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Technology Lifestyle Free Wi-Fi in selected major NSW centres sounds great, but is it?
Technology Lifestyle Free Wi-Fi in selected major NSW centres sounds great, but is it? | Free Wi-Fi in selected major NSW centres sounds great, but is it? |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Thursday, 30 November 2006 | |
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Page 1 of 2   
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This isn’t always the case, of course, but no matter where you’re reading this right now, I’m sure you can remember big announcements or promises that, in the end, either didn’t happen or were significantly changed. In what smells like a bit of electioneering, the NSW Government is offering free wireless broadband across all of Sydney’s CBD, including North Sydney, and is also promising free wireless broadband in the city centres of Liverpool, Parramatta, Wollongong, Newcastle and Gosford. However this leaves out the major regional centres of Dubbo, Wagga Wagga, Armidale, Tamworth, Orange, the North Coast, Albury, Bathurst, Tweed and other areas, most of which have had no wireless "broadband" until Telstra's recent Next-G service, unlike the metropolitan centres which often have iBurst, Unwired or other wireless services on offer. I originally stated in this article that those areas had no wireless broadband whatsoever, but Telstra have been in contact to remind me of their Next-G service which now allow access to wireless broadband in those areas. Before Telstra's Next-G service arrived only a few weeks ago in those regional centres, the fastest wireless speeds on offer were either GPRS or Telstra's CDMA 1xRTT service which was only able to give an approximate 100k connection speed (which could fluctuate up or down depending on your signal strength). Now that Next-G is available, consumers and businesses can indeed get wireless broadband in those areas, but while the pricing is more easily affordable by businesses, consumers could baulk at paying approximately $100 per month for a 1Gb download limit, or $199 for a 3Gb download limit. It is expected that Telstra will, before Christmas, announce a Next-G service using desktop modems, similar to Telstra's existing CDMA EVDO desktop modems, at similar prices which are more affordable that the existing Next-G pricing - but this is yet to be officially announced or confirmed. Tesltra's Next-G obviously won't be a free service as the NSW Government is proposing for metropolitan areas, and clearly Tesltra are concerned that any free government subsidised service will eat into their profits as any existing business would be when the government suggests it will offer a service that is already commercially provided on a free of charge basis. So, while Telstra has finally made wireless broadband available in those regional centres, with the expectation of better prices for consumers, it is the only telco/ISP to do so, and those centres have been curiously left out of the NSW Government's otherwise generous sounding agenda of free Wi-Fi for the selected masses. These regional centres would probably benefit a great deal more than city areas with access to wireless broadband, with metropolitan cities already flooded with an enormous array of wireless choices. My original point about these regional centres was that they are being left out of the NSW Government's flawed free Wi-Fi proposal for no good reason other than perhaps politics, seeing as they are seemingly happy to fund free wireless Wi-Fi for metropolitan areas. In an age of privatisation, why is the NSW Government offering free wireless broadband at all? The NSW Premier, Morris Iemma, said that “Universal access to wireless broadband in our CBDs will further boost the state's economy and make NSW more attractive for expanding or new businesses." While that sounds positively delightful, does Mr Iemma really know what he is getting himself in for? To start with, the NSW Government has now decided it is going to be an Internet Service Provider to compete with publicly run companies. But here are some other questions: - Will the government be filtering the service to protect children who access it from inappropriate and dangerous sites on the Internet? - Will the government be blocking, shaping or applying QoS to certain types of traffic, such as peer-to-peer, VoIP traffic, streaming media and more? - What speed will the service be offered at? There are a number of other questions on page 2. Please read on. |
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