Broadband facts, fiction and urban myths

For those following the debate over Australia's NBN, Rodney Tucker's paper "Broadband facts, fiction and urban myths" is worth a read:

There has been a lively debate surrounding the Australian Governments plan to build a fibre-based National Broadband Network. Unfortunately, a variety of urban myths about the NBN have evolved and spread over the past 12 months. Some of these myths are based on misunderstandings of the capabilities and limitations of broadband technology and some are out of alignment with experience in countries where broadband access is more advanced than in Australia. The objective of this article is to correct some of these misconceptions, to debunk some of the more common urban myths and to provide some basic facts for the lay person on the capabilities and limitations of various broadband technologies.

From: Broadband facts, fiction and urban myths, Rodney Tucker, Telecommunications Journal of Australia, Volume 60, No. 3, 2010, First published online August 2010

This is published by the Telecommunications Society of Australia (TSA), now the Telecommunications Board of the Australian Computer society (which I am a board member of). The Telecommunications Journal of Australia (TJA) is now published online. Most papers require either ACS, TJA membership, or payment of a subscription. But some papers are free, including this one.

The TJA provides article in the form of web pages for online viewing (as well as PDF for printing) using the Open Journal System (OJS). The web versions display better on screen, particularly on a mobile device and use less bandwidth. This is a good example of the web based format I suggest could be used for academic research and government reports.