“The telephone network is obsolete”

[Tinman_auParticipant]

Ars Technica have an interesting article about AT&T who will be retiring their version of our CAN soon.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/01/the-telephone-network-is-obsolete-get-ready-for-the-all-ip-telco/

The issues they have, would apply to our copper network as well I expect, so this quote is interesting:

“”This telephone network we’ve grown up with is now an obsolete platform, or at least a rapidly obsolescing platform,” Hank Hultquist, VP of AT&T’s federal regulatory division, said today.

“It will not be sustainable for the indefinite future. Nobody’s making this network technology anymore. It’s become more and more difficult to find spare parts for it. And it’s becoming more and more difficult to find trained technicians and engineers to work on it.”"

So maintenance of the system is a big issue. This would apply in various degrees to the copper portion of a FTTN system, which is another thing Malcolm should attempt to cover with “his” plan before the election…

[Renai LeMayKeymaster]

Very interesting article — I had not thought that AT&T was this advanced in their thinking. I had viewed them as more wanting to hold on to the old CAN as long as possible to milk it, like Telstra.

[Michael WyresParticipant]

Telstra aren’t really maintaining what they’ve got either. They fix what breaks to cover their USO obligation, but investing in it? They’ve not done that in years. As much as AT&T would love to see their copper network go, you’ll won’t see anyone at Telstra crying when our copper network goes – (for 93% of the population anyway)…

[Tinman_auParticipant]

@Renai: I think they are using it (at least partially) as a way to get out of their USO duties, hence the fact they seem very keen to get it happening ASAP.

@Michael: Yeah, they have only really been doing the bare minimum they can get away with there, and even experimenting with replacing the copper with fibre themselves as a way to endrun around their ACCC competition sharing “issues” (see South Brisbane Exchange as an example).

It’s articles like these that make me think we have it pretty good here in Australia (either by luck or good management from our politicians…yeah, probably luck) that we don’t really have the net neutrality issues with the NBN that the yanks will have with all their “local” monopolies. We’ll be able to switch RSP easily if we don’t like what our RSP is doing, a lot of Americans don’t have that opportunity and they are stuck with who ever the local provider is.

[Abel AdamskiParticipant]

Actually also alluded to in the Wikipedia U-Verse article some time ago, noted that AT&T was selling off it’s copper networks piecemeal, will still exist as local networks but under new owners

[GongGavParticipant]

More and more lately I’m seeing AT&T in a different light. For the most part they have pretty much been on par with Telstra, being an incumbent trying to hold on to its stranglehold, but lately I’ve seen them moving more and more towards a hybrid between Telstra and NBN.

They recognise that their copper isnt going to be a key player for much longer, so are willing to step up and roll out fibre, at least in some capacity, to try and stay ahead of the competition. Even if its FttN its a step forwards.

Where Telstra has dug their heels in and refused to change, AT&T are at least willing to dip their toes in the water to see what happens. Which for the seppo’s can only be a good thing.

If Telstra has done the same thing a decade ago we wouldnt be arguing the pro’s and con’s of FttP v FttN today.

[Michael WyresParticipant]

@tinman – The need to rebuild South Brisbane was forced onto Telstra, who used it as an experimental site to see how fibre would play out “the Telstra way”. Pricing has been higher than under the NBN model, demonstrating what would almost certainly happen if the NBN were left to the market to do.

[Abel AdamskiParticipant]

Michael
Notonly that, but the service is more akin to that on HFC, definitely NOT business capable, plus the the limitations on offerings from competitor rsp’s.
All in all a very unsatisfactory outcome long term for the end user

[GoreshParticipant]

“I think they are using it (at least partially) as a way to get out of their USO duties”

A large chunk of the eleventy billion is in fact in the form of a release from most of the USO, that is no secret. The payment never went near covering the actual costs.

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