I was waiting yesterday for the release of the FTTN proposal from the G9, ready to tear it apart.
In fact, I was waiting every day of last week to tear it apart.
I’m a little disappointed they missed the initial date, I really was ready to tear it apart and see what they have in the details.
Whilst the wait continues, we see media releases from Telstra and the T4 (tell the truth telstra) group, seemingly put together to expose the lies and misleading articles on Now We Are Talking (trash).
Recently, Now We Are Talking published a 49 questions for the G9 FTTN.
And, we also can see the T4’s reply to that, 30 questions for Telstra’s FTTN.
Both ask the hard questions, but state the bloody obvious.
Telstra:
Q7. How long will it take the G9 to roll out FTTN to the five city footprint.
A: Well, considering members of the G9 have a lot of happy customers in that five city footprint, they’ll probably put it below gaining a marketshare in the large regional areas, like Newcastle, which are listed in their media releases. Telstra ignored that completely.
Q11. Whose ducts and trenches are the G9 proposing to lay fibre in? What happens if the existing trenches are full?
A: Telstra’s of course, we are just waiting on the ACCC to change the wording of ULL, and you’ll be forced to give us access to them. They aren’t full though, otherwise you wouldn’t be proposing FTTN yourselves.
Q12. Have you requested from Telstra a price list for access to Telstra’s trenches and conduit?
A: Nah, we didn’t have to. The ACCC decides those prices for us.
Q13: If not, what price has been factored into your business model?
A: Umm, something like $2.50, considering all you will have to do is bill, and only $2.50 if you can get the billing right!
Q14: Have you arranged with Telstra engineers a process for locating and gaining access to the trenches?
A: Nah, we can do it ourselves cheaper. Too tired to be paying $99 a job, I imagine.
Q15: How do you propose to haul fibre cable through Telstra’s trenches and conduit without disturbing the services that are currently being supplied to consumers and other wholesale customers?
A: Easy. Feed it in. Pull it through, connect it up.
Q16: What is your proposed restoration plan, particularly for emergency services, if you disrupt service while hauling or otherwise working in Telstra’s trenches and conduit?
A: We aren’t incompetent.
Q17: Have you notified consumers of their rights to compensation if you disrupt their services while installing your networks?
A: Our customers love us enough to understand issues might occur.
And of course, there’s the other side of the argument:
Q1: What compensation will Telstra pay competitors who have their equipment made redundant
A: We didn’t think of that.
Q2: Where will the Telstra network be built first and why?
A: Look at the HFC network for an answer.
Q3: Will the procurement process be restarted so that tax-payers and consumers who are being asked to subsidise Telstra’s network through guaranteeing its rate of return get value for their money?
A: What means value for money?
Q4: Is it true that Telstra has in the past 10 years received about $1 billion in taxpayer’s subsidies, directly and indirectly, for regional services?
A: I didn’t see nothing if you didn’t.
Q5: Are Telstra’s expectations of an appropriate rate of return based on its desire to remain this profitable?
A: No, no way at all. We hope to be more profitable at the end of it.
Q6: What will Telstra do for customers presently satisfied with a competitors’ broadband service, but are then forced to use the Telstra FTTN network and are ultimately unhappy?
A: Lock them into unfair contracts!
Q7: Will Telstra guarantee its proposal will be for the long-term benefit of Australia and not the short term benefit of its management team?
A: Think of the shareholders!
Q8: What are the transitional arrangements for those customers presently buying a broadband service from carriers other than Telstra.
A: Lock them into unfair contracts.
Q9: What does Telstra mean when it says it will offer a Bitstream service to competitors?
A: We will develop our own product, and limit its speed to 1/5 or lower of the maximum capable.
Q10: Telstra has said that it will provide ADSL2+ in those locations where it presently is refusing to turn on the service. Does this mean it plans to by pass these customers with its FTTN plan?
A: We had no intention of servicing them at all, but since you thought of it, we’ll take that idea and do that.
Q11: Will Telstra guarantee that no customer will be worse off (in terms of speed per dollar) if it cuts off these services to replace them under its FTTN proposal?
A: We will lock them into unfair contracts.
Q12: Why doesn’t Telstra invest in a national program to fix faults before trying to force the Government to change the rules for FTTN?
A: The government won’t pay for our lack of maintaining the network.
Q13: What will be the prices for wholesale and retail services and how will they be set?
A: A price consumers won’t be prepared to pay, and we’ll continually set them higher.
Q15: How will these prices be adjusted over time?
A: That’s easy. Up.
Q16: Will Telstra pay exactly the same prices for exactly the same services as everyone else using the network?
A: Nah, we pay nothing now, we expect to maintain that.
Q25: Will Telstra now apologise for calling the ACCC a “rogue regulator�
A: NEVER!
Q30: How can Telstra be trusted to tell the truth about what it will offer if it gets its way on FTTN?
A: We are a “great australian company”, you have to love us and our extortion level prices.
As you can see, the T4 questions are just as easily answered as the Telstra questions, and it’s easy to see what the T4 group are aiming at, when they ask those questions. They are attacking Telstra’s anti competitive angle.
One they missed would have been:
Q31: Should Telstra build FTTN, will it still continue to be the target of fines and legal action from the ACCC administering the Trade Practices Act, under the new network? Will Telstra still be getting heavy fines, costly court cases, and being forced to compensate competitors due to illegal business practices?
A: Of course not, we like to keep our tradition.
And that is the question they should have got printed all over newspapers, let everyone know that Telstra are the company that want to attack competition, instead of build a FTTN framework to encourage more of it.
After the initial build from a Telstra FTTN, we would expect to see legal action very quickly, as it’s only common for Telstra to give itself priority and release retail products, and wholesale won’t have anything to offer, and the prices would be in a price squeeze manner, meaning they will pay through the roof for a service they could have provided themselves cheaper.
And Telstra say they’ll commence legal action if they confiscate Telstra’s network? Well, if you ask me, Telstra don’t seem to deserve a network at all, considering the high level of faults, and excessively high charges they use to maintain profits.
It’s not where the future of Australian telecommunications should be. We need a competitive framework, and we don’t need FTTN from a company with a retail / wholesale conflict of interest.