Business Tier For Australia's NBN Brings Big Possibilities For VoIP

An anonymous reader writes "Despite the cost blowing out to $37 billion and ongoing political debate, Australia's rollout of fibre optic cable to 93% of the country's homes, schools and businesses hit another milestone today. To encourage the use of VOIP, Australian small businesses lucky enough to get the fibre cable will have access to high-priority class 1 traffic speeds for multi-line telephony. As this article about the NBN explains, TC-1 speeds up to 5Mbps will be available, which the network builder says will support up to 50 simultaneous lines (separate to general Internet traffic, which is currently delivered at up to 100MBps). While the network is years away from reaching many Australians, this might nevertheless one day be seen as a watershed moment in the move from analogue telephone services to VOIP."

Re:Um

[bloodhawk]

actually that is hardly certain at this point. The poor uptake combined with a possible liklihood of the next government canceling altogether make it about a 50-50 bet.

Re:Um

[promythyus]

This isn't for today. This isn't for tomorrow. This is for the next 20-30 years you f*ckstick.

Imagine if the government of the time had the same thinking when they built the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We'd have 1 lane each way, totally inadequate. Technology expands to fill limitations and if something beneficial doesn't come of investing in those 50 lines within the next 30 years, I will personally reimburse the Australian public for all expenses incurred in providing the service.

Good infrastructure isn't laid by asking "what is adequate for now?".