/me steps back up onto his soap box, draws breath... ponders... steps down,
grabs a beer and settles in for some real conversation! :)
The lines companies have hugely deep pockets, already own poles and lines, GIS systems, crews (or contractors) and use a different non- telco architecture. They are community owned and know about community development. They also talk to each other. But focus on the ARCHITECTURE. (I could be cheeky and say don't bother - you're in Auckland, but that would be unfair)
When they put the power underground in Auckland did they not put it in conduit? They've just spent the last year putting conduit underground all around Perth so that power can be pushed thur. They 'say' they have a pilot running there to push fibre thru to the front door at the same time. The reality seems to be a bit different... fibre has already been run to all the cablinets and agrigation has been done all over perth.
The problem with them so far (ie United Networks, and perhaps a few others I won't name) is that being too conservative they keep hiring "telco" engineers to tell them how to build a comms network. What they're really building is a new comms utility. Thats why some of them sell kbps instead of Mbps as they should be. This "telco" thinking leads to prices around the same order of magnitude as Telcom. They will always compete with the 5% discount technique. In reality if you want major change you have to do something major. So you have to come out with a compelling price/performance that just blows them away. That is talking megabits not kbps or be 25% of Telecoms prices. That way customers will make the change because its just so obvious.
You WON'T get this major change by using Telecoms infrastructure because the architecture and technology is WRONG (and Telecoms prices would have ensured just a marginally better deal - remember the 5% discount). LLU just encourages more of the same crap we have now. We have to forget it and move on.
Agreed. Richard would you care to comment on Telstra/Clear/Saturn thou? Looking around Chch there's lots of plant gone in all over the place but people seem to be just using it for telephones and a bit of pay tv. Perhaps you know more? It strikes me at present everytime someone gets busy and builds something decent a phone company comes along with deep pockets, buys it out then does bugger all with it. If we spend time lobying power companies to do something useful with that just go the way other initives seem to have gone?
I disagree - ethernet IS widely deployed, just rarely in outside plant situations. But look at the economics of ethernet (GigE nics for half the price of a 56k modem) and you can see why we have to get rid of the old copper plant. DSL technology is the best it can do - and that ain't good enough in 2003/2004
(for those worried about the date or time).
You had tears in my eyes over that bit... hummm... :)
After all most dsl modems have an ethernet port on them, so theres gotta be more ethernet than dsl.
But you're right a telco sees only dsl - because thats what telcos do. Someone looking at the bigger problem sees a different solution - ethernet. What is it that the customer wants ? high speed low cost reliable networks. Doesn't sound like dsl to me. Compare a dslam with an ethernet switch and remember the KISS principle. Then look at the architecture behind DSLAMS, SDH, et al - and its just old school and doesn;t scale into massive gigabit networks. (in the 100, 000s of nodes). Asynchronous data networks like ethernet DO. So the telco industry has just got it all WRONG.
I 100% agree... I've been following DSLPrime for some time where Dave talks about ADSL2 technology quite a bit of the time... they're feeling good about them selves when they manage to get 50mbits on the line.... and here we are talking about 1gbit.
So the Regulator got it right. Telcos can use the Telecom network, people looking for real networking solutions can innovate (and leave them to wither and die).
Agreed again... Why should the regulator push the telco to innovate? They have enough money to do research and development but they seem to focus on just milking the oldest cow they can!
rich (who has some rare time to answer emails)
Yes... and it's proving interesting as well... I'm learning lots about the NZ sceene. Cheers DiG -- Don Gould The technology exists to give every home 10mbits per second for $10 per month! Ask not what your telephone company should do for you... ...but what you can do for your broadband community!