The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group
In the Hot Seat
Dave Botherway
 daveb@melbpc.org.au

A number of Members have been asking - when we will begin providing our own broadband Internet Service? It's a good question, and an area that we are constantly exploring. Let me give you an update.

Dial Up Internet

Currently we provide Dial-Up access to our Internet Service, and have won top ranking compared to other Internet Service Providers (ISPs ) in consumer surveys. About half of our 10,000 members are full subscribers, and enjoy the excellent service at a very competitive price, thanks to the great volunteer support provided by our technical and Help teams

Competition is relatively easy due to the "level playing field" for Dial-Up services; that is, we use the same phone line to reach into any ISP's data centre (local call assumed), and pay the same cost per call. ISPs then differentiate their offerings based on hours-per-month connect time. Those that offer "Unlimited" hours, then usually qualify usage based on download traffic for that month. Note: Melb PC has always had Unlimited Downloads and now, "nearly" unlimited hours usage.

Broadband Differences

However, broadband is different-and needs a different Home-to-ISP connection method. While some may use cable (Optus or Telstra/Foxtel), wireless (iBurst), fibre (TransAct-Canberra) or even their power lines (Aurora-Hobart), most of us in Melbourne can only use ADSL; an extra service run over our existing phone wiring. For most domestic premises Telstra has provided those "copper wires" and thus has a partial monopoly on that infrastructure. Further details were outlined in PC Update November 2005 and April 2006, courtesy of Matt Rocke.

Whereas a Dial-Up provides the complete link from Home to ISP, ADSL needs three components

  • access to the Home-to-Exchange cabling (ULL, unbundled local loop)
  • DSI. Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) equipment in each Exchange
  • trunking from each exchange back tothe ISP premises.
With deregulation now in place, Telstra has made the ULL and DSLAM elements available to competitors at a wholesale rate of $22 per subscriber per month. The larger ISPs (such as Optus and Iinet) have been able to reduce this amount by installing their own DSLAMs (a multi-million dollar investment) and / or offering large numbers of subscribers (50,000 plus) to get function and volume discounts. But this is only a start, as there is still the needed trunking - and all the existing ISP costs (Servers, Storage, Internet Backbone traffic etc) to be covered.

Implications for Melb PC

Our smaller size precludes volume discounts or having our own DSLAMs and trunking. Outsourcing all of this to get simply a 256k ADSL link from member's homes to our equipment at Burnley approaches $29 per month. To this, we need to add about $11 for our equipment and backbone costs totalling $40 per month - plus extra support and billing costs. Clearly uncompetitive when others can seemingly "offer" equivalent service for $15. How do they do it? They offer a mixture of services:
  • offer the 256k service at a loss, balanced with higher speed "business services
  • have a low Download threshold, picking up extra revenue from excess traffic
  • bundle it with TV, standard or mobile phone services - for 2-year contracts.
None of these are readily applicable to Melb PC, hence our need to keep researching beyond ADSL for an appropriate infrastructure. I'd welcome any extra ideas and comments to In the interim, we recommend Westnet (No.1 in Customer Satisfaction as Broadband Providers) - where via technical and agency agreements, the group can establish peer connectivity and get a small commission.

Mail-Box Expansion and Auto Deletion

Another question from Internet Members - Can I have a larger e-Mail box? Having looked at the way Mailboxes are being used, we see many overflowing with old messages, mostly spam. To help these two issues, we are following the examples of other ISPs and from 1May 2006 (as advised in earlier messages to subscribers), the group will be
  • automatically deleting messages older than three months,
  • reallocating the saved space into larger mailboxes, from 8 to 10 MB,
  • maybe later 12 MB or more pending the auto-deleting results.
Be sure to review any needed messages that you had quietly stored away.

May 2006 Monthly Meeting

A further question from Members; how can I upgrade my ageing computer? This month at our main meeting, our own George Skarbek (of Age newspaper fame) will provide some essential guidance. As well, we will have an presentation from AMD demonstrating its latest processor-seemingly outpacing Intel.

So join us at 7.00 pill on Wednesday 3 May at Deakin University, Burwood. I'll be there.

Reprinted from the May 2006 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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