23 September 2009

TransACT and NBN Rumors

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The Australian has this story on a rumor that TransACT is likely to be bought out by the Federal Govt as part of the National Broadband Network. Which when you put it together with the probable forced breakup of Telstra announced last week means that there will be some interesting times ahead for TransACT, its customers and Australian Telecommunications in general.

Good thing we’ve got all these ex Federal Govt contractors looking for work in Canberra after the Gershon report was implemented.

I bet Telstra is wishing they’d actually put together a proper reponse for the NBN now, instead of putting in 12 pages saying, “You’ll give us the NBN, coz there ain’t no one else who can do it”.

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watto23 said :

oh yeah DDOS attacks occur on a network level and if the world moved to linux, it would be hacked just as much as windows is. Right now finding a windows security hole is far more profitable for hackers etc.

Yeah, cause *nobody* uses Linux right now… except for those tiny little startup companies like Google, Sony, DreamWorks (Shrek, Lord of the Rings), NASA, IBM, Boeing, Cisco, Mercedes Benz, US Navy, USPS, Ernie Ball, almost certainly the ISP you’re currently connected to, Microsoft (yes, really), and even (IIRC) those lovely chaps from…The RiotAct.

(Amongst others)

Thats just the thing, Transact couldn’t get it right in Canberra. Yeah it could save the NBN money by buying transact, but i don’t see the point unless they are going to fix up that as well. My suburb has ADSL but no ADSL 2. There are other suburbs where Telstra recommend their mobile 3G wireless, because they won’t be putting in ADSL.

oh yeah DDOS attacks occur on a network level and if the world moved to linux, it would be hacked just as much as windows is. Right now finding a windows security hole is far more profitable for hackers etc.

Up The Duffy12:10 am 24 Sep 09

Grrr +1 “changed over to internode” TransACT could of been much better, TV is dead, The ABCs iVeiw proves that. On demand Internet TV (Media) will win in the end. Thats after a couple of major DOSS attacks and everyone has changed to UNIX(Mac) or Linux(Ubuntu, SUSE,etc) PC operating systems.

Piratemonkey12:07 am 24 Sep 09

This is very much a win win opportunity. Transacts network is making no where the money it should be so selling it, instead of it being built over by the NBN is a wise idea.

Transact already has relationships with media companies and the bandwidth of the NBN will allow their services to grow rapidly. Also transact already has the people and know how to peform the up grades and is well positioned to bid for the upgrade contracts.

This could also be a huge boon for Rudd and Conroy as public servants working from home will make for some handy effenciency gains and make for a great case study of the NBN benefits.

As for retrofits in suburbs without power poles…. Yes it can be done and even without too much extra cost if the government can negotiate access to existing underground conduits. (basically pipes with only cables in them) All they have to do is use a compressor too blow the cables in.

That said if they cannot gain access to something inplace retrofitting will be hard expensive and slow. I would assume areas like this already served well by ADSL will be ignored till late in the NBN build.

Originally, i really wanted Transact cable. Then they snubbed my suburb and many others, but were happy to offer me mobile phone offers. Until i wrote a letter of complaint telling them not to contact me until they run cable to my house. over 5 years later and i’m glad they never did.
What will be worse is if NBN thinks by buying Transact that it doesn’t have to do anything in Canberra. I think thats quite likely unfortunately.

I hope NBN Co are just buying TransACT’s network assets, and none of the management of the organisation.

Seriously, TransACT failed to trounce their competitors despite having VDSL (up to 50mbit) while the best anyone else had was Telstra Wholesale resold ADSL at 1.5mbit. They have never tried to attract high-end ISPs to their network, either.

I’m about to move to a FTTH suburb. You’d think I’d be excited about it, but TransACT have crushed my enthusiam.

Why? TransACT’s FTTH is a wired-broadband monopoly in new suburbs, and their prices on the lower speed connection offerings make people think they should probably just choose Wireless (3G isn’t much slower) .. and the faster speed option is exhorbitantly costly.

Sure, they’ve got TV on their service .. crappy TV. HD coming any time soon? Don’t think so. Also, free calls to TransACT landlines – which hardly anyone uses.

Can you run FTTH in an established suburb if power and phone comes in underground? As I understand it that is one of the most expensive issues when it comes to FTTH – those pesky places that have their stuff already underground….

And I’m assuming by purchasing TransAct they won’t have to roll out new infrastructure into those suburbs?

The cat did it11:26 am 23 Sep 09

Howard government’s decision to bundle Telstra sales and distribution arms was bound to end in tears. Almost all advice was against it, but they wanted to maximise the sale price and b*ggar the consequences. If the Libs wonder why they are no longer seen as the better economic managers, they should reflect on decisions like this- another example of John H screwing over the party that supported him. Transact is a natural for NBN absorption.

Yes, it’s supposed to be FTTH.

They will need to retrofit the TransACT FTTN network so the fibre goes all the way to the house.

I’ve heard one of the many problems with transact cable is that most of the bandwidth available (30mbps or so?) is reserved for the TV service, wether you use it or not. Maybe this’ll free that up, giving more than the current max 8mbps speeds to those who want it…

Isn’t the NBN supposed to be FTTH?

Gave? Try “sold”. As in recieved (more than) fair compensation for that asset.

The breakup of Telstra retail and wholesale is something that us techies have been screaming for since the first days of the T1 float. Effectively our gov’t gave a private company a national asset with no restrictions on how that asset was to be (ab)used. It was never the gov’t to give away as it belonged to the people.

As for TransACT, well we all know the story of the little company that couldn’t. They had a go a bringing a FTTN network into Canberra, and failed – miserably. Since then the rest of the telecommunications industry in Australia has far surpassed (in terms of speed) what TransACT was going to do.

Holden Caulfield8:41 am 23 Sep 09

pPst = Post (oops)!

Holden Caulfield8:33 am 23 Sep 09

So this means the Last pPst ceremony at the AWM will be sponsored by the Feds after all. 🙂

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