Cornered! is a blog devoted, most of the time anyway, to telecommunications: local and global issues, technology, people and trends from the perspective of someone who's been reporting, analysing and commenting on the industry since the dark ages (BC - before competition). Sometimes serious, sometimes flippant, sometimes frivolous. Controversial, analytical, informative, amusing, but never boring; a vehicle for examinations of important issues and observations on my encounters and experiences in an industry where polarised views and hyperbole are the norm.
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Cornered! The bid to build Australia's FTTN network: a one horse race
Cornered! The bid to build Australia's FTTN network: a one horse race | The bid to build Australia's FTTN network: a one horse race |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Sunday, 13 April 2008 | |
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Page 1 of 3 Furthermore, there will be numerous ways in which proponents other than Telstra will be handicapped: the information may be in a form not readily compatible with whatever systems they are using to prepare their proposals; they may not get all the information they need in one hit, and there are numerous conditions in the RFP designed to protect sensitive information that will hardly be conducive to speedy access; the information may be wrong or incomplete and if so neither Telstra nor the Government will take any responsibility. The RFP states: "In using network information, proponents acknowledge that they do so at their own risk and acknowledge that neither the Commonwealth nor carriers who have provided the Network Information bear any liability in relation to their use of the data." Then there is simply the limited time they have to access, digest the information and incorporate it in their plans: they will gain access to the information in May and June and the closing date for response to the RFP is 25 July. In contrast, not only does Telstra have total access to this information in ways that should be well integrated with its other information systems, it is intimately familiar with it and, as it has repeatedly boasted, has already done all the planning and could start rolling out the network at the drop of a hat. Should another bidder actually win the contract and start rolling out its network, if there are any delays in gaining access to network infrastructure it will face a risk, shared with the Commonwealth but if it cannot access "infrastructure sites" and rollout is delayed as a result, then it alone will face a risk. CONTINUED |
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