Friday 27 April 2012

NBN: Turnbull and 'inside the house' costs. Nope!

Malcolm Turnbull trotted this out and it really needs to be highlighted and responded to in and of itself:
it's is so fundamentally flawed as to be inconceivable for an informed person, let alone the expert commentator he'd like to portray himself as
From Malcolm Turnbull's "Comms Day" 2012 speech:
Another takeaway is that ‘inside the house’ costs for FTTP can mount and become a serious economic factor. These costs tend to fall over time, and vary from place to place, but in the UK ‘inside the house’ expenses have been estimated to be 20 per cent of total FTTP costs. 
The Telstra fibre rollout in South Brisbane likewise indicates this expense is likely to be material – Telstra this week confirmed industry reports that it is using up to a day of technician labour at each residential premise, adding up to $1000 to the cost of the cutover. 
It is not clear NBN Co has budgeted for this expense anywhere. If it has, it would be instructive for someone from NBN Co to explain where and how.
No Telco has ever been responsible for 'inside the home costs'.


Always, responsibility ends with the distribution frame or "first point". NBN Co will install a ONT [optical network terminator] on the outside of the house or somewhere like that, and (typically) provide these connectors to the customer:
  • 4-ethernet,
  • 1 phone and
  • 1 TV connector.
The ONT needs 240V provided to it and houses a battery that NBN Co pays for initially, then the customer pays for replacement batteries.

As well, 'inside the home', or LAN [local area network], is a common cost for ANY and ALL 'fast broadband' network solutions.
If you don't want to run cat 5/6, then put in a WiFi network or a Powerline network, or both. 

This is as daft as suggesting that Oil companies should've paid for the cost of converting old cars to ULP [unleaded petrol].
Or that a cable or satellite company should do more than provide a single socket inside the house.

I find it truly bizarre...
  • Why does he raise a common cost item?
    • It's an irrelevancy and a clear 'own goal' that reduces his credibility.
  • Why does he challenge NBN to provide costings/buget for consumer-only costs?
    • What the customer chooses to do/spend is irrelevant to any Telco, especially the NBN.
  • Why did he even think this was a question?
    • It seems no more than grasping at straws.

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