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Now imagine that the government also had the same imagination and vision, and embarks on the nation's largest infrastructure project in its history to implement

Now imagine that the government also had the same imagination and vision, and embarks on the nation's largest infrastructure project in its history to implement that vision. That country exists, and it's Australia. I see billboards advertising 75 Mbps down like it's supposed to be blazing fast, it's a complete farce. Zoom calls are often more reminiscent of slideshows than an actual video call. The Australian NBN project has been an abysmal failure, even after shifting the goalposts, they've been unable to kick any goals. The project has been consistently behind schedule, over budget, and delivered results below expectation. Meanwhile, a short swim away in New Zealand, 84% of the population has access to fiber, with average speeds of 250 Mbps down (and up to 10 Gbps down in some areas). The UFB project may be the only government-led infrastructure project in history that has been delivered ahead of schedule and under budget.

nullsense 6y ago
Yes, fiber is pretty ubiquitous here in NZ now. Took quite a while but lately seems like mostly everyone I know has it whereas a years ago when it was still being rolled out it was a bit more like 50/50 at that time. I remember having a really fun time trying to get it when it was announced that it was available in my street, but my house was originally not part of that street when it was built, but part of the street behind it. As such the system didn't recognise my address as being part of that street which makes absolutely no sense. I had to wait another 6 months until it was rolled out to the street behind my house which was actually in a different suburb. So, it wasn't perfect but we got there in the end!
- toomanybeersies 6y ago
  I was a university student when they started rolling out UFB. For whatever reason, our contractor was taking forever to get around to finishing our install, so one day we found another bloke down the street doing an install, and gave him a box of beer to do a rush job for us.
- mrjin 6y ago
  50/50 is a soft limit, technically the fiber used recently can flawlessly goes to 1000/1000, which should be sufficient for the next decade at least.
  - nullsense 6y ago
    50/50 in this case meaning half of the people I talked to had it, half didn't. Sorry.

nullsense 6y ago

Yes, fiber is pretty ubiquitous here in NZ now. Took quite a while but lately seems like mostly everyone I know has it whereas a years ago when it was still being rolled out it was a bit more like 50/50 at that time. I remember having a really fun time trying to get it when it was announced that it was available in my street, but my house was originally not part of that street when it was built, but part of the street behind it. As such the system didn't recognise my address as being part of that street which makes absolutely no sense. I had to wait another 6 months until it was rolled out to the street behind my house which was actually in a different suburb. So, it wasn't perfect but we got there in the end!

toomanybeersies 6y ago
I was a university student when they started rolling out UFB. For whatever reason, our contractor was taking forever to get around to finishing our install, so one day we found another bloke down the street doing an install, and gave him a box of beer to do a rush job for us.
mrjin 6y ago
50/50 is a soft limit, technically the fiber used recently can flawlessly goes to 1000/1000, which should be sufficient for the next decade at least.
- nullsense 6y ago
  50/50 in this case meaning half of the people I talked to had it, half didn't. Sorry.