Journal articles on the topic 'Construction of FTTH'

Fiber to the home (FTTH) for development of conton Manta - in the study and design work for the construction of a network with Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) is performed. Through research, you can come up with fiber to each household of urbanization, using GPON technology, so users can access telecommunications services faster and opportune times based on the concept that these networks reach speeds in Gigabit per second (Gbps) according to the needs of each client, becoming a useful technology to manage a modern and effective communication. Index Terms— GPON, FTTH, Fiber Optics, design, development, construction

In the last mile of optical access network, FTTX such as fiber-to-the-cabinet, curb, building, home and node construction cost per subscriber has always been a concern for the network operators. In order to cost down the fiber and transceiver deployment, passive optical network (PON) are developed to replace active point-to-point (P2P). Also the splitter placement problems are issued that make efforts to reduce fiber and splitters deployment cost. Cost down the optical components in PONs is one of the successful elements for building the business of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH). For an example of insertion loss (IL), a traditional 1x12 splitter module which is cascaded by one piece of 1x2 (67%:33% power ratio, 2.6dB:6.2dB IL) and 10 pieces of 1x2 (50%:50% power ratio, 3.7dB IL) splitters, the IL of module is 2.6+3.7x3=13.7dB. An economical and innovative 1x12 splitter module presented in this paper could be cascaded just by one piece of 1x3 (IL: 5.4 dB) and 3 pieces of 1x4 (IL: 7.2dB), the IL of module will be 5.4+7.2=12.6dB, 1.1dB less than the former. In the case of 1x36, an innovative one is cascaded by 4 pieces of 1x3 and 9 pieces of 1x4 splitters (IL: 18dB) to replace the traditional one which is cascaded by 35 pieces of 1x2 splitters (IL: 19.9dB). Another case of 2x24, an innovative one is cascaded by 1 piece of 2x2, 2 pieces of 1x3 and 6 pieces of 1x4 splitters (IL: 16.3dB) to replace the traditional one which is cascaded by 1 pieces of 2x2 and 22 piece of 1x2 splitters (IL: 17.4dB). Finally, bundle with less IL, the economical multi-output splitter module can be successfully built up by this novel fiber coupler manufacturing apparatus and method.

ABC Company is an agent of network construction, operation, and maintenance. ABC Company is currently implementing the STTF (Shit to the Front) project, which is the project to add FTTH (Fiber to the Home) networks in areas that can have high customer demand. One of the STTF project construction sites is the Indra Prahasta II housing location. However, the project is currently experiencing work delays due to the Covid-19 disaster in Indonesia. Delays in project execution can result in potential prospects choosing another company that provides similar services. The project schedule can be accelerated using the crashing method and TCTO (Time Cost Trade-Off) analysis to solve this problem. This research's acceleration will be carried out with alternatives for adding 3 hours, 2 hours, 1 hour, and an alternative to increasing workers' number. This project has an average duration of 55 working days with a total cost of Rp 604,124,460. The results obtained from data processing, on the alternative of adding 1 hour of overtime work, the total duration becomes 54 working days with total project cost is Rp 605,734,138. In addition to 2 hours of overtime work, the project's total duration can be reduced to 54 days with a total project cost Rp 606,803,619. And for the addition of 3 hours overtime, the total duration can be shortened to 54 days with a total cost of Rp 606,803,619. As for increasing the number of workers, project work duration can be shortened to 54 working days with a total project cost Rp 604,556,748

<span>This paper investigates the performance of an elegance code set algorithm known as Flexible Cross Correlation (FCC) code to be run into a simulation test of proposed RoF system. Executing OCDMA Code into RoF framework is seen as a promising technique for enhancing spectral efficiency and meanwhile enhanced the length of fiber optic cable and data bit rate execution while reduce the passive equipment device. This code can efficaciously reduce the results of phase-induced intensity noise (PIIN), it has the multiple access interference (MAI) cancellation belongs to RoF system and at the same time simple and easy within the code construction. Bit error rate (BER) performance is assessed for this proposed simulation system. The evaluation made based on the performance of fiber length, data bit rate, related with Bit Error Rate (BER) and also the complexity of the system. The extensive simulation results reveal FCC code possibly will accomplish sufficiently up to 51 km at BER 10-9 for data rate 155 Mbps as matched to 622 Mbps with exponentially increases at BER 10-12 error floor and it is fit for short haul networking such as FTTH and local area network (LAN).</span>

In this article, we analysis the developing situation of Power Fiber To The Home (PFTTH) in abroad. And research the construction situation of FTH in Shenyang to solve the actual problem in FTH construction. This will do a steady spade work for Integration of Three Net and National Electric Net Ltd to build strong intelligent power grid.

The design of broadband access network is a key link in the construction of intelligent community. DSL, FTTx, WLAN and WiMax are the most common kinds of broadband access technologies. In this article, we provide the basis for solving the broadband access problem through the comparative analysis on the advantages and disadvantages of those technologies.

AbstractBending-loss insensitive fiber (BIF) has proved an essential medium for constructing the current fiber to the home (FTTH) network. By contrast, the progress that has been made on holey fiber (HF) technologies provides us with novel possibilities including non-telecom applications. In this paper, we review recent progress on hole-assisted type BIF. A simple design consideration is overviewed. We then describe some of the properties of HAF including its mechanical reliability. Finally, we introduce some applications of HAF including to high power transmission. We show that HAF with a low bending loss has the potential for use in various future optical technologies as well as in the optical communication network.

A Carbon dioxide-facilitated transport highway ( CO 2-FTH) on the microporous surface of a membrane matrix was designed using the amino carrier 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). Owing to the reversible reaction between CO 2 molecules and fixed-site carriers, this supported ionic liquid membrane was able to selectively transfer CO 2 more quickly. This concept may inspire means of fabricating a highly permeable and selective membrane to break through Robeson's upper bound.

ABSTRACT Here we describe the construction and application of six new tagging vectors allowing the fusion of two different types of tagging sequences, epitope and localization tags, to any Bacillus subtilis protein. These vectors are based on the backbone of pMUTIN2 and replace the lacZ gene with tagging sequences. Fusion of the tagging sequences occurs by PCR amplification of the 3′ terminal part of the gene of interest (about 300 bp), insertion into the tagging vector in such a way that a fusion protein will be synthesized upon integration of the whole vector via homologous recombination with the chromosomal gene. Three of these tagging sequences (FLAG, hemagglutinin, and c-Myc) allow the covalent addition of a short epitope tag and thereby detection of the fusion proteins in immunoblots, while three other tags (green fluorescent protein+, yellow fluorescent protein, and cyan fluorescent protein) are helpful in assigning proteins within one of the compartments of the cell. The versatility of these vectors was demonstrated by fusing these tags to the cytoplasmically located HtpG and the inner membrane protein FtsH.

Recently, we presented a new class of quantum-mechanical Hamiltonians which can be written as the Fth power of a conserved charge: H=QF with F=2, 3,…. This construction, called fractional supersymmetric quantum mechanics, was realized in terms of a paragrassmann variable θ of order F, which satisfies θF=0. Here, we present an alternative realization of such an algebra in which the internal space of the Hamiltonians is described by a tensor product of two paragrassmann variables of orders F and F−1 respectively. In particular, we find q-deformed relations (where q are roots of unity) between different conserved charges.

AbstractThe molecular dynamics method is applied to study structural and mechanical effects appearing during the lithium ion motion in a dc electric field along a planar channel formed by perfect silicene sheets and sheets containing vacancy-type defects. Mono-, di-, tri-, and hexavacancies of rather densely and uniformly filled silicene sheets are arranged one above the other on a graphite substrate. The times of Li^+ ion passage through silicene channels with various gaps are determined. The construction of Voronoi polyhedra and truncated polyhedrons, whose centers coincide with the moving ion position allowed revealing the structural features inherent to the two-dimensional layered structure. The nature of stresses appearing in silicene sheets most critical to ion motion over the channel is determined.

AbstractUsing the COMPASS force field, natural linear vibrations of graphane (graphene hydrogenated on both sides) nanoribbons are simulated. The frequency spectrum of a graphane sheet consists of three continuous intervals (low-frequency, mid-frequency, and narrow high-frequency) and two gaps between them. The construction of dispersion curves for nanoribbons with a zigzag and chair structure of the edges show that the frequencies of edge vibrations (edge phonons) can be present in the gaps of the frequency spectrum. In the first type of nanoribbons, two dispersion curves are in the low-frequency gap of the spectrum and four dispersion curves in the second gap. These curves correspond to phonons moving only along the nanoribbon edges (the mean depth of their penetration toward the nanoribbon center does not exceed 0.15 nm).

We consider the inclusion of short-range correlations for a two-dimensional model of local bosons on a square lattice in the framework of the Bethe approximation for clusters of 2 and 4 sites. Explicit equations are obtained for determining the critical temperatures of charge and superfluid ordering and their solutions are considered for various ratios of the charge-charge correlation parameter and the transfer integral. It is shown that taking into account short-range correlations for temperatures of charge ordering leads to the appearance of a critical concentration of bosons, limiting the region of existence of solutions like charge ordering. For superfluid ordering, when short-range correlations are taken into account, the critical temperature is reduced down to zero values at half-filling. The phase diagram of the model of local bosons is constructed with allowance for phase separation within the framework of Maxwell's construction, and it is shown that taking into account short-range correlations in the Bethe approximation quantitatively approximates the form of the phase diagram to the results of the quantum Monte Carlo method.

Recent numerical calculations of the diffusion coefficients of radiation point defects in hexagonal crystals have made it clear that the main assumption of the radiation growth theory of zirconium (DAD - diffusional anisotropy difference) does not allow one to describe the radiation growth correctly. Thus, the elastic ideology (EID - elastic interaction difference), based on the concept of the flow bias factor, remains relevant. Therefore, the bias factor for the basic edge loop of zirconium in a toroidal reservoir was calculated numerically (using the finite difference method), taking into account the elastic anisotropy of the hexagonal crystal. The toroidal geometry of the reservoir makes it possible to calculate the flows for a loop of any size and without any correction of the elastic field in its area of influence. The dependences of the loop bias factor on its radius and nature are obtained for various sink densities. The essential role of the form of the boundary condition on the outer surface of the reservoir is shown. The prospects for further research in the construction of the theory of the radiation growth of zirconium based on the elastic ideology are discussed.

Low magnetic field magnetocaloric (MC) properties of La1-xSrxCoO3 (x=0.3 and 0.5) near phase transition from a ferromagnetic to a paramagnetic state were investigated. It is shown that the change of Sr content allows MC effect in La1-xSrxCoO3 to be tunable, which is more practical for construction of MC refrigeration. MC properties of the x=0.5 sample are significantly greater than that of the x=0.3 one. Furthermore, the results show that MC properties of La1-xSrxCoO3 samples are significantly larger, and comparable with some MC properties of many materials like Gd1-xCaxBaCo2O5.5 and Ge0.95Mn0.05. Keywords: magnetocaloric effect, La1-xSrxCoO3, magnetic entropy change.

Abstract The CII protein of temperate coliphage 186, like the unrelated CII protein of phage λ, is a transcriptional activator that primes expression of the CI immunity repressor and is critical for efficient establishment of lysogeny. 186-CII is also highly unstable, and we show that in vivo degradation is mediated by both FtsH and RseP. We investigated the role of CII instability by constructing a 186 phage encoding a protease resistant CII. The stabilised-CII phage was defective in the lysis-lysogeny decision: choosing lysogeny with close to 100% frequency after infection, and forming prophages that were defective in entering lytic development after UV treatment. While lysogenic CI concentration was unaffected by CII stabilisation, lysogenic transcription and CI expression was elevated after UV. A stochastic model of the 186 network after infection indicated that an unstable CII allowed a rapid increase in CI expression without a large overshoot of the lysogenic level, suggesting that instability enables a decisive commitment to lysogeny with a rapid attainment of sensitivity to prophage induction.

Writing seems to be the most diffi cult skill in acquiring Eng-<br />lish as a foreign language. In order tobe able to write correctly, the<br />students should have suffi cient knowledge for formulating an idea<br />towrite and of how to organize the language and the content of<br />their writing. On the other hand, writing assessment also became an<br />important aspect to evaluate a writing result. It is relevance to use<br />the good standard for doing assessment in students writing result.<br />Through break down the construction of the paragraphs will help<br />teachers or lecturers in investigating the content and variables in a<br />text.This research tries to investigate the writing test concepttaken<br />from STKIP Nusa Indonesia at the English Language Education<br />Program. Thepurpose is to evaluate the writing test concept and give<br />an alternative test guideline.The fi rst step is taking test document<br />for writing intermediate from STKIP Nusa Indonesia arranged by<br />the lecture. The second step is reading some kinds of test while<br />choosing the appropriate test for it. The third step is identifying the<br />writing test and its scoring guideline, concept and assessment. The<br />fourth step is analyzing the weaknesses and strengths from the test<br />concept. The fi fth step is reformulates the test guideline and make<br />some recommendations for better writing assessment. The results<br />of the paper show that test concept is not appropriate to imple-<br />ment, because of its weaknesses. The researcher reformulates the<br />test concept as the recommendation.

The distribution of the Unionoida is almost cosmopolitan and reaches its greatest diversity in North America with 860 currently recognized valid species. Two genera of the family Unionidae, Unio and Coelatura, comprising four species, occur in South Africa. This article focuses on the distribution and habitats of Unio caffer Krauss, 1848 based on the records in the database of the National Freshwater Snail Collection (NFSC) of South Africa. This bivalve is considered to be endemic to South Africa and although it was sporadically reported from elsewhere in South Africa, the Western Cape is the only province from which no samples are on record in the database of the NFSC. The majority of the 58 samples on record was recovered from rivers (32.8%) and dams (20.7%) and from water conditions described as perennial, clear and fresh and 22 of the samples were collected in water bodies with a predominantly sandy substratum. A temperature index calculated for this species ranked it in fi fth position of the 12 bivalve species represented in the database on account of its association with low climatic temperatures. An integrated decision-tree analysis indicated that temperature, substratum and water bodies per se were the most important factors of those investigated that played a signifi cant role in establishing the geographical distribution of this species in South Africa. Comprehensive surveys for freshwater molluscs conducted by state and local health authorities were discontinued during the eighties of the previous century and the majority of sampling sites have not been revisited since. Therefore hardly any recent data pertaining to the conservation status and species diversity of the mollusc fauna of South Africa are available. However, during relatively recent surveys conducted by the authors at three previously positive sites for U. caffer no specimens of this species could be recovered and it is also reported in literature that its range in the south-western Cape has decreased in recent years. With regard to its conservation status, the above findings seem to suggest that U. caffer should at least be considered as vulnerable – if not endangered – as reported for some related species elsewhere in the world. Although speculative, several reasons are suggested to explain the global phenomenon of decline in freshwater bivalves. These include, amongst others, construction of impoundments, introduction of alien species, wetland drainage and canalization and pollution. However, the unique lifecycle of the Unionoida could also play an important role in this respect due to the fact that their larval stages are obligatory parasites on fish. These bivalves are therefore dependent on fish for their survival and dispersal and without their host fish populations will disappear. To sustain a viable population a water body should therefore be suitable not only for the bivalves themselves but also for their host fi sh. As mentioned earlier, the majority of samples of U. caffer were recovered from dams and rivers, water body types both under pressure of over exploitation and pollution. It is therefore recommended that thorough surveys should be planned and conducted in specific areas which could be selected with the documented geographical distribution in the database of the NFSC as guideline. A comparison of the results of such surveys with the data in the database of the NFSC could make a considerable contribution towards assessing the current conservation status and diversity of the freshwater molluscs of South Africa.

Background. Lesia Dychko (born in 1939) is one of the innovators in Ukrainian music of the second half of the 20th century. Among many composers, she is distinguished by the attraction to the music associated with the word. Despite the prevalence of the choral genre in her oeuvre, she pays a lot of attention also to opuses for the solo voice with the instrumental accompaniment. In the fi eld of chamber vocal music, there are characteristic signs of the composer’s style, the richness of the harmonic language, and the author’s fi ligree work with the poetic word. Such features of the L. Dychko’s creative personality are refl ected in the works of many researchers. However, currently there are no studies that addresses the principles of the embodiment of the poetic text. This reveals the relevance of the proposed topic. The purpose of the article is to identify the way in which the semantic and structural properties of P. Tychyna’s poems are refl ected in the song cycle “Enharmonic” by L. Dychko. The following methods have been used to solve the research tasks: historical, genrestyle, structural-functional and comparative. Results. Most of L. Dychko’s chamber vocal cycles for the voice and piano show the composer’s attraction to the heritage of Ukrainian poets, such as P. Grabowsky, V. Kolomiets, I. Franko, and P. Tychyna. The appeal to Tychyna’s poems is indicative of the composer’s aesthetic preference. The reason for the choice was the innovative nature of the poet’s works, which are inherent in poly-rhythm, poly-meter of the poetical lines, musicality of the content and structure, a combination of folklore samples and advanced techniques, and the rich world of images. All these signs already appeared in the fi rst book of P. Tychyna – “The Sun Clarinets” (1918). Its pages are fi lled with sophisticated landscapes, made with bright colours, radiating goodness and humanism. The poems of the collection are endowed with special musicality, numerous sound images, which resulted in the name of many compositions. In particular, the name of the poetic cycle selected by L. Dychko – “Enharmonic” – causes some musical association. It consists of four compositions. Their names describe the state of nature and target the perception of poems – “The Fog”, “The Sun”, “The Wind”, and “The Rain”. The fi gurative and semantic series of each of them is constructed so that their textual basis is a kind of “semantic enharmony” to the title. “Semantic enharmony” means the difference between the text and its name (or other text) by the meaning, but their similarity according to the meaning. To refl ect the rich fi gurative content of the works by P. Tychyna, L. Dychko uses the mixed technique. The synthesis of distant stylistic devices is inherent in all the semantic-structural levels of the romance “Enharmonic”. The proof of this is that the composer gives each composition of the cycle an additional genre designation that has a purely instrumental nature: “The Fantasy” (No. 1), “The Prelude” (No. 2), “The Pastoral” (No. 3), and “The Scherzo” (No. 4). In view of this, in the opus by L. Dychko two kinds of a cyclical composition are combined – vocal and instrumental. When joining poetic and musical rhythms, the composer usually relies on two different principles of the poetic text vocalization, which allows a subtle reproduction of all moods and emotional changes in the verses. In “The Fog” there is the recitation and counter-rhythm, in “The Wind” and “The Rain” the metric and accent increase. Only in “The Sun” metric scheme of the poetic source is retained almost completely. In the domain of the vocal melody, the author combines both the diatonic nature of the short songs with a specifi c modal colouration and chromatic feature and sharp tonal transitions. For example, in “The Fog” there is a gradual complication of melodies: from the Phrygian and Dorian modes with a limited interval to freely interpreted 12-tone space. In “The Wind”, the voice part can be divided into two types according to intonation features which are instrumental and recitativerecitational with song traits. A large mix of different techniques is also announced in the piano part. There is a harmony of classical-romantic type here, impressionistic linearity, and modern sonorous means. Such a variety of different types of the composition and principles of organization of the vertical helps L. Dych ko to convey the range of feelings of Tychyna’s poetry as accurately as possible. Such synthesis of the means of musical expression does not deprive the vocal cycle of integrity, which manifests itself both on the intonation level and on larger levels such as in the structure and principles of the approach to the embodiment of verses. In most cases, the composer limits the interval composition of the vocal melodies of romances, selecting those moves that would refl ect the semantics of the poetic primary sources most clearly. The basis consists of second, third, fourth, and fi fth intonations, and other moves are less common and serve to enhance the expression of the phrase. The unifying factor for all the works of the “Enharmonic” appears to be also the functional purpose of the piano part. It acts as an equal member of the vocal-piano duo and contributes to the implementation of the multilayer semantics of Tychyna’s poetry and its symbolic content. Some regularity also appears in the structure of romances, since “The Fog”, “The Wind” and “The Rain” have similar principles of construction. They are characterized by an improvisational character, a free expansion of the form with a change in the musical content of the sections, the variety of textual types and the culmination at the point of the golden section. “The Sun” is the exception. Its form has features of the couplet-variation structure, since the musical elements from the fi rst stanza are repeated at the beginning of the second, although their elevation is changing. Conclusions. In the embodiment of the symbolic poetry by P. Tychyna, L. Dychko shows an active author’s position, refl ects her vision of its content, emphasizing the important fi gurative and semantic-image units. An important role in this is played by the piano part, which serves as a vivid underline for the main images of the original sources, a kind of “enharmony” of their names. The foregoing confi rms that at the early stage of creativity L. Dychko had already proved herself as an initiative inventor; by combining various stylistic and style techniques, she found the musical equivalent of the content of the poems, revealed their subtext and embodied her own impressions of the perception of P. Tychyna’s poetry.

This paper provides a flexible upgrade path for the Australian National Broadband Network (NBN), if the new government decides to alter the construction methodology to include a copper-based access system such as Fibre to the Node (FTTN). The approach described in this paper utilises fibre past premises to provide a transmission media for a Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network (GPON). GPON to FTTN devices would be situated in pits adjacent to premises and utilise copper tails to provide a VDSL2 Internet connection to premises. The approach provides a flexible upgrade path for customers to move from their copper based access system to a Fibre to the Home (FTTH) system utilising the relatively future-proof GPON.

<p class="Abstract"><span lang="EN-US">Due to the fact that Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (FTTE) has to prepare students to be competent teachers by engaging their knowledge with current demands and to conduct their tasks ethically in teaching practice, this study reveals a report of qualitative study that employs an action and qualitative study that explore how the SOI model of learning bridging teacher students’ cognitive processes of knowledge construction and their teaching competencies to face disruptive era in microteaching course. The subjects were 22 English Department students of semester 6 in a Public University who took microteaching. The qualitative data were collected in documentation, weekly-journals, observation, and video. Stimulated recall technique was also used to reflect on the video materials that they had to follow-up interviews. Data analysis shows that findings contribute significantly to understand constructivist learning occurs when a learner engages in three cognitive processes. They are first selecting or attending to relevant information about content knowledge of lesson, teaching methodology, students, curriculum, and technology, second, organizing or mentally organize information into a coherent mental representation, and third, integrating or integrate information of disruptive issues with existing knowledge of content knowledge of the lesson and teaching methodology. These improve teaching competencies of teacher students that help them to tailor and to drive instruction of TEFL. The implication shows that SOI offers a new vision of the learner as an active sense-maker to achieve adaptability skill.</span></p>

IntroductionIn July 1997, the Mackay campus of Central Queensland University hosted a conference with the theme Regional Australia: Visions of Mackay. It was the first academic conference to be held at the young campus, and its aim was to provide an opportunity for academics, business people, government officials, and other interested parties to discuss their visions for the development of Mackay, a regional community of 75,000 people situated on the Central Queensland coast (Danaher). I delivered a presentation at that conference and authored a chapter in the book that emerged from its proceedings. The chapter entitled “Mackay Online” explored the potential impact that the Internet could have on the Mackay region, particularly in the areas of regional business, education, health, and entertainment (Pace). Two decades later, how does the reality compare with that vision?Broadband BluesAt the time of the Visions of Mackay conference, public commercial use of the Internet was in its infancy. Many Internet services and technologies that users take for granted today were uncommon or non-existent then. Examples include online video, video-conferencing, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), blogs, social media, peer-to-peer file sharing, payment gateways, content management systems, wireless data communications, smartphones, mobile applications, and tablet computers. In 1997, most users connected to the Internet using slow dial-up modems with speeds ranging from 28.8 Kbps to 33.6 Kbps. 56 Kbps modems had just become available. Lamenting these slow data transmission speeds, I looked forward to a time when widespread availability of high-bandwidth networks would allow the Internet’s services to “expand to include electronic commerce, home entertainment and desktop video-conferencing” (Pace 103). Although that future eventually arrived, I incorrectly anticipated how it would arrive.In 1997, Optus and Telstra were engaged in the rollout of hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) networks in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane for the Optus Vision and Foxtel pay TV services (Meredith). These HFC networks had a large amount of unused bandwidth, which both Telstra and Optus planned to use to provide broadband Internet services. Telstra's Big Pond Cable broadband service was already available to approximately one million households in Sydney and Melbourne (Taylor), and Optus was considering extending its cable network into regional Australia through partnerships with smaller regional telecommunications companies (Lewis). These promising developments seemed to point the way forward to a future high-bandwidth network, but that was not the case. A short time after the Visions of Mackay conference, Telstra and Optus ceased the rollout of their HFC networks in response to the invention of Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), a technology that increases the bandwidth of copper wire and enables Internet connections of up to 6 Mbps over the existing phone network. ADSL was significantly faster than a dial-up service, it was broadly available to homes and businesses across the country, and it did not require enormous investment in infrastructure. However, ADSL could not offer speeds anywhere near the 27 Mbps of the HFC networks. When it came to broadband provision, Australia seemed destined to continue playing catch-up with the rest of the world. According to data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in 2009 Australia ranked 18th in the world for broadband penetration, with 24.1 percent of Australians having a fixed-line broadband subscription. Statistics like these eventually prompted the federal government to commit to the deployment of a National Broadband Network (NBN). In 2009, the Kevin Rudd Government announced that the NBN would combine fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), fixed wireless, and satellite technologies to deliver Internet speeds of up to 100 Mbps to 90 percent of Australian homes, schools, and workplaces (Rudd).The rollout of the NBN in Mackay commenced in 2013 and continued, suburb by suburb, until its completion in 2017 (Frost, “Mackay”; Garvey). The rollout was anything but smooth. After a change of government in 2013, the NBN was redesigned to reduce costs. A mixed copper/optical technology known as fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) replaced FTTP as the preferred approach for providing most NBN connections. The resulting connection speeds were significantly slower than the 100 Mbps that was originally proposed. Many Mackay premises could only achieve a maximum speed of 40 Mbps, which led to some overcharging by Internet service providers, and subsequent compensation for failing to deliver services they had promised (“Optus”). Some Mackay residents even complained that their new NBN connections were slower than their former ADSL connections. NBN Co representatives claimed that the problems were due to “service providers not buying enough space in the network to provide the service they had promised to customers” (“Telcos”). Unsurprisingly, the number of complaints about the NBN that were lodged with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman skyrocketed during the last six months of 2017. Queensland complaints increased by approximately 40 percent when compared with the same period during the previous year (“Qld”).Despite the challenges presented by infrastructure limitations, the rollout of the NBN was a boost for the Mackay region. For some rural residents, it meant having reliable Internet access for the first time. Frost, for example, reports on the experiences of a Mackay couple who could not get an ADSL service at their rural home because it was too far away from the nearest telephone exchange. Unreliable 3G mobile broadband was the only option for operating their air-conditioning business. All of that changed with the arrival of the NBN. “It’s so fast we can run a number of things at the same time”, the couple reported (“NBN”).Networking the NationOne factor that contributed to the uptake of Internet services in the Mackay region after the Visions of Mackay conference was the Australian Government’s Networking the Nation (NTN) program. When the national telecommunications carrier Telstra was partially privatised in 1997, and further sold in 1999, proceeds from the sale were used to fund an ambitious communications infrastructure program named Networking the Nation (Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts). The program funded projects that improved the availability, accessibility, affordability, and use of communications facilities and services throughout regional Australia. Eligibility for funding was limited to not-for-profit organisations, including local councils, regional development organisations, community groups, local government associations, and state and territory governments.In 1998, the Mackay region received $930,000 in Networking the Nation funding for Mackay Regionlink, a project that aimed to provide equitable community access to online services, skills development for local residents, an affordable online presence for local business and community organisations, and increased external awareness of the Mackay region (Jewell et al.). One element of the project was a training program that provided basic Internet skills to 2,168 people across the region over a period of two years. A second element of the project involved the establishment of 20 public Internet access centres in locations throughout the region, such as libraries, community centres, and tourist information centres. The centres provided free Internet access to users and encouraged local participation and skill development. More than 9,200 users were recorded in these centres during the first year of the project, and the facilities remained active until 2006. A third element of the project was a regional web portal that provided a free easily-updated online presence for community organisations. The project aimed to have every business and community group in the Mackay region represented on the website, with hosting fees for the business web pages funding its ongoing operation and development. More than 6,000 organisations were listed on the site, and the project remained financially viable until 2005.The availability, affordability and use of communications facilities and services in Mackay increased significantly during the period of the Regionlink project. Changes in technology, services, markets, competition, and many other factors contributed to this increase, so it is difficult to ascertain the extent to which Mackay Regionlink fostered those outcomes. However, the large number of people who participated in the Regionlink training program and made use of the public Internet access centres, suggests that the project had a positive influence on digital literacy in the Mackay region.The Impact on BusinessThe Internet has transformed regional business for both consumers and business owners alike since the Visions of Mackay conference. When Mackay residents made a purchase in 1997, their choice of suppliers was limited to a few local businesses. Today they can shop online in a global market. Security concerns were initially a major obstacle to the growth of electronic commerce. Consumers were slow to adopt the Internet as a place for doing business, fearing that their credit card details would be vulnerable to hackers once they were placed online. After observing the efforts that finance and software companies were making to eliminate those obstacles, I anticipated that it would only be a matter of time before online transactions became commonplace:Consumers seeking a particular product will be able to quickly find the names of suitable suppliers around the world, compare their prices, and place an order with the one that can deliver the product at the cheapest price. (Pace 106)This expectation was soon fulfilled by the arrival of online payment systems such as PayPal in 1998, and online shopping services such as eBay in 1997. eBay is a global online auction and shopping website where individuals and businesses buy and sell goods and services worldwide. The eBay service is free to use for buyers, but sellers are charged modest fees when they make a sale. It exemplifies the notion of “friction-free capitalism” articulated by Gates (157).In 1997, regional Australian business owners were largely sceptical about the potential benefits the Internet could bring to their businesses. Only 11 percent of Australian businesses had some form of web presence, and less than 35 percent of those early adopters felt that their website was significant to their business (Department of Industry, Science and Tourism). Anticipating the significant opportunities that the Internet offered Mackay businesses to compete in new markets, I recommended that they work “towards the goal of providing products and services that meet the needs of international consumers as well as local ones” (107). In the two decades that have passed since that time, many Mackay businesses have been doing just that. One prime example is Big on Shoes (bigonshoes.com.au), a retailer of ladies’ shoes from sizes five to fifteen (Plane). Big on Shoes has physical shopfronts in Mackay and Moranbah, an online store that has been operating since 2009, and more than 12,000 followers on Facebook. This speciality store caters for women who have traditionally been unable to find shoes in their size. As the store’s customer base has grown within Australia and internationally, an unexpected transgender market has also emerged. In 2018 Big on Shoes was one of 30 regional businesses featured in the first Facebook and Instagram Annual Gift Guide, and it continues to build on its strengths (Cureton).The Impact on HealthThe growth of the Internet has improved the availability of specialist health services for people in the Mackay region. Traditionally, access to surgical services in Mackay has been much more limited than in metropolitan areas because of the shortage of specialists willing to practise in regional areas (Green). In 2003, a senior informant from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons bluntly described the Central Queensland region from Mackay to Gladstone as “a black hole in terms of surgery” (Birrell et al. 15). In 1997 I anticipated that, although the Internet would never completely replace a visit to a local doctor or hospital, it would provide tools that improve the availability of specialist medical services for people living in regional areas. Using these tools, doctors would be able to “analyse medical images captured from patients living in remote locations” and “diagnose patients at a distance” (Pace 108).These expectations have been realised in the form of Queensland Health’s Telehealth initiative, which permits medical specialists in Brisbane and Townsville to conduct consultations with patients at the Mackay Base Hospital using video-conference technology. Telehealth reduces the need for patients to travel for specialist advice, and it provides health professionals with access to peer support. Averill (7), for example, reports on the experience of a breast cancer patient at the Mackay Base Hospital who was able to participate in a drug trial with a Townsville oncologist through the Telehealth network. Mackay health professionals organised the patient’s scans, administered blood tests, and checked her lymph nodes, blood pressure and weight. Townsville health professionals then used this information to advise the Mackay team about her ongoing treatment. The patient expressed appreciation that the service allowed her to avoid the lengthy round-trip to Townsville. Prior to being offered the Telehealth option, she had refused to participate in the trial because “the trip was just too much of a stumbling block” (Averill 7).The Impact on Media and EntertainmentThe field of media and entertainment is another aspect of regional life that has been reshaped by the Internet since the Visions of Mackay conference. Most of these changes have been equally apparent in both regional and metropolitan areas. Over the past decade, the way individuals consume media has been transformed by new online services offering user-generated video, video-on-demand, and catch-up TV. These developments were among the changes I anticipated in 1997:The convergence of television and the Internet will stimulate the creation of new services such as video-on-demand. Today television is a synchronous media—programs are usually viewed while they are being broadcast. When high-quality video can be transmitted over the information superhighway, users will be able to watch what they want, when and where they like. […] Newly released movies will continue to be rented, but probably not from stores. Instead, consumers will shop on the information superhighway for movies that can be delivered on demand.In the mid-2000s, free online video-sharing services such as YouTube and Vimeo began to emerge. These websites allow users to freely upload, view, share, comment on, and curate online videos. Subscription-based streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime have also become increasingly popular since that time. These services offer online streaming of a library of films and television programs for a fee of less than 20 dollars per month. Computers, smart TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles, mobile phones, tablets, and other devices provide a multitude of ways of accessing streaming services. Some of these devices cost less than 100 dollars, while higher-end electronic devices include the capability as a bundled feature. Netflix became available in Mackay at the time of its Australian launch in 2015. The growth of streaming services greatly reduced the demand for video rental shops in the region, and all closed down as a result. The last remaining video rental store in Mackay closed its doors in 2018 after trading for 26 years (“Last”).Some of the most dramatic transformations that have occurred the field of media and entertainment were not anticipated in 1997. The rise of mobile technology, including wireless data communications, smartphones, mobile applications, and tablet computers, was largely unforeseen at that time. Some Internet luminaries such as Vinton Cerf expected that mobile access to the Internet via laptop computers would become commonplace (Lange), but this view did not encompass the evolution of smartphones, and it was not widely held. Similarly, the rise of social media services and the impact they have had on the way people share content and communicate was generally unexpected. In some respects, these phenomena resemble the Black Swan events described by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (xvii)—surprising events with a major effect that are often inappropriately rationalised after the fact. They remind us of how difficult it is to predict the future media landscape by extrapolating from things we know, while failing to take into consideration what we do not know.The Challenge for MackayIn 1997, when exploring the potential impact that the Internet could have on the Mackay region, I identified a special challenge that the community faced if it wanted to be competitive in this new environment:The region has traditionally prospered from industries that control physical resources such as coal, sugar and tourism, but over the last two decades there has been a global ‘shift away from physical assets and towards information as the principal driver of wealth creation’ (Petre and Harrington 1996). The risk for Mackay is that its residents may be inclined to believe that wealth can only be created by means of industries that control physical assets. The community must realise that its value-added information is at least as precious as its abundant natural resources. (110)The Mackay region has not responded well to this challenge, as evidenced by measures such as the Knowledge City Index (KCI), a collection of six indicators that assess how well a city is positioned to grow and advance in today’s technology-driven, knowledge-based economy. A 2017 study used the KCI to conduct a comparative analysis of 25 Australian cities (Pratchett, Hu, Walsh, and Tuli). Mackay rated reasonably well in the areas of Income and Digital Access. But the city’s ratings were “very limited across all the other measures of the KCI”: Knowledge Capacity, Knowledge Mobility, Knowledge Industries and Smart Work (44).The need to be competitive in a technology-driven, knowledge-based economy is likely to become even more pressing in the years ahead. The 2017 World Energy Outlook Report estimated that China’s coal use is likely to have peaked in 2013 amid a rapid shift toward renewable energy, which means that demand for Mackay’s coal will continue to decline (International Energy Agency). The sugar industry is in crisis, finding itself unable to diversify its revenue base or increase production enough to offset falling global sugar prices (Rynne). The region’s biggest tourism drawcard, the Great Barrier Reef, continues to be degraded by mass coral bleaching events and ongoing threats posed by climate change and poor water quality (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority). All of these developments have disturbing implications for Mackay’s regional economy and its reliance on coal, sugar, and tourism. Diversifying the local economy through the introduction of new knowledge industries would be one way of preparing the Mackay region for the impact of new technologies and the economic challenges that lie ahead.ReferencesAverill, Zizi. “Webcam Consultations.” Daily Mercury 22 Nov. 2018: 7.Birrell, Bob, Lesleyanne Hawthorne, and Virginia Rapson. The Outlook for Surgical Services in Australasia. Melbourne: Monash University Centre for Population and Urban Research, 2003.Cureton, Aidan. “Big Shoes, Big Ideas.” Daily Mercury 8 Dec. 2018: 12.Danaher, Geoff. Ed. Visions of Mackay: Conference Papers. Rockhampton: Central Queensland UP, 1998.Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Networking the Nation: Evaluation of Outcomes and Impacts. Canberra: Australian Government, 2005.Department of Industry, Science and Tourism. Electronic Commerce in Australia. 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