[LINK] McCrann calls on Latham to gazump Howard on Telstra

[Frank O'Connor]

Yo Dave,

At 2:54 PM +1100 23/2/04, David Lochrin wrote:
>At 11:29 AM 23-02-04 +1100, Frank O'Connor wrote:
>
>>2. Future network carriage standards (and I'm thinking numbers like 
>>WiMax - 802.16 and the like - in particular) seem to mean that the 
>>'network' will change somewhat radically over the next few years 
>>... favouring big telcos like BT, AT&T and the like who can pipe 
>>bandwidth to Oz over relatively cheap sub-sea fibre and extend 
>>their network coverage using 'the airwaves' rather than the optic, 
>>co-ax and twisted pair that's already in the ground and served by 
>>the expensive exchanges.
>
>    There's much arm-waving about wireless networks, however setting 
>up a wireless hotspot in a local area (an airport waiting lounge, 
>for example) is a radically different proposition to servicing a 
>whole suburb at reliable ADSL-like data rates.  I don't think that's 
>even on the horizon.

See the article I just forwarded to LINK on BT running just such a 
test.       :)

The bottom line is that 802.16 in all its variants is designed to do 
precisely this.

>
>>Exchanges may go 'the way of all things' with IP telephony ... and 
>>mega 802.16 router/bridges could provide coverage over extensive 
>>areas (30 mile radius or more for each.) In other words ... the 
>>initial investment for network providers will drop radically, many 
>>more players will enter the market, and a lot of existing network 
>>infrastructure will be effectively obsolete and unable to compete.
>
>    Again, setting up a VoIP connection between two 'phones or even 
>within an organisation is quite a different thing to replacing the 
>whole POTS telephone network with VoIP.  Quite apart from issues 
>concerning directories, QoS, standards, and so on, the POTS network 
>is just one user of the existing SDH transmission network and that 
>would have to remain.

That's (QOS I mean) a network layer problem ... which I believe IPv6 
addresses quite well.

					Regards,