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User #6186 14240 posts
ISP Representative
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My exchange isn't on Internode/Agile's rollout list, when is Internode/Agile going to install a DSLAM in my exchange? Simon Hackett writes... Internode is constantly evaluating potential new exchange builds, but as a matter of policy doesn't release info on exchanges under consideration but not yet committed, to avoid anyone mistaking 'maybe' for 'definitely'.
(and long experience shows that too many people don't understand the difference)
Internode does regularly add exchanges to its build list - in the last few years the size of the rollout has approximately doubled, year-on-year.
So the answer to the question "Is the XXX exchange ever going to be created?" is "We can't answer that question here until or unless the answer becomes Yes, and in not being able to answer the question, that isn't No".
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posted 2006-Nov-22, 4pm AEST
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User #6186 14240 posts
ISP Representative
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Can you give me an ETA on when my exchange will be built/completed/active
The short answer is, no. However, you can find some estimated times that the different stages typically take. These are not hard and fast numbers, they are purely estimates and can vary for all exchanges: Click Here
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posted 2006-Nov-22, 4pm AEST
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User #6186 14240 posts
ISP Representative
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Another ISP has just finished in my exchange, why hasn't Internode started building there yet? Simon Hackett writes... There could easily be someone else in queue ahead of Internode.
Telstra Exchange access happens for reasons that are wider in nature than Internode and other ISPs installing DSLAMs.
There are more than two ISP's in Australia, and its the same serialised access queue for everyone - whether its a DSLAM installation, a subsequent DSLAM cabling expansion, or some completely differently sourced reason to need to work on the same parts of the exchange for a purpose unrelated to ADSL by a company unrelated to an ISP.
The over-simplistic view of how this all works tends to contribute to an overly cynical view of the urgency with which serious broadband players view this stuff.
There is zero incentive to delay anything on our part. We don't get a return on investment until we can complete and activate that investment. Its just that in the real world, Telstra have the opposite incentive - hence no drivers to improve the serialised access process.
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posted 2006-Nov-27, 1pm AEST
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User #6186 14240 posts
ISP Representative
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There's a lot of 'demand' for ADSL2+ in my area
The demographics of the population are those that would buy ADSL2+,
Why isn't Internode DSLAMing my area right now? Simon Hackett writes... There are multiple 'must pass muster' aspects of deployment, including but not limited to:
- Backhaul (data circuit from your exchange back to your capital city) must exist at a tenable price (tenable meaning total possible nett profit before backhaul costs must not exceed the monthly fee for sufficient backhaul; Where Telstra is the only backhaul provider, their monopoly rent 1980's pricing fails this test, and usually fails it by two orders of magnitude)
- Exchange access must be possible - not limited by Telstra blockers such as selling off all of the remaining exchange building space to the uni next door and then saying the building is full (this is a non theoretical example)
- Deployment can't proceed in all sites at once due to the extremely high cashflow demand inherent in deployment of these things - the money comes back eventually, but it still has to be expended up front, and we can't do 'em all at once, some staging is needed for this reason. That said, historically, Internode has roughly doubled the size of its deployment each year since it started doing this, and we are optimistic about that trend continuing.
- There needs to be enough customer demand but this is really nowhere near the main problem - the previous two items are - for most exchanges where there are even a moderate number of people interested in a service.
The last item is the one people imagine is 'the problem'. It usually isn't.
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More on this, in relation to backhaul to remote locations: Simon Hackett writes... The ability to install ADSL2+ services is predicated on the existence of economically viable backhaul. (which means backhaul provided by a company other than Telstra, as their pricing is not economically viable and there is no way to get them to lower it other than with the presence of someone elses backhaul).
So - if the real wealth is there, the backhaul costs about $100,000 per km to create - and I'll let you do the maths on the build cost to run a fibre from your closest capital city to your local exchange. If you've got that cash lying around, sure, we'll build it for you.
(Seriously, we will build it if you've got the cash, we do build a fair bit of fibre infrastructure in our own right and we lease dark fibre from others where available too... but equally seriously, we can't try to do that at 2000 exchanges nationally on our own because the numbers don't add up).
Otherwise, its a matter of waiting for someone who does, and/or waiting for Telstra to cave in and wholesale ADSL2+ to the market (which they'll ultimately do - thats the likely ultimate circuit breaker in national terms - the point at which there is so much non-Telstra ADSL2+ out there that Telstra are dragged kicking and grumbling into turning it on everywhere).
There are some other ways to skin this cat too, which I've discussed elsewhere on WP (other wholesale paths that we are intending to launch with as soon as we can in addition to our own direct build efforts);
And we're also working hard on accelerating the rate of our own direct builds, starting mostly with the ones already in our public 'Planned' list that aren't blocked by Telstra...
... but frankly exchanges with a lack of non-Telstra backhaul, are not very near the top of our own direct list. The lack of backhaul is a critical factor here - its absence means the business case isn't hard - its impossible.
Obviously we can offer 'HIGH' plans at up to 8Mb/s in the meantime, however these do cost more, and as a result customers often don't want to fork out the extra cash for these plans.
Thats a common thing, but it does serve to underscore that the wealth of a region often hasn't got a lot to do with the choices of its residents in terms of broadband plan selection. It's usually about the cost of the plan as much as it (or even more than it) being about ADSL2+ in the end.
The real world speed difference between 'HIGH' and 'Extreme' is often not a hugely significant factor - anything running at 'best available on the line' (even limited to ADSL1) is hugely better in the main that something nobbled to 1.5Mb/s (*), other than the price gap.
And we all know that the gap in price between Internode Extreme ADSL2+ and Internode 'HIGH' plans is entirely down to the difference between what Telstra choose to charge for 'HIGH' ports (which is incredibly high and our retail pricing simply reflects that); and (by comparison) the relatively much more sane access cost of 'doing it ourselves' and our retail Extreme price points that result... but again, that is only possible (at all) where backhaul exists.
Perhaps a good thing to consider, in the absence of it being likely that you'd spot us the cash for that fibre link, would be to encourage your local elected member to find a way to realise that laying some optical fibre paths and leasing them at nominal rates to ISPs would be a great investment for the state - as much as (or maybe more) than (just) laying more and more of that amazing road system going in all over the QLD populated areas.
[And yes, OPEL, assuming the incoming government don't decide to block it, might help a lot in a wide variety of non-metro areas, providing the backhaul pricing from OPEL is tenable. We have no idea if it will be, obviously we hope it will and we will encourage OPEL to try to make it tenable. OPEL coming to the party is one real positive potential in the equation in the next couple of years]
Simon
(*) And I appreciate that Telstra 'up to 8Mb/s' services are sometimes far less than stellar due to apparent Telstra inter-exchange backhaul problems that Internode can't directly fix, and due to lack of flexibility in ADSL line profile selection, both compared to our ADSL2+ services. We expect that Telstra will, presumably, fix that in the end - due to complaints from their own retail customers, as they did when they had a round of the same problems in they heyday of 1.5Mb/s being the top speed everywhere. But as for what they charge for 'up to 8Mb/s' services - we have no idea if/when they'll stop charging danger money for that and put a price tag on it that is somewhere in the ballpark of a 1.5Mb/s service - which is the most they should rationally be charging for that in a world getting more and more populated with competitive ADSL2+ services. At some point Telstra needs to acting like a competitor, in pricing terms for ADSL2+ (and turning it on generally).
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posted 2006-Dec-17, 8pm AEST
edited 2007-Oct-2, 1pm AEST
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User #6258 24325 posts
ISP Representative
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Why is Naked ADSL2+ available at my exchange, but not Extreme ADSL2+?
As per the 'Coverage' row of this service roadmap table:
http://www.internode.on.net/products/broadband/roadmap/
The Naked ADSL2+ service is delivered using Optus wholesale infrastructure, that has a generally wider (and different) geographic coverage than the native Internode/Agile ADSL2+ DSLAM rollout.
Indeed, each underlying infrastructure provider for each service listed in that table (Telstra, Optus and Agile/Internode) has a different physical coverage map in terms of DSLAM installations. Some of that coverage overlaps, some does not.
You can check the specific service coverage for given phone number using the Internode coverage checker:
https://secure.internode.on.net/webtools/internode-dsl-finder
You can also view the current exchange rollout status for each of the three carriers noted above, via these links:
https://secure.internode.on.net/webtools/dsl-coverage-table?carrier=Agile (Agile/Internode)
https://secure.internode.on.net/webtools/dsl-coverage-table?carrier=Optus (Optus)
https://secure.internode.on.net/webtools/dsl-coverage-table?carrier=Telstra (Telstra)
So, again: Coverage on each service type is specific to the underlying wholesale port provider concerned for that service type.
Other notes:
The Internode Naked Extreme service (once released) will offer 'Naked' Service over Internode/Agile ports.
It is expected that Naked Extreme will initially be available in about 80 Internode/Agile DSLAM sites, and will then be expanded to being available on all Internode/Agile DSLAM sites as soon as possible after that.
The Internode Ultra service (once released) will offer 'clothed' (analog voice plus ADSL2+ broadband) combined service, billed by Internode, via Optus ports.
There will be no 'clothed' (analog voice included) service available over Internode/Agile ADSL2+ ports, as there is no analog voice hardware in the Internode/Agile rollout. Thats what NodePhone is for! :)
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posted 2008-Aug-1, 1pm AEST
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