(ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS)
Where are we, Doc? 2017, October 31.
Ooh, it's Halloween. No time for that, Mikey.
The super information hard drive needs updating.
But, if my calculations are correct,
the NBN should have rolled out here by now.
The Norwegian Broadcasting Network?
No, Mikey. We're in Australia.
The National Broadband Network.
What's that? I'll show you. Get in the DeLorean.
Uh, it's a Camry.
Where are we going, Doc? We're going back...
..to the past.
(MODEM DIAL-UP TONE BEEPS AND CRACKLES)
Ah, my ears! What is that?
Oh, no, Mikey! We've gone back too far - the '90s.
Make it stop!
Back in the old days,
using the internet was a bit like using a home phone -
you had to dial up -
which meant you couldn't make calls at the same time,
and it was very slow.
Just seeing a picture took a long time...
..and videos were out of the question.
But, as time went on, things got a lot more sophisticated.
Broadband was introduced, which was faster
and meant you could have multiple connections at once.
But it still used the old copper wires
that connected people's phones to their houses,
and those wires were pretty outdated.
In 2009, the government announced it was time for an upgrade.
Like the building of Snowy Hydro,
like the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge,
this is an historic act of nation building.
The government at the time planned to replace
all the existing copper cables with fibre-optic ones.
Fibre-optic cables can transmit a whole lot more data
much faster than copper while using less power.
With fibre to everyone's house,
the government promised download speeds
of 100 megabits per second.
That means you could download a TV show in about 16 seconds.
But it was going to cost around $41 billion,
and it wouldn't be finished until 2021.
Shall I set the dial for 2021? No, Mikey.
2013.
That's right - we're going back...
Back to the future!
Hey, that's my line.
In 2013, the Liberal Party won the election.
They decided the NBN was going to be too expensive,
so they made some changes.
Instead of installing fibre-optic to everyone's house,
they decided to go with something called Fibre to the Node.
That means the fibre-optic cable
is sent out to lots of different points,
and the copper is used for the last little distance
to people's houses.
The government said it was still going to be a serious upgrade.
It promised average speeds of 25 megabits per second
and it would be ready earlier.
Is that enough to operate
the super information hard drive, Doc?
No, Mikey,
but it is enough to download all three Back To The Future movies.
The trouble is, the NBN hasn't worked out quite as planned.
Costs have blown out. We're up to almost $50 billion.
And a lot of people have complained
that the speeds aren't nearly as good as promised.
Plus, some houses managed to get fibre to their homes
before the NBN changed,
and they have ended up with much better internet connections,
and some say that's not fair.
The government has blamed previous leaders
for the NBN's problems, and says that,
eventually, Australia will have the internet speeds it needs.
Is that true, Doc?
Well, there's only one way to find out.
(WEARILY) Back to the future.
You know it, Mikey.