[AusNOG] NBNCo releases its response to industry consultation

[Paul Brooks]

On 29/03/2010 11:12 AM, Bevan Slattery wrote:
> Paul,
>
> A question (seeing you seem to be plugged in) I'd like to ask is with
> all the legislation and NBN Co. requiring to connect homes whether or
> not they actually want the service.  It seems like they need another
> Ministerial Determination under schedule 3, or further legislation
> somewhere else.  Does the Government intend to make these powers
> available to all telco's in the non-discriminatory manner of the Telco
> Act's excellent framework, or is it looking to provide further
> legislative competitive advantages to NBN Co. as compared to other fibre
> based carriers such as PIPE Networks?
>    
Bevan - where have you seen that NBNCo will have this ability?

All the material I've seen doesn't support the notion that NBNCo can or 
will connect homes whether or not they actually want the service.
Every process flow I've seen includes the premises owner being required 
to authorise work on the property, and a drop-cable will only be 
installed to a home if they've ordered a new service or have signed with 
an existing SP that they want to migrate a service from the old network 
to the new network - 'customer authorisation' will continue to be 
required for add/move/change and installs, including drop-cable build 
and ONT install, just like now

There will be a 'pre-qual' process, so a SP can find out how connectable 
an address is - is an ONT installed, does a drop-cable exist, does a 
drop-cable exist but no ONT is installed, is there a port free, etc

There is a desire to try to do everything in a single truck-roll if 
possible, but that would require the end-user to have signed up for a 
service in anticipation of the roll-out, so customer authorisation would 
exist.


> I'd like to backbone heaps of buildings, but without customer services
> in there (or at least on each floor), I can't use my carrier powers to
> efficiently do so.  Why doesn't the government make this amendment to
> Schedule 3 *now* and let us get on with delivering NBN type services,
> unless of course it intends to give NBN Co. further competitive
> advantage over other competing carriers.
>    
I haven't seen anything to suggest NBNCo will have greater or lesser 
powers than any other licensed carrier - have you? I know the prospect 
of dealing/negotiating with body-corporates in MDU situations is still 
an issue, as always.

> Also under the existing draft legislation, there is a provision for the
> Minister to determine shared access to developer ducts.  Is the
> Minister/Government mean sharing with NBN Co or sharing with all
> competing carriers?  Whilst I fear Telstra's vertically integrated
> ability to be anti-competitive to PIPE, I fear NBN Co's owners ability
> to use the power of legislation to achieve the same result.
>    
I don't speak for the Minister (!), personally I expect it would be 
carrier-neutral. It could be aimed at the 'fibre ready' situation where 
the ducts have had copper pulled through them as an interim - and then 
later a carrier such as PIPE is engaged to install fibre.
Which paragraph are you concerned about? - the explanatory material  for 
bits such as 372CA put the administration of third-party access in the 
hands of the ACCC, who are unlikely to favour one carrier over another 
(one would hope).

Feel free to ask so you can get an official line - 
greenfields at dbcde.gov.au is the email address to send the query to - or 
since PIPE is a CA member I can ask on your behalf.

-- 
Paul Brooks               |         Mob +61 414 366 605
Layer 10 Advisory         |         Ph  +61 2 9402 7355
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