On 23/12/13 10:39, Paul Brooks wrote: > ... Mobile wireless broadband stats are counting USB dongles, pocket > cellular/Wifi routers, and dedicated data-only SIMs ... It is not > valid to intercompare the mobile broadband and fixed broadband stats > in a meaningful way ...
If we want to make rational resource decisions, then comparisons need to be made. The mobile wireless broadband statistics could be scaled down by the average number of people per Australian household, for comparison with household connections. In 2011, there were 2.6 people per household in Australia: http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/0 The number of people per household in Australia is falling. With only two or three people per household, is it worth planning a roll-out of broadband to homes? If each home is to have a fixed connection, then that comes at a cost. I don't use a fixed connection at my home, so why should I subsidise yours? Perhaps in telecommunications terms there is "no such thing as a household". Margaret Thatcher is supposed to have said "no such thing as society": http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher Instead of a cable and wireless router for each house, one picocell in the street could be shared by about six homes. This would provide a service for about 16 people (plus those out and about in the street). > Are you telling me you have never 'shared' a printer connected to one > computer so the other devices in your home could print to it? No, I have never shared a printer connected to on computer to others in my home. I rarely print anything. When I need to print, I carry the laptop to where the printer is and plug it in. Having a shared printer is a way to waste a lot of paper and ink. > You've never shared a drive so you can access the files from another > computer in your house? No, I have never shared a drive at home. The people I share data with are usually not in the same place I am, so a local network is not much use. > Not if they have a low-quota broadband service, or a low-speed > broadband service. ... The low quotas on mobile wireless services are arbitrary limits set by the telcos to maximise revenue. The speed could be increased by using smaller cells. But the apparent shortage of bandwidth suits the telcos who can then charge a premium for the mobile service. > ... not if you have tens to hundreds of gigabytes of photos ... The clinical condition "Hoarding disorder" is a problem in our consumer society. High capacity storage devices allow the digital manifestation of this to remain hidden for far longer that with physical hoarding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsive_hoarding -- Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150 The Higher Education Whisperer http://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/ PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia http://www.tomw.net.au Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science, Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/ _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
