14 November 2013

NBN buys up the TransACT fibre

| johnboy
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The Australian has a piece of some good use being had from the ACT’s dalliance with the TransACT fibre network as iiNet flips that part of its recent purchase to NBN Co:

THE competition regulator has given the green light to a $14 million deal that will see the NBN Co buy iiNet’s Canberra-based fibre-to-the-premises network.

The fibre-to-the-premises network, which iiNet acquired as part of its $60 million buyout of Canberra-based telcoTransACTin late 2011, covers about 8500 premises, with a further 4500 premises planned or already under construction.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has been deliberating on the competitive impact of that deal since it was announced in May, but has decided not to oppose the transaction.

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er, s/all 3/both/

Bad heading on this article. NBNCo aren’t buying up “the” TransACT fibre – they’re buying the TransACT FTTH (AKA FTTP) network that covers only about 4 suburbs.. TransACT has a lot of fibre around town that isn’t part of the FTTH network

Deref said :

I’m in Kaleen and I’ve got Transact FTTN. Isn’t that what NBNCo’s now being told to provide?

Yes, and no. Yes, Liberal policy going into the election was “FTTN for brownfields.” No, NBNCo aren’t being told to do anything apart from not sign new contracts. No other instructions are being given until the 60-day review of the NBN is completed. In reality, the government either has no real plan for what they’re actually going to tell NBNCo to do, or they already decided and the review is a sham. Either way, NBNCo will be getting instructions soon.

Right now, all 3 of the following fibre options are possible for the Inner North:
1) The 9CVI Fibre Serving Area (IE, the Inner North) is completed – Inner Northicans all get FTTH.
2) Only some of the FSAMs inside 9CVI are built. Right now, only Braddon (9CVI-1) is listed on the NBNCo site as “Build Commenced” http://www.nbnco.com.au/when-do-i-get-it/rollout-map.html but work has already been done around other suburbs. The fibre ring that connects the various FSAMs has already been built through an number of other suburbs.

And the following Copper options are possible:
0) We all get NBNCo FTTH, as above. Telstra are contractually obliged to move their customers and shut down their network. iiNet / TransACT either shut down, or attempt to price their VDSL (FTTN) to undercut NBNCo.
1) Telstra copper is turned into NBNCo FTTN, overbuilding TransACT.
2) iiNet assert that their network is NBN-equivalent and prevent it from being overbuilt. To do this, they may have to start wholesaling it on NBN-like terms.

agent_clone said :

lostinbias said :

Does this mean that my NBN will be the exact same service I get now on TransACT?

Depends on where you live, If in the Gungahlin area (or Molongolo Valley) yes. Otherwise no. http://www.transact.com.au/en-ACT/internet/transact/network#fttp

They have purchased the FTTP part not the VDSL part.

I’m in Kaleen and I’ve got Transact FTTN. Isn’t that what NBNCo’s now being told to provide?

lostinbias said :

So is this likely to get rolled out to the inner north?

No. Nbnco will roll out something (more than likely fttn) in good time. Come start of December we will get and idea of which way they will go. But all the money is on acting in the best interests of Telstra shareholders, so fttn over Telstra copper, with Telstra doing most if the work (and pocketing good chunk of the billions for the rollout)

lostinbias said :

agent_clone said :

lostinbias said :

Does this mean that my NBN will be the exact same service I get now on TransACT?

Depends on where you live, If in the Gungahlin area (or Molongolo Valley) yes. Otherwise no. http://www.transact.com.au/en-ACT/internet/transact/network#fttp

They have purchased the FTTP part not the VDSL part.

So is this likely to get rolled out to the inner north?

No. This is a purchase of the fibre network that TransACT had already built. Nothing to do with future builds, whether they be by Transact / iiNet, or NBNCo.

Rollersk8r said :

So how and when can I get on it?? As an iinet customer I was surprised there was never any offer made to switch over.

This is just approval for the sale to go ahead – it hasn’t actually happened yet. I’m sure once the sale is complete, you’ll receive more information.

iiNet seem to like to allow their acquisitions to run as separate companies much of the time, rather than absorbing them. Internode is an example – you’d never know they’d been purchased, although now some changes are happening to align them more closely with their iiNet owners. Indications were that TransACT was a company that was a mess when iiNet purchased them – I’m sure iiNet had an eye towards this sale, and it was easier, and cheaper, to just allow things to run as they had before rather than trying to integrate everything under the iiNet banner.

agent_clone said :

lostinbias said :

Does this mean that my NBN will be the exact same service I get now on TransACT?

Depends on where you live, If in the Gungahlin area (or Molongolo Valley) yes. Otherwise no. http://www.transact.com.au/en-ACT/internet/transact/network#fttp

They have purchased the FTTP part not the VDSL part.

So is this likely to get rolled out to the inner north?

So how and when can I get on it?? As an iinet customer I was surprised there was never any offer made to switch over.

it was a no brainer for nbnco, easy way to get your numbers up.

iiNet paid $60mil for TransACT in its entirety (Victorian and ACT infrastructure and customers, iirc).
Selling the FTTP element to NBNCo was an expected part of the purchase (and the ASX hasn’t reacted poorly to this sale).

Anyone recall how much iiNet paid for Transact?

iiNet wanted the customers, not the network.

lostinbias said :

Does this mean that my NBN will be the exact same service I get now on TransACT?

Depends on where you live, If in the Gungahlin area (or Molongolo Valley) yes. Otherwise no. http://www.transact.com.au/en-ACT/internet/transact/network#fttp

They have purchased the FTTP part not the VDSL part.

Does this mean that my NBN will be the exact same service I get now on TransACT?

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