http://sortius-is-a-geek.com/?p=3187" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;This is when Matt really stepped up & found this gem inside Telstra’s own documentation hosted by the ACCC:
Well, there you have it, Telstra’s own design documentation stating that in urban areas 0.40mm & 0.32mm copper are the most common used. 0.64 copper is most widely used in “Rural & Remote” areas: read, covered by Wireless under the NBN.3.1.1 Transmission Limit Considerations
The only cable gauges installed in the network today are listed below;
The smallest gauge cable, 0.32mm, has inadequate transmission properties for normal urban use so is only used in areas where there is limited housing capacity and a short loop length requirement to the customer. In this model, 0.32mm cable would only be used in a CBD environment as sufficient duct space would be created in urban areas to install standard cable sizes.Access Network Dimensioning Rules Page 5 of 14
The 0.40mm gauge cable is the cable of choice in urban areas. In practice, it should be the heaviest cable gauge installed into the urban network today as network beyond the transmission limits of that cable should be on a fibre fed technology. For the purpose of this model, 0.64mm gauge cable may be used in urban areas to reach customers in DA’s which are currently fed by cable but are beyond 0.40mm transmission limits.
The heavier gauge cables are most often used in Rural and Remote areas. Of these, 0.64mm is currently the most widely used and is often used beyond its stated transmission limit, with voice levels maintained by utilising loading coils and additional active gain devices. 0.90mm cable was used in the rural and remote environments in the past for customers having excessive distance from the communications building, in recent times 0.64mm cable with active gain devices has mostly replaced 0.90mm cable.
This would mean that in areas with 0.40mm & 0.32mm copper you’d need a cabinet every 300m to 500m (MAX) down the cable run, along a street this could be as close as every 100m depending on the cable run. This would mean millions of cabinets, yes, millions, with only a few lines attached. We’re talking in the region of 4 to 10 lines per cabinet. Once the cost of the cabinet & ISAM are factored in, this takes the cost of deploying FTTN way over the Coalition’s claimed ~$30b build target.
The other option is to rip up all the 0.40mm & 0.32mm copper & replace it with 0.64mm copper right? Well, not if Mal is to believed when he states that the LNP will not need to touch as much pit & pipe. To install thicker cable, you first need to rip up the pit & pipe to install thicker pipe, bigger pits & wider turns in the cable run (as per section 3.1.1.2):
So that settles it, bringing cable up to spec for VDSL2 is something Telstra would only do in the “rare circumstances where transmission performance cannot be met otherwise”, not as part & parcel of deploying an FTTN network. The main reason is cost, the bigger the cable, the more kg/km, the bigger the pit & pipe, the more work required to get it into the ground.If a heavy gauge cable is required to be used in the urban model, it shall be used as the last section of Feeder cable before the pillar. In this location the thicker and heavier cable can be accommodated in the 100mm conduit and larger pits or manholes contained in the feeder network more easily than it could be in the distribution network. In addition, placement at the farthest portion of the main segment avoids the cable congestion that would occur closer to the exchange.
0.64mm cable is not to be used in the Distribution Network except in the rare circumstances where transmission performance cannot be met otherwise, as all pipe and pit sizes would need to be increased to accommodate the larger cable size and bending radius of the heavier cable.
Sure, Mal has said he’d do remediation on copper that’s not up to scratch, however he hasn’t explained how he’ll fit 0.64mm copper down pipe designed for 0.40mm or 0.32mm copper. In an 100 pair cable (most pillars have a few of these feeding streets) the differences can be in the order of centimetres when you include the larger insulation, bigger twists (all pairs are twisted) & the bigger shielding jacket required for thicker gauge wires.
No broadband policy, no AS policy. How do the LNP expect to win?