No. 1 Story
Construction needs cloud flexibility
Australia’s embattled construction sector could benefit from cloud based information systems that can be switched on and off in lockstep with individual projects – with the exception of those organisations based in remote areas like the Kimberleys.
read more4G vs NBN: the best way to connect to the net
Stan Beer
Tuesday, 15 February 2011 20:04
Over coffee not long ago, a friend chided me over my NBN skepticism with a leading question 'what's the best way to connect to the net?' I conceded that a fibre connection would be fastest. 'That's it, do it once, do it right!' he exclaimed with a grin, as he continued checking his email on his iPhone over 3G.
If this were a debate purely about download and upload speeds then there would be no contest. A FttH NBN would be a hands down winner over even the most advanced wireless network, HSPA+, LTE, whatever.
However, as many of us know, the debate is bit more complex than that. There are other factors to consider besides speed. There's convenience; there's portability; there's flexibility; there's geography and there's cost.
Earlier this year, I took a 10-day break with my family and stayed in a very nice apartment on the Gold Coast in Queensland. For me, this was a working holiday so I needed a net connection for my MacBook.
For $17 a day, the apartment complex offered a modem router and a relatively fast DSL service. However, as I had my iPhone 4 on a Vodafone capped plan which included 2.5G of data, I decided to give tethering a try before shelling out extra for fast internet.
For my purposes, which was checking email, producing and mailing out the daily newsletter, editing and posting the occasional story and communicating with the other iTWire team members via Skype and email, my tethered connection was adequate if not great. It was sort of like the early DSL connections but definitely much better than dial-up.
The point is that I preferred the freedom and flexibility of being able to stay connected using my own portable device than being forced to pay extra to use a fixed line service.
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