cover-v04_notext.pdf 1 8/14/13 6:23 PM TO FIBRE THE HOME What bre broadband can do for AUSTRALIA Do it once! Do it right! Do it with FIBRE! Spring 2013 A Special Publication From REGISTRATION NOW OPEN AUSTIN APRIL 8 – 10, 2014 Renaissance Hotel – Austin, Texas REGI STER NOW USD $350 (Save $545 off regular Summit price of $895) Use VIP Code: AussieNow (exp. October 16, 2013) facebook.com/bbcmag TO SPONSOR OR EXHIBIT: twitter.com/bbcmag email: [email protected] phone: +1718-884-3797 www.bbcmag.com +1877-588-1649 [email protected] +1281-342-9655 REGISTRATION Contents NOW OPEN KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE PRIZE – HOLD ON ADVANTAGE FIBER 4 21 A letter from Scott DeGarmo, CEO, Broadband Communities Magazine Because the services that can be delivered over copper are A message to Australians: Hold on to what’s been won – limited, a fiber-to-the-node network is unlikely to be financially the benefits of an all-fiber network for individuals, families, sustainable in Australia. communities and Australia. Future-proof fiber will bring ongoing advantages. 24 FIBER SWEEPS ACROSS THE GLOBE Worldwide, fiber is feeding bandwidth-starved homes, AUSTRALIA LAGS ASIA-PACIFIC NEIGHBORS 5 businesses, institutions, communities and countries the digital IN FTTH fuel they need for a new era. Australia’s trading partners are investing heavily in fiber-to-the- home networks. How does Australia place in the lineup? 26 FIBER AND BANDWIDTH The nuts and bolts of bandwidth – what it means and why DARE TO DREAM 6 you need it. Here’s a set of simple explanations in easy-to- The NBN’s FTTH strategy offers great advantages for Australian digest question-and-answer format. quality of life and economic competitiveness. In contrast, no large FTTN network has ever succeeded with open access, and 27 FIBER: THE LIGHT FANTASTIC none is capable of being easily used that way. Why fiber is the only future-proof communications technology. 8 WHY FIBER TO THE HOME IS THE BEST CHOICE 29 HOW FIBER COULD ENABLE Top executives explain their decisions. THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION Farmers need more connectivity than urban dwellers, not less. 10 WHY AUSTRALIA NEEDS FIBER It isn’t cheap, on a per-farm basis. But each farm is a business, By the time NBN is scheduled to be finished, around 2020, too – and often several businesses. So fiber’s benefits are AUSTIN worldwide Internet traffic will increase eightfold. How could a greater as well. network that relies on old copper lines possibly keep up with that growth? 30 PAUL BUDDE ON NBN NETWORK TECHNOLOGY PAUL BUDDE ARTICULATES THE NBN VISION 18 A moderately deep dive into the technical issues concerning The Australian expert who helped guide Obama’s broadband FTTH and FTTN. APRIL 8 – 10, 2014 stimulus program and who advises the United Nations Renaissance Hotel – Austin, Texas explains why fiber is the right choice for Australia. Articles in this publication were produced by the staff of Broadband Communities Magazine in the United States (www.broadbandcommunities.com or www.bbcmag.com) for distribution there and in Australia. We apologize, er, apologise for the American spelling. This and other special publications are also available at www.bbcmag.com, and the financial models used to produce the charts on pages 22 and 23 are available for download at www.FTTHanalyzer.com. REGI STER Corporate editor Steven S. Ross ([email protected]) did most of the writing, and editor Masha Zager ([email protected]) did most of the editing. Art director Karry Thomas designed and executed the layout, and Australian artist Krystyna Kappel designed the cover. NOW Cover caption adapted from Independent MP Tony Windsor’s famous 2010 statement. Content (except for several images with copyright notices of their own) is USD $350 copyright © 2013 by BBP LLC, Rosenberg, ICES (Save $545 off regular Texas, USA. Permission is hereby granted RV to reproduce BBP content free of charge E Summit price of $895) S if you include this notice with any article Enhancing cooperation. 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[email protected] +1281-342-9655 SPRING 2013 | www.bbcmag.com | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | What Fibre Broadband Can Do For Australia | 3 Keep Your Eyes on the Fiber Prize – Hold On Knowing what’s at stake gives a powerful motivation to hang in there. A letter from Scott DeGarmo / CEO, Broadband Communities Magazine Any Australian reading this publication may want to know, The real prize today is a fiber Who is publishing it and what is their real agenda? Fair enough. We are, after all, from the other side of the world. And as we network and its value for contemplated this venture, we braced ourselves for slings and arrows – utopian idealists … do-gooders … meddlers … Maybe individuals, families, communities even: troublemakers … agitators … provocateurs. and countries. It will bring an We don’t think so. This is an educational and fact-based publication about the immense value of a fiber network; even ongoing stream of benefits. though the NBN continues to be a political issue in Australia, our aims are not political. We champion all the benefits of a Hold on to what’s been won. fiber-enabled digital transformation – not only better health care, education and government but also economic growth, job creation and innovation – all under the banner of our company mission, Building A Fiber-Connected World. You be the judge. home and business in their communities. The publications also indirectly promote our shows and conferences. In all our A WATERSHED MOMENT IN AUSTRALIA endeavors, and even though corporate sponsors participate Our U.S. company, Broadband Communities, publishes a in our shows and advertise in the pages of our magazine to business magazine and puts on trade shows and conferences that sell their goods and services to our attendees, we consider the attract readers and attendees seeking to build fiber networks value of a fiber network in terms of its benefits for individuals, in various political and economic environments, domestic and families, communities and countries. We place the good of international. We’ve seen a lot in the last decade, including society today and tomorrow above the interests of any vendor, struggles, failures and successes. The successes give us a corporation or financial entity and as much more important tremendous thrill, and the failures are always painful to witness, than Wall Street’s drive for short-term profits. causing us to ask ourselves: Could we have helped this town or development by more assertively sharing the information THE VISION AND STRATEGIES ARE RIGHT and connections we had at hand? The answer has often been a Here are the words we have for Australians: Hold on to the gains resounding yes. There’s a special message, in fact, that we think you have made thus far. applies to Australia at this watershed moment – a message about The steadiness of purpose that wins the day in building holding on dearly to the gains made thus far. networks calls to mind for us the words of the song, Keep Your But more on that in a moment. Let me tell you about the Eyes on the Prize. A pre-World War I folk song that was also readers of Broadband Communities. They are network builders called Hold On – and before that Keep Your Hand on the Plow – such as municipal officials, telephone company executives and it originally referred to the “prize” of heaven. With revised lyrics real estate developers. Also represented are Native American in 1956, it became a staple of the civil rights era, where the prize tribal leaders, rural spokesmen and advocates for senior citizens, was not salvation but freedom. Today, and for us, the prize is an among others. In fulfillment of our mission, we have over all-fiber network – not fiber to the node. Anyone pursuing one the years regularly published special publications such as this will find the path strewn with temptations and distractions. But what’s at stake is bigger than any political party’s agenda. one for communities, organizations and companies. We have As Australian network expert Paul Budde advises, by all published versions for European readers and editions in Spanish means take the opportunity to fine-tune the existing plan, but and Portuguese for the Latin American market. Some of these “the vision and the overall policies and strategies are the right publications have had as a sponsor the Fiber to the Home ones and you shouldn’t start unraveling them.” Council, a trade association, but often we’ve done them on our That could be risky. own. All represent solely our own independent editorial voice Hold on! and perspective. We keep publishing these special publications because we love hearing that our efforts are making a difference. Some U.S. mayors and public officials have distributed them to every 4 | What Fibre Broadband Can Do For Australia | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.bbcmag.com | SPRING 2013 Australia Lags Asia-Pacific Neighbors in FTTH With about 1 percent of its households connected to fiber at the end of 2012, Australia lagged far behind China, South Korea and Japan.