....nothing has changed in the last 30 years since Telstra assured
Australian users that it was impossible to provide a faster service over PSTN
copper than 2400 baud.
This is news? That a company is "developing" a service that will
deliver 40 mbps for business users? You have to wonder at the competence of
Australian communications 'journalists' when you read things like this. Exetel
has been providing a 40 mbps x 40 mbps to business users for almost a year now
using the Hatteras based service from AAPT. Both Telstra and Optus have
announced they will be delivering the same Ethernet over grouped PSTN lines so
the fact that iinet is 'developing' such a service is not only not news it just
serves to show how behind the times iinet are in deploying 'bought off the
shelf' technology.
Hatteras have competitors that offer similar boxes that differ in their
implementation and any company that 'owns' a DSLAM can install these boxes in a
Telstra exchange and provide services from 1 mbps x 1 mbps to, currently
40 mbps x 40 mbps with services up to 100 mbps x 100 mbps (and higher) on the
'horizon'. I only re-looked at the 'article' because I was attempting to work
out what companies that had purchased their own DSLAMs would do when/if fibre
became an alternative in those areas? It's years away (and if Labor manage to
lose the next election its not going to happen) so it is not a real concern
right now but I was trying to determine what Exetel has to do to ensure (within
the huge limitations imposed on us) what we could possibly do to deal with that
situation should it occur.
Our 'standard' business user service at this moment is a 10 x 10 Hatteras
based solution but we are selling more and more 20 x 20, 40 x 40 and 100 x 100
mbps solutions with several proposals for services above 100 mbps having been
submitted. These are for business users and at today's costs they aren't
sensible considerations for residential users even if they were available from
residential area exchanges. As our competitors 'develop' their own 'new' speed
capabilities we undoubtedly won't continue to enjoy the dream run we have had
to date in providing Ethernet over PSTN to medium and medium/large businesses.
However we will continue to hold a significant price advantage and we will
continue to hold a 'go to market' strategy advantage having built a corporate
sales force that works infinitely harder than the people they compete with and
have far better marketing and support plans....at least that's my opinion.
Having said all that, and the reason the fibre futures caused me to re-look
at what iinet were actually doing, was that there are a multiplicity of
hardware manufacturers that are producing 'boxes' at significantly lower prices
than the ones deployed today and it seems to me that it would be just as simple
to provide 40 x 40 or 100 x 100 services to residential customers who are
connected to current ADSL2 exchanges - ADSL4? Assuming that Telstra don't do a
deal with NBNCo to close down the PSTN as part of the monopoly deal. But that's
all too many ifs and buts so we will simply follow the Hatteras development
path beyond the current 40 x 40 and distance limitations while the price of
fibre is forced downwards to something approaching a reasonable cost.
The price of fibre should have fallen long ago but, as always with companies
that pursue their dream of monopoly pricing it has always based on the carriers
setting pricing as sky high as possible and not rocking the boat by competing
with each other to 'win away' each others largest corporate customers.
Personally, I think it will still only fall slowly but the increasing
deployment of Ethernet over PSTN may accelerate that - if not by very much. I
sent an email to a company who may be prepared to do something about this
situation an hour or so ago and see if we can do a deal that benefits them as
much as it benefits us.
Is it a fibre future - or will copper survive yet another notice of its
demise?