[AusNOG] NBN Co CEO Quigley Speech 20100818

[Tim McCullagh]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Andrew Oskam
To: Jason Ashton
Cc: Stephen Carter ; Skeeve Stevens ; ausnog at ausnog.net

>  But my question is -
> What would you have us do?

Build a business case and address areas of need.

>What do you have to offer that doesn't have Australia using a dying copper 
>network

I see this comment regularly and I just wonder how many people are in a 
positon to make that statement.  I would suggest not many.  In fact it 
probably comes down to less than 1000 australia wide that would have enough 
of an understanding of the network and the issues to make it, and I doubt to 
many of them would be on this list.   The copper network is not dying and 
for many and probably the majority of internet users is will provide 
solutions that meet their needs for many years into the future.  The funny 
thing about the statement that the copper is dying is that some of the 
oldest cables still have the same transmission properties thay did when they 
were installed.  In many cases dying refers to technical obsolecense such as 
transmission loss and the like.  As someone that maintained copper for a 
long time, I can tell you that many of the issues with the copper network 
have more to do with maintenance practices than the cable itself.  Many of 
the technical limitations can be overcome by moving fibre to nodes further 
into the network and taking one step at a time, rather than trying to take a 
leap of faith to the first solution that has been proposed.

> and being controlled by the Telstra monopoly?

The solution to that is regulation.  In saying that, if we want to see 
investments in upgraded fixed line networks then the carriers need to be 
able to recover a return on their investments.  All the whinging about 
Telstra quite frankly is a bit over the top.  If Telstra was ripping 
customers off then why is it that there are not competing networks being 
rolled out and why does Optus offer ADSL services where it already owns a 
HFC network?  Where is the incentive for Telstra to upgrade its network when 
LSS payments are as low as $2.50 per month.   That is just something to 
think about.   At the end of the day any investment whether it is Telstra or 
NBNco or others needs to get a return to justify the capital outlay. 
Installing a DSLAM should hardly be classified as infrastructure.  In 
essence they are the replacement of dial ports.  The only real differnence 
is that they need to be installed in exchanges or close to exchanges so as 
to minimise line loss.

> I find the suggestion that we make do with what we have unacceptable.

I find the solution to spend $7500 per home passed unacceptable to (based on 
tassy).   We need to find an affordable solution NBN isn't it.  A business 
case would be a fine start

>  I also find it unacceptable to suggest people use wireless as if it were 
> a fixed-line service.

No one is suggesting that, but consumers are speaking with their wallets and 
are doing it now.   In fact I recon that is probably more of a problem.  The 
wireless networks will degrade.

> Wireless is great and all - but let's be serious here. It simply doesn't 
> cut it.

I am not sure that is correct.  It may not cut it for some of us, but for 
many it does provide a solution


>  We can't sit here with our hands behind our back as copper draws closer 
> to it's demise.

I doubt that the necessary upgrades will not happen.  Based on the same 
changes since the dial days.  There is still a lot of research going into 
copper.

> but apparently we can't allow the govt to lay the foundations for a better 
> network for the future. So what can we do?

There needs to be a business case and a pricing model relaesed so that 
consumers can decide whether they want to pay more for their internet for 
the additional benefits it will provide.  As long as night follows day any 
FTTH network will cost more than the current ADSL offerings.  The proof is 
in the currently released pricing for the tassie offerings. The proof can 
also be easly arived at by bringing up any loan repayment calculator and 
working out what the payments would be on $7500 per month over 20 to 40 
years.

> In my experience - the bag is full of those want faster speeds, there's 
> those that want a stable connection, and then you have those that want ANY 
> form of a connection.

In my experience speaking with end users their primary focus is on how much 
it will cost and how much they can fit into their budgets.   It is the same 
argument with pay tv etc.  In fact most would like paytv but because of 
their budget priorities a lot choose not to.  The same applies to broadband.

regards

Tim