Netspace wary of further DSLAM rollout

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 21 February 2006 08:11

Business IT - Networking

Netspace has completed its beta trial rollout of ADSL 2+ capable DSLAMs in a number of Melbourne exchanges and says the results have exceeded its initial expectations, but it is reluctant to commit to a larger scale rollout.

It said that the trial "had served the purpose of confirming that Netspace has both the technical and logistical expertise to conduct a large-scale infrastructure rollout if the company chooses to do so."

Managing director, Stuart Marburg, said the company was assessing the immediate and long-term future of the Australian broadband marketplace and was finalising a broadband roadmap that would guide it for the next five years.

"We have watched with interest the major capital investments in infrastructure roll-out made by other operators within the industry. However, whilst we applaud any moves that increases the level of real competition within our industry, as can be seen by the current controversy surrounding Telstra's proposed ULL pricing, the deployment of such infrastructure does not provide any true level of autonomy or real independence to its owners in supplying services to the end customers.

"We are also cognisant of the fact that the future of the industry is still likely to be dominated by one or two major players and that moves made by these few companies have the ability to make any such infrastructure deployment almost irrelevant over a very short space of time...We believe that our primary purpose is to provide easy and value for money Internet connectivity to our customers.

"We do not believe that customers are concerned by the methods with which we supply that service, as long as it is affordable and delivers the speed and performance that they requested. We take this responsibility seriously and will continue to work towards this goal - either in conjunction with one or more wholesale partners, or through the continued deployment of our own infrastructure."