The first of what will surely be several deals was yesterday
announced with emerging regional player Soul gaining access to
Optus' massive new ADSL broadband network.
This news came just days after it became clear Internet service provider Westnet was dumping its existing upstream Internet bandwidth providers AAPT and Telstra in favour of Optus.
The Perth-based company's product development manager Chris Thomas' answer came swiftly after he was asked by several Whirlpool readers why Westnet was making the change.
"You obviously haven't been watching Telstra's change in attitude towards wholesale recently have you?" he replied.
Given the new upstream deal with Optus, Westnet can now be considered a prime candidate for a wholesale deal similar to Soul's.
Westnet is currently chafing under the inability to offer high-speed ADSL2+ services, as its wholesale provider Telstra currently only sells ADSL1.
"We've been very clear that we are looking at a number of options, and regardless of what Telstra does, we expect to have ADSL2+ access this year," Thomas wrote in another post several weeks ago.
Two other likely candidates for new wholesale deals with Optus are Pacific Internet and Exetel.
Both already use Optus existing business-grade network. Taking advantage of the SingTel subsidiary's rapidly expanding footprint is a logical next step.
In fact, in the coming years Optus will not have a problem finding people willing to buy its wholesale services.
Instead, the nation's number two telco might find itself not having enough capacity to supply demand.
The nation's number three ISP iiNet is already running out of ADSL2+ connections for its own customers, and iiNet doesn't even sell wholesale services.
A quick look at iiNet's ADSL2+ rollout status page reveals several metro areas have "limited port availability" for new connections.
Optus will need to manage its wholesale partners carefully over the next few years to ensure this problem doesn't become widespread as the Australian public's demand for broadband continues to grow.
And it will certainly need to differentiate itself from Telstra or risk gaining the same reputation.
What do you think? Will Optus become the new Telstra Wholesale or will it bear its new responsibilities gracefully? Send your thoughts to renai.lemay@zdnet.com.au.
Good discussion. Given that Telstra is shooting themselves in both feet (retail and wholesale), it will be interesting to seek if Optus can provide a quality alternative.