Telecom Next Generation Network

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Telecom Next Generation Network

Nz_Dude

36 posts

Geek

#6255 10-Jan-2006 21:36

Hey all,

Telecom are investing on average 1 million a day building this new network yet it hasnt been discussed here !

Why not talk about what we want and expect from this new amazing network, I have personally used it and its very cool. The video calling is super clear and your home internet connection is around about 25mbs i think dont hold me to that one....

Im personally looking forward to the fast internet and movies/programs on demand.... Sort of like mysky from what ive seen but a nice UI.

So share your thoughts on NZ's future 1.4 billion dollar network as most of us will be using it very very soon :P

Cheers

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ... | 7

BDFL - Memuneh
80647 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 41030

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#26086 10-Jan-2006 22:11

I can't discuss much because while working for Unisys (before doing Geekzone full time) I was involved in some parts of the project, and not sure if the things have been made public (some stuff including the migration to new systems, etc)...

But if I could have a 25Mbps connection at home, with a decent allowance and price the I would be tempted - not for the video calls, but movie downloads would be interesting. However for movie downloads to work it would have to be at least a 75GB (download) allowance every month - otherwise forget it! Not counting IPTV, radio streaming, photo sharing (heard of Microsoft Max?)

Hey, I am already using 10Mbps on TelstraClear and I am happy, so it has to be better to make me change after 6 years)...

Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies

Support Geekzone by subscribing (browse ads-free), or making a one-off or recurring donation through PressPatron.

Nz_Dude

36 posts

Geek

#26087 10-Jan-2006 22:22

"Network equipment vendor Alcatel will join Microsoft to market IP Television (IPTV) products to broadband providers worldwide"

Alcatel is building the telecom ngn network to.......

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
80647 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 41030

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#26088 10-Jan-2006 22:51

Good link, right?

Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies

Support Geekzone by subscribing (browse ads-free), or making a one-off or recurring donation through PressPatron.

Nz_Dude

36 posts

Geek

#26089 10-Jan-2006 23:05

http://www.telecom.co.nz/content/0,3900,200677-1548,00.html

"Microsoft
(A major Telecom alliance)"

From microsoft.com

"Two years ago, Telecom made a strategic decision to invest in Microsoft technology to rationalise its IT infrastructure. It sought a messaging and collaboration solution that would standardise platforms to lower TCO and enable enterprise-wide systems deployment."

If you search telecom and microsoft on google you will see they are very good friends. Same as when you search alcatel and microsoft.

Alcatel-Microsoft-Telecom= Well obvious a threesome but I bet it will be an impressive one!

paradoxsm

3000 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#26094 11-Jan-2006 02:14

I have seen it in action and can say, it's worth the hype, Looks like they might pull of the media side very well, especially with Msoft involved it will be very slick and clean too. Maybe they'll use the fibre installed at my house in 1994 at long last? Hmm.... (Pakuranga)

I currently use VOiP daily through woosh and noticed a slight degradation in quality from my old 64Kbit landline(standard homeline) which wore off after 2 minutes, I don't even notice it now. Quality is as good as my 3G Vodafone was.

The look at Vista I have had is very very nice indeed, Very MACOSX Panther but very XP windows too.

paradoxsm

3000 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#26096 11-Jan-2006 02:36

:ADVERTISMENT:

If you want to see sorta cools things like Vista has, see the below links.
While quite different, some themes and while a lot are just stolen MACOS ideas,, some skins and ideas are very similar. and some cool stuff though watch unreliablity with some programs. Check out "FlyAKite" if you want a Macindows.

Window Blinds
Object bar,
WinFX
DeskCustomise.
THIS is a bit too MACOSX

if this is too OT i'll post to a new thread.

Mighty Ape

Shop now at Mighty Ape (affiliate link).

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 9996

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#26098 11-Jan-2006 08:01

I predict the battle will be between managed & unmanaged networks. The Telcos have the upperhand in that they have the ability to reduce QoS or latency to cause problems for anybody who wants to save big $$ and run an unmanaged VoIP network all while they can charge a premium price for their own managed service.

Right now you can get a local VoIP phone service with number for $9.95 per month from iTalk or around $15 per month from another couple of providers. There is going to be no way in the world that Telecom are suddenly be going to offer you a home phone line for 1/2 the price they currently are now despite the cost of providing the whole service being slashed when they roll out their NG network. The problem they are going to face however is that the future of voice calling is free and they are going to have to work out how to structure their business to get around that substancial loss in calling revenue when essentially every house in the country has their phone plugged into an ethernet socket and the use of unmanaged services such as Skype really takes off. Slagging VoIP now in the media like Telecom have been doing is a no-brainer because it's exactly where they are headed and the problem is people are suddenly going to associate phone calls as a free commodity. TCL have stopped you getting cable without a phone (but through the other ISP's who offer cable it's still possible), it will be interesting to see what sort of pricing we are paying in 2 years time for a NG phone connection with internet access.

There is no disputing however that Telecom's network is a very very exciting prospect and it's cool to think NZ will be one of the first countries in the world to have such an advanced network! I just hope it works! :-)

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
80647 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 41030

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#26099 11-Jan-2006 08:07

paradoxsm: Window Blinds
Object bar,
WinFX
DeskCustomise.
THIS is a bit too MACOSX

if this is too OT i'll post to a new thread.

Had dinner with the guys from Stardock/Wincustomize while in Las Vegas during the 2006 International CES (first week of January) - good folks, good products - and they know Windows inside and out.

But, yes, it is OT, so please start another thread for this.

Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies

Support Geekzone by subscribing (browse ads-free), or making a one-off or recurring donation through PressPatron.

mpmorrison

42 posts

Geek

#26104 11-Jan-2006 09:28

Hmmm - not too sure about the sentence "NZ will be one of the first countries in the world to have such an advanced network"....
..if it were true, how come some places in Sweden can get 1 Gpbs internet connections, and we're only going to get 25 Mbps (if Telecom choose to offer it)?

On a similar point, what sort of bit rate TV are we talking about? Typically, i'm hearing in the range of 20 Mbps per channel for decent bit-rate, resolution and seamless viewing. So, 25 Mbps would be fine for a single person watching a single channel, but not for a family, or viewing/recording different channels etc. I haven't heard what sort of bandwidth MS/Alcatel were targeting for their IPTV - anyone know?

But good points re: VoIP - some dya Telecom are going to have to face up to it. The only way to stop it really is to keep the up-link bandwidth capped at 128 or 192 kbps - which I can't really see flying .... 25M/218k is a wee bit too assymetric.

Also, i'm not entirely sure on this, but are NZ and Aussie the only developed countries in the world that still have data limits on ADSL? I personally can't be bothered with wondering if i'm nearing 10 GB for the month etc., so i'm still on an unlimited data 256k connection - and I think i'll always stick with an unlimited connection, no matter what the speed.

Jama

1420 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1

Trusted

#26105 11-Jan-2006 09:43

I don't think Telecom are trying to stop VoIP. One of the reasons for the NGN is to offer consumer (home) VoIP services.

The head of SBC (AT&T) in the US summed it up last year when he said something like 'if those VoIP providers think they are going to use my pipes for free I have message for them....'

All very well saying that voice will be eventually 'free' but somewhere along the line that call will terminate onto a PSTN and then someone must pay.

jpwise

jpwise
591 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 13

Lifetime subscriber

#26106 11-Jan-2006 09:48

"TCL have stopped you getting cable without a phone (but through the other ISP's who offer cable it's still possible)"

Hrm... wonder when they did that. Probably just aswell I got mine hooked up as cable only a while back. At least before they introduced these crazy new plans that charge local traffic at international rates.

But back to the topic. Given the discussion I'm assuming this is ADSL2 that's on discussion?, not mobile.

Things I'd like to see would be local traffic being free, or at least only a nominal charge. It's unreasonable to charge someone the same price for 1mb of data the came from say Slovakia, as it is for 1mb of traffic that came from down the road. However to an extent some of that decision is with the ISP aswell.

Likewise, re-peering to the WIX & APE would assist with the above to keep local traffic costs down, but once again that's dependant on the isp.

Another thing I'd like to see would be the ability to get just the data connection without the requirement of having a voice connection aswell. Even if this had to be done in the same manner as with mobile data devices where it still has a phone number, blocked inbound+outbound (except emergency services), and a nominal fee (even $5 would be good), then your data connection rates on top of that.

The bulk of the above are things that could be implemented now, but if they're bringing out new connections, and voip gets pushed, they're the sort of thing I can see being requested to a much greatest extent. Particularly the data only connection.

Jp.

Working for Service Plus - serviceplus.co.nz

Authorised Service Provider for Apple, Asus, BenQ, Dynabook, Lenovo, and others - refer serviceplus.co.nz/brands

New World

Shop on-line at New World now for your groceries (affiliate link).

mpmorrison

42 posts

Geek

#26107 11-Jan-2006 09:56

Ha ha - i remember that interview with the SBC guy - got into a LOT of bad water their. He actually mentioned Google by name, and the interviewer mentioned Vonage in the important question, and pretty much said "if they expect to be provide their servers over our network for free, they've got another thing coming". That guy still hasn't lived it down...

And the "eventually free" will happen - because the way things are going, everyone is moving onto the Internet, and secondly because the big telco's won't be able to afford the maintenance on the old PSTN networks as they'll be looking after their new IP networks, so the PSTN's will enventually disappear.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 9996

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#26108 11-Jan-2006 09:59

Jama: I don't think Telecom are trying to stop VoIP. One of the reasons for the NGN is to offer consumer (home) VoIP services.

The head of SBC (AT&T) in the US summed it up last year when he said something like 'if those VoIP providers think they are going to use my pipes for free I have message for them....'

All very well saying that voice will be eventually 'free' but somewhere along the line that call will terminate onto a PSTN and then someone must pay.

But therein lies the problem - calls will no longer need to terminate on a PSTN if networks like Skype do take off. I'm not a big Skype fan but at the end of the day the company has the potential to be huge once all of these prototypes of desk and wi-fi phones with embedded skype finally make it onto the market and and no longer need to rely on having a PC to use Skype.

TCL have lost over $40 of revenue per month from my girlfriend because I now have Asterisk running at home and use MyNetFone which gives me 10c flat rate calls to anywhere in oz. Sure Telstra are getting the termination rates at the other end but I believe the wholesale termination rate in Australia is somewhere around 5c per call. Therein lies another problem where termination rates are cheaper inside a country than for networks from other countries - TCL could not offer me call for that price because they would be paying more than that for basic termination.

In regards to the comments by the SBC guy, it shows how many Telecoms people are like music company execs and stuck in the dark ages when it comes to the realities of the modern world. SBC are getting the revenue for VoIP in their charges for high speed cable internet. Like phones companies everywhere in the world they can no longer expect customers to pay heavily inflated prices so their companies can make large profits.

Jama

1420 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1

Trusted

#26112 11-Jan-2006 10:32

Because I like a good debate.

It is not just phone companies Genesis charge me $30 p/month for the privilege of having gas - that is the line charge.

If you delve a bit deeper may be you will discover that perhaps there is a fundamental flaw with capitalism. It is not necessarily the 'company' that 'expects customers to pay heavily inflated prices' but instead it is the shareholders who demand a relatively healthy 'return on investment'. If they don't get the return shareholders will punish the company by dumping the stock. Look at Michael Hill - they announce a profit downgrade and lose .60 cents (or 7.7%) of their market value in one day!

It easy to call companies greedy and excessive but hey lets be realistic. Telecom employ 6,000 people in NZ. That is a lot of PAYE, GST and company tax not to forget the discretionary income that is pumped back into the economy.

NZ is not that big and there are not a lot of options. So, if Telecom were to downsize and dump 50% of their staff where would those people go?

I can see us having this same discussion in 5 years time over the price of some unyet dreamed of service.

chiefie

I iz your trusted friend
5877 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 151

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#26117 11-Jan-2006 11:16

sbiddle:

TCL have lost over $40 of revenue per month from my girlfriend because I now have Asterisk running at home and use MyNetFone which gives me 10c flat rate calls to anywhere in oz.....

you have mentioned Asterisk a lot, i am curious as what it is... could you please care to explain more that more to me and how would one use, I like the sounds of having a local number in other area and can call it as if it is a "local" call...

is there a website about this product/service?

Internet is my backyard...

«Geekzone blog: Tech 'n Chips Takeaway» «Personal blog: And then...»

Please read the Geekzone's FUG

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ... | 7