The Rant-O-Matic

As I’m sure most of you are aware (being the intelligent group of people that you are) the National Broadband Network is promising to deliver 100mbps fibre optic internet connection to over 90% of the residents of this country. It’s an ambitious project and probably one of the largest single infrastructure projects in Australian history. There have, however, been questions raised as to the necessity of such a scheme. There are those that don’t see the need for such high-speed access (or superfast!!!111 as the federal government would put it…because they don’t understand what they’re talking about. What the fuck does superfast mean, anyway?) deployed on such a large scale. They, naturally, being incredibly short-sighted. It’s not hard to compile a list of possibilities that could be unlocked following the completion of the NBNs construction.

As far as the average home user will be concerned, the NBN represents the first step in the move away from the 100-odd year history of traditional broadcast media. This is a real chance for them to be in a position to see all the benefits that the internet can bring into their homes in terms of entertainment. Streaming high definition video from around the world, on-demand access to a plethora of their favourite television shows, same for movies. The national broadband network has the potential to finally bring around that digital revolution that’s been harped on about since the internet first really came into the main social conscious in the mid to late 90s. That is something that I cannot wait for.

It will have been a long time coming, but finally there could be a point where viewers will no longer be forced to watch what they’re told to by the program directors of TV networks. You won’t have to put with having the cricket interrupted for another re-run of ‘The Best of the Footy Show’, or some other nonsense. You won’t miss the start of that that live event because Masterchef is running late due to an abundance of crying, chilli, cravats or a combination of all three. Things will work the way that should in where the consumer gets to decide what they want and when they want it.

For content producers, especially local ones, the NBN also opens a great number of new doors as well for getting their content out into the public where it can make them some money. Low-budget, off tangent shows can sell themselves directly to the consumer, instead of having to hope to get picked up by a TV network or do a costly DVD run. Further to this, they would also get access, instantly, to a global audience, rather than having to wait for their program to filter out via the usual channels.

For news, consumers no longer have to rely on what they’re told by the large media outlets during the 6pm news bulletin or on the pages of the newspaper. Instead they’ll be able to access masses of information directly from the places where the news is being made. While this is already happening within the existing internet infrastructure, the possibilities that could be unlocked via the National Broadband Network have the potential to extend this reach massively.

In short, the point that I’m trying to get across is that the NBN could unlock a giant leap forward in the way content is distributed and consumed across Australia.  This change is going to be for the best.  This is a change that is starting to happen in other parts of the world and this change it needs to happen here. I want my NBN now, dammit.