back to article Should NBN Co squeeze a server into FTTN nodes?

Last week, Dell revealed an item of interest in the form of the PowerEdge R420xr, a shortened and ruggedised version of its PowerEdge R420 intended for use in the field by telcos. Dell launched the device at CommunicAsia, the region's annual telco-fest, with a pitch that it is small enough to fit into base stations (hence the …

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  1. dan1980

    "The general idea is that a clever carrier . . ."

    Ha ha! Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

    Stop it SImon - it's too early for jokes.

  2. Jason Ozolins

    Analogy Ambiguity

    " That's a bit scary because we've been told FTTN deployments will be going like a train any month now."

    If we lived in a country where trains were associated with speed and reliability, it would be a bit scary for the right reasons. Instead, it's a lot scary for all the wrong reasons.

  3. Hazmoid

    Given the regularity with which anything in a street box is going to be vandalised, how long do you think it will be before some punk realises he can build a kickin' data centre of his own by breaking into these boxes and stealing the servers and rebuilding them? I foresee some guys making a killing selling these out of the back of their white van ;)

    1. A J

      I like free stuff too!

      I see I'm not the only one who thought immediately of a nice freebie.

      Mmmmm 16 TB. =)

      1. dan1980

        Re: I like free stuff too!

        . . . or someone hacks them for crypto-coin mining!

  4. cracked

    Right, that's it ...

    I know I'm only a visitor to your lovely country and so I shouldn't really pass comment on the politicians you vote for, nor the decisions they take

    However, I'm afraid I can stand it no longer; this is my future we're talking about, too!

    And so; just who in their right fu ...

    Sorry - Just a moment - There's someone on the other line.

    **************************

    What? Is it? Oh.

    You're sure? But I thought it said "4 more years"?

    Ah, no I didn't; I never read the stuff on the back, life's too short. Yes, literally so.

    And it specifically says that? Well OK then, I'm very sorry if I was about to ... No, no; definitely not.

    *************************

    Sorry about that, now where was I? Oh yes ...

    Who in their right ... fully respected opinion, would think this was a bad idea?! I don't know why the rest of the planet isn't taking more notice of the great work being done by ...

    (Really? Oh, thank goodness!)

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When the LNP mention the NBN

    The price of tin and string goes up...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ties in nicely with the AFP/ASIO/... plans

    [tinfoil hat = enabled]

    What better way to ensure that all data^W"harmless metadata" is captured as close to the source as possible than having a unit which can do this in each node. Genius!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ties in nicely with the AFP/ASIO/... plans

      Why, thanks. I hadn't thought of that. Just wait a moment while I write some specs.

  7. Hans van Zitvlak

    Vuilnis

    Worst in kont. Zee edge in future is zee wolk, niet in zee node. Next we see NBN wit TV antenne on kabinet?

  8. Tannin

    cheap, nasty, short-term

    It's not a meaningful question. They will do what's cheap. Bank on that; this government will do whatever is cheap, nasty, and destined to need replacing with something practical and competent almost as soon as they themselves are out of office (which won't be long) and replaced with someone more competent (which won't be at all difficult).

  9. caffiend

    Quit while you're ahead

    Or the Australian Government could just kill the failed experiment that is the NBN and use all that money to fix the budget deficit. There is no need for a government to interfere in an industry which is already competitive, and exhibits no signs of market failure.

    Honestly, I've lived in the US and Europe, and our (Australian) internet infrastructure is no worse, or more expensive than those overseas (although if the NBN is ever completed that could change).

    I participated in the NBN trial and was bitterly disappointed at paying more (a lot more) for a service that was noticeably WORSE than current HFC offerings.

    But as usual, Pay more, Get Less. That's the Australian Way!

    I have no idea why anyone thinks that the NBN is a good idea.

    1. The government invests billions of dollars to create a network which is demonstrably worse than current commercial offerings, at a cost to every Australian tax payer for the next decade or more.

    2. Because they know it's worse and more expensive, they pass a bunch of legislation which effectively prevent the private sector from establishing competing networks, stopping any innovation in the telecommunications space indefinitely.

    3. These creepy centralised government surveillance and censorship programmes all suddenly become viable - Server at the node... Sounds like a great way to implement a distributed surveillance system or content filter.

    Unfortunately, they can't just shut it down now, it'll result in the losses of hundreds of jobs at NBNCo, so it's just "too big to fail", and nobody will kill it. We'll just have to get used to paying $100 per month for a 30mbps internet connection and pretend that we've got great infrastructure cause it's "The NBN".

    Just give it up.... Telstra will take back all those displaced NBNCo employes, it's where most of them came from in the first place.

    Telstra were however smart enough to retain the good ones, and offload the useless bozos, so maybe it's a new form of public service, in that the government are taking care of the mentally handicapped by giving them high paying jobs pretending to design telecommunications infrastructure.

    1. Michael Xion

      Re: Quit while you're ahead

      All other things aside. I'm currently paying $75 per month for ADSL2+ that tops out at 7Mbps but most of the time only gives me 1-3Mbps on a 50Gb download cap. I'd be happy to pay $100 per month for a 30 Mbps connection and a large cap. Because of where I live, I only have Telstra Bigpond as an option. At least if the FTTH NBN had gone forward I may have had a choice of ISP.

    2. Mark 65

      Re: Quit while you're ahead

      BT Infinity with phone and cable TV is cheaper per month than your average speedy connection in Australia. Australia is just plain expensive. Unfortunately the monopolist shitbag that is BT has proved more capable than the monopolist shitbag that is Telstra. Who'd have thunk it?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mind you it does confirm what I (and I suspect the rest of us had wondered about)... no new work has taken place on the old NBN plans under Turnbull(cough-shit). The old work stopped. The new work is far from ready to progress. Net result, no one gets connected to anything.

    And just to chime in, my ADSL2+ connection running over decades old left to rot in place copper seldom gets better than 10Mb/s. For a connection that has barely 500m to run to the exchange this seems pretty damn poor to me.

  11. Talie5in

    Last week?

    I'm sure there were announced in February......

  12. rtb61

    Ever heard of reliable servers and how hot swapping and disk mirroring. Try to do that reliably with one server and you are only screwing your customers over, when the server dies and a new one needs to be installed but of course the spy vs spy types will love you.

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