NBN Co unveils five national fibre test sites

By Ry Crozier on Mar 2, 2010 3:10 PM
Filed under Telco/ISP

Dogged by pricing.


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NBN Co has revealed the five national test sites for fibre deployment where it would trial different rollout techniques to approximately 12,200 premises.

The sites were:

Part of the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick (2,600 premises).
Parts of Townsville suburbs Aitkenvale and Mudingburra (3,100 premises).
Minnamurra and Kiama Downs on the NSW south coast (2,600 premises).
An area west of Armidale in regional NSW, including the University of New England (2,900 premises)
South Australian rural community Willunga (less than 1,000 premises).

They were selected by NBN Co engineers using the geocoded national address file (GNAF), which indexed all valid physical addresses in Australia.

Sites in GNAF were sorted according to whether they would test some of the challenges NBN Co expected to face in the wider network deployment.

These challenges included semi-detached houses, apartment blocks, and sites with varying geospatial characteristics.

But RIM-to-fibre transitions would not be tested at any of the five sites. This would be left to Telstra's project at Point Cook near Melbourne, the results of which would be shared with NBN Co.

"We're not specifically testing for [RIM-to-fibre]," NBN Co chief Mike Quigley said.

Existing broadband penetration rates and availability of competitive backhaul was not taken into account when the sites were selected, according Quigley.

"We haven't assumed there will be contestable backhaul into these sites," he said. "Assuming that would have biased [the process]."

Quigley said NBN Co had released a request for proposals to create detailed network designs for each of the five sites. He believed the process would take "several months".

Construction was expected to start "early in the second half of the year."

"We'll be really getting on with the job on the mainland of fibre-ing up these communities," Quigley said.

"There's a lot we will learn as we go through the process of rolling out the network."

Quigley said each of the five communities had been informed of the network rollout this morning. He hoped "a large number" in each would opt for the fibre services.

Pricing

Quigley and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy fielded a bombardment of questions at the launch in Sydney today over pricing for the fibre services.

It was suggested by several journalists that retail internet service providers (ISPs) could be given free wholesale access to the NBN Co network in the test phase; however, this was "not part of the plan", according to Quigley.

"We will be pricing at market rates to get uptake on the network," Quigley said.

Quigley said that any future announcements on Tasmania's wholesale access rates should not be taken as revealing the eventual national access price.

He declined to reveal what Tasmanian wholesale access would cost.

Conroy said the Government would not "subsidise" access to wholesale or retail services. The Government in particular had been dogged by criticism in recent months that high-end fibre services were too expensive compared to ADSL.

"We've never said we'd subsidise 100 Mbps to anybody," Conroy said.

But retail pricing would be consistent in all five communities - meaning rural users would pay the same national rate for a service as their metropolitan cousins.

20 comments in this discussion

"@kalealah, I only hope the new Liberal candidate for Herbert (Townsville) has the sense to join Barnaby Joyce et al against Nick Minchin's petty politicking on the NBN. If Herbert voters see their ..."

By umbria

Tags

telstra, point cook, pair, gain, rims, fibre, transition, nbnco, test

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Comments: 20

somme1 Mar 2, 2010 4:54 PM	Damn... I was hoping my RIM limited suburb might be one of the first to be cabled... oh well, guess that's what I get for living in a newer area (you would think being in a newer area would mean better infrastructure, but instead it means an almost complete lack of infrastructure).
sydneyla Mar 2, 2010 4:56 PM	Wonder if the five test sites are in closely contested electorates?????
Tailgator Mar 2, 2010 5:28 PM	Contested electorates Why don't you do some research and find out, rather than making innuendos. Or does it suit your purposes not to find out?
sydneyla Mar 2, 2010 6:57 PM	If I knew the answer Tailgator I would not be asking the question. I thought that a smart fellow like you might know the answer.
sydneyla Mar 2, 2010 7:03 PM	For your information Tailgator I have been advised that Willunga is the most marginal seat in South Australia.
sydneyla Mar 2, 2010 7:04 PM	Oh yes with an election coming up.
AfroTrance Mar 2, 2010 9:03 PM	According to wikipedia, Willunga is in Kingston and has a 10% lead over Liberal in two party preferred. Hardly marginal.
xaduurv Mar 2, 2010 10:50 PM	Don't worry Afro. Sydney Laurence is a troll of anything relevant to telecommunications. He'd never let a silly thing like facts get in the way of a good rant.
mickyjd Mar 2, 2010 10:52 PM	I currently pay $50 for 50GB of Data on 1.5mbit connection (uploads counted). I would happily pay $50 for the same data at the minimum speed, I believe the NBN is to have a minimum of 12mbps. If they are going to offer price points based on speed and quota then mathcing the current 1.5mb min plans is a start but I think to get real penetration they will have to match those who are on ADSL2+ plans through non Telstra hardware.
Ace Mar 2, 2010 10:58 PM	Actually, it appears there could be a 10% swing against Labor in SA. Even so, Chris Pynes seat of Sturt appears the most marginal (1% lead), followed by Morialta, Bright, Hartley, Newland, Norwood, Mawson, Light...no?
Tailgator Mar 3, 2010 12:10 AM	Contested electorates. NBN Co's Quigley said the site selection was based entirely on engineering considerations and that the locations were selected by the NBN Company alone – without input from the Minister's office. Sorry Sydney. Wrong again!
sydneyla Mar 3, 2010 12:50 AM	Late news Tailgator. The Townsville Seat of Herbert is marginal also. Sort of a pattern wouldn't you say?
Digger11 Mar 3, 2010 9:53 AM	At least these 12,000 will be able to get proper Broadband, and can dump Telstra !!!
umbria Mar 3, 2010 4:08 PM	@mickyjd, sounds like you might be on Internode Easy Broadband ($49.95 for 50GB with uploads counted, i.e. roughly 40-45 GB of downloads). Internode/Agile are already laying fibre to several new estates in SA, Vic, NSW and Qld and offer entry-level 25 Mbps fibre at $94.95 for 50GB. Since fibre gives you full speed all the time, that sounds fairly comparable on a price/performance basis to third-party ADSL2 with typical achieved speeds in the 8-11 Mbps ballpark. Whether it's cheap enough for mass take-up remains to be seen. I'm not sure whether you also get unlimited video content from Tivo and ABC Iview, etc., and of course you would use VoIP for all calls and save at least $20.95 a month on line rental, so that's a factor, too. So it probably equates to about $70 compared to your existing $49.95 plus line rental for 50 GB, but at a constant 25 Mbps, which is not too shabby.
Tailgator Mar 3, 2010 6:40 PM	Even later news Sydney. Listen to the podcast on the NBN site. Quigley specifically states that the sites were chosen by NBNCo on the basis of engineering/geo-physical characteristics. Unless you can prove otherwise, then your suggestions of electioneering are simply innuendo and muck raking
Graeme Harrison (prof at-symbol post.harvard.edu) Mar 6, 2010 9:29 PM	Tailgator... sounds like you're kissing the Minister's backside too fervently. In the interest of full disclosure, please 'out yourself', stating your interest in broadband generally. For me, the more any government appointed person, or representative of a government entity says we DID NOT do something or other, I hear Richard Nixon's "I am not a cheat." and Bill Clinton's "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." Both denials went on to categorise the people for the history books. My postings at the time of the NBN announcement was to support Turnbull in his claim that a proper cost/benefit analysis was needed. That way, we'd know at what price-points and penetration rates, various CapEx made sense. I noted that as on-line gaming and video consumption (both negative to GDP of a country) were main beneficiaries in South Korea, Japan etc, I doubted a full roll-out of the type pushed by Conroy would make economic sense. But now that I've learnt NBN Co has Labor apparatchiks on super-high salaries for non-advertised jobs, I know it is sunk. As I said to former Deputy PM Anderson last year, the satellite internet plan for the bush (introduced by the former government but continuing) was the MOST successful, simply because the government did not try to make any commercial decisions itself, but simply made a partial contribution to set-up cost available, in case that swung people's decisions (provided they were outside the ADSL2 areas). That is the right way to go - set policy, provide incentives, and stand away. While the trials are on, Conroy should simply try to get a deal with Telstra for an effective split, like AT&T Long Lines, for a part-government owned entity to handle fibre, using only contractors for all work, and having no vertical monopoly - ie not trying to block anyone from having a service which sits atop that fibre.
Graeme Harrison (prof at-symbol post.harvard.edu) Mar 6, 2010 10:11 PM	Oh, and I forgot to mention my earlier-noted issue that people should forget about concepts like fibre being a 'highway' or 'super-highway' of any sort. That implies a very long life. Concrete highway overpass bridges etc really do have a 100+ year life... indeed we still have examples of concrete from Roman times. But the 'bridges' in the NBN are electronic switches, with a working life of a few years, and with technology components which are obsolete in even less time. So putting 100Mbps into suburban areas is like leaving supercomputers for the citizens to use at their local library.... They may be faster, but they'll still need to be replaced in five years. IMHO, better to do backbone to all major cities, regional centres and commercial/industrial hubs in the larger cities... as they have the commercial users who might get some productivity gains from higher bandwidth, such as VOIP receptionist located in a central/remote office, real-time video monitoring of production processes, even if remote, true video-conferencing etc etc.... I'm just not sure who the Townsville suburbs are going to do high-quality video conferencing with... perhaps their Korean friends? It seems a bit like Alexander Bell's original problem of having a phone, but not many people he could phone.
kalealah Mar 9, 2010 5:58 PM	The Townsville suburbs listed are generally residential, with a bit of light commercial and light industry, and I missed out by the width of a road from being in the area selected. The Townsville seat of Herbert has the sitting Liberal member retiring at the next election, so it is up for grabs also.
umbria Mar 10, 2010 3:37 PM	@LudditeHarvardProf: "I'm just not sure who the Townsville suburbs are going to do high-quality video conferencing with... perhaps their Korean friends? It seems a bit like Alexander Bell's original problem of having a phone, but not many people he could phone." Americans are very lucky you were not in charge of deciding whether to equip their towns and homes with telephones, is all I can say. Australia has two people per square kilometre. With 60% of the population in just six cities, the density outside these is extremely light. Consequently, it is simply not possible to cost justify putting medical care facilities within easy travel of many of our people. Heck, many of them have only got dialup internet (lucky they have phones). Face-to-face medical consultation is just one immediate benefit of broadband speed video, which will help many people who cannot easily get out to see a doctor, such as shut-ins, older folks or a parent with one of their children sick. It wouldn't even matter if it was 2 am, since the doctor could be in another time zone. This will also benefit the environment by reducing the need to drive vast distances. So as you gaze out your window at the leafy grounds of Harvard, consider the daily inconveniences of the internet have-nots who are relieving the pressure on our over-developed cities by living and working in the bush. After these pilot sites we will see more fibre backhaul to rural towns, then gradually to premises, and the market will decide for itself which services have the critical mass to succeed (entertainment, health, education, smart power grids, who knows).
umbria Mar 10, 2010 3:48 PM	@kalealah, I only hope the new Liberal candidate for Herbert (Townsville) has the sense to join Barnaby Joyce et al against Nick Minchin's petty politicking on the NBN. If Herbert voters see their broadband future threatened by electing an unknown as their Liberal member, some of them may very well elect a Labor member instead.