Telstra today gave some insight into the logistics of what needs to be done in order to build a national broadband network over the next five years — we also had a peek into one of the company's nodes.
Depending on the cooperation of 500 local councils, 50,000 of these Alcatel-Lucent manufactured nodes, or smaller versions of them, will be making their way to streets or yards. Telstra's COO Greg Winn admitted he expects this process to cause some problems — the company has faced similar issues in the past.
"There are still towers that haven't been built that were in the original plan. Why? Council approvals," he said. Telstra had to put the towers elsewhere.
"I'd like you to raise hands those of you who'd like [a node] in your yard... I'm waiting. Now how many of you would like to have it in somebody else's yard?" he joked.
He wanted the national broadband network to be free of such problems. "Somebody better have a 'super vote' to say when you start building you can build, or this thing's going to be a nightmare," he said.
(Credit: Suzanne Tindal/ZDNet.com.au)
looks like telstra's pretty sure of itself getting the bid, but each to there own, one point i am a little curious about, if that thing can handle 384 customers, then 800 metres each way from it generally would have a fair few more customers than 400...
also, may just be me, but personally I'd prefer telstra to mintuarise those huge things before they start plonking them everywhere