THE rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) will add another dimension to the way we use the internet, according to Curtin University internet studies head Matthew Allen.
Earlier this month, Victoria Park, Mandurah and Geraldton were named as the three sites for the stage two of the network.
The network is expected to cost $43billion over eight years through contributions by the Federal Government and the private sector.
In June this year, Telstra and NBN Co announced an agreement covering the reuse of Telstra infrastructure by NBN Co and the migration of customers from Telstra’s copper and pay-TV cable networks to the new wholesale-only fibre network.
Dr Allen says history has shown that when greater speeds are available, the way people use the internet changes to accommodate that speed.
The NBN rollout would ultimately mean immediate, high resolution, television quality programs over the internet, faster downloads of films and music, faster gaming and greater potential for real time video conferencing.
“If you now try to use your net connection to watch a TV program online, like ABC’s iView, what you get is a small, low-resolution picture and the show would stop and start as it loads. It’s not as good as watching it on TV. The NBN will deliver the same television experience as a television, TV online will work like regular TV.
“So it won’t change the net, but it will add an extra layer onto what we already do.”
He said while features like online television might seem small, the increase in speed would have a dramatic difference to the online landscape in ways that aren’t known yet.
“When we had dial-up, people said why would you need all that extra speed, it’s too expensive and it won’t work,” he said.
“What we’ve learnt is if you give people greater bandwidth, people will use that bandwidth and we won’t realise in advance how important that is.
“The NBN is an exponential increase in the capacity of the system.
“This is not a leap of faith. This is a legitimate investment in infrastructure and we do not quite know what it will lead to, but history shows we will invest in things that we can use it for.”
He said not only the speed of the internet through the fibre optic cables, but also the physical investment would provide great capacity for change for the next 20 to 30 years.
“What will change is the provision of supply in a particular area through something like a telephone exchange which will be a broadband point of interconnection.
“They will serve the internet stream to houses that can be reached from that point, and what they’re doing now is trying it out in different locations, Vic Park being an inner city one.
“The provision of fibre optic cable means potentially you can get internet telecommunication, cable TV and direct connections. That is a really radical communication change because we tend to think of telephone, internet and cable TV as being different.
“Down the track you could have the same service provider for all three.”