[Rebel1]

Mike, you are certainly correct that triple play (your words) is the way of the future. As to when it will happen, or where it sits in the priority queue is debatable.

I'm sure this whole NBN issue was/is motivated by frustration of the government with Telstra and it's monopoly on telecommunications, It's lack of investment to country areas, and total lack of investment/maintenance of the existing copper.

I live in an older established suburb. The copper in our street is at capacity, every line is duplex. When it rains the phones go out. The exchange has only recently had a telstra DSLAM installed and it is only from telstra one can get ADSL2 and it is priced accordingly. What the NBN announcment has done is delay the installation by an alternate ISP to install their own DSLAM.

Sambo, you comments regarding water is a state issue. Up until the last 12 months we also had a serious water supply issue. The State introduced very serious water restrictions, subsidised water tank installation, a water transfer pipeline interconnecting the various dams so water could be transferred from an overflowing dam to a dams at low levels and has built a desal plant.

The largest single improvement to our water shortage was the subsidized water tanks. My home now has 5000Ltrs of tank water plumbed into the toilets and laundry. Our usage of town water has decreased considerably and many, many thousands of residents have the same.

More to follow .......