Those poor Aussies
I've been on UFB (NZ Fibre) in Christchurch for 6 months now (recently changed to an uncapped 100/50 plan) and I have to say you're entirely wrong about Netflix. I regularly stream HD content (as do my wife and daughter, often all simultaneously) and the international bandwidth isn't ever an issue. I also consistently get 12.5Mbytes/s on international downloads (limited by the 100Mbit down speed on my current UFB). I'll probably jump up to a 200Mbit or gigabit service in the next couple of months once these are available in my area.
I have friends and colleagues living/working in Australia and the current NBN fiasco is a farce in the worst possible way. I really feel for Australians who are still putting up with 3rd world internet because of the short-sightedness of the current political situation. Whoever thinks that whether to invest in fast broadband for the majority of their population is even a question need to take a long hard look at the wealth of accumulating research linking economic progress, quality of life and national productivity growth to general high-speed internet availability.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
