Telstra opens Point Cook to retail ISPs

First time for open access fibre.

Telstra has invited an undisclosed number of its wholesale customers to offer retail services in the RIM-to-fibre test suburb of Point Cook near Melbourne.

"We've now made available the opportunity for our customers to participate in the trial in Point Cook," group managing director of Telstra Wholesale Paul Geason said today.

"There's been quite a bit of interest from our wholesale customers."

iTnews reported in February that the fibre rollout would benefit 1,500 homes in the area, which is a known broadband blackspot courtesy of its reliance on pair-gain systems.

It is expected customer connections would start next month.

The rollout has been watched closely by NBN Co, which is not specifically testing remote integrated multiplexer (RIM)-to-fibre transitions among its first phase sites. Telstra will provide NBN Co with a report on the results from Point Cook.

It is also being watched closely because it is the first Telstra fibre network to be opened to retail service providers other than Telstra's own retail arm.

Customers on Telstra Velocity fibre networks are currently limited from using services other than those offered by Telstra.

It is hoped that an 'open access' mandate promoted by the NBN would be retroactively applied to closed private network infrastructures such as Telstra.