Yup; the Internet is screwed up. - Land Assistance...

Sat Jun 11 08:59:39 UTC 2011

Dear Mr J,

Many thanks for your attention and focus on the issues.

I do hope that the author of the link in the OPs post has had his 
attention drawn to my series of posts.

You have demonstrated in less then half a dozen posts that the article 
author simply isn't getting off his butt and getting focused on getting 
1's and 0's to his location.

Your responses clearly demonstrate by asking a few simple questions, and 
allowing those with a few clues to be creative, that there are any 
number of ways to get things done if you really want to.... perhaps this 
is a new concept for people in rural America, I don't know....

On 11/06/2011 6:46 p.m., Joly MacFie wrote:
>
>     Again, in keeping with list protocols, can we please focus on the
>     regulations for installation if irrigation piping?
>
>
> In NYC the matter of additional conduits is mostly in the hands of 
> Empire City Subway, happens to be an entirely owned subsidiary of 
> Verizon, but quite open to doing business with anybody.  I suggest you 
> describe your pipes as "cables" to avoid difficulties.
>
> See http://www.empirecitysubway.com/dbwes_addcndt.html
>
Again I must thank you for the link.

It is with interest that you mention Verizon.  In this part of the world 
we are very well aware of who they are and what they do.  We are aware 
that they have deployed FTTH to 21 million homes - an inspiration that 
has helped to drive ftth projects in this part of the world.

I am interested to know if I can get a layer 2 service delivered to my 
new farming location (per my earlier posts) that will be compatible with 
the new Australian NBN?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd5nfhZo57w&feature=player_embedded

Please start viewing from 2:30 in to the clip above and you will fully 
understand my need for a layer 2 service that is compatible with the NBN 
at the desired location.

We also have a very large number of sheep to bring with us to the "new 
world".  However they are very expensive to transport using traditional 
services such as PAN AM or United Airlines.

So our current plan is to ship them to a place called Tasmania (the only 
place that the NBN is currently in full swing - 40°50'31.11"S - 145° 
7'32.85"E) and then use the Alcatel technology shown in the clip above 
to move them to our new farm - 
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.778547+-73.966897

I did note with interest some comments made by other posters of the size 
of the US v's HongKong or Korea.

I'd like to draw those posters attention to the NBN project with a goal 
of 93% FTTH in a country with a land mass of what compared to the USA 
and a population of what?

While we're comparing a few stats, .nz has just about finished it's fttn 
roll out which targeted 80% of homes with 10/1 DSL services but has 
managed to deliver 84% (60% of that will be in range of 60/30 VDSL2) and 
is now working on it's FTTH roll out to 75% of homes with a population 
of 4 million people.

However I can see some validity in some of the points raised by list 
members....

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?ftid=0x6d318966e837fd75:0xa45e7599497ba9d9&q=31+Acheson+Avenue,+Mairehau,+Canterbury,+New+Zealand&hl=en&sll=-43.500758,172.65518&sspn=0.006295,0.006295&ie=UTF8&ll=-43.496036,172.648044&spn=0,0&z=16

At my New Zealand farm, I only have a choice of 3 fibre, 2 tp, 1 cable 
(HFC) and 3 mobile broadband providers (with out counting WISP's) in a 
city of ~360,000 people.

I concur that fibre is currently expensive as the best quote I've been 
able to get so far is $NZD1,100 a month for a 30mbit feed, which is why 
our local community is working on a WISP solution to connect ~580 homes 
to eventually deliver better capacity in our local community (low 
socio-economic, high crime area).

I guess the point of my posts today are:

* Stop winging about crap and just get on and build your own local 
solutions using help from the global friendly army of guys out there 
willing to lend a hand - that's what I'm doing and I know it's what many 
on this list are also doing every day.
* Stop expecting the same services in rural areas that are in cities - 
the idea that I can set up a farm in Central Park just so people in 
offices can see cows while they trade stocks is just stupid, good luck 
trying to park a combine in any of your parking buildings.
* The rural area has any amount of cash - they just don't see need to 
spend it on getting connected.
* .us is getting left behind the rest of the world - I follow NA Nog 
quite a bit, and often just close the window in amazement.

In closing I'd like to add that I'm 40 years old.  I was born 12 months 
after the USA landing the first man on the moon. I grew up in ore of 
Neil Armstrong and the technical achievements of the Americans.  Russia 
were the bad guys, at 11 years of age I got my first computer, at ~20 
years of age I was inspired by Bill Gates and was devoted to 'the 
Microsoft Way' for a decade or more as a successful Visual Basic 
programmer - 'go the good old USA'?...

Today I work with open source solutions from around the globe, having 
lost favour with Microsoft a decade ago, my current toy is a Mikrotik 
router (something I know many of you on list are also playing with more 
and more) and my inspiration is a guy called Simon Hackett from an ISP 
in Australia (with 250,000 customers and 450 staff) and Michael Mallone 
from another Australian ISP who started his company in his car shed and 
is now the number two DSL telco in less than 25 years.

I could go on...  but I'm sure I'm already on enough plonk lists now ;)

Farmer Don

-- 
Don Gould
31 Acheson Ave
Mairehau
Christchurch, New Zealand
Ph: + 64 3 348 7235
Mobile: + 64 21 114 0699