[MLB-WIRELESS] WiMAX to go Australia wide?

Wed Jun 20 01:06:55 EST 2007

Lol - hey Mike :-), having started Singapore Telecoms operations in
Australia with Wee Kee Long and Graeme Ridler when they spun out
international data services sales from their AAPT holdings in 1997 means
I might have an idea or two :-)

But that's a discussion for another time.

The real issue is local access via ULL or wireless.

Regards,

Dean Collins
Cognation Pty Ltd
dean at cognation.net
<mailto:dean at cognation.net> +1-212-203-4357 Ph
+1-917-207-3420 Mb
+61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial).

________________________________

From: Mike Dickens [mailto:michaeldickens at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, 19 June 2007 11:01 AM
To: Dean Collins
Cc: Melb Wireless
Subject: Re: [MLB-WIRELESS] WiMAX to go Australia wide?

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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