ISPs still buying ADSL kit

Australian internet service providers are increasing their purchases of ADSL equipment, according to Ericsson, despite the potential for the construction of the National Broadband Network to make such investments irrelevant in the long term.

The Croydon (Vic) exchange area
(Credit: Telstra)

"Despite the global financial crisis in 2009, our ISP customers found it necessary to keep up with demand," said Ericsson Australia's broadband strategy manager Colin Goodwin in a statement. "Overall, ISPs actually spent around 10 per cent more on access equipment in 2009 than in 2008."

Ericsson counts iiNet, Internode, TransACT, Primus, TSN, Netspace and Adam Internet among its Australian ISP customers.

The construction of the NBN has the potential to undercut the investments in the long term, as it will see optical fibre cables laid down on the streets of the customers' premises; the current ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) infrastructure is based on copper cables.

But Goodwin said ISPs saw a strong business case for continued investments in ADSL. "In the drive for customer acquisition, there is ample time to earn a return on today's DSL networks," he said.

Some ISPs, the Ericsson executive added, were also investing in edge routing equipment which would support their own DSL networks, as well as connections to wholesale fibre to the premises networks — such as the NBN. iiNet, Optus, M2 Telecommunications and TransACT, for example, have all deployed Ericsson's SmartEdge router.

Communications Minister Senator Conroy has previously advised ISPs to continue to invest in ADSL infrastructure, despite the formation of NBN Co's mission to lay fibre to the home for 90 per cent of Australians.

He pointed out that the roll-out was happening over an eight-year time frame and that prices for the equipment had reduced while depreciation time frames were getting faster.