[AusNOG] Fibre across the road from NextDC B1

[Mark Newton]

On Sep 2, 2015, at 9:59 PM, James Cunningham <jjazza26 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Normally we would do this via Pipe/AAPT/Vocus etc, but given it’s so close, what would be involved in getting our own contractors to run the fibre and renting duct space for a 6 core fibre cable?

You’ll need:

 - A carrier license.
 - An agreement with someone to lease you some duct space.
 - Subduct for your cable.
 - Agreement from Pipe to run cable into their facility.
 - Agreement from the building owners at each end to enter the building, use the comms risers, etc.
 - Contractors with enough insurance coverage to make sure you’re not holding the can when the building burns down because they haven’t reinstated firestop in the riser properly, who can give you OTDR reports so you can see which cores have the dodgy splices before you try to put traffic on them.
 - Knowledge of the use and interpretation of OTDR reports.
 - Registration with “Dial Before You Dig."
 - A cross-connect from Pipe between your rack and the demarc location they specify for termination of your cable.

Probably other stuff I’ve forgotten.

> Or is this really a “too hard basket” and we should just go to Pipe or Vocus and have them do it?
> 

It depends on what you want your business to be.

If you want to play in the retailer space, buy wholesale services, package them, add margin, sell them to your customers. You don’t need any significant infrastructure, and can keep doing it indefinitely until your customer switches to Telstra (perhaps with a brief stop-over on TPG).

If you want to play in the infrastructure provider space, then you need to operate infrastructure. The first few times will be unprofitably expensive learning experiences, and your competitors all have the benefit of scale, but you’ll get better at it. If you can build yourself a first-mover advantage on some profitable cable routes, you might be able to eke out a survivable (or even livable) niche.

Or maybe it’s too late for anyone else to do that in Australia. Dunno.

  - mark


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