[LINK] The Telstra Kerfuffle - PR and History

[David Boxall]

On 12/02/2010 7:48 PM, Frank O'Connor wrote:
> ...
> Let's see. In 1987 Telstra and it's new CEO,
> Frank Blount, were making the proud boast that
> optic fibre had been laid to 'within 700 feet' of
> nearly every Australian home. ...
I don't know about 1987 but in 2003, while replacing aged copper in my 
area, Telstra apparently laid fibre as well 
<http://david.boxall.id.au/Phone1.html>.

The following year, I upgraded to ISDN 
<http://david.boxall.id.au/ISDN.html>. When I engaged one of the 
linesmen in discussion he implied that there was dark fibre, like that 
evidently in my area, "all over".

Most of the cost of an optical network isn't in the fibre. It's in 
labour and equipment to lay the fibre and the hardware attached to it. 
It makes sense then that, when doing major work on the copper network, 
Telstra might take the opportunity to lay the fibre they know will be 
needed in future.

If that's the case, as my limited experience indicates it is, then 
there's probably thousands of kilometres of fibre already installed, but 
lying dormant while Telstra sucks every last cent out of the copper network.

-- 
David Boxall                    |  Dogs look up to us
                                |  And cats look down on us
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  But pigs treat us as equals
                                                    --Winston Churchill