Optus weighs in with plan for broadband

    by: Mitchell Bingemann
    From: The Australian
    September 12, 2013 12:00AM

OPTUS is considering plans to front the construction costs of laying fibre across the last mile of the Coalition's fibre-to-the-node plan, allowing consumers to get it direct to their homes on multi-year broadband contracts.

The plans, which have been under consideration for months, would allow Optus to amortise the costs of laying fibre to homes over multi-year contracts, similar to how mobile phone contracts are set for two years.

The theory is that by subsidising the cost of laying fibre to homes — which the former Labor government said could cost as much as $5000 per connection — Optus will be able to offer plans that lock in customers on long-term contracts.

Informa analyst Tony Brown described the play as a "ground-breaking idea", but warned that it would depend on a number of factors falling into place.

"First, Optus will actually need the Coalition to turn the NBN around and to start installing and activating nodes — that's probably about 18 months away at least," he said.

"Second, this sort of idea really works best if done on a neighbourhood basis; the economics just don't work if only the IT geek at No 37 orders it because he is going to be paying a fortune for the connection."

Steve Dalby, the chief regulatory officer of the nation's No 3 broadband provider iiNet, said the telco had not considered funding fibre connections for consumers, but he would not rule it out.

"Without more detail from the Coalition it's hard to determine if this would be viable. Maybe we will look at the option, but we haven't done so yet," he said.

Mr Dalby warned that there would be some hurdles in locking in consumers long enough to recoup the expensive cost of laying fibre along the last mile.

"People change residence regularly in Australia so that could be a big problem. If you move house, it could incur large break fees. It would probably make more sense for businesses to do this, though," he said.

Optus has been toying with the idea since the Coalition announced its NBN policy earlier this year.

Under Labor's NBN plan, a fibre network was being rolled out to 93 per cent of the nation's homes and businesses.

The Coalition, however, plans on scaling back the NBN fibre deployment to cabinets on street corners and retain copper connections to homes.

While cheaper and quicker to roll out than Labor's plan, the Coalition policy will deliver slower download speeds.

The Coalition says that by 2019 it wants at least 90 per cent of consumers in the fixed-line footprint on 50Mbps.

For businesses and consumers dissatisfied with lower speeds under the Coalition plan, it has promised a "fibre-on-demand" option where users pay for fibre from the node to the premises, which would usually be less than 800m.

Incoming communications minister Malcolm Turnbull has said that in Britain, a product offered by BT Openreach, known as "fibre on demand", costs a customer living 500m from a node pound stg. 1500 ($950).

# wrote on Sep 12^th, 2013 at 12:04pm:



you have shown nothing at all.  all you did was show a graph of 10 year old data that is more relevant to the use of dial-up than broadband.  And I never said the demand for bandwidth had halted  like all hysterics, you ASSUMED that from my demand for you for an explanation of what it would be used for.  On this same site we have a thread about people finding out they have relatively slow connections and NOT EVEN BEING AWARE of it.  and the need for 1Gbps connection ins a mere 7 yers is fanciful and without any justification whatsoever.  it is in fact ludicrous and if you had half a brain you would have known why Quigley said it.  FTTH can provide 1G potentially if required with FTTN cannot.  but at no point did he articulate any support for such a ludicrous position.  If it were true then an extrapolation of it would place bandwidth beyond fibre's technical feasibility in less than 30 years.

# wrote on Sep 12^th, 2013 at 1:49pm:



but we will ALL have it in 6 years whereas the labor plan would be 10 years further down the track - if at all.

longweekend58 wrote on Sep 12^th, 2013 at 3:55pm:

# wrote on Sep 12^th, 2013 at 4:17pm:


so where is your bandwith data for the post 2004 period?  cant find it?  bit embarrassing??  extrapolation doesn't lead to 1Gbps??

or all of the above?

# wrote on Sep 12^th, 2013 at 4:22pm:



once again, I never said the rise in demand had halted.  I did however say that the rise in demand was not anuthing like you hysterics are claiming.

and the 1Gbps claim is sheer political talk.  work it out for yourself.  if every 7 years required a 100 times increase then in under 30 years you are look at a 10^8 increase over the current 12Mbps bandwidth or 1.2x 10^15bps which is 1million TERABITs per sec. 

I think that's a little excessive don't you think and since it exceeds fibres capacity then perhaps we should be looking at a new technology?

longweekend58 wrote on Sep 12^th, 2013 at 4:02pm:

I've already given my reasons. Abbot in particular has shown a propensity for corrupting those who do such tasks for him. My assessment of Turnbull is that he'll do what Abbott tells him. Any such analysis by this government would be calculated to deceive. What's your onanistic attachment to what is, after all, no more than a political tactic in this context?

Do we need more studies? Wasn't the need realised shortly after the Internet became widely available? Remember Opel? Remember Networking the Nation?

Until Kevin Rudd came up with fibre to the home, thus earning the ire of Rupert Murdoch, broadband had support from both sides of politics. It was only when the plan became something that would actually work, that opposition mounted.

I find it particularly amusing that what the Coalition labelled "fraudband" when it was Labor policy, they now pretend is state of the art. It's been years since anyone credible has said that FTTN will do the job that Australia needs done.