[LINK] itNews: 'TransACT to continue FTTN VDSL2 Upgrade'

[Roger Clarke]

[This morning's itNews report, below, is of particular interest to 
Canberrans, but also more generally.]

[Several years back, I wrote to the TransACT CEO, Ivan Slavich, 
indicating that a regional telco needs to provide service to every 
location within its region.  Slavich disagreed.  (Well, he was a bit 
more scathing than that).

[I'll try again now, hoping that the exemption that's been granted to 
the company imposes a Universal Service Obligation within the area. 
After all, it has to mean that the area will have the lowest possible 
priority for NBNCo.  So if there's no USO-like condition, I'm stuck 
with ADSL2+ for the foreseeable future, and can forget about making 
my next TV IPTV-capable.

[I have no idea how many people in Canberra don't have access to 
TransACT.  All I know is that they stuffed up the config calculations 
when they did my neck of the woods, and it's not available to the 
last couple of houses on the branch that I'm on.]

[Fortunately for me, I use almost no video anyway.  But as a one-time 
lobbyist for continued ACT Government support for the TransACT 
project, it's ironic and annoying that I missed out.

[Fortunately, even 4km from the exchange, ADSL2+ works pretty well: 
This morning's test says 4.37 Mbps / 546 KB/s - and consistent too. 
Commiserations to the country cousins on the list ...]


TransACT secures Canberra upgrade path
James Hutchinson
Apr 13, 2012 6:59 AM (54 minutes ago)
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/296828,transact-secures-canberra-upgrade-path.aspx

Cherry-picking exemption granted.

iiNet subsidiary TransACT has agreed to complete the long-running 
upgrade of its fibre-to-the-node network in Canberra thanks to an 
exemption to NBN cherry-picking legislation granted by the Federal 
Government.

The service provider, bought last year by iiNet for $60 million, had 
begun an upgrade of the 12-year-old network in Canberra in March 2009 
to VDSL2, with promises of speed boosts to 60 Mbps on the downlink.

The Federal Government's anti cherry-picking legislation, passed last 
year, prevented areas without the network upgrade from receiving the 
speed boosts due to potential competition with the National Broadband 
Network.

The legislation required networks built or significantly upgraded 
after January 2011 and providing speeds of at least 25 Mbps to be 
operated on a wholesale-only basis.

Under an exemption to the legislation, TransACT would be able to 
continue upgrading the network to VDSL2 while remaining vertically 
integrated, provided it notify customers and government bodies of 
significant changes to the network.

"We're extremely positive about it," TransACT chief executive Ivan 
Slavich told iTnews.

"We've obviously spent a fair bit of time working to achieve that 
outcome and I think it's a testament to the fact that we have 
previously invested in those networks and have been effectively 
delivering the kinds of services the Government has been wanting to 
deliver via the NBN to customers for some time."

Though TransACT has been negotiating with the Federal Government over 
exemptions for the past seven months, it appears an application 
relating to the VDSL network only came in February this year.

New estate fibre

TransACT was simultaneously granted a similar exemption to construct 
fibre-to-the-home networks in a new housing estate in the city's 
south, where it is expects to pass 16,000 homes with the technology.

Slavich told iTnews the company had already passed 7000 premises and 
connected 3000 with active services since construction began last 
year in stage one of the estate.

[So they're sustaining and upgrading their existing FTTN services 
across most of the city, and delivering FTTH/P in the new areas.]

Unlike its other existing networks, the FTTH network had not gained a 
statutory exemption as it was not built before January 1 2011, when 
the legislation came into effect.

However, because TransACT had signed contracts with the estate 
developer before the legislation passed through Parliament, and the 
"advanced nature" of construction, meant the exemption was allowed.

Under the agreement, TransACT will be required to provide an open 
access Layer 3 wholesale service to third party service providers, a 
product it already offers on the VDSL network.

The exemptions do not apply to TransACT's cable network in regional 
Victoria, which had been upgraded to DOCSIS 3.0 technology but fell 
outside of company plans for significant infrastructure upgrades.

Restricting expansion

Slavich said the company had continued to win business within the 
one-kilometre radius of its existing network, as allowed under the 
legislation, but acknowledged the cherry-picking rules restricted its 
ability to significantly expand the networks.

"If we wanted to go to another [estate] in Geelong and build FTTP, I 
think it would be unlikely for us to get an exemption via a 
ministerial instrument," he said.

"The fundamental reason why is we'd have to separate our retail and 
wholesale... the only way we'd do that is if we'd sold the network 
business. Anything's possible in that space but it's not on the 
market."

TransACT's concessions are the second set of exemptions provided by 
communications minister Stephen Conroy to the anti cherry-picking 
legislation.

A similar deal with Telstra saw the incumbent open 118 housing 
estates under its Velocity program for wholesale access to third 
party providers for the first time in exchange for the ability to 
expand infrastructure in those areas beyond the one-kilometres radius 
limit set out in the legislation.

The deal is expected to coerce wholesale price changes from Telstra 
in those estates for the first time, under the exemption to take 
effect this month.
It is believed Telstra and TransACT were the only companies to apply 
for an exemption.

Though backdated to the beginning of last year, the legislative 
provisions and accompanying declarations from the competition 
watchdog came into effect this week.


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			            
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law               University of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University