[LINK] Telstra is not responsible for Fibre to the Home - We are, the citizens of Australia.

[Tom Koltai]

In the early nineties, the Internet was hyped up in the US by Uncle Al's
stories of the Internet being like Al Gores fathers freeway interchanges
and highways.
When was the last time you saw a private company providing highways and
setting up toll booths ? Oh yeah the M2 the M5 the M7 and...
OK, when was the last time you saw a private company installing water
mains ? Or electricity reticulating transmission poles ?

Fibre to the Home (FTTH) - Just another reticulated Service

The price of copper has quadrupled in the past 5 years. If the trend
continues, (and with Chinas and Indias need for copper for water
reticulation, how can it not), then by 2012, the cost to install Fibre
to the House in Sydney will be approximately the same price as copper
and I expect developers will be pricing future developments based on
fibre reticulation..
This bodes well for the new suburbs - out in the middle of nowhere and
promises an ironic/iconic shift in the education quality of our lowest
income earning families.
Imagine buying a house in 2012 past Penrith but having your high speed
internet movies, and online shopping at 20 times the speed of the city
folk...

The carriers that are set to earn the greatest boon are those that
located their central fibre hubs in outlying districts like Blacktown.

For the rest of us - it is time to think outside the box. 

A lot of us are sitting by our 512kb DSL internet connected computers
wishing for faster speed and waiting patiently for the Federal
Government to get on with upgrading our internet access.
Well, its not their job.
Governments councils and semi-auonomous government bodies have
traditionally provided the infrastructure to the curb. From the curb to
the house, the individual has to pay for the connection of the sewerage
water, electricity and driveway.

So as good citizens we should assist them by installing our own fibre to
the pit. But not the Telstra pit - the new community Fibre pit.

Funding the FTTH
In fact, every community should form a fibre co-operative. Entry is
$350.00 and requires that you dig your own 300 mm deep 100 mm wide
trench from your house to the curb and install 13mm electrical conduit
therein.
(The $350.00 per household is the driveway crossing cost for the
pneumatic hammer borer).

For those individuals (or apartment blocks) who are unable to pay the
community co-op driveway crossing fee, the local council will carryout
the works and itemize same at an amortised rate over three years on your
rates bill.

Then we just wait for the government to call tenders for a new Trench
annext the curb for the whole of Australia.

Roll-out would start with those neighbourhoods where 51% or more
homeowners had installed their conduits.

Any Telco that wanted to supply services would install fibre in the new
trench (which was owned and maintained by the government for a minimum
period of 200 years.)
 
/End of Rant.