[AusNOG] Pricing for Going Direct To NBN Co (vs, Aggregator)

[Mark Newton]

On 8 Dec 2015, at 12:44 PM, Chad Kelly <chad at cpkws.com.au> wrote:

> While all this sounds fantastic in theory has anyone actually worked out some numbers, like what the start up costs for such an organisation would be and what the ongoing costs would be?
> Some kind of a business plan would be handy as well, as you would need to figure out how you were going to fund the thing.
> Without those things this project won't happen.

“Bandwidth co-ops” have been an obsession of this community since the aussie-isp days. 

Maybe earlier than that.

They’ve never worked because the parts of the industry that want one are too tiny to
develop the buying power necessary to make the business model work.

There are two segments of the Australian telco industry: The segment comprised of 
companies who understand that operating their own infrastructure for profit can tilt
the playing field in their favor, and the segment comprised of people who want the 
playing field to be level.

A co-op needs at least one player in the first group to make its buying power significant.
The second group is perhaps 5% of the market, which probably isn’t enough to garner an
invitation to NBN’s Christmas drinks function, much less any kind of bulk discount.

If you want to make connectivity to the NBN cheaper, build a network. In 2003.

  - mark