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South Brisbane residents to get FTTP ahead of NBN

Telstra exchange upgrade

Telstra customers – and ISPs – in a Southern Brisbane exchange will get a taste of the NBN world not from NBN Co, but from Telstra.

The incumbent has revealed the details of an FTTP rollout triggered by the impending demolition of its existing South Brisbane exchange. The site will become a new children’s hospital, and covers the suburbs of South Brisbane, West End, Highgate Hill, Dutton Park and Fairfield.

Telstra is required to exit the exchange property by July 2013. Because the implementation of an FTTP network would “strand” existing DSL investments by Telstra’s competitors, the upgrade plan has involved discussions with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for more than six months.

The carrier’s wholesale arm has announced a wholesale fibre product, Fibre Access Broadband, with speeds ranging from 8 Mbps / 384 Kbps up to 100 Mbps / 5 Mbps. Telstra Wholesale says the product is designed to mimic its existing Layer 2 DSL Internet Grade product.

While retail ISPs would not use their own infrastructure (as they do when selling access from their own DSLAMs), most ISPs are also familiar with the business processes involved in reselling Telstra DSL services, since this is the only option they have for connecting customers outside their own footprint.

Telstra also says it will be working with NBN Co to see whether its South Brisbane rollout can be built to NBN specifications, and therefore compatible with the NBN when it is rolled out. ®

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