[AusNOG] FTTN Musings

[Curtis Bayne]

Hey Everyone,

Not sure if this has come up before, and it banks on a few outcomes, but is some food for thought anyway.

If the copper is cut at the node and subsequently re-terminated, how are larger/specialist telecommunications companies going to deliver non-IP services to business customers? Given the fact that the FTTN network is going to have shared back haul from node to exchange, coupled with the fact there's going to be a whole bunch of bit torrent using, you tube watching consumers pushing who knows what over that aforementioned bac haul, I would not feel right offering any form of business-grade service over the national FTTN network.

Which brings me to my next point - legacy circuits.

What about those businesses still using X.25, G.703/E1 circuits, VoDSL, etc - ULL came to the rescue just as PAPL was being decommissioned, but if Sen. Conroy and his band of merry men decide that it's a really fantastic idea to dice and slice the copper at the node, there's going to be a lot of business users with dead legacy WAN circuits.

So where do we go from here? There are some electrical circuits you just can't emulate over IP (read: there are some electrical circuits you just wouldn't want to emulate over IP!) and I'll be damned if I ever have to bring up a Telstra megalink service. (Don't get my wrong, I like the idea of delivering 2Mb over fiber, I just don't like having to mortgage my house/car/dog for it.)

I haven't been following progress on the FTTN debate much, so my information/presumptions may be wrong/misguided, but even if not, just some food for thought.

Tell my I'm wrong, tell me I'm crazy, tell me I'm right or tell me a lie - just hoping to open up some discussion about business grade services in this post-copper world!

Curtis


Managing Director
SONET Telecomunications