I've been thinking about the internet connectivity problem we have in New Zealand.
I'm not sure actually how bad it is, I know a lot of people are kicking up a fuss and I know personally I've had hours of lost productivity.
I'd be keen to see a simple map (similar to a road map showing SH1 etc and interconnecting routes eg. SH58) of the NZ internet highway. The map should show the speed limits and how many lanes the roads are (i.e. how much traffic throughput the links can stand). I don't really have a clue but expect the make up is a skeleton of fibre that runs the length of the country and links to all the cities off the main back bone. I suspect there are 2 or 3 main backbones owned by Telecom, Telstra and maybe someone else. I'm guessing the fibre goes into all the Telecom owned exchanges and then its copper for the last 0-10 km (for those stuck with ADSL), and those lucky enough to have Telstra Cable get the cable to their front door. I take pity with the rural folk. I know companies like Citylink have fibre that spans the length of the CBD in Wellington and parts of Auckland. Does such a simple map exist? Can someone make one with a simple google map, make it public so people can update it to make sure its accurate.
So on to the current problems..... getting disconnected, getting lag, getting slow download and upload rates. I experienced all of these when I switch back to ADSL last month. Two years ago I quite happily talked on Skype to a friend in Japan while at the same time be remote desktoping into their computer on a 256kb jetstart plan. Getting disconnected 8 times in a day (I had to reconnect using my router control panel) and experiencing massive lag and not being able to talk to someone less than 30km's away on Skype was a bit of an eye opener when I recently had Jetstream turned back on. This is in a house 10 doors up the road from where I used to live, so all the variables had stayed constant. What had changed?
Basic! So we have an overloading problem at the exchanges, its probably easily fixed cause I don't expect the fibre to be overloaded just yet. ADSL2+ is way overdue and their isn't enough equipment in the exchanges. Is this the guts of the problem that would give most of the nation temporary relief? I hope so. Its like deja vu - remember back in 1998 when we all have 20 buck paradise dial up and all of a sudden one day started getting kicked off the net? That was cause of overloading.
How can a startup expect to launch a global business in NZ at the moment with such bad infrastructure? I'd really want to launch a new idea in New Zealand (as the small population would be great for a test market) but my business is flawed without good internet connectivity. How much is this actually costing our economy, just think if the next 700 million dollar gorilla doesn't get off the ground cause it can't be proven in NZ?
To fix the equation there needs to be reliably cheap internet connectivity for the citizens. Online hosted apps make sense but only if we can be guaranteed we can always access those. Its a bit of a frustrating time for web architects, its like being a plumber that creates a master piece in the bathroom but the pipes are leaking everywhere. Just because we can't physically see the water dripping from the T joints with the internet doesn't mean that as a nation we can let this drop. If they can build the bypass through Wellington for a 30 second improvement to get across town then surely they can sort this problem. If the anti smacking bill can get rushed through then surely can't the anti slow internet bill get given some attention?
I'm not into Telecom bashing, they are a commercial operator and their shareholders expect a return on investment. The problem is that the people at Telecom weren't visionary and gutsy enough to lay fibre everywhere. They should have but they didn't. They would have got their return on investment cause there would have been demand. Build a new highway and people will use it, we all know that.
So what to do now? Simple. Get Telecom to tell the nation exactly what the current problem is in simple terms so my mum can understand why she can't talk to me on Skype. I.e is it just a lack of ADSL 2+ exchanges with enough plugs or do we have a problem with fibre links around our nation? Tell the government how much and how long it would take to fix this. The government then decides if it should own the infrastructure or buy a huge chunk of Telecom and invest the funds and let the experts get it sorted in the shortest time period.
I welcome comments, cause I really want to understand the extent of the problem we have. Have I been too simplistic in my thinking? Are there flaws in my assumptions, please let me know.
In case you're wondering about the title, I've covered plumbing and traffic jams. If any knows of any good plasterers then let me know, the cable guy fell through our ceiling when installing cable the other week. Thats right we have a massive whole in our kitchen , living room now. I thought it was pretty funny and sums up the state of the internet in NZ quite nicely at the moment....broken and need of a decent handyman to fix the cracks.
Had an awesome day out at Eastbourne yesterday with the lads tuning our new windsurfing kit. Sheza got some great shots - I'll upload some more tomorrow.
