NBN Co starts wholesale product development

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 23 December 2009 06:08

Business IT - Networking

NBN Co has acknowledged the work done by Comms Alliance on network architecture and service options for the NBN, but in one aspect at least its proposal differs significantly from that of Comms Alliance.

NBN Co says it "does not consider that a Layer 1 product would, at this point in time, encourage a market structure that is compatible with NBN Co's objectives." A layer one product would be dark fibre that would be lit my wholesale service providers.

Comms Alliance has proposed a role for a 'broadband access provider' who would own and operate both the exchange optical equipment, the optical line terminations (OLTs) in an exchange (or multiple exchanges) and the optical network terminations (ONT) - the CPE of the FTTH network and would use this infrastructure to provide layer 2 ethernet services. This 'broadband access provider would use the NBN Co's underlying optical fibre infrastructure (fibres, splitters optical distribution frames, and point-to-point and passive optical networks linking each user to a fibre concentration point.

NBN Co's consultation paper argues against this model saying there would be limited number of wholesale providers over the short-to-medium term with the scale to use Layer 1 products in the provision of high speed broadband services to 90 percent of end-user premises; that the emergence of vibrant retail competition would be dependent on the offerings of a third party wholesale provider that acquired the Layer 1 offering from NBN Co; and that there would be increased complexity associated with the provision of multiple services to multiple RSPs where NBN Co offers only a Layer 1 product.