And 8 million homes are connected to what exactly?

I don't know about you, but news that Telstra and the Feds have fallen out yet again over efforts to build a national broadband network-or NBN as they like to call it-reminds me of the pyramids.

Not only does the NBN seem to be taking as long to build, but I suspect it may end up just as lifeless.

This is because there is absolutely no discussion happening about how our homes will use it once they have broadband-and hopefully fairly fast broadband-knocking at their doors.

While communication technology hurtles along at a dizzying pace into the 21st Century, Australian homes, by and large, are stuck back in the 1950s, pulling through the same minimal wires our grandparents did.

Most Australian homes still don't have any ability for multiple data access or for downloading the sort of rich digital files that the predicted growth in online video will require.

You only have to talk to the home entertainment companies to realise that good, old-fashioned copper wires and cables remain the technology of choice for them.

Why? Well it can download high definition movies for one thing and do it quickly for another. And that's just for starters.

This despite all the "you don't need wires" hype from the wireless vendors.
Well I, and the rest of technology sector, are here to tell that you do if you want performance.

The Smart Wiring protocol was created to meet the future and it is as relevant today as it was five years ago. The SW Consortium is now looking at how to develop a new retrofit standard so the existing 8 million homes here can use fast broadband as Bill Gates intended.

Only then can the NBN really deliver on its promise.
John Fennell