[clug] Trump Telstra once and for all

[Andrew Smith]

Paul Wayper wrote:
> I understand the difference between layers 2 and 3 here, but I'm curious
> as to why the two are incompatible?  Would Internode using layer 2 to do
> connections interfere with TransACT offering its services over layer 3? 
> Not AFAICS.  So why would TransACT stick to offering only layer 3 to
> wholesalers, unless it was trying to protect its investments in TransTV
> and whatever other multicast services it offers?
>   
I'm not entirely sure, but I would assume it's just a technology looking 
glass thing.  When the Transact broadband delivery was designed (5-6 
years ago?), it probably seemed like a good idea to separate the 
carriage & tail to the ISP.  The ISP sees authentication requests and 
issues Radius stuff, then traffic turns up.  No worries about ISP tech's 
poking around or changing things randomly. 

Nowadays it seems direct Telstra Wholesale customers that I've raised 
support calls with (Internode, AAPT) seem to have some line testing/NK 
code checking/DSL carrier capability with Telstra, so they can now do 
more to diagnose CPE/end user faults, something not possible/provided 
with Transact currently.
> True.  And, according to Paul Budde (mentioned before in this
> discussion), Telstra's 'new' 3G network is only really going to be
> useful to about 1% of the population.  So, 200,000 people are going to
> want the features of 3G, eh?  Well, Vodaphone already has 200,000
> customers on G3, Optus doesn't tell anyone its customer numbers,
> Hutchison has over 300,000, and 3 has over 100,000 (from memory - the
> figures are in Saturday's paper).  So 3G is already subscribed to, and
> anyone who needed 3G for some business or personal reason is probably
> already on it.  It looks like Telstra is trying to sell a dead dog.
>   
And I looked at the data pricing today to see if anything interesting 
was offered.  One look at excess data ($13/MB) told me nothing has 
really changed; now it's just faster to forfeit your house with mobile data.

Andrew