Roads vs. FTTH

1 June 2009

This article (Supercity set task of coordinating broadband) reminded me of an old debate I had with someone on the funding for broadband. Why is it that FTTH has had to face a far more stringent test of its business case than the billions of dollars poured into roads every year in this country? Even [...]

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Point-to-point vs. PON

1 June 2009

Stephen Davies at Australian FTTH News has put up a recent presentation on the Point-to-point vs. PON debate. There’s some interesting debate in the comments too.

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ASB Bank, compromised?

23 May 2009

Since I got my domain name, back in 2000, I’ve been running an experiment on spam. Whenever asked for an email address, such as when signing up for a website, or making a paper application for bank account, I create and provide a unique alias for that website or company in question. It has been [...]

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VLAN attacks in TRILL

23 May 2009

Without a proper understanding of TRILL’s behaviour an engineer introducing TRILL to a network may make it vulnerable to VLAN attacks. Background In 802.1Q networks VLANs provide isolation between different sets of end stations. An end station on one VLAN is unable to transmit a frame to an end station on another VLAN. In a [...]

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News Roundup

14 May 2009

Computerworld has a peice on Kordia’s submission. See Kordia warns of broadband risks (4 May 2009). According to Stuff, Vodafone is making a behind-the-scenes push to persuade the Government to establish a national consortium that would own telecommunications infrastructure. See Vodafone has ‘private plan’ (4 May 2009). REANNZ couldn’t find a suitable proposal from a [...]

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The Australian Estimate

14 May 2009

It is worth commenting briefly on one small matter brought up by this Computerworld article about Vodafone’s submission: Vodafone expresses doubts about shape of broadband plan. “The actual quantum of investment required is not yet clear. Based on the estimates of independent expert Dr Murray Milner, the real cost of the investment may be as [...]

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HFC vs. PON

14 May 2009

Telstra is touting its HFC network: 100Mbps Telstra cable good enough for capital? TelstraClear says it is investigating upgrading its InHome cable networks in Wellington and Christchurch so they can offer download speeds of 100 megabits per second. The company says the upgrade would mean the networks could provide “substantially the same experience” as fibre-optic [...]

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Fear the Telecom monster

2 May 2009

There seem to be serious fears circulating that only Telecom can build this FTTH network, and if Telecom isn’t chosen, it will make life very, very hard for whoever is. I’m sorry, but this is unreasonable. Telecom has made no such threats, and is not allowed to act anti-competitively, for example by pricing services below [...]

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News Roundup

1 May 2009

Broadband is going to be more expensive, according to a report prepared for the Treasury by Telecom’s former CTO. See Computerworld: NZ’s broadband bill total could hit $7 billion and Low adoption could balloon broadband costs. (Relax, it’s not really a problem.) Telecom’s submission is all over the place. See NBR: Telecom to govt: let [...]

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