[LINK] Telstra ultimatum on fibre

[Chris Maltby]

On Fri, Jun 08, 2007 at 11:45:48AM +1000, George Bray wrote:
> The broadband saga escalates, and now has a deadline.

Linkers may be interested in a snippet of gossip I heard the other day
relating to the FTTN stuff.

The presumption has always been that FTTN is a regulatory problem
because it restores the customer access network monopoly as the
copper/fibre junction nodes will be closed to competitor equipment,
unlike the existing telephone exchanges.

But why should that be the case? It all depends on the size of a
fibre/copper mux relative to the size of the FTTN box itself, and
whether there would be spare fibres linking each node with the local
exchange.

My source suggests that neither is the problem that Telstra would have
us believe. The existing HFC CATV nodes are connected with fibre
bundles, most of them still dark. Any new fibre laying would also be of
fibre bundles. So there would be no techincal impediment to allowing the
dark fibres to be used by some reasonable number of competing carriers -
enough to sustain a competitive wholesale market at least.

As for the nodes, it seems that the mux cards are also modestly sized
and the node box designs my source has seen have room for several of
them - or the node boxes could be made a little bigger to accommodate a
few of them as required.

Perhaps the solution to the problem would be to let either Telstra or
the G9 mob build their FTTN networks provided that the nodes and fibre
links are open to access to the competing group on a regulated basis,
just like access to Telstra exchanges is managed now. Giving the job
to the G9 and forcing them to permit Telstra equipment to be installed
in their nodes might be a good start toward breaking down the remains
of Telstra's CAN monopoly...

Chris