Telstra's copper network is fucked

Mr Lee's comments come as Telstra prepares to renegotiate its $11 billion national broadband network deal with the Coalition government, which wants to make use of the copper in its fibre-to-the-node rollout for 71 per cent of premises. The node-based network uses up to several hundred metres of existing copper wires running from the local node to each premise. 

NBN Co's executive chairman, Dr Switkowski, told the Communications and Environment Senate estimates committee on Tuesday night he was confident Telstra's copper network "continues to perform robustly". He noted that fault rates were now higher than in the last decade because of rain. Copper faults increase after rain. more  

Um, at the risk of raining on the Telstra/Abbott gov parade, perhaps some photos of the reality of the Telstra copper network. From the workers themselves:

Link

Yep, this is what Abbott reckons will work from the node to the home. From the super duper capable of 1Gbps fibre optic cable that goes to the node, Abbott expects this to actually carry something like that.

Lets hope Malcolm Turnbull has half a brain and some very good salesmanship skills.