Points to both sides of the Fibre-to-the-node argument:
Telstra’s FTTN plan:
* Is approaching 2 years old.
* Will affect competition for providers who have rolled out their own DSLAMs
* Will reproduce the same scenario a lot of ISPs have now, trying to compete on price, but Telstra raise the bar.
* Has a multi-billion dollar company behind it
* Offers speeds up to 100Mbps to around 50% of the population
* Doesn’t require taking the copper back from Telstra, and rebilling them for it
* Has a company that has experience behind it with networks
* Is being proposed by a company that does its best to disable competition
* Is being proposed by a company that limited, and still does limit the speeds of the technology to speeds it sees fit
* Has minimal government support, due to requests for regulations to be removed
* Is bring proposed by a company that doesn’t innovate unless competition drives it to
* Doesn’t have Australian consumers best interest’s at heart (no matter what they spin)
G9’s FTTN plan:
* Is around 18 months old
* Will affect competition for providers who have rolled out their own DSLAMs
* Will lower prices
* Won’t raise the bar for ISPs, as they have no conflict of interest
* Will promote more competition
* Doesn’t have a multi billion dollar company behind it (yet)
* Doesn’t have speeds decided, but it is assumed ADSL2+ at a minimum, therefore, 24Mbps to most users
* Requires taking copper from Telstra (compulsory acquisition, however, a lawsuit will be likely from Telstra)
* Has Optus behind it, as well as several other ISPs, with general experience with rolling out networks
* Is being promoted by a group of companies that likes to promote competition for the sake of filling unused ports
* Is being promoted by a group of companies that consist of providers that were the FIRST to install ADSL2+ and Microwave tower networks to Regional SA, and hasn’t limited the speeds of technology where the price was right
* Is being proposed by companies that were first to the market with other technologies
* Requires ‘reasonable’ changes to Regulation to prevent over build (asset / investment protection)
* Is being proposed by companies that took risks in the face of a large monopoly
* Has fought against the monopoly for years, and still does, to gain some competition ground
* Has both innovation and Australian consumers better interests at heart
If that’s not enough, some more pointers:
Telstra charge $56+ ex GST, excluding other costs, to lease a simple 8Mbps ADSL1 port to ISPs.
Optus charge less than $49.95, inc GST, inc other costs, to lease a ADSL2+ port, with absolutely no restrictions to ISPs
Telstra retail ADSL2+, with a total of 25GB of data (and with a fast connection, you need that extra data to enjoy it) for: $129.95
Optus retail ADSL2+, with a total of 60GB of data (with a fast connection, you need that data to really, really, enjoy it) for: $69.95
That’s a BIG 50% difference, with more value, faster speeds, and no hassle.
Some lines Bigpond like to use when asked:
Our Network is stable.
We have Free content.
We are Australian.
Ok, but, so is Optus’s network, considering it’s also available Wholesale to other ISPs, with no complaints.
Optus also have Free content, actually, a reseller of Optus ports, Netspace, has Free PIPE traffic as well on selected plans.
Umm, after T3, you are owned by every man and his dog who thought you’d be worth buying. That includes several multinationals. You are also being run by USA CEOs. Telstra, you are no longer ‘Australian’. You rip off ‘Australians’ with highway robbery prices, and continually abuse your monopoly position.
Telstra had a few ways to go about the face of competition, rather than innovate and embrace it for all the good dollars it brings (Telstra Wholesale is one of Telstra’s largest profit earners, so they aren’t selling below cost, or where’s the profit come from?), they decided to stifle it, reduce it, plug it, and the Australian economy, and basically create expensive services for those that can’t get faster services elsewhere, because they couldn’t work with competition.
If you look at the many webhosting companies around the world, most are working with another provider, who resell their network capacity to them. That provider could literally annoy the crap out of the customers on the other provider, and encourage more sales by doing so, they don’t. They work together, and enjoy the profits they make from both angles.
Why didn’t Telstra simply focus on innovation, and infrastructure wholesale, and basically create a fair play market? Oh, that’s right, the businesses they sell extremely overpriced services to would move to other services which are cheaper.
But, in the face of the current competition, they don’t really have much to go with now, most businesses can get by easily on an Internode ADSL2+ Annex M connection, for a lot less dollars too.
It’s pretty much a catch 22 for Telstra, work with it, and the competitiors price you out of the market, work against it, and you near ruin the Australian economy by pricing everyone out of it, or not innovating to bring newer technology to those that might use it best.