need to conduct online lectures and tutorials in the form of live web casts and audio visual presentations and recordings. ADSL is reasonable for most download operations yet it is asymmetrical with the download channel being much faster than the upload channel.

However when web casting the major part of the content is uploaded to the any students logged on to the session and thus their download speed is then limited by my upload speed. With uploading recordings in most cases the time required is often more than what it takes to make the recording.

I would imagine that many other teachers and educators would find themselves in a similar situation as education continually increases in online content.

Faster speeds would allow a much better quality of delivery of online lectures. This would enable a more responsive interaction from participants that we are not able to achieve without it.

The sooner we can get high speed broadband the better.