[AusNOG] Correlation between voting zones and NBN Rollout zones.

[Mark Delany]

On 09Oct12, adamn at eyemedia.com.au allegedly wrote:

> Could someone clear something up for me?
> Why would you roll the NBN out the places that in fact ALREADY have 
> connectivity options (multiple options) of some sort?  xDSL etc

Because this decade-long civil engineering project is, inter alia,
trying to be logistically efficient.

If installation and cable-laying crews have to jump around between
areas that do and don't have good connectivity, it won't be as
logistically efficient as starting at a POI and simply fanning out.

And, from a topology perspective, FANs are typically installed as a
large ring so deploying random segments of a ring makes absolutely no
sense from an efficiency perspective.

Furthermore, since most POIs are in relatively densely populated
areas, it follows that the first part of the fanout is likely to hit
places that already have connectivity options. So it's largely a
function of centrally locating POIs from which all else follows.


So the choice is, jump all over the map, hitting random black spots
and complete the rollout later and at higher cost, or deploy as
efficiently as possible and complete the rollout earlier at less cost.

In 2012, everyone wants the former, in 2020, everyone will have
preferred the latter.


Note that NBNCo is not strictly logistically driven, they do have to
jump all over the map for large greenfield sites. And, this is
apparently causing them no end of logistical nightmares as they have
to prioritize rollout to the middle of nowhere (like new mining towns)
which forces them to string up temporary FANs and temporary backhaul,
etc.

Doing so for blackspots would just exacerbate this problem. Lots of
temporary infrastructure to reach a blackspot and then the real
infrastructure comes later.


Mark.