The Vertigan Committee has delivered its verdict on the future of the NBN, but it's not what the coalition government wants to hear. Can a sustainable future for high-speed internet in Australia be salvaged?

OPINION

AS I walk through the huge halls at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I see the future all around me. It’s a connected future, with devices talking to each other, content streaming into our homes from across the world, but a future our government isn’t invested in.

Netflix, the global internet streaming company who will be launching in Australia at the end of March spent its time at CES talking about its new HDR feature that compliments its 4K streaming. The picture it delivered was amazing, and like nothing I had ever seen on a television before.

Netflix confirmed that this feature is coming to Australia, and some newer model televisions will support it. But what’s the point when our internet infrastructure can’t support it?

A new global study released earlier this week showed that Australia currently ranks 44th in the world’s internet speed list, behind countries like the Czech Republic, Taiwan, South Korea and our Kiwi mates.

New Zealand now outranks Australia in internet speed because they "stuck to fibre-to-the-premise". | http://t.co/tr9T9AgGSX — Denham Sadler (@denhamsadler) January 14, 2015

We have actually dropped places since the last review, mainly due to the fibre based rollouts other countries have been doing. This has been while Australia has been messing around with a “multi-technology NBN”, an outdated concept that other countries built years ago.

In fact, the speeds promised by Malcolm Turnbull’s current NBN plans of 25 megabits per second will soon be defined by the US FCC as the bare minimum requirement of a broadband connection.

8K TVs being made, while we get told 25mbit is enough for NBN. 4K streaming needs 25mbit according to Netflix https://t.co/QQxibN0Fus — Adam Fowler (@AdamFowler_IT) January 6, 2015

This means Australia will be receiving the bare minimum broadband needed, while the rest of the first world moves towards gigabit connections.

Where we as consumers will notice this most is at home when we try to stream content on our new TVs. While many shows might stream in ‘HD’ or ‘4K’ in Australia, due to our connections, they will be so highly compressed that the picture quality won’t be anywhere near that of what is being streamed overseas.

This delivery of content has been dubbed as the future of television, but it’s a future that isn’t looking as promising here as it is for the rest of the world.

Let’s remember it’s not only entertainment that will be left behind.

Globally, more companies will rely on a good connection to conduct international business (e.g. net meetings or sending huge files). In the health sector, doctors are now able to conduct consultations with patients thousands of kilometres away, or even perform remote surgery. None of this is possible with an unreliable internet connection.

It’s clear fast internet isn’t a luxury. It’s essential infrastructure, needed for our future.

As a country whose national emblem features two animals that can only move forward, many are today asking why we are employing technology which could well send us backwards?