[AusNOG] (no subject)

[Mark Newton]

On 3 Sep 2015, at 00:47, Skeeve Stevens <skeeve+ausnog at theispguy.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Mark - Is a Carriers License necessary?

Yes.

>   If the customer did it themselves... or basically paid for it, it shouldn't be needed as it is a private link.

I think you'd be hard-pressed to characterize a cable which terminates on a patch panel in a shared Datacentre as "private," even if you happened to own the Z-end (which I'm guessing, in this case, the customer doesn't)


> Even if it is... you could get someone to do an NCD for it... not common, but possible.

The reason it isn't common is because there's so little point: NCDs aren't magic pixie dust that materializes out of thin air when you wish hard enough, they create obligations on the carrier license holder, so they always come with compensatory strings attached.

If I had a carrier license and you wanted a NCD from me, I'd say, "Sure. I will take full control over the cable in exchange for solving your legal problem. Having done that, I'll be happy to lease you a dark pair." Woot! I get completely free infrastructure!

So the end result is that you'd pay to lay the cable; And then pay a monthly rate to use it which is equivalent to what you'd have paid if you'd leased a pair from a proper carrier in the first place.

Have a talk to any oil and gas resources company about how much they pay to use the networks they built to wells in remote parts of Australia, operated under a NCD from Telstra. Then you'll understand why NCDs almost never happen.

If you're getting into the infrastructure game, you need to get into the infrastructure game. NCDs aren't going to help you get there.

> But... personally, if it was that close, I would do a gig wireless link ask the DC for roof access... would be the most flexible way

If you guys were a proper industry, you'd have sent your industry association to spend the last five years lobbying to have the carrier license rules changed so you could lay fibre just like any other ISPs in the developed world.

If you were in the United States and you wanted to lay fibre, you'd bloody well lay fibre.

You can't in Australia because the carrier license rules are a unique vestige of the initial de/re-regulation of the carrier industry in Australia, where the Government needed a way to prevent anyone from competing with Optus and Voda in order to fetch a better price in the auction when they were bidding for access to the Australian market.

So the concept of a carrier license was created to exclude anyone from the industry if they didn't have one; and we've had it ever since. It's easier to qualify for now, but still onerous enough that James probably isn't going to get one.

I think it outlived its usefulness years ago, and now it's a competitive brake on the industry that increases prices for every Australian.

It should either be completely abolished, or all carrier license except the one held by NBNCo should be revoked, with NBNCo offering favorable terms for NCDs.

You should get an update from your industry council on how that project is going.

   - mark


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