Jon Austin wrote: > > In Australia, the DSL infastructure (owned by Telstra) provides a > maximum of 1500/256 (down/up). Only now, you can get upto 6MB through > specific providers (because they have deployed their own DSLAM's) and > you need to be pretty close to the exchange (2-3 mile) to get those > fast speeds.
But that is an intrinsic limitation of ADSL. It gets a bit better with ADSL2+ (or a lot worse with VDSL), but there is little we can do about the physics. > Broadband in Australia is terrible. Cable is available which provides > a 10mb connection, but it is even more expensive and smaller quotas. > Bandwidth in general is expensive: a 1mb service (AAPT, Optus, > Telstra, Powertel, AN) into a data center will cost you between $500 > and $1000 aussie depending on how much you buy. Wireless has just > become available commercially in Sydney CBD, but again, disgustingly > expensive (http://www.unwired.com.au). That is quite expensive. Transit goes for about 20-30 euro / Mbps in Amsterdam, with prices below 10K euro for a full Gbps. Obviously this is related to the massive size of the internet and carrier market in the Netherlands. Amsterdam was the first place connected to Internet outside the US and has been the largest European mainland exchange ever since. Unfortunately only non-commercial networks show detailed maps, but to illustrate the point: http://www.glif.is/images/GLIF-Atlantic-LowRez-07July2004.jpg > I used run an ISP which offered completely unmetered/no limits DSL. We > were on razor thin profits but growing faster than anyone else in the > industry. It was all about effective bandwidth management and network > dimensioning. No one in the industry offers it now. Or if they do, its > a loaded with all sorts of terms and conditions. So what happened to that ISP? A friend of mine used to own an ISP / telco in the Netherlands. He started offering 8 Mbps ADSL back in 1999 using his own DSLAMs in 2 COs and he actually beat the incumbent to the market. And when the incumbent came with DSL in 2000, its best offering was only 1 Mbps. Unfortunately his company went under due to a massive fraud on the phone business (shared loop unbundling was not an option then, so he had to offer phone services too), but at that time the mere rumour he was going to open up more COs convinced a competitor they needed to offer 8 Mbps too, and after that the rest followed. I still believe that his company is the ultimate reason 8 Mbps is the norm, rather then the exception in the Netherlands. Sometimes you just need a little of that "because we can" attitude :-) Currently the DSL market in the Netherlands is moving fast. 2 CLECs reach 70% of all households each, 2 other ones will do so in 3 months and the ILEC is in every CO. Add to that that > 90% of the households have cable and cable companies are offering 8 or 10 Mbps and you have a recipe for agressive competition. Jochem ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble Ticket application http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:146022 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
