On Monday Shadow Communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull was on a Google Hangout talking the NBN (as well as some off-portfolio rubbish). During the Sydney Morning Herald Hangout Turnbull faced the great question of upload speeds. He’s been quick to repeat the ‘minimum 25Mbps’ download speed, but has never confirmed what the upload speeds would be.
The reason, is that it’s not a glowing answer, around 31 minutes in, he admits the number is just 4-6Mbps. The problem is that right now NBN plans offer 100Mbps plans that have 40Mbps up. In December, NBNCo will wholesale 1Gbps plans with 400Mbps up. What this means is that upload will not be limited by the technology on a FTTP model. Upload speeds are perhaps the biggest highlight of the limits of copper over the last mile in the FTTN model from the Coalition.
Something that’s abundantly clear from Turnbull’s responses is that he doesn’t understand the YouTube generation that upload videos daily. This is where uploads count the most, user-generated content, not business generated, but user-generated from their homes. I’m guessing Turnbull has never actually tried to upload a video from an ADSL2+ connection, it’s not a fun experience.
There’s plenty other controversial content in the hangout, including claims the Australian media are lazy because they haven’t spoken to international experts (that would support Turnbull’s case).
