[AusNOG] wifi phone calls

[Mark ZZZ Smith]

The funny thing is that it is also a theoretically dumb idea - Telstra Wifi would be removing 'premium priced' traffic from Telstra's 3G/4G networks. They're obviously doing it because of congestion/load problems, however they're fundamentally building a newer, 'lower quality' network that is or should cannibalise the 'premium price ' revenue they receive from their 3G/4G network. In theory they should be rolling out more 3G/4G micro base stations to increase capacity instead, allowing them to continue to charge 3G/4G premium prices. The case for Wifi instead of 3G/4G base stations must be exceptionally compelling.
I wouldn't be all that surprised if Telstra are trying to charge for public Wifi bandwidth at close to the premiums that their 3G/4G traffic generates, despite the costs and quality being (theoretically) much lower.
I've also wondered about other carriers gaining wholesale access to either the Wifi network or the public phone booths to install their own APs. Telstra have an advantage here that no other carrier has here, because no other carrier has so many locations to easily deploy Wifi APs that are located so close to where the public are. I think there is also a likelihood that Telstra might not be paying for or paying much for those telephone booth locations either, as a quick search has found that public payphones are required to be provided by Telstra under the universal service obligation:


Payphones | ACMA

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| Payphones | ACMAPayphone Fact sheet |
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| View on www.acma.gov.au | Preview by Yahoo |
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      From: David Hughes <david at hughes.com.au>
 To: Ross Annetts <ross.annetts at digitalpacific.com.au> 
Cc: "ausnog at lists.ausnog.net (AusNOG at lists.ausnog.net)" <ausnog at lists.ausnog.net> 
 Sent: Tuesday, 17 February 2015, 11:00
 Subject: Re: [AusNOG] wifi phone calls
   

They are rolling out a thousand hotspots as attachment to public phone booths.  I have a couple in my immediate neighbourhood.  If you are a Telstra customer you can use their public wifi.
Smart idea as it'll take a bunch of load off the mobile data network.  Getting backhaul from the phone booth shouldn't be a problem for them :)   The ones I've seen have been in popular restaurant strips etc so there should be a reasonable density of people to service.

Thanks
David...



On 17/02/2015, at 9:52 AM, Ross Annetts <ross.annetts at digitalpacific.com.au> wrote:

 
 That has already happened with LTE. Something you may be interested in though is I did recently notice a wifi icon on a telstra public telephone:
 
 https://www.telstra.com.au/broadband/wifi
 
 So maybe they could start using them for voice at some point.
 
 
 On 17/02/2015 10:45 am, Alex Samad - Yieldbroker wrote:
  
I guess the real driving question I was asking was not weather 4g/3g is better than wifi, but more does the voice network disappear into a data network carrying voice. A 
 
 -- 
Regards,
Ross Annetts _______________________________________________
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