[AusNOG] NBNco: "Let's start competing with our customers!"

[ausftth at mail.com]

On Wednesday, September 30, 2015 at 10:15 AM Greg Anderson wrote:
> So you are basically saying that you are happy to pay the exact same amount
> of money or more than likely even more money, so long as it doesn't show up
> on your bill under two separate charges?  I find that perplexing.

If you had been paying attention, you'd know that I espouse abolishing the CVC charge or at the very least drastically lowering it. 

There is not rational basis for the CVC charge. NBNco backhaul from the last mile to the POI is a fixed monthly cost. There is no consumable and no inherent scarcity. It costs the same to run the network at 10% or 90% utilization. 

As such the CVC charge should be a fixed monthly fee and included in the AVC charge. If need be the AVC charge can be adjusted, but only to the extent that it covers the fixed CVC charge. So yes, I'll take a higher AVC if we can do away with the CVC.

The CVC charge is antithetical to the NBN goals of universal, fast and affordable broadband. The CVC is a hidden tax on internet services that acts to curb usage and degrade networks. The CVC makes it impossible to achieve scale efficiencies and destroys consumer surplus. 

The NBNco should be carpet bombing Australia with cheap bandwidth. CDNs and content providers should be able to drop 10G ports like candy at POIs. But instead we have this... mess. 


> I for one am glad that they are separate charges.  As a differentiation
> factor, I want to be able to pay more or less for my internet connection to
> obtain a connection with more or less contention depending on how much I am
> willing to spend per month.  If this differentiation doesn't exists,
> pricing will be almost the same regardless of who you acquire a service
> through, and you wont be able to save money because you just browse the web
> now and then vs pay more money because you are running a business and must
> have access to the Internet that is consistent at all times because you
> will bleed money otherwise.

That's just wishful thinking. 

Firstly, end users are notoriously bad at gaging their internet usage. 

Secondly, consumers and SMEs only get to pick from what's on offer. All NBN connectivity is heavily contended at current retail price points, so it's mainly the luck of the draw that determines how well it works and when. End users have little to no recourse when faced with heavy congestion. All they can do is switch providers (if and when so able) and hope for the best. 

Jared