True, and not only bandwidth and range, but consistency; you can more or less guarantee a stable connection between any two users (physical damage aside, but even then you could still route via the entire other half of the country without any noticeable effect). Abbott's plan is an absolute joke that will be obsolete on-arrival (and will actually cost more).
From the Kickstarter page linked in the Confirmed Features thread: For the alpha, you will have to connect to Uber's server(s). Probably during beta, and definitely for release, they will hand out the server program so you can run your own servers, or run a "single player" game for skirmish against the AI. You will only need to connect to Uber's servers to take advantage of the social, matchmaking and persistency features (i.e. Galactic War) of Ubernet. It has been confirmed that you will not need a connection to play, and that you can host a LAN game out of the box after release.
Good luck routing around the country if you live in Northern Queensland. There is only 1 line north of Brisbane-ish. It was cut not long ago, no phone, mobile or internet service at all, they had to pull some random backup line out of their buts or wait 1 week to connect to the NT line. I love the train station analogy. Gillard wants to build a superfast Train line to all the capital city's. Abet wants to build a superfast train to a station just near the capital call a node, and then make everyone commute to the next station on a slower train. There is a youtube vid somewhere, but without NBN I cant watch it I am trying to get as many people into PA as possible. Everyone from my personal clan Team Genocide will be playing, hopefully competitively as well (depending on lag issues). We used to play TA religiously (you know, every Sunday and every other day). I have also convinced a large number of The Art of Warfare [TAW] Planetside 2 AUS members to play and keep letting everyone know. Many of the TAW guys are old TA and Supcom Players. I would love an Australia server if possible.
All the backbones in the NBN will have at least one redundant path - http://www.itnews.com.au/Gallery/221455,photos-nbn-coverage-maps.aspx/1#pic In addition, I imagine in an emergency they can route portions through the satellite network too.
**Putting in my vehement support for Aussie servers** I still consider ping to be important for RTS games. Although that's more so for micro-intensive games than what PA is maybe looking to become. Even so, the simple existence of Aussie servers will (hopefully) encourage the local scene; the more players the merrier.
Stumbled onto a nice little website that shows the difference between a real NBN and Abbott's: http://howfastisthenbn.com.au/ With Labor's NBN most of us will probably have enough bandwidth to happily host large games of PA, with the Coalition's things will be much more limited .
Even though I live in Brisbane, I'm apparently not getting the NBN installed until a minimum of 3 years from now, +1 year for construction. So I'm looking at 5-6 years till the NBN even remotely affects me... :shock:
On the upside, Rockingham, WA is now in the 'Construction has commenced and will be complete in one year' stage. Woot.
It'll be crap for everyone if Abott gets in. What really annoys me about the NBN are the people who agree with the coalition's NBN plan and don't think about the benefits of a network that puts us on par with the rest of the world.
There's also no valid reason not to get fiber to the home anyway, it will need to be done at some point, and doing it now will save a heap of money in the long run and stop our internet connections from being the laughing stock of the rest of the world.
Aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnddd there goes the thread OT(kinda) : NZ sucks even more than AU D: Think of us :'(