Neither Telstra nor Opus are offering cable on new estates, and ADSL does not provide a platform for a full range of services.
The system is intended mainly for new residential developments, and a key component is the use of blown fibre. Microducts -- plastic tubes with a diameter similar to a drinking straw -- are installed as the premises are built. When the occupier orders services, an installer uses a compressed air gun to blow the fibre through the microduct from the home to a street cabinet that may be several hundred metres away. A residential gateway connects the fibre to copper wiring within the house and provides two phone lines with separate numbers plus a 10oBaseT Ethernet connection for data and video. Installation takes around 15 minutes.
This way, the carrier minimises the infrastructure investment until an occupier becomes a customer. It also offers great flexibility: if a single residence is replaced with dual-occupancy development, the fibre pair can be removed and a two-pair cable blown through in its place. Up to six pairs can be accommodated by a microduct.
Standard 432-pair fibre cables connect street cabinets to local nodes (which are basically Gigabit Ethernet switches). Several local nodes are connected by a fibre ring, along with a central node that links them to the carrier's metropolitan area network.
One home fibre connection is capable of supporting three or four set top boxes, six personal computers and six phone lines, according to Ericsson officials. Although the phone services are provided using voice over IP (VoIP), the available bandwidth means quality need not be compromised: "it's not a pretend phone service, it's a real one," said Colin Goodwin, strategic product manager - broadband access, Ericsson Australia.
The system can also be used for in-building services such as surveillance cameras, remote unlocking, messaging and energy control. While Ericsson offers the engineering, passive infrastructure, active nodes and switches, and services necessary to construct such a network, adherence to standards means many components are 'commodity' products, which keeps prices down.
Existing customers for the system includes Swedish telco Telia, KingCom (a regional Italian carrier), and various power companies in Sweden and Iceland that own fibre networks. A demonstration system has just arrived in Australia, and Ericsson hopes to interest local carriers and property developers.
Sounds awesome :) I wonder if its the same technology being used by Western Power in WA for their optical fibre broadband/telephone/tv offering?