Presentation Transcript

1. Jim Phillips - Communications New Member induction: You will represent your vocation and any contribution of an educational value pertaining to your business must, naturally, come to us through you. On the other hand, you become an ambassador from us to your classification
2. PP Tony enjoyed painting me with the “Red commie Lefty from Latrobe Uni”, a fun mantle to wear. Latrobe was a labour hotbed. I played Football with Tony Shehan, later to become Treasurer of Victoria But I also played with David Morgan, later to become CEO of Westpac
3. The reality is that I am very much a swinging voter. At one time my local member in Coburg was Bob Hawk My local member in Finchley was Maggie Thatcher I voted for both of them
4. My real concern is that people are the most important objects in our society, rather than Paul Keatings “Lovely set of numbers” or “Big Business” Much like our Club that puts a huge effort in to providing life saving water to unknown people in foreign countries
5. Most importantly I am educating you about my Industry and as such it is not appropriate to allow my Political Views to taint that information
6. Some History My first computer programming course was in Basic in 1968. I have been an ISP for some 18years, so tonight I bring you the benefit of this expertise, not embellished by politics of any sort.
7. Communications and Australia Australia was a relatively early adopter of telegraph technology From 1858 onwards, the major capitals were progressively linked, culminating in the addition of Perth in 1877. Australia was linked to the rest of the world for the first time in 1872, through the Overland Telegraph which ran some 3200 km from Adelaide through to Darwin.
8. The Alice Springs Telegraph Office
9. Technical Challenges There was much discussion as to the best transmission medium to use. Steel was cheap, but it did have a problem with rusting Copper was more expensive, but won out as a more practical long term solution
10. The Tyrany of Distance Australia has a very large area with a small population spread throughout country It is used as a test bed for Communications Because of these demands It is interesting that the Telegraph developed in spite of these difficulties
11. Australia's first telephone service (connecting the Melbourne and South Melbourne offices of Robinson Brothers) was launched in 1879. The private Melbourne Telephone Exchange Company opened Australia's first telephone exchange in August 1880. Around 7,757 calls were handled in 1884.
12. Federation Following federation, the colonial networks were transferred to the Postmaster-General (PMG) With 16,000 staff (and assets of over £6 million) it accounted for 80% of the new federal bureaucracy. That figure climbed to over 120,000 staff (around 50% of the federal bureaucracy) by the late sixties.
13. Public phones were available in a handful of post offices and otherwise restricted to major businesses, government agencies, institutions and wealthier residences. There were around 33,000 phones across Australia, with 7,502 telephone subscribers in inner Sydney and 4,800 in the Melbourne central business district. A trunk line between Melbourne (headquarters of the PMG Department) and Sydney was established in 1907, with extension to Adelaide in 1914, Brisbane in 1923, Perth in 1930 and Hobart in 1935.
14. More Federation The nature of the networks meant that regulation in Australia was undemanding network personnel were government employees or agents legislation was enhanced on an incremental basis and restrictions could be achieved through infrastructure. All the colonies ran their telegraph networks at a deficit through investment in infrastructure and subsidisation of regional access, generally with bipartisan support.
15. Still in around 1910 Overseas cable links to Australia remained in private hands, reflecting the realities of imperial politics, demands on the new government's resources, and perceptions of its responsibilities. On 12 July 1906 the first Australian wireless overseas messages were sent between Point Lonsdale, Victoria and Devonport, Tasmania.
16. Australia and New Zealand ratified the 1906 Berlin Radio-telegraph Convention in 1907. The PMG department became responsible for some international shortwave services - particularly from the 1920s - and for a new Coastal Radio Service in 1911, with the first of a network of stations operational in February 1912.
17. After WW II The Liberal Government (Bob Menzies) realised the importance of good communications The cost of connecting a new telephone was standardised and the same no matter where in Australia the connection was made or how far from an exchange
18. Freedom 1981 Aussat was formed by the Government In Australia the 1982 Davidson Enquiry regarding private sector involvement in delivery of existing/proposed telecommunications services recommended ending Telecom Australia's monopoly. In the preceding year Aussat Pty Ltd, another government agency, had been established to operate domestic satellite telecommunication and broadcasting services.
19. In practice Aussat's charter restricted it from acting as a competitor to Telecom, including a prohibition on interconnecting public switched traffic with Telecom's network. Aussat's viability was undermined through restrictions on raising capital, of critical importance given tepid government support and increasing costs. It wasn't until 1985 that Australia's first geostationary communications satellite was operational; by late 1990 it had debts of about $400 million.
20. New technologies Developments during the war changed communications No longer was there a pair of copper wires connecting the phones at each end. The last plug and cord telephone exchange in the USA was closed in the early 90s
21. Changing Times With Aussat operating at a loss and with moves to deregulate telecommunications in Australia, the government decided to sell Aussat, coupled with a telecommunications licence. The licence was sold to Optus Communications The new telecommunications company was designed to provide competition to then government owned telecommunications company Telecom Australia, now known as Telstra.
22. These practices meant that Optus was (and still is) the single largest customer of their competitor, Telstra. To become competitive Optus would need to lay its own local phone network. Telstra's local phone network did not have the capability to deliver Foxtel pay television to consumers in the early 1990s, so Telstra identified a need to create a broadband network to support this new product. As Telstra and Optus could not agree on terms for a joint broadband cable roll out, they laid two competing cable networks, in addition to Telstra's existing copper network, at a combined cost estimated of over A$6bn. Whilst Telstra focused on creating a broadband network specifically for broadcast, Optus designed their cable network to provide telephony services in addition to broadcast television.
23. Xerox An amazing organisation. They had a large research division that was devoted to just that They Developed Ethernet Apples start was largely due to Xerox Research There is no current day organisation to match their Research.
24. Technical Stuff The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model (ISO/IEC 7498-1) is a conceptual model that characterizes and standardizes the internal functions of a communication system by partitioning it into abstraction layers. The model is a product of the Open Systems Interconnection project at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
25. Seven Layers
26. Data Trains Data travels in small packets which contain The from address Some data The to address The packet number
27. Each packet leaves the start and travels its own path to the destination Layer 1 is the Physical Layer that the packet travels on Each Packet travels its own path
28. At the destination the Packets re assemble in the correct order, and can also be told to check with the sender to make sure the data is correct Pigeon Net
29. The World Wide Web More properly the internet Looks like a web, because each packet determines the best path to the destination. So if a line is cut or overcrowded, the packets find a way around it. This makes it hard to sabotage the Internet
30. The 80s and the beginning of “Competition” In Australia the 1982 Davidson Enquiry regarding private sector involvement in delivery of existing/proposed telecommunications services recommended ending Telecom Australia's monopoly. In the preceding year Aussat Pty Ltd, another government agency, had been established to operate domestic satellite telecommunication and broadcasting services. In practice Aussat's charter restricted it from acting as a competitor to Telecom, including a prohibition on interconnecting public switched traffic with Telecom's network. Aussat's viability was undermined through restrictions on raising capital, of critical importance given tepid government support and increasing costs. It wasn't until 1985 that Australia's first geostationary communications satellite was operational; by late 1990 it had debts of about $400 million.
31. The 80’s Mobile phones were around , no longer the size of a satelitebase station, we began to see the Maxwell Smart inspired Shoe Phone Brick. Motorolla was head of the pack, but a Finnish manufacturer of Paper Machinery came to the fore. Nokia Nokia went on to become the largest manufacturer of Cameras (In the phones)
32. Mobile Competition - Telstra V Optus The hope was for a better service, but because they each had to put in their own communication network this didn’t happen Towers were only installed in areas of high demand. Often Towers side by side Competition was aimed at servicing only the profitable areas. Outside that service was thin.
33. Mobile examples Kinglake. The decision on the carrier to select based on the best service near home. Hume Highway. Many cars go up, but coverage is terrible, no matter the carrier Government gave $20 Million to Telstra to improve mobile coverage in an area. Bet Optus were not impressed
34. The Down Side Because towers were duplicated, or just not installed, Coverage was intermittent. If Telstra Wholesale designed the Network and the placing, installation , servicing of it, the coverage would be far better for a lower cost. Australia is to big to accomadate duplication
35. At last, competition I can remember buying the first mobile phone, a Nokia. This was the first “Pocket” phone. And there was Competition. From Optus
36. The first analog cellular system widely deployed in North America was the Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS).[24] It was commercially introduced in the Americas in October 1983, Israel in 1986, and Australia in 1987. AMPS was a pioneering technology that helped drive mass market usage of cellular technology, but it had several serious issues by modern standards. It was unencrypted and easily vulnerable to eavesdropping via a scanner; it was susceptible to cell phone "cloning;" and it used a Frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) scheme and required significant amounts of wireless spectrum to support.
37. In 1993, IBM Simon was introduced. This was possibly the world's first smartphone. It was a mobile phone, pager, fax machine, and PDA all rolled into one. It included a calendar, address book, clock, calculator, notepad, email, and a touchscreen with a QWERTY keyboard.[28] The IBM Simon had a stylus you used to tap the touch screen with. It featured predictive typing that would guess the next characters as you tapped. It had apps, or at least a way to deliver more features by plugging a PCMCIA 1.8 MB memory card into the phone.[29]
38. Mobile. What should have been Separate Telstra Retail (sell it, who cares) from Wholesale. Make it answerable only to the Government. An Authority (Based on something like Telstra’s Old Laboratories in Springvale) That has the responsibility to design a proper Mobile Network giving best coverage. Lets call it the Snowy mountains Authority, they knew how to manage major infrastructure.
39. Cable TV Cable TV. Competition must be good? Our street had the 2 companies each run a cable. Just a few streets away they got neither. Cable is Fibre optics and also carried a limited Internet access. One of those companies is now defunct, so only half the cables are used. A huge cost to all consumers
40. What should have happened Let the Snowy Mountains Authority install, manage and maintain the cable. We would then get the same coverage for half the price as there would be no waste. As end users we ended up paying for the duplication and waste, and are still paying for it.
41. The Internet Competition is supposed to be more efficient than a Government Authority, so we are told. But what happened when Competition on cabling was allowed. In the city where distances are short and many companies(Gas, Power etc) own ducts, lots of cable was laid and prices in the CBD plummeted
42. The Internet But the situation outside the CBD was much different. Distances were longer and the “Competitors” in the city did not run any services Costs in Country areas were much higher or just not there. A network is really only as good as its remotest point, so the quality of our internet islousy.
43. What should have happened? The important task is to build a network. We don’t yet know what for, but Downloading Movies and Music is only a minor part of it The Network needs to cover the maximum number of users at the maximum speed The Snowy Authority (Or NBN) is not allowed to retail, so there is no conflict of interest
44. The NBN Australia needs a communications network that reaches as many Premises as possible and provides comparable speeds, no matter where you live. Why? The industry can’t tell you, but we know that as the service comes, it will be used. Already many companies are using the NBN to great effect in regional centres.
45. The Private enterprise, unplanned solution If we let anybody put in their own network, we may get good performance and low price for some blue ribbon areas, but leave no funds for other areas. Remember that a Network is really only as good as its weakest point Our Population is too small to have competing networks
46. FTN or FTH The preffered option is Fibre to the Home It is future proof, just change the box on the wall Fibre to the Node is being employed in the UK and Ireland, but is not doing the job A rather large box in the street uses existing copper to deliver to the home
47. The Node requires Power The Node requires sophisticated equipment to service the copper side of the network, and needs internal smarts to route the traffic Fibre uses 2 Glass fibres about the thickness of a human hair. That Fibre goes directly back to the Exchange
48. Conclusions Forget the ideology. People following ideology but ignoring realities show low intelligence Religious Fanatics are not wanted Any Religious Fanatics are not wanted
49. Whats happening to the NBN Malcolm Turnbull is the Minister in charge He was an early Internet Adopter creating Ozemail with others at the dawn of the internet. His Body Language