backbone

This page considers the telecommunications infrastructure in Australia.

It covers -

• introduction
• responsibilities
• the GII, NII and PSTN
• backbones

     introduction

Australia's telecommunications infrastructure reflects the nation's geography, history and markets. By the mid-1990s that infrastructure provided robust delivery of voice traffic to organisations and domestic consumers across Australia. It has, however, struggled to keep pace with increasing demand for delivery of data, with consequent questions about competition, divides, investment and security.

The Australian population reached the 20 million mark at the beginning of 2004. That population - somewhat smaller than greater Shanghai but roughly five times greater than New Zealand - is spread unevenly across 7.6 million square kilometres. (As a frame of reference New Zealand's area is 268,680 sq km, China's is 9.3m sq km). Around 56% of Australians live in the five largest cities. Population density in remote Australia is often low: half the continent contains only 0.3% of the population, with the most densely populated 1% of the continent having 84% of the population.

Telecommunications have been critical in ameliorating what historian Geoffrey Blainey characterised as the tyranny of distance. For much of last century there was thus a consensus that affordable access to the voice network was a social good, appropriately provided by a monopoly carrier whose operation featured cross-subsidies and protection against competition. Most traffic occurred within (and between) the three largest metropolitan centres. Delivery of services beyond the 'east coast spine' - particularly to regional and remote locations - faced formidable problems of distance, topography (eg mountains on Tasmania's west coast, severe temperature gradients in central Australia, periodic flooding and cyclones in the north.

We have suggested that the monopoly began to erode as early as the 1960s, with the development of virtual private networks by commercial organisations (initially media and financial services groups), government agencies and academic institutions using lines leased from the then government-owned national carrier.

It further eroded with relaxation of restrictions on what devices those institutional users could deploy at their nodes on a network that featured a mix of high-capacity coaxial cable and microwave on trunk routes - the intercity spines - with electromechanical and mechanical switches to routing voice traffic over copper wire from the kerb to the home.

Introduction of 'full' competition in telecommunication services from 1997 followed the emergence of alternatives in mobile telephony and high-capacity data networks within the CBD in the largest capitals, echoing developments overseas which saw market entrants build new infrastructure for a handful of corporate clients.

It also followed establishment of fibre-optic (and satellite) links between major regional and metropolitan centres and progressive digitisation of switching to accommodate demands for higher performance and lower cost as the dominant carrier became increasingly driven by revenue rather than investment targets.

Ambitious plans for a revolution through large-scale rollout of pay television infrastructure had not eventuated, with Optus's cable network and various microwave or satellite networks remaining beyond the reach - and arguably the interest - of most Australians. For many domestic and small business consumers the 'revolution' was restricted to choice in mobile services, a proliferation of billing plans and the opportunity to buy rather than lease handsets and other devices.

By 2003 there was substantial competition in the mobile voice market, with Telstra's share having declined to under 75% of mobile phone subscribers. Telstra at that time offered mobile connectivity in all metropolitan and regional centres (and along major highways). Coverage by its competitors was more patchy.

The dominant carrier's share had also eroded in high-volume data traffic across major centres (in particular financial areas within the largest capital cities) and between some centres, with competitors mixing their infrastructure with leased Telstra lines and switches to provide seamless alternative networks. 'Public' facilities such as neighbourhood call-boxes became an endangered species - victims of the drive to cut costs and uptake of mobile services - and not offset by the emergence of internet kiosks, cybercafes or wireless hot spots.

Although was competition in applications, much of the infrastructure remains in the hands of Telstra. That is likely to the case for some time, as Testra owns the wire from exchanges to most kerbs and then beyond to most households and businesses. Visions of competing suburban infrastructure - for example rollout of cable by the dominant utility provider in Canberra - have soured amid lower than projected consumer uptake, lack of investor enthusiasm and mere poor management. All Telstra's 5,500 exchanges are now linked by fibre but in most cases the "final mile" from the exchange to the home is still on the legacy copper network Telstra inherited from its days as the PMG Department.

Over 75% of Australian households and 70% of small businesses may have a personal computer (with 67% having home internet access), but connection to the internet will generally involve copper wire that is owned by Telstra and that was laid when network performance requirements were not much more demanding than sporadic voice calls. Substantial investment in upgrading the infrastructure between the handset/PC and the exchange seems unlikely.

That is of concern, as the landline infrastructure is proving incapable of providing broadband connectivity within many suburbs - and certainly outside metropolitan centres - and alternatives such as satellite are beyond the resources of most Australian households and organisations.

The following paragraphs highlight particular aspects of the infratructure, with an emphasis on internet connectivity.

     responsibilities

It is important to recognise that much of the 'intelligence' of the internet resides in the devices on the periphery of the network, rather than in central switches. It is thus qualitatively different to many institutional networks, where data storage/processing and network mananagement functions are the responsibility of a few central servers.

Management of the internet is thus increasingly involving ISPs and end-users rather that the dominant telecommunications providers, with attention for example to the closure of open relays that facilitate spam and consumer acceptance of responsibility for maintaining anti-virus protection on personal computers. In contrast to traditional voice networks, the telecommunication providers won't - and can't - take responsibility for all activity on the internet.

     the GII, NII and PSTN

In contrast to the US, Australian and New Zealand writers have largely avoided terms such as the National Information Infrastructure (NII) and Global Information Infrastructure (GII), discussed in the Networks & GII guide on this site. The Australasian part of the GII encompasses traffic over

• the public switched telephone network (PSTN), established over the past century
• private networks that interconnect with the public network.

The PSTN was primarily established for voice traffic and embodies over a century of investment. Its technological basis is uneven: a mix of recent digital switches in major exchanges, 1990s optical fibre on the backbone, different mobile phone systems (including the much-vaunted 3G), copper wire tying exchanges to households and many businesses with a technology that has not changed since the turn of last century and does not accommodate the traffic needs of 2004. With the introduction of competition it involves a number of players in Australia and New Zealand.

The private networks may be large or small (linking a handful of devices or a few hundred, within a building or across the nation) and sometimes involve dedicated - unswitched - connections over private lines that are owned by organisations or leased from a PSTN operators.

Australia's PSTN has two major components - the backbone (referred to as the trunk network in older literature) and the customer access network (CAN). It is referred to as 'switched' because the network operates through dial-up connections that are circuit switched through the network of exchanges to the called number, with the switched circuits become available for other telephone calls once the particular calls are completed.

     backbones

Australia's internet backbones, as forshadowed above, reflect the exigencies of geography.

Most overseas traffic travels via a handful of undersea fibre optic cables, with the main links terminating in Sydney and Melbourne.

Within Australia most traffic again involves fibre, with a high-capacity spine from Melbourne to Brisbane. That spine is typically buried some metres underground and links digital exchanges. It is supplemented by microwave and other links. Traffic across the Nullabor often travels by satellite. The nature of the internet, discussed in our Networks & GII guide, means that much traffic from one point to another within Australia is in fact routed via overseas locations.

Digitisation of exchanges permits handling of greater traffic than was possible with manual and electromechanical switches. It also permits deployment of call enhancement and other services, including SMS, voicemail, and caller ID and call waiting indicators. Access to Telstra's exchanges is emerging as a competition policy issue. In particular, some ISPs - competing with Telstra's Bigpond arm and potentially offering VOIP services - argue that inappropriate restrictions and costs are prevent them from establishing their own networks, forcing them to lease Telstra lines and switches.

The adequacy of lines from the exchanges to end-users, particularly residential users, has attracted increasing concern. In 2005 Telstra, in calling for special treatment by the government, indicated that 14% of all lines had faults. A leaked version of its Digital Compact & National Broadband Plan (seeking a $5.7 billion financial partnership with the federal Government) commented on the need to replace obsolete or non-vendor-supported equipment and legacy IT systems incapable of handling volumes and new services currently being offered.

Telstra also claimed that

$2 billion - $3 billion in additional investment in operating and capital expenditure should have been spent over the past 3-5 years.

Enthusiasts and vendors have hyped broadband over powerline (BPL) - aka digital powerline communication (PLC) - for voice and other traffic to the home or within the home. Regulatory and commercial issues of that technology are discussed in a supplementary note elsewhere on this site.




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