[AusNOG] NBN Battery backups

[Matthew Moyle-Croft]

Hi,

The battery ONLY looks after the voice ports, so I guess only the RSP using those ports (if any) will get the alarms via the B2B interface - which is fine.  My recollection is that RSPs will get alarms if things happen on an ONT they have ports on (if they elect to receive them!).

The big issue as I see here IS the uncertainty about how the consumer facing side looks rather than the technical issues.  Not just about who would get the alarms and what they need to do with it, but how that relates to any USO for the voice services and any other legal/regulatory thing.

With the fairly aggressive meme about Telco's being bad and treating their customers badly from the FedGov and others (ACCAN etc) the big problem to me is that as an RSP it's unclear about what this means from a product perspective

If I build a product with the NBNCo voice ports (the only bit which is kept alive by the battery) then I really need to know a group of things including - if the battery is a "user serviceable part" then what's acceptable about telling the user to replace it?  Letters?  Door knock?  Email?  SMS?  How many times?   If it's not "user serviceable" then what exactly is my requirement to deal with it and, as Bevan raised, how do I access it to replace it if it's internal?

How do I, as an RSP, clearly and in a way that the TIO/ACCC/ACCAN/other special interest groups won't get all weird at me inform the user about what product they're getting?  Then we can all get busy with producing products and not worry about it.  Especially if there's clear direction about what's reasonable toward consumers (ie.  look what uniform credit laws have done to remove a lot of consumer credit problems in terms of wierd contracts).   Everyone (ie. all RSPs) having the same wording etc and consistent policy will help educate consumers and make this problem less of an issue.

If the issues around batteries and alarms and how that relates to informing consumers about it can be cleared up then, even if not everyone agrees, then at least everyone is informed and can make whatever arrangements are necessary to ensure that the people who really do need a VERY reliable phone service have it, and those who don't or are sophisticated can make their own arrangements.

MMC


On 13/10/2011, at 9:13 AM, Bevan Slattery wrote:

> 
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net [mailto:ausnog-
>> bounces at lists.ausnog.net] On Behalf Of Narelle
>> Sent: Wednesday, 12 October 2011 4:16 PM
>> To: Tom Wright
>> Cc: ausnog at ausnog.net
>> Subject: Re: [AusNOG] NBN Battery backups
>> 
>> On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 6:49 PM, Tom Wright <tom.c.wright at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Err more interesting is how on earth is passing the responsibility
>>> onto the RSPs supposed to work?
>> 
>> Presumably the logic behind this is that RSPs are the ones who will have the
>> relationship with the customer, hence it is they who would liaise with said customer
>> in the replacement of said battery.
> 
> I sure hope not :)
> 
> 1. NBN Co. are the only ones with true visibility to the ONT infrastructure via network management.  RSP's don't have access (nor should have access to this)
> 2. Which RSP would be responsible?  I had two (2) "RSP's" servicing my house Telstra for voice and iiNet for DSL.  Which one has the responsibility?  In a house serviced by Foxtel (PayTV), iiNet (Internet) and Optus (voice) over an NBN service which of those three RSP's are responsible (particularly considering point 1)
> 3. RSP's would (most likely) have no idea or certainty when the battery was installed
> 4. RSP's will not enjoy the low-impact/land access powers provided to NBN Co. and cannot enter the property without consent
> 
> RSP's are retail service providers and their responsibility is everything beyond the NTU. NBN Co's responsibility is up to and including the NTU.  If they decide to put batteries in or not that's their commercial decision.  But if they do it must be their (or the customers) responsibility not the RSP..
> 
> I don't read much about NBN matters these days (life's sooooo much less frustrating outside telco :)), nor Whirlpool for that matter and am not sure if this is what they're thinking or not.  All I'm doing is highlighting why the whole concept of trying to shift the responsibility of the maintaining network infrastructure to Retail Service Providers is inefficient, impractical, confusing and ultimately may put more lives at risk than it saves.  I mean if you know you don't have battery backup then you can plan for that.  If you think you have battery backup and don't, well that's where problems happen and the finger pointing starts.
> 
> I don't care which way they go with this in terms of with or without battery for the punter, but for remote or high risk persons (health) then a battery should be standard (and probably is).  For $20-$50 extra get the battery and NTU that allows monitoring and provide the certainty any reasonable person would be expecting from a "battery backed up"/critical first line service.
> 
> Like I said NBN Co. may already be doing this.  I'm just hoping this doesn't somehow fall into the realm of the RSP.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> [b]
> 
> 
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