[LINK] NBN and Batteries

[Tom Koltai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Richard Chirgwin
> Sent: Wednesday, 23 February 2011 3:22 PM
> To: link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> Subject: Re: [LINK] NBN and Batteries
> 
> 
> Tom,
> 
> Only if they didn't pull the fibre through already-crowded ducts. 
> Otherwise, the copper gets de-comissioned.
> 
Huge mistake.
Pac-Bell discovered in 2000 that they had to replace the copper they
pulled out.
If the Ducts are crowded, dig a new trench.
Hell for 43 billion I'll trench every street in Australia and have
change left over.
(Trenching to 1000 mm, backfilling, compaction and resealing is
approximately $1,300 per lineal metre @ approx 815 000 kms of road in
Australis.)[http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/land_transport.html]

Considering the Telstra fibre has been purchased and will not need to be
retrenched and it covers 82% of the population, we only need to trench
about 18%.
(Less those trenches that are across open ground and not beneath the
bitumen).


> Also, who is going to assume responsibility for running the batteries 
> now in the exchanges?
> 
Whoever runs the Exchanges. Who would that be ?
Obviously there would be a strata title management team. Batteries would
be part of the back up generation system at every exchange.
Even fibre switches need power... And in fact they need a lot more power
than the copper...

> And a final point: the NBN moves the backup; what is now a bunch of 
> lead-acids (I suppose) in exchange buildings becomes (probably) gel 
> batteries at homes. The net effect is that for X number of batteries 
> added to the environmental load, another bunch of batteries are 
> *removed* from it.
> 

Telstra exchanges have been swapping out the Lead acid batteries for
sealed replacements since 2006.
(I purchased four 8000 AH 48V for $180.00 each from the scrap merchant
and the batteries looked brand new...)