[MLB-WIRELESS] WiMAX to go Australia wide?

[Mike Dickens]

I don't mean to be offensive, but I don't think you entirely know what
you're talking about.

The cost of bandwidth is very high here for one simple reason - we're a damn
island in the middle of nowhere ;). Access to the Southern Cross Cable
network (the main link out of Australia, running from Sydney to the US via
undersea cables) is expensive for all parties (ISPs *and* webhosts). The
cost for simply getting onto the link connecting us to the US (and as such,
the rest of the world) is prohibitevily expensive, and obviously a cost
US-based hosts don't have to pay (they're already in the country they need
access to).

You are right on one point though - residential internet prices are
inflated. It's not the fault of individual ISPs though - it is, as usual, a
Telstra problem. Now, I'm not a diehard anti-Telstra guy (why not, you ask
:P), but if you hang around Whirlpool (and I'm sure a lot of you do) you'll
know that ADSL ports (per customer) are wholesaled to ISPs at ridiculous
prices. For example, an (up to, optionally throttled to 3 mbit if Telstra
don't have the backhaul..) 8 mbit port is over $50 (excl GST). This doesn't
take into account the ISP must also pay for your backhaul from the Telstra
exchange to their local POP (point of presence, most have one in each
state). From here, they must get it to Sydney (some ISPs do this via
Telstra, others such as Internode maintain their own national network), and
then to the US. Those are the BARE costs of running an ISP. Chuck in
expenses such as Wages for support staff, etc, and you can see it really
adds up. Of course, the fact Telstra receive more than your actual ISP does
for simply managing to have a monopoly is ridiculous too.

As it stands though, it appears nothing is going to change. Your average
person thinks Telstra is the butter on their bread, and the fact the
government is "holding them back" is appaling. You should read some of the
letters featured in The Herald Sun on the matter.

Sorry for rambling, it's late.

On 6/20/07, Dean Collins <Dean at cognation.net> wrote:
>
> Yep totally agree about bandwidth monitoring for residential internet
> access in Australia being outdated - though I think this is more an
> issue around lack of competition than actual base charges.
>
> And yep you are right - no reason to host locally in Australia, far
> cheaper to hire bandwidth in the USA (though again I think this is due
> to increased competition more than anything else).
>
> I'm finding a real 'mind shift' in the last 12 months when I help my
> Australian clients about 'right sourcing' resources.
>
> Whether a web site is hosted in Australia, USA or Europe doesn't really
> matter. Likewise when dealing with internet delivered intellectual
> property it doesn't matter where the 'ip ownership' is incorporated.
>
> A number of countries offer various advantages depending on your
> requirements.
>
> REPEAT AFTER ME - THIS IS NOT ABOUT TAX EVASION.
>
> This is simply that should you be developing a technology that doesn't
> require physical delivery of anything then you have the freedom to
> choose the domicile of that intellectual property asset.
>
> When dealing with anything on the internet you need to ask yourself does
> this really need to be located here.
>
> EG does my call really need to be answered in Sydney or does Singapore
> make more sense. Or if I'm responding to my clients email questions can
> I deliver these out of the Czech republic faster/cheaper/better etc.
>
> As for bandwidth access, I think a lot will change in the next few years
> - as you are not really reliant on your ISP for email, spam control, web
> hosting or even voip services there is a real opportunity for fat dumb
> raw IP pipes to deliver everything you need and then for you to chose al
> la carte as to which vendor provides you your other services.
>
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Dean Collins
> Cognation Pty Ltd
> dean at cognation.net
> +1-212-203-4357 Ph
> +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial).
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Tony Langdon, VK3JED [mailto:vk3jed at optushome.com.au]
> > Sent: Tuesday, 19 June 2007 9:51 AM
> > To: Dean Collins; David Ashburner; Melb Wireless
> > Subject: Re: [MLB-WIRELESS] WiMAX to go Australia wide?
> >
> > At 11:05 PM 6/19/2007, Dean Collins wrote:
> >
> > >Their attitudes to restricting access to copper and exchanges is
> what's
> > >holding Australia back.
> > >
> > >There are areas in NY that are less populated than where I live in
> > >Sydney however I can sign up for 8mb cable with no issues at all.
> > >
> > >Stick that in your data statistics argument.
> >
> > I tend to agree with you.  The observations I notice most are that
> > (1) Many people in outer suburbs have issues getting access to
> > broadband (this has improved in recent years but still a way to go).
> >
> > (2) Bandwidth costs in Australia, even in the major centres appear to
> > be around 10x that of many overseas countries (US, UK, etc).  I came
> > to this conclusion after pricing comparable hosting services here and
> > overseas.  While in many cases I could find similar monthly charges,
> > the included monthly data transfer for Australian based services was
> > around 10% of any of the overseas offerings.  This has led to the
> > strange situation that I now spend more time administering servers in
> > the US than ones located locally, because my clients are hiring where
> > it's cost effective.
> >
> > 73 de VK3JED
> > http://vkradio.com
>
>
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