[jfoster]

I've heard people suggest that internet access within AU is important for startups, but could you explain why?

I think most AU startups would be targeting a global market, so the internet in Australia is irrelevant for all but a small percentage of their customers.

On the other side, most startups now use cloud hosting with Amazon or Google. So again the quality of internet access in Australia isn't very relevant.

In terms of getting work done, I think it's difficult to make an argument that current internet speed is insufficient.

Don't get me wrong - faster internet would be lovely and I know that there are other groups that would benefit, just not convinced that AU startups specifically would benefit.

[c23gooey]

First of all, its hard to build an internet business when you dont actually have internet access.

Also, the vast majority of internet plans in Australia, provide very little upstream bandwidth.

Your right, the market being targeted is irrelevant to the speed of internet.

With regards Amazon / Google, they need to get their files onto those services in the first place. This ties into your point of getting work done.

When it takes a day to upload 1GB of data - business starts to suffer.

Faster internet, especially upstream would not change the quality of ideas coming out of Australia, but it would remove a significant bottleneck in terms of getting things done.

[jfoster]

Everywhere urban in Australia does already have internet access. For that reason, I don't understand your first point.

The upstream bandwidth isn't hampering any businesses that I am aware of, but I agree that businesses uploading large amounts of data may struggle with it. (sidenote: would it be worth spending so much on infrastructure to support those few businesses?) That said, my understanding is that the upstream bandwidth is intentionally capped by ISPs rather than being a result of the infrastructure. Even with the most amazing infrastructure, you would need to convince ISPs to drop the artificial limitation.

There is also an emerging behaviour where all data crunching is being done on machines in the cloud. In that case, not much of the data would ever even enter Australia unless you wanted it to.

[jbarham]

Bingo. I'm in Melbourne and have founded/co-founded three online businesses, and have exactly zero servers in Australia. Even if I could have 1 Gb fiber with the NBN tomorrow, that wouldn't change.

IMHO the Australian government would be better off expanding international network capacity to Australia across the Pacific and up to Asia. It's absurd to hear non-technical politicians arguing over which NBN architecture is better. That shouldn't be their job any more than deciding whether I use Python or PHP.

[gregsq]

Agreed. My servers are in the UK where the market I'm dealing with is, and where I live usually. Even setting up edge servers for an Australian company starts in the US or UK for me, and comes back over the sea pipes to Australia. When I'm in Australia my Netflix comes over fine through a server I proxy through. The vast majority of consumers will never need the maximum bandwidth, many will hit cap limits earlier, and for latency reasons there's good reasons for keeping servers close to viable markets.

I really don't think Australian politicians know enough about this subject, and that may include the PM's Mr Internet, Malcolm Turnball.