All change for broadband?

At the time of writing, the media is full of speculation about the National Broadband Network (NBN), but there is limited hard information available. This article is an attempt to tease out a better understanding of the current developments in telecommunications in Australia. It is a high-level summary of the elements being considered and the policy issues still to be resolved, from the perspective of one interested observer, and as such it is certain to need correction and clarification as more is revealed. The terminology used in this paper is that given in the appendix, which provides a short tutorial on the current telecommunications environment.