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Date:      Mon, 26 Mar 2001 17:14:57 +0930
From:      Mark Newton <newton@internode.com.au>
To:        Hugh Blandford <hugh@island.net.au>
Cc:        "Daniel O'Callaghan" <danny@helium.clari.net.au>, freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: DSL services to apartments
Message-ID:  <20010326171457.B76106@internode.com.au>
In-Reply-To: <004d01c0b5c4$2be4b440$088ea8c0@island.net.au>
References:  <Pine.BSF.3.96.1010324143255.5285C-100000@helium.clari.net.au> <00eb01c0b5ab$e7025a20$088ea8c0@island.net.au> <20010326154512.B74711@internode.com.au> <004d01c0b5c4$2be4b440$088ea8c0@island.net.au>

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On Mon, Mar 26, 2001 at 05:12:50PM +1000, Hugh Blandford wrote:

 > > On Mon, Mar 26, 2001 at 02:19:06PM +1000, Hugh Blandford wrote:
 > >  > I'm afraid that your main problem is going to be the communications
 > >  > regulations in Australia.  You will have to check with the ACA or
 > >  > read the 1997 Telecommunications Act but I believe you are only
 > >  > capable of running 5 lines to third parties.  After that you are
 > >  > considered to be a Telco and you will need to get a Telco licence.
 > >
 > > You made a typo:  You mentioned "5 lines" instead of "1 line."
 > 
 > I had another look, though not being a lawyer reading the act is a bit of a
 > guess but  section 26 basically means you can't have a single line over
 > 500 metres. Not too hard in an apartment block.
 > section 27 says that your aggregate of lines connecting distinct places
 > can't be over 5 kilometers.

Both of those clauses are talking about links where you're not engaged
in "supply to the public", i.e., links within your own company, which
are used exclusively by your own company.  Note that this means you can't,
say, put a web server in an outlying office connected to your main 
Internet link via a self-provide line link, because that web server would
then be providing "supply to the public" over an unlicensed link whenever
an Internet user retrieved a URL from it.

Section 26 says that you can string your own cable or run your own 
microwave links or stretch string between your tin cans across property
boundaries over distances up to 500m, provided both ends of the link
are within the same "immediate circle" (i.e., same company, same university,
links to employees houses, etc).  This avoids the need to buy services from
a carrier to connect buildings on a campus, or to connect your shopfront
to the engineering facility across the street.

Section 27 closes the loophole that would permit you to run links as
long as you wanted in 500m hops by saying that if you want to combine 
links, you can't end up with any aggregate path whatsoever more than 
5km long (so if you have a set of 500m hops from an employee's house to
your company over 1.5km, and another set of 500m hops to an outlying 
office 4km away, that'd be illegal, because the distance from your 
employee's house to your outlying office would then be 5.5km, which is
longer than the limit imposed by section 27).

Both of those rules go out the window if you're conducting "supply to 
the public" (e.g., if you're an ISP, and you have a 500m fibre to a 
nearby apartment block, and you're providing residents with broadband
connectivity).  You can't provide "supply to the public" over any 
self-provisioned link, no matter how short it is, unless you're a
licensed carrier.

International readers will now understand why Australian ISPs don't
run fibre all over the countryside like US and European ISPs do -- It's
because the Telecommunications Act imposes a licensing scheme over
the industry which creates large barriers to entry for small players:
Once you have a carrier license, you can expect legal bills of at least
$250,000 per annum to dot the i's and cross the t's with the ACA, and
you have to make annual contributions to the Universal Service Obligation
fund, and you need to construct your network in a manner which matches
the administrative and technical standards set by the regulatory body,
and..., and..., and...  Then when you actually start building your network
the costs only increase.

The result is a cartel of wholesale providers (currently Telstra and
Cable and Wireless Optus), which everyone else is forced to deal with
if they want connectivity interstate. 

 > So maybe you will be OK but as the ACA says you had better get a
 > professional opinion.

Sage advice.

  - mark

-- 
Mark Newton                               Email:  newton@internode.com.au (W)
Network Engineer                          Email:  newton@atdot.dotat.org  (H)
Internode Systems Pty Ltd                 Desk:   +61-8-82232999
"Network Man" - Anagram of "Mark Newton"  Mobile: +61-416-202-223

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