Site Re-Location

Over the next 24 hours or so, this site will be relocating to a different hosting provider. If you are reading this version of this article, you are now visiting the site from its new location.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank my previous provider, The Kilbot Factory, for all of their awesome support over the last three years that I have been with them.

Service has been awesome, and any niggly problems have always been resolved promptly and efficiently. I can’t speak more highly of what they have done to support the growth of my site.

I am sad to have chosen to move on, but with plans I have for new features over the coming months, I have outgrown their shared hosting plan, and am moving to my own hosted server.

I highly recommend them to anyone starting out with web hosting – their low-cost plans are close to unbeatable in that part of the market space.

Welcome to the other side!

NBN: The RFD and the ICMD Agreements

In this the sixth and penultimate instalment of my series on the recently signed Telstra/NBN Co deal, I will highlight what I believe are the interesting and/or important parts of the second and third of the agreements between Telstra and the Commonwealth – the Retraining Funding Deed (RFD) and the Information Campaign and Migration Deed (ICMD).

I’ve chosen to do these two agreements as a single article, because they are both quite short in their detail.

All descriptions are taken from the Telstra release to the ASX.

In part, the RFD as described is:

“The Retraining Funding Deed sets out the terms on which the Commonwealth will provide funding for Telstra to retrain certain staff over an 8 year period.”

And the ICMD as described is:

“The Information Campaign and Migration Deed sets out residual commitments by the Commonwealth relating to the valuation of the proposal and migration of customers to the NBN.”

Straight off the bat, both the RFD and ICMD are largely deal sweeteners for Telstra.

We have to remember that Telstra are being asked – (and have in principle agreed) – to give up a great deal of competitive edge in the marketplace by moving to come to the terms of this entire suite of agreements regarding its participation in the NBN project as a whole.

They have built up substantial goodwill within their business operations – both before and after they were privatised – and relinquishing their monopolistic hold over telecommunications infrastructure in this country deserves a substantial return for doing so.

Obviously, approximately eleven billion dollars is a “substantial return” – but there’s more to it than money, and these two agreements go towards looking after the non-financial aspects to agreeing to get out of the wholesale business.

The RFD seeks to ensure that Telstra staff – predominantly, field engineers/linespersons – are not just dumped on the employment scrap heap.

Telstra employs a huge workforce of these engineers, and if they are to no longer be responsible for the network, under normal circumstances they would be out of a job. As such, the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) has agreed to pay Telstra $100M over eight years for the retraining of staff.

This retraining is designed to “support the availability of an appropriately trained workforce for the NBN” and to “establish a retraining agreement for Telstra staff who may otherwise have faced redundancy due to the rollout of the NBN.”

Given the small amount included in the description of the RFD, it is not exactly clear what this means.

This could mean that all of these engineers will remain on the Telstra payroll, with government funding for training in skills relating to optical fibre networks, and that NBN Co will subcontract field engineering works to Telstra over the life of the NBN.

It could also mean that all of these engineers will be progressively transferred, region by region, to the NBN Co payroll as the network rolls out region by region – which begs the question “why pay Telstra money to train staff who then move to NBN Co, when you could just move them to NBN Co and have the training done there?”

Admittedly the first scenario seems the most likely, but if it were to be the second, the $100M might make it easier for Telstra to look after employee benefits for people who are technically leaving the company.

Perhaps reading between the lines a little too much, but because there is so little information available on the RFD, we can only speculate.

Onto the ICMD, which is equally “thin” on detail, and represents another cherry on top of the NBN cupcake for Telstra.

The Commonwealth has agreed to set up a public education program to be run by NBN Co to make sure that end users understand how the migration will affect them. It is quite reasonable to expect that Telstra will incur costs notifying existing customers that their services will be moving to the NBN fibre network.

As such the Commonwealth will make residual payments to Telstra – (amount not specified at this stage) – to allow Telstra to cover those costs “in certain circumstances”. These circumstances are not mentioned at all, and the full agreement will be required to understand exactly what this means, and how much it might cost.

Vague and vaguer, but I am sure the full details will come to light in the coming weeks and months as the Telstra shareholder vote approaches.

As I said at the start, not a lot in these two agreements – just some more housekeeping. It is concerning in regards to the lack of real detail, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for more.

That will bring me to the final agreement, the Commonwealth Guarantee, which I will discuss in the final part of my series.

NBN: TUSMA Agreement

After a short break – (other commitments have kept me busy for the last week) – here is the next and fifth instalment of my series on the recently signed Telstra/NBN Co deal. Today I will highlight what I believe are the interesting and/or important parts of the first of the agreements between Telstra and the Commonwealth – the TUSMA Agreement (TA).

All descriptions are taken from the Telstra release to the ASX.

In part, the TA as described is:

“The intention of the Government is to implement USO reform so that delivery of universal service outcomes and other public interest services will progressively transition from a regulatory model (with obligations imposed directly on Telstra and other service providers), to an open competitive contractual model. TUSMA, a Government statutory agency, will progressively assume responsibility for delivery of the USO and other public interest obligations and will fulfil its statutory functions by contracting with Telstra and third parties on behalf of the government.”

Firstly, a definition of the USO. Under the USO – (with Telstra currently being the default, and in most cases, only provider) – all Australians are required to have made available to them, access to a standard telephone service (STS), as defined in the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999. For most people this includes:

  • Local, national and international calls.
  • 24 hour access to emergency service numbers, free of charge.
  • A unique telephone number with a directory listing, unless the customer requests otherwise.
  • Operator assisted services.
  • Directory assistance.
  • Itemised billing, including itemised local calls on request.

For protecting the USO in the NBN world, where Telstra will no longer be the owner of the majority of the carriage network, the government will form the Telecommunications Universal Service Management Agency (TUSMA).

Currently, Telstra looks after almost all USO requirements in Australia, but TUSMA will take over this, and seek to ensure that STS and payphone services remain accessible on a reasonable and equitable basis to all Australians, just as happens how through Telstra’s USO obligations.

This lays down a key point – basic services are protected. Many had a fear that with a shut down Telstra copper network, this would disappear.

Frankly, that was never going to happen – any government would be committing suicide by taking that protection away. The TA also ensures that in non-NBN fibre areas, the existing copper network would be maintained to allow for the continuation of an STS to people in those areas.

Many people also feared that the copper would be switched off in non-fibre areas, forcing people onto latent wireless and satellite services for basic telephony. This further reiterates – as did the NBN Subscriber Agreement (SA) – that copper network services will be maintained in the 94th to 100th percentile of the NBN coverage areas.

If you are out there in that 7%, you are not losing your copper. It stays. Full stop.

The TUSMA agreement will be in place on 1 July 2012, and overall will be in place for 20 years – though some modules may be assigned shorter time frames. The 20 year period appears designed to map neatly against the 20 year agreements between Telstra and NBN Co for Telstra to exclusively use the fibre network for premises connections.

For ongoing STS purposes, Telstra retains its position as the ROLAR – the “retail provider of last resort” – for customers wishing to take up an STS only, whether that be over a fibre connection in the 93% fibre footprint, or on the coppper in the last 7%.

Indeed, in that last 7%, Telstra is likely to remain the only possible provider of a default STS.

For the 20 year life of the agreement, Telstra remain obliged to supply, install and maintain payphone services. This will include all existing payphones in operation at the commencement date of the agreement, and any new phones required over that time.

To achieve this, TUSMA will pay Telstra $40m a year – an amount that can be altered if the number of payphones increases or decreases within a specified range.

As the NBN fibre is being rolled out, it is TUSMA who decides whether individual payphones are migrated to the fibre network, altered to operate using an alternative technology – (such as wireless) – or whether the payphone is offered to another provider to operate instead of Telstra.

This is an interesting one for me.

I would envisage that the majority of payphones in fibre areas will be migrated to the fibre, and things will carry on as per normal. However, that they are allowed to use an “alternative technology” for deployment – (presumably wireless) – suggests that Telstra might already consider that really low volume sites are going to be cheaper to operate over wireless connections.

That other providers might be offered some sites also suggests that Telstra still has a lot of existing, less-profitable payphone sites they really want to close down completely.

This agreement appears to provide the mechanism for all of these potential outcomes to occur.

As a region – (approximately 3000 premises) – is rolled out with NBN fibre, and it is within six months of the copper services in that region being shut down, TUSMA will fund Telstra – (or another service provider) – to migrate that customer onto the NBN fibre for STS only customers.

This appears to be a mechanism to allow people who do not understand what is going on – (most likely pensioners in particular) – to not be left out of pocket or without a telephone should they just wish to continue with their basic telephone only.

Under the TA, Telstra will be contracted for a period of 20 years to provide emergency call services, and be entitled to funding up to $20m a year for providing that service – with that funding coming from TUSMA. The interesting thing here is that within 5 years of the commencement date of the agreements, TUSMA must issue a tender for the supply of ongoing emergency call services.

This means other companies could come in and win that tender out from underneath Telstra, and take over that role. Presumably, the winning tenderer will also be limited to that $20m of annual funding from TUSMA.

Obviously, the 20 year agreement to provide the emergency call services with Telstra would cease if another company won the tender.

As with the agreements between Telstra and NBN Co, the TA between the government and Telstra also provides standard sorts of penalties and remedies for non-compliance, and early termination of agreements, should there be material reasons that affect the continuation of the contract, or individual services over which the agreement has jurisdiction.

Overall, for me the TA is not a lot more than a basic housekeeping document, to make sure that service standards that are expected by Australians now, are maintained in the post-NBN world.

Telstra could not reasonably be expected to maintain those services given the loss of their monopoly copper network in most areas, without an agreement like this in place – given that the goal of the structural separation of Telstra is to pull them away from the control of the network.

This makes sure that there is still a mechanism in place – whether it be through Telstra or someone else – to ensure everyone has continued access to a basic service.

Newspaper Fail With Principle

Just stumbled across this article talking about a “principle” who has stated that students are unfairly labelled as bullies.

Should that be “principal”? Obviously the headline writer didn’t follow the “principle” of getting a good education and learning how to spell “principal”.

Fail.

Joan Kirner or Chicken Pox?

Saw this outside my office window on Friday afternoon – and could not help but wonder whether this was former Victorian premier Joan Kirner out for a quick drive in the city, or a bad case of chicken pox?

Why would ANYONE do that to their car?

V/Line: The Cleanup Progresses!

If you stopped by my site yesterday, you would have caught a set of images I took onboard my regular 16:37 V/Line service to North Geelong.

It was pretty gross.

Well, 24 hours on – guess what happened? Same carriage…1207 from V/Locity set VL07…and they’ve attempted to clean it up. I guess they tried at least, but as you can see, didn’t really make a good fist of it.

If you compare these to yesterday’s photos, clearly it is the same stain – just less of it.

Try as they may, one must wonder one thing – with two of the four RFR lines closed down, you’d think there would be plenty of spare carriages hanging around.

How about we take this one out of service for a few days and clean it properly?

Your Train Is Ready For Boarding!

Boarding my regular 16:37 Southern Cross to North Geelong service this evening, I discovered this in the front most carriage.

Nice, isn’t it? Want a closer look?

The worst part was that a conductor walked through the carriage, saw the mess, and did nothing about it.

This train was NOT ready for boarding. Lift your game V/Line – that’s disgusting!

NBN – Access Deed

In the fourth instalment of my series on the recently signed Telstra/NBN Co deal, I will highlight what I believe are the interesting and/or important parts of the fourth of the eight individual agreements – the Access Deed (AD).

All descriptions are taken from the Telstra release to the ASX.

As a summary, the AD as described is:

“The AD documents the high-level commitments made by NBN Co to Telstra in respect of the terms of supply for NBN Co’s Basic Service Offering (BSO) and the charging for certain wholesale supply services. As NBN Co’s product and service offering remains under development, and will be subject to industry consultation, the complete terms of supply are not yet able to be agreed and documented. Nothing in the AD prevents NBN Co from complying with its legislative obligations not to discriminate between access seekers.”

The AD is interesting straight out of the box, in that it appears to currently not to be technically complete – the statement that it is not yet able to be agreed and documented in its entirety makes this clear.

Should we be worried about that?

I don’t think so – it is a statement that does allow for the fact that the exact final form of NBN Co’s product set is not set in stone, and that the agreement has come together on the basis of how that product suite stands at the moment.

Given the rollout is still in the trial phase, and minor changes might still be made to the product set which might have an effect on some terms of the agreement, that appears to be all they are catering for with that statement.

What they are ultimately saying is that any potential changes – (albeit minor) – are not expected to materially affect the entire agreement between the two parties – merely the potential that some minor details might change have been taken into account.

Looking now at the detail, the first point is that the AD will only apply for five years from the commencement date – (yet to be confirmed) – of the agreement. This is a simple declaration that the terms under which the AD was agreed only apply for those five years, rather than the twenty or more year terms of some of the clauses in the other agreements.

Whilst the length of some of those earlier terms appear primarily designed to support the NBN Co business case – as released last December – the AD gives Telstra and NBN Co a little more leeway on how the pricing structure evolves over time.

Why?

I think it is not much more than a case of making sure the pricing terms between NBN Co and Telstra are not locked into for an extended period of time, just in case it turns out that the pricing terms are not working as expected.

It’s a “get out of jail early” card so it is not locked in for the twenty years or more that some other parts of the various agreements stipulate, and I think that’s sensible.

Moving on, the AD states that once NBN Co starts to supply wholesale products to Telstra, it must offer to supply the BSO within the fibre footprint.

At first glance this appears to be a “duh” statement – of course that’s would happen – but this might be a tie-in to the Subscriber Agreement, where Telstra made the commitment to offer NBN fibre as the default fixed premises connection for a period of twenty years.

This clause could simply be a case of NBN Co making sure that Telstra will be able to meet that commitment, by ensuring by contract that NBN Co supply them the BSO to do so. The clause also is specific to the “fibre footprint” only, thereby allowing Telstra to continue to offer wholesale xDSL services outside of the fibre footprint.

Crossing all the T’s and dotting all the I’s.

The BSO is also specifically defined in the agreement as a “12Mbps/1Mbps PIR” service, with best effort, no quality of service commitments for internet data. NBN Co must not charge Telstra more than the already announced $24.00pcm price for the BSO, or make any submission to the ACCC in a Special Access Undertaking (SAU) that would see Telstra charged more than this.

Confused?

Basically this means that the current price of $24.00pcm must be charged to Telstra for the BSO – nothing more, nothing less – but in the case of an SAU where the ACCC may agree that to service certain locations it may be reasonable to expect NBN Co to charge more than $24.00pcm, Telstra would still only be charged $24.00pcm.

This might mean that Telstra has a slight pricing advantage in SAU cases. If I am reading that correctly, this is a concern – however the ACCC has already stipulated that the conditions under which an SAU would be granted to an NBN Co service would be difficult to meet, and I would expect these cases to be very few and far between.

NBN Co also commits to in such circumstance any of their wholesale products become available on more favourable terms than agreed to in these agreements, those new terms must be offered to Telstra, guaranteeing that no other access seeker will have a more favourable arrangement for the supply of the BSO.

Given that the AD summary states that “nothing in the AD prevents NBN Co from complying with its legislative obligations not to discriminate between access seekers”, I would not expect other access seekers to not get the same deal. This is just Telstra “making absolutely sure”.

In relation to the installation of a service, NBN Co must not charge Telstra for “standard installations”, and in the case of “non-standard installations” may only charge Telstra for the difference between the cost of a standard installation and the non-standard installation in question. Fairly simple, and largely similar to how Telstra operates now with its monopoly copper network at the wholesale level.

As with the other agreements, the standard sorts of termination clauses are also included.

Over the range of the four agreements Telstra and NBN Co have signed between them, Telstra offers a lot to NBN Co to assist the rollout and support its business plan. This AD appears to me to be the “cream” on the surface to sweeten the deal for Telstra towards the other three agreements.

Given that Telstra are agreeing to give up their fixed line monopoly in 93% of the nation, that definitely seems fair enough.

Getting Old, Need Glasses

At my regular annual eye check last week – (pretty much compulsory for a diabetic) – it was suggested that I should probably be getting classes for closeup work – (reading, computer, etc).

Ordered Saturday, arrived today. Nice work SpecSavers!

Fogging Hell!

Having spent most of today in a training session in Werribee – (very handy for a Geelong resident!) – I was rather surprised to emerge and discover the ridiculous fog hanging around.

Fog is common in this part of the world at this time of the year…but in the MORNINGS, and not at 5pm in the afternoon. I took the above shot approaching the Little River exit on the Princes Freeway.

Mad.