As the Rudd Government prepares to roll out its $42 billion National Broadband Network, JOHN HARRIS explains how fibre optic communication provides Australia's path to the future.

History warrior Geoffrey Blainey is credited with coining the term “tyranny of distance” in his 1966 book about how vast distances shaped Australia’s development.

Overcoming this snappy phrased problem also provides the rationale for the Rudd Government’s $42 billion plan to build a national fibre-optic network to link most of Australia’s homes and businesses.

To understand why fibre optic networks are significant, a brief look at broadband history is necessary.

During the late 1990s, Internet access required modems so your computer could “talk” v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y over your phone line. Eventually, a modem could transmit 56,000 bits of data per second under good conditions: A “bit, in the digital world, is a zero or a one.

If you used your phone line for Internet access, it was tied up for voice phone calls – and vice versa.

About 2000, Telstra introduced broadband, in the form of ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), a technology that transmits data faster over copper phone lines than a modem.

At best, Australia’s first generation ADSL service could transmit 1.5 million bits per second – 26 times faster than a modem.

ADSL allows simultaneous phone calls and Internet access by using line frequencies not used by voice calls. ADSL signal quality depends on distance from the exchange and copper line quality.

In 2005, second generation ADSL, called ADSL2+, increased that speed to as fast as 24 million bits per second – more than 400 times faster than a modem!

The A in ADSL stands for Asymmetric which means data moves faster from the Internet to your house than the other direction. Because there’s more content on the Internet than on your hard drive, it optimises available bandwidth.

Since then, wireless technologies, such as 3G and WiMAX, have provided Internet access in rural areas, such as Yorke Peninsula, or to light up metropolitan broadband black spots.

Wireless is useful for this last mile delivery of Internet access, but radio frequencies are a finite commodity, so they congest in high density areas. That means wireless provides one answer, but not the answer, to the question about how to deliver Internet better.

Fibre-optic networks are a quantum leap beyond ADSL and wireless.

As envisioned by the NBN, light pulses travelling along glass fibres will transfer 100 million bits of data per second – nearly 1800 times faster than a modem!

A minor enhancement will boost that speed to 1000 million bits per second (one gigabit per second!).

Significantly, unlike ADSL, the delivery of data over fibre does not degrade with distance, which means you get 100 megabits per second at your wall socket.  It can also work very fast both ways – allowing you to become a content provider, not just a content consumer.

While it is expensive to install, fibre optic cable has a massive capacity that can potentially take work to the workers, diagnostics to the doctor, lessons to the student, regardless of where they are located.

That’s how a fibre-optic network can overthrow Australia’s tyranny of distance.

John Harris is managing director of Impress Media Australia. Email jharris@impress.com.au
 

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