For my first Digitally Enhanced column it would make sense to gaze into my crystal ball and call on years of experience and analyse the current technology environment to make some bold predictions on what the world of IT will look like in the near future. But I won’t. In various articles and radio programs in the past I have often made such predictions with total confidence – only to recall such predictions 12 months later and realise how terribly wrong I have been. The world of IT moves so quickly that it is very difficult to say what it will look like tomorrow. It is a challenge to stay up to date with what it looks like today! More importantly, for this first article, I feel compelled to dedicate this column to helping people grasp the potential and the practical side of the revolution that is happening in Dubbo at the moment.

No, I am not talking about the amalgamation.

I am, of course, talking about the NBN.

Firstly, let’s talk about what the NBN can do for Dubbo. On QandA this week, Christopher Pyne and Anthony Albanese debated the merits of the different versions of the NBN that the two parties advocate. Pyne stated that the slower speed Internet from the Coalition would allow people to watch five full-length movies in the same household at the same time. Whilst I would disagree with Pyne on a technicality, the point that Albanese jumped all over – and the one I agree with – is that if the Coalition thinks the NBN is just about watching movies then they are missing the point.

The NBN is about so much more. It is about enabling our economy to work in ways that we can’t even dream of yet. The Apple iPhone was released on 29 June 2007 – less than nine years ago – yet the estimates are that by the end of this year there will be 2.6 billion smartphone users in the world and 70 per cent of mobile phone sales are smartphones. People using smartphones would struggle to survive without their favourite app or some particular feature yet this is a device that did not even exist nine years ago. There are now well over one million apps available.

It will be a similar scenario with the NBN. Sure, I can see some uses immediately. I can see that real estate agents will take videos – perhaps immersive videos – and easily upload those to Web sites to sell houses to buyers from across the world. I can see that employees will be able to work with more flexibility and more productively by being connected remotely to the office without any noticeable drop in speed. I can see that the medical fraternity will be able to offer more flexibility and better solutions for patients by remote high-quality real-tem video consultations. Furthermore, I predict that these will seem like such mundane and boring uses of the NBN in just a few short years as the technology will be the enabler to innovative and creative ways to take advantage of the incredible bandwidth.

Taking one step back, I also feel duty-bound to offer some practical tips to residents connecting to the NBN. The vast majority of people I speak with about actually connecting to the NBN have got most of the story right and perhaps missed a point along the way. To be fair, most people have received their NBN advice from a mate at the pub so it is not always totally reliable.

The main reason for the confusion and the mixed messages is that we have different technologies that people are connecting with.

Generally, within the Dubbo limits, residents are serviced by a physical connection to their house. In the areas around the boundaries of the city limits, people are generally connected via a Fixed Wireless connection. Further out, people only have access to satellite. I want to focus on the physical connections within the city limits.

Dubbo has been broken up into seven modules with four of those modules being serviced by fibre optic cable being connected to the actual premises (FTTP) and three modules being connected by using existing copper cabling that is running into your building (FTTN).

In a building connected with FTTP, NBN technicians will have installed a Premises Connection Device (PCD) on the outside of your home. This has fibre optic cable connecting your home to the exchange. Nothing more will happen UNTIL you decide on a Retail Service Provider (RSP) and authorise a connection with the RSP. These are companies you are familiar with such as Telstra; Optus; TPG etc. When you connect an NBN plan, NBN technicians will visit your house again and install a Network Termination Device (NTD) on the inside of your house. This device effectively converts the light energy in the fibre optic cable to electrical energy. From the NTD, you plug in a router or gateway device that your RSP will typically have provided to you. Your gateway device will typically be a Wi-Fi device and will also have ports to allow you to plug in other computers or network devices and also have a port for a telephone.

If you are in an FTTN area, completely ignore the scenario I have just outlined. Residents in an FTTN area have no physical work performed at their house. If you are in an FTTN area, you will use your existing telephone lines that come into your house and the NBN work will be performed along your street. You still need to visit your friendly local RSP to arrange to change over your connection to the NBN. Surprisingly enough, there are some unscrupulous operators in the market and if you receive a device at your house or business without having arranged a connection, do not plug it in. Make sure you have arranged a connection with your preferred provider.

Two important pieces of information to finish off. The new network is called the National Broadband Network (NBN). This is incorrectly named. It should be named the National Communication Network (NCN). Many people believe they don’t need the NBN because they only use a phone and they don’t use the Internet. This is incorrect. If you wish to retain a phone line or an Internet connection at your premises, you must connect to the NBN. In fact, you have a fairly limited timeframe. From the date that your area is live with the NBN, you only have 18 months before your old phone line and ADSL connection is disconnected. Again this information is specific to FTTP and FTTN clients which is what everyone within the city limits of Dubbo will be connected with.

To steal the NBN catchphrase, bring it on!

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