Telecom’s broadband changes
February 19th, 2006Sometimes I don’t quite understand my fellow New Zealanders.
So we’re low on the list of broadband penetration in OECD countries (22nd, dated June last year). So what? What does being high on the list really mean, anyway? NZ is nowhere close to being the ‘knowledge economy’ leader it seems to think that it is. Watching white collar prophets proclaim how great our knowledge economy is can be painful at best. It’s like watching a train wreck, really.
Does anyone remember Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie’s Internet Helpdesk?
Ah. I feel sorry for the civilians, kid. Really I do. They donâ??t know how to get on the Internet, they donâ??t know why they want to get onto the Internet, they donâ??t even know what the internet is. They just want to be on it.
yeah… let’s work with that:
Ah. I feel sorry for the civilians, kid. Really I do. They donâ??t know how to get on the Knowledge Economy, they donâ??t know why they want to get onto the Knowledge Economy, they donâ??t even know what the Knowledge Economy is. They just want to be on it.
Having good broadband infrastructure is key to a successful Knowledge Economy, no doubt, but if we’re unwilling to innovate and use the tools available to us to make our Knowledge Economy everything it can be, then we may as well not bother.
So there are arguments everywhere about how New Zealand is going for broadband. As some of you may recall, I last weighed in on this back in 2003 and since then my opinion has altered very little. Back then, I received a lot of feedback from inside Telecom from frustrated techies who agreed with me, pointing squarely at dilbertonian manglement and penny pushers in Telecom as the root cause.
I think I should point out at this stage that the company I work for, Computerland, was purchased by Telecom and has been merged into Telecom’s other ICT purchase – Gen-i. As I’m currently still on my Computerland contract, what I say here today should be fine as per the terms of that contract, as it is still binding (ie, I am still a Computerland employee with all the freedoms of speech associated with being as such.) My Telecom contract is due soon and after that’s signed and sealed, I’ll have to stay quiet until I go elsewhere.
Anyway, I’ve got a pretty good track record of predicting Telecom’s next moves. They did move to a similar setup like I suggested back in 2003, they are moving towards more fibre penetration like I suggested back in 2003, they took on the speed limitation instead of extra traffic charges, like I suggested back in 2003. They have mixed in wireless technologies for broadband delivery where wired DSL dare not go, like I suggested back in 2003.
So, Telecom has recently announced that they’re again bumping up their speeds to keep the masses content, and just like back in 2003 there has been a boohoo backlash. The media, in all their wisdom, has focused entirely on “FASTER AND CHEAPER!!!” while ignoring the more important things:
1) Upload speeds. There’s too much focus on download speeds. 128k upload prevents me from remotely helping my clients via rdp. My clients who are on cable with a higher upload rate do not have this problem. It’s definately not my 3mbit upload speed at fault. All this in the bizarre attempt to impact on p2p users and to milk the limited infrastructure for all that it’s worth.
2) Data caps. This includes the ideal that all products should be flat rate, with limited speed after the broadband cap is reached.
3) Data differentiation. I still firmly maintain that national traffic should be relatively free. Perhaps national traffic could be at full upload speed, whereas international is at a limited upload speed. This nulls the p2p a bit and rations the usage of SCC.
There’s an old addage: If you don’t like something, fix it.
If that means having to create your own infrastructure, so be it. Granted, the privatisation of Telecom has grayed the definition of who owns the infrastructure. It was the NZ taxpayer who paid for the Post Office to build it. Telecom inherited it when it was spun off and has footed the bill for maintaining it since.
New Zealand is, apparently, the second most geographically challenging country in the world to build infrastructure for. We’re a geographically remote country too, with a population of just over 4 million. This whole keeping up with the Jones’ by desiring to be higher in the OECD rankings, really, has to reach a point of diminishing returns eventually.
It’s not all bad though. Telecom has sparked rumours here and there about using a newer DSL technology that claims up to 24mbit speeds. Telecom has backed this up by beginning to roll out Fibre to the Curb (FTTC), essentially decentralising exchanges. This is good. I personally think that Telecom sees the writing on the wall – Local Loop Unbundling is going to happen. The population feels that the people paid for the LL, so the people should own the LL. And that’s fine, we’ve got enough surplus to pay for the maintenance of the LL.
So, Telecom is investing ITS money into ITS very own local loop. You either hook up at the fibre box halfway down the street and play in the Telecom camp, or you use a possibly 100 year old copper cable ~5km’s or more back to the 60 year old exchange building and play in the small bit player telco camp.
The advantage of FTTC is that it can provide the backhaul for not only super fast Interweb, it will also give Telecom more leverege to corner VoIP and TVoIP very early. This doesnt guarantee that data caps, upload speeds and national/international differentiation will be put in place. But instead of the small steps we’re taking, FTTC should be a bit of a leap.
Ideally, each municipality worth a damn should invest in its own infrastructure and then peer at one of the plentiful IX’s around the country. A few are doing this via a metropolitan area network, most notably Wellington, Nelson and Palmerston North. Many more are doing this via wireless. The one puzzle is Tokoroa though, who had extensive wireless which eventually became the domain of Borg. Then the council wouldnt let Borg have some rack space. Bye bye to consumer choice, Tokoroa. Tokoroa council = Dumbarses.
New Zealanders also need a bit of a reality check. What Telecom is giving and what consumers are demanding are both polar opposites either side of reality. We share SCC primarily with Australia and Hawaii, the entirity of the bandwidth available on it is limited. We are a geographically challenging country to build infrastructure for, and local supply and demand is limited. If we had a population of 8 million, things would be a bit different. But we dont. Look at similar countries to ours – namely the UK and Japan. More people, closer geographical location relative to core internet links, ergo, great consumer options. And even then, they and a lot of other OECD countries whinge about being so bad off.
And we need to promote local content and peering if we are to fuel the innovation required to spark a Knowledge Economy worth its salt. We dont have the resources or the need to be the next Korea, but there are many ways we can make things better for everyone.
So to summarise:
The recent plan upgrades proposed by Telecom is just another iterative step towards their ultimate plan, and a move to keep the government at bay for as long as possible, and New Zealanders, as usual, need a big glass of reality instead of allowing themselves to be led like sheep by a rabid media industry that has its own hidden motives.
