LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Simon Hackett <simon@internode.com.au>
  To  : Christopher Yeoh <cyeoh@linuxcare.com.au>
        Glen Turner <glen.turner@aarnet.edu.au>
  Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 16:45:14 +1030

Re: AOL? or best ISP

At 4:56 PM +1100 23/1/01, Christopher Yeoh wrote:
>  > IMHO ADSL is an interim technology until Australian society bites
>  > the bullet of constructing an optical local loop.  Note that
>  > the costs of this are not large by state or local government
>  > standards, perhaps less than has been spent on AFL and soccer
>  > sporting stadia in the last few years.
>
>Optical fibre is in the process of being rolled out in Canberra at the
>moment.  Standard is 10Mb/s into the home (more if you want) along
>with video on demand services. Fixed monthly cost to connect to the
>network. No per/megabyte charges for traffic within the network itself
>- connections to the 'outside world' are done through ISPs which are
>also connected to the network where presumably they will be charging
>per/mb. Test suburbs have already been connected and IIRC more are
>coming online either in Jan/Feb with a few more added every couple of
>months.
>
>This is what is possible if you're willing to put up with cables being
>strung up along the electricity poles :-)
>

It is also an example of an investment of some multiple hundreds of 
millions of dollars with an expected 30 year break even period on it. 
An investment only an old-world utility could contemplate (so its no 
surprise that ACT Electricity and Water is a core element of the 
group funding this rollout - and besides, guess whose power poles 
they're using - right of way being another core issue in such 
rollouts)

TransACT is a very exciting pilot (even Canberra wide, I still 
consider it a pilot in most respects). I hope it works out for them - 
because it could change the world by changing expectations and 
providing an existence proof - and once it's done, at least one 
entity (them) will know what it _really_ costs to do 'it' - per 
household. Interesting times.

Note that they aren't fibre to the home, they're fibre to the <group 
of 50 houses> and VDSL over copper the last 300m's of the way to the 
house. An interesting choice which may have been driven (IMHO) by the 
cost differential between fibre ethernet termination boxes and VDSL 
ethernet termination boxes at the time that their rollout was 
designed (which was a fair while ago - these things take a lot of 
time and effort to roll from drawing board through pilot to real 
rollout)

Simon


---
Simon Hackett, Technical Director, Internode Systems Pty Ltd
31 York St [PO Box 284, Rundle Mall], Adelaide, SA 5000 Australia
Email: simon@internode.com.au  Web: http://www.on.net
Phone: +61-8-8223-2999          Fax: +61-8-8223-1777

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