On 1/12/2019 3:03 pm, David wrote: > When Telstra is eventually rescued by being allowed to buy the NBN we will > have turned full circle, from Howard's privatisation of Telecom Australia, > through the Three Amigos' network wreck, to the Rudd NBN, and then back to > the Howard model. But we'll be reduced to a hotch-potch network with no > end-to-end technical standards or quality control, and customer premise > equipment for the most part made cheaply in China, to no national standard > regarding ring-tones, etc., and probably with at least one back door.
...which is exactly how the rest of the access networks around the world work, and exactly what we had back in the DSL days - actually worse, because back then it was customer BYO modem, with no inspection or validation of capability or standards-compliance of the devices pulled off the cheapest-possible shelf at a retailer, or imported from dodgy websites making gear for overseas markets , and plugging them into the bare wire of the phone socket. But oddly, mostly it worked OK. Time and again, consumers show they prefer low prices and a works-well-enough-most-of-the-time network, than the high prices of a fully end-to-end-verified and engineered gleaming shiny inflexible monolith. A few DOA HFC modems are neither here nor there - they're fairly new, so replacement of any failure is a warranty claim at worst, shouldn't cost NBN anything for a bad batch, and as they are standards-compliant, if there are too many duds NBN can move to another vendor. As for rescuing Telstra - I hope its a cold day in hell before Telstra gets their mits on the NBN though - they are responsible for the need for the NBN in the first place, to break down their monopoly on local loop after the hatchet-job they did on the HFC rollout. Telstra have been richly compensated by the cutover-bounty for losing their vertical monopoly, and crying poor now from a deal they were very happy to agree with a decade ago really doesn't wash. P. _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
