[LINK] "Line spectrum sharing" ? (Telstra offers separation proposal)

[Paul Brooks]

On 2/08/2011 10:18 PM, Fernando Cassia wrote:
>
> Maybe this is a way to make unbundling more palatable to the incumbents? (ie "you
> won´t lose all business, you probably will keep voice").

Maybe. There is also a cost/revenue carrot/stick (depending on which side of the fence
you are) -

In Australia at least, because the incumbent is still collecting line rental and call
charges from the user, and the regulator has decided that this direct revenue must be
covering their infrastructure costs, the charge to the ISP for renting just the
high-frequency portion is small - $1.80 /month currently. For full ULL unbundling, the
line rental is now $16.21 in urban areas, paid by the ISP to Telstra. Telstra wanted
$30/month but was knocked back.

ISPs delivering via Line Sharing can offer a lower priced service than via ULL,
because their cost is lower (as the user is paying Telstra directly for some of it).

see  http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/998524/fromItemId/142 for the
latest on this pricing.

>
> Of course, full unbundling is the holy grail for me (I don´t want to have anything
> to do with the incumbent, thanks very much) but thinking from the other side of the
> counter, I can see that this allows pure ISPs with no voice service to win customers
> without the expense of having to also run their own telephony infrastructure.

...or allows ISPs using VoIP to still provide a telephone service using the broadband
channel, leaving the incumbent receiving line rental revenue on a line that never
seems to make any calls.

Paul.