[plug] ISPs in WA

[Leon Brooks]

On Tuesday 07 February 2006 20:38, Chris Caston wrote:
> I have a few questions about ISPs putting in their own DSLAMS:

> How much does Telstra charge for the use of space in the exchange?

As much as they possibly can. They are also notorious for sitting on 
applications for as long as possible.

> Considering it's -not Telstras fault- if the DSLAM overheats or
> generally fails aren't Telstra just becoming a real-estate company?

Telstra (the corporation) are all about control. If they were still a 
public/government entity, this would make sense: they would be the 
standard-bearers. Now that they are kinda-sorta private, it's simply an 
unfair advantage which, being a money-hungry corporation kinda-sorta, 
they "must" work the advantage for maximum profit.

I understand that they're still making a trainload of money from ISDN 
lines, which would be one reason for them dragging their feet 
oh-so-heavily over the issue of ADSL2 (since it would kill that 
lucrative market). Now that iiNet and fellow travellers are using the 
bandwidth advantage to take a bite out of that market anyway, Telstra 
might get the lead out of their britches.

Reading between the lines, they've hoist themselves on their own petard 
a bit in that setting ADSL2 up in the foot-draggin'-ist possible way 
has somewhat hamstrung them now that other companies _have_ been using 
the extra speed to take a bite out of the market, so they can't just 
suddenly pick up the pace and head those efforts off.

> Does the ISP *really* save any money by having their own DSLAM
> compared to reselling Telstra wholesale?

Yes. Particularly in the back-haul. They also get more control over 
their network, and in the case of AmNet, iiNet and others are able to 
offer higher data rates ahead of the game.

> Whats the prize for getting the biggest ADSL2 network before
> Telstra-the-tortoise finally upgrades ?

The network _is_ the prize. A speed advantage is a marketing advantage, 
which means more customers, which means more profit.

At a certain level, the company becomes large enough to do things which 
a smaller company wouldn't have the financial muscle for, like lobbying 
politicians and bureacrats or getting bulk discounts on DSLAMs and 
back-haul links. This is probably why AmCom elected to grow too fast 
when the opportunity arose. You may remember iiNet's feeding frenzy of 
about 5 years ago? And how their service nosedived? Almost certainly 
the same story.

Cheers; Leon

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