On Sat, 19 Mar 2005, Philip D'Ath wrote:

Perhaps you missed the billion dollar announcement they made sometime ago how they are building a new all IP network, and are phasing out most of the old PSTN exchanges. From memory, something like 700 of them are scheduled to be decommissioned. IIRC thatw as by Rod Deane either before he stepped down as CEO or during the early days of his chairmanship.

Cisco was the first vendor of choice for this http://idg.net.nz/news.nsf/UNID/CC256CED0016AD1ECC2568B2006CA5C0 Then it became Alcatel http://idg.net.nz/news.nsf/UNID/CC256CED0016AD1ECC256B760003DEB7 As early as 1998 there was a small trial http://idg.net.nz/news.nsf/UNID/CC256CED0016AD1ECC25684C000DCFB4 I remember this because one of the questions I asked when 0867 was announced was how they were going to differentiate internet calls from normal calls. I seem to have lost the link to the announcement.

-----Original Message----- Perhaps I phrased that a little off, what I was meaning to insinuate was that they wouldn't be ditching the ole PSTN anytime soon.

But hey *shrug* there are alot of varying ideas on that aswell.

While it won't happen tomorrow, I am sure eventually they will retire them. hmm wonder what will happen to the big exchange buildings like Mayoral Drive and Airedale. regards lin