LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Glen Turner <glen.turner@aarnet.edu.au>
  To  : <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 09:04:19 +1030

Re: ADSL Enabled Exchange Areas: Updated 20/11/2000

Dan Shearer wrote:
> 
> > Without naming names, there *are* alternatives to Telstra for ADSL.
> 
> Internode are one. Senet are reportedly getting close, but can anyone from
> Senet confirm or deny this report/rumour?
> 
> Any other companies?

Optus have a limited rolllout: Waymouth, Prospect and
Flinders exchanges so far.  Their plan is to cover the
small business market before residential.

They support Linux, after pressure from one of their
largest customers :-)  Installation experiences have been
positive.

They also offer the ability to terminate the "ISP" end
of the PPP link at a business, rather on an Internet
router.  This allows ADSL to be used to connect a branch
office back to a main office (possibly in another state),
something that is mainly done with 128Kbps ISDN at the
moment.

[Disclaimer: AARNet developed the service in the paragraph
 above for Optus, to meet our requirements for attaching
 off-campus offices.]


Personally, its pretty plain that ADSL is a stopgap
technology.  It's never going to be able to cover
the majority of the population at a reasonable data
rate.  What is really needed is a re-build of the
customer access network with fiber, something that
TransACT is doing in Canberra.

Although this costs a lot in ISP terms, in council terms
it is less than the cost of upgrading a infrequently-used
sporting stadium.  It's time we started letting the state
government know this.

Glen

-- 
 Glen Turner                                 Network Engineer
 (08) 8303 3936      Australian Academic and Research Network
 glen.turner@aarnet.edu.au          http://www.aarnet.edu.au/
--
 The revolution will not be televised, it will be digitised

-- 
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