[LINK] Fibre gets nimble: small telcos weaving fiber web

[Richard Chirgwin]

Lord, mention demographics and the world is full of exceptions to the 
rule...

Please, Jan and Scott, remember that I was responding to a particular 
question, "If X can't do it why can't we?" and pointing out some 
specific and measurable differences.

Having spent some years wandering around Australia's population data, 
the things that impress me are (1) we're big and (2) we're empty. We 
have a handful of population agglomerations, and apart from that, we've 
got less than 0.2 people per square km (ie, subtract the cities and 
their landmass from the nation and its landmass, and that's what you get).

So "why can't Australia do what America does?" is reasonably answered by 
pointing out the differences.

I've also seen a host of "we will do local!!!" carriers come and go over 
the years. Green Telecom, a fibre carrier proposed for the Snowy 
Mountains, Orange Telecom (not to be confused with the Hurtch brand 
Orange), a couple in Queensland ... not to mention the stupid proposal 
that a minor Canadian carrier would pull fibre all over the Hunter 
valley, not to mention Bright Telecom, and numerous others.

It can't *all* be set down to regulation and Telstra; some of it is just 
scale.

RC

Jan Whitaker wrote:
> At 07:58 PM 9/08/2009, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
>   
>> Another way of looking at it. Wikipedia lists 273 American cities with
>> more than 100,000 population (in fact, all of the cities Wikipedia
>> lists). We have 18.
>>     
>
> yeah but yeah but yeah but:
>
> There are many assumptions about Australian services that have never 
> made sense to me. I grew up in rural Indiana. Not as rural as 
> Oklahoma or Kansas, but still rural, on a farm. The local town was 
> <500 people. We had an elementary school, post office, branch bank, 
> cafe (where the teen girls got their first jobs), 2 gas stations, a 
> car dealership, funeral home, and one general store.
>
> The biggest town was Terre Haute, 55,000 people. 4 public high 
> schools, 1 Catholic. 2 hospitals, 1 private, 1 Catholic. 2 local tv 
> stations, 2 others on repeaters from the capital city. 1 state 
> university, 2 private, 1 vo-tech. There was cable tv at least back in 
> the 1970s.
>
> Now I live in a 'city' of >250,000 people. Get the difference. 1 
> public high school, several private. 2 hospitals, 1 public, 1 
> private. 0 tv stations, all tv from Melbourne, and even then, only 5 
> 'real' free to air stations. 1 state uni, 1 multi-campus vo-tech.
>
> So how does this work? If we could 'afford' equal amount of major 
> services for 55k versus 250k, where is the rest of the funding going 
> for public services here? The economies of scale must be there.
>
> Here's a story from 2006 about Ft Wayne, Indiana and fiber to the 
> home. Estimated 2008 population: 250,000. 
> http://indianaparley.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html In 2006, we 
> were still working to get ADSL services in some areas of Casey that 
> were well-established neighbourhoods, outer metro Melbourne.
>
> "Another way Fort Wayne officials have used partnerships and worked 
> to create a globally competitive city is though the use of fiberoptic 
> broadband services. Richard said the broadband services help connect 
> small businesses, schools and households. He said that with the 
> services, individuals are able to take college courses they may not 
> have had access to previously. Richard said 87 schools and about 
> 110,000 households and businesses are able to use the service. "
>
> Jan
>
>
>
> Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
> jwhit at janwhitaker.com
> blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
> business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
>
> Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
> sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
> ~Madeline L'Engle, writer
>
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