(UK) - DSL Networks begin to strain

crawler

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=86485&WT.svl=news1_3

LONDON -- DSL providers usually don't guarantee the speeds they advertise. But the ISPs here are testing their customers' patience as they try to contend with wholesale rate hikes and increased retail price competition.

Sponge Bob

This could easily happen here in a scenario where eircom doubles port size (like last March and next month or next Feb/March) without giving adequate notice.

While eircom can up the ports with 21 days notice the backhaul (separately purchased) is on a 6 week provisioning cycle.

.. contention problems have coincided with a change in BT Wholesale's pricing model. Under the standard model, ISPs paid BT £40,000 (US$70,600) per year for a 155-Mbit/s central office, which would accomodate around 8,000 users, and then an additional fee for each ADSL line. But under the capacity-based pricing scheme introduced in 2004, the cost of the same 8,000-line central office rose to a flat rate of £316,200 ($558,157) per year, no matter how many users are actually connected -- hence the cramming.

BT also introduced a usage-based model, which works on the assumption that the average user will consume 20 kbit/s, equating to 200 megabytes per day. As the daily average has inched up to 300 and 400 megabytes, ISPs are losing more and more money on subscribers.

The BT 'assumption ' of 200mbytes a day is 6Gb a month averaged , but with a real life usage 'in the wild' of 12Gb a month in practise which sounds quite familiar .

Mind you £40k (€60k) 'flat rate' for a 155mbits sounds like quite a decent price from BT !

paulm17781

Sponge Bob wrote:

Mind you £40k (€60k) 'flat rate' for a 155mbits sounds like quite a decent price from BT !

What is the equivolent charge here or is that shrouded in mystery?

Sponge Bob

paulm17781 wrote:

What is the equivolent charge here or is that shrouded in mystery?

It used to be published (and shocking ) but as high capacity lines are no longer regulated IIRC it could even be quite competitive on a € per mbit basis

crawler

All wholesale pricing here

http://www.eircomwholesale.ie/

cgarvey

It's hardly anything unique to DSL, though, is it? Same market/backhaul issues will apply to wireless/cable (I was going to say satellite, but they're in a world of their own already) providers. For example, IBB

.cg

crawler

cgarvey wrote:

It's hardly anything unique to DSL, though, is it? Same market/backhaul issues will apply to wireless/cable (I was going to say satellite, but they're in a world of their own already) providers. For example, IBB

.cg

Correct but people do sometimes think that a DSL/Cable/Wireless broadband service will deliver a leased line type level of service

The laws of physics are not to be messed with. All technologies have limitations.

What is relevant here (and which I did not make clear) is that bitstream operators (have to) buy backhaul connectivity from eircom, some may be tempted to oversubscribe to a serious level (as is happening now in the UK) to make the cost per Customer that bit lower....however if people build their own networks and create true platform competition, they are masters of their own destiny...which can go either way (good or bad!)

secret_squirrel

crawler wrote:

Correct but people do sometimes think that a DSL/Cable/Wireless broadband service will deliver a leased line type level of service

Its a shocking thought that businesses are also making this mistake. Any business thats big enough to need a leased line should also have the cop on to realise the downsides of a contended DSL service.

Sponge Bob

crawler wrote:

What is relevant here (and which I did not make clear) is that bitstream operators (have to) buy backhaul connectivity from eircom

Would it not be fair to say 'normally have to buy ' because BT pick up their backhaul in the 10 or 11 regional pops (they have LLU gear since 2002 in each of them ) IIRC

secret_squirrel wrote:

Its a shocking thought that businesses are also making this mistake. Any business thats big enough to need a leased line should also have the cop on to realise the downsides of a contended DSL service.

at €35 for metro incl VAT , per month , the corollary applies, its a damn fine backup for a leased line . The leased line need only go down about 1 full business day a year to justify it if you are the kind of company that 'needs' a leased line.

aaronc

secret_squirrel wrote:

Its a shocking thought that businesses are also making this mistake. Any business thats big enough to need a leased line should also have the cop on to realise the downsides of a contended DSL service.

They should but it's the ones in the middle that are stuck. Try and get a uncontended 1Mbps or even 512Kbps in some business districts in Dublin let alone the rest of the country. The only option is a leased line and the cost of that can be hard to justify for a small to medium firm.

The twisted pair conduits could surely fit a few optical fibres if the motivation existed. It would all of a sudden be a lot more attractive to pay leased line prices if we were talking about 10Mbps or 100Mbps...

Aaron