Once again the flailing Australian National Broadband Network is in the news with a couple in Melbourne being quoted up to 1.2 million dollars to connect to the NBN. The primary reason for this is the the house in question is seven kilometres of fibre would be needed to connect the property. With the copper network being switched off around Australian, even in places where it is still viable, the only option is to switch to the NBN unless a competing network already exists. The NBN has stated that it can cost $30,000 to run fibre for a "few hundred metres". It is getting to the point where it can be cheaper just to move house if the internet is bad.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 14 2018, @01:28PM (11 children)
obviously they paid more for their running water, so they can't complain.
I guess the electricity was cheaper, since you can put that wire overground. although there would be the problem of clearing forests etc, so I can't be sure.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday June 14 2018, @01:41PM (9 children)
Its AUS so they need to armor the cable to survive the teeth of the dreaded carnivorous Australian Drop Bear, a truly ferocious predator animal.
Although semi-seriously, I live in a state where approximately nothing outside is poisonous to humans, whereas everything in AUS seems poisonous, so maybe it costs more to install outside plant stuff when the workers are fending off human wave attacks of poisonous snakes and Arrakis Sandworms and whatever else lives in AUS.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 14 2018, @02:14PM (6 children)
See it is complete BS like this that gives people the wrong impression about this place.
Drop bears don't eat metal cable.
Idiot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 14 2018, @02:38PM
you conveniently left out the fact that this cable is not a metal cable.
there! I have now revealed your evil ways!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 14 2018, @03:48PM (1 child)
I thought Drop Bears were omnivorous?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Pino P on Thursday June 14 2018, @06:11PM
The drop bears I've read about don't eat cable drops; they eat only leaves. And they need leaves to be fresh off the tree; they won't even eat a salad on a plate [unimelb.edu.au].
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday June 14 2018, @10:18PM
Does anyone know if Vegemite is a metal or not? Until this is resolved... well I wouldn't leave cables laying around the AUS wilderness.
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Thursday June 14 2018, @11:04PM (1 child)
Yes, that's true, but once I did see one rip down a live powerline to pick at some meat and bone stuck between its teeth...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 15 2018, @04:29AM
Obviously it did not see you
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday June 14 2018, @09:41PM (1 child)
Easy solution:
1) attach cable to sandworm
2) send sandworm towards house, draggin the cable underground
3) dispose of sandworm when it comes up
4) spend $500k to rebuild house, plug cable into LAN
There you have it! Saved half the cost!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 15 2018, @04:31AM
How, exactly, does one "dispose" of a sandworm? Throw in a dropbear?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday June 14 2018, @01:42PM
I doubt they have running water.
Accordingly to TFA, the guy lives in Jam Jerrup [google.com] - switch to satellite view and you'll see farmland and some beach cabins there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford