OT: ACCC and Anti-competitive behaviour

[Taymaishu]

Originally Posted by aus135i

was the developer Meriton ?

Nope, some Japanese developer i've never heard of before called Sekisui House.

[Dec540]

Far out, I thought I had it bad. I'm on a rim and get 8mbps down on a good day. Have to pay $99 a month for 50gb on and 50gb off peak incl. phone line rental.

I don't know if it's any better where you are but wireless sucks here. I would never have a wireless connection at home. I struggle to get 1 or 2 bars of 3g signal here and when i do it caps out at 2mbps down..

Internet in Australia is beyond a joke but it's something we just have to live with and hope that it gets better over time.

[gazz]

"I enquired with TPG and Optus to see if we could get a line in and they said they do not have permission to access any of the lines in the community, as it is owned by this other company."

If I were the conspiracy theory type the statement above would have me believing that this is a cartel arrangement. I.e. "you stay out of my patch and I'll stay out of yours."
Otherwise why would any business put up with this kind of denial of access in a free market? And where is the Govt' telecommunications regulator?

[chylld]

Originally Posted by Taymaishu

Nope, some Japanese developer i've never heard of before called Sekisui House.

I was about to joke that you're missing out on a certain type of internet "content" that would be fast and free

Then I googled it out of curiosity and found out that "Sekisui House" is actually a real property developer.

ha.

[mcmn]

Hi,

Can you PM me your address? I'll have a look into it. Is it a business park? or a housing estate? If it's a business park I'm sure there will be options

[AussieAlf]

Might be worth talking to the TIO as well.
http://www.tio.com.au

Cheers,
Alf

[Taymaishu]

Originally Posted by AussieAlf

Might be worth talking to the TIO as well.
http://www.tio.com.au

Cheers,
Alf

Hi Alf,

The ACCC suggested I call them as well. TIO turned out to be useless.

The response they gave me was that infrastructure ownership is out of their scope and the price of the service was purely a business decision by HomeLinx. ie: They don't want to do anything.

Cheers,

Tay

[mcmn]

Can I suggest you find out from the building owner if there is anything stopping you from providing your own internet service to the building?

Are the conduits / cross connects / inbuilding cabling owned by homelinx? or are they owned by you?

Best approach is if you cant beat them, bring in competition heheheh

paul

[Taymaishu]

Originally Posted by mcmn

Can I suggest you find out from the building owner if there is anything stopping you from providing your own internet service to the building?

Are the conduits / cross connects / inbuilding cabling owned by homelinx? or are they owned by you?

Best approach is if you cant beat them, bring in competition heheheh

paul

We all want competition here, trust me! Fuck it'd be awesome if we had TPG back here. I was on TPG before just down the road and was very close to the local exchange. Download speeds of around 1.2mb/s. Was fantastic!

[alik01]

Originally Posted by beemer

i wish you didn't tell me that, this govt is going to literally kill me

+1

[banglemangle]

Originally Posted by Taymaishu

I know there are a few legal eagles here, wanted to see what people think of my 'current battle'.

Our development community is around 10'000 people. When the community was developed in 2005 and first buildings went up, the developers signed an MOU of some sorts with a telecommunications company that was specifically set up to provide all the internet and telephone connections to the development.

When I moved in to the devleopment in December last year, it became apparent that there was only one provider of internet service and telephone service. The cost was about 2.5x the market rate just for internet.

I enquired with TPG and Optus to see if we could get a line in and they said they do not have permission to access any of the lines in the community, as it is owned by this other company.

So, residents have no choice if they want internet/telephone lines, they HAVE to go through the one provider and pay their extortionist costs.

I called the ACCC yesterday to discuss the issue. The conversation was about 40 minutes long and they logged my complaint. However, the ACCC being the complete paper tiger they are suggested i get "independent legal advice". WTF. So called a family member who is a lawyer and discussed it. I mentioned that any agreement made between the developer and the provider was in breach on s45 of the CCA (the old Trade Practices Act). They agreed.

I'm just wondering; despite any agreement that may have been in place between the developer and the provider, surely this is anti-competitive behaviour and also a breach of s45?

Sorry for the long-winded post.

Apology accepted

[dk130i]

Originally Posted by MickyD

Optus is selling the HFC (i.e. Cable) network to NBNCo for $800M*

I'm not 100% sure of what Telstra is selling, but I believe it's basically the copper network (and ducts) and cable network. I'm not sure if this includes the fibred communities.

*not bad for a network that's about to be end of life... as in the cable itself only lasts 20 years before for dielectric starts breaking down....

Telstra are not selling the network to NBN, they are leasing it to them for a period of 40 years. NBN simply get access to the existing ducts through which they have to pull fibre. Once the fibre is in place Telstra have to decommission the copper network but still own ducts and pits.

New fibred communities wil be built by NBN

This morning NBN Co announced that it had signed up Japanese tech giant Fujitsu to roll out fibre to new housing developments — known as greenfields — in a deal expected to be worth $100 million in the first 12 months.

With the deal now in place, Sparksman told ZDNet Australia, Fujitsu and NBN Co would be putting commercial fibre companies such as Openetworks out of business by offering developers to install this fibre upfront for no cost.

more here - http://www.zdnet.com.au/fujitsu-nbn-...-339314986.htm

[dh58]

Tay,
I asked my friend for you. Lets put it like this, he's in the know.

Its not illegal if they allow the competitors to put in their own equipment.. if they don't then its illegal.

Unfortunately under the telecoms act, it isn't illegal.

[Taymaishu]

Originally Posted by dh58

Tay,
I asked my friend for you. Lets put it like this, he's in the know.

Its not illegal if they allow the competitors to put in their own equipment.. if they don't then its illegal.

Unfortunately under the telecoms act, it isn't illegal.

Ok - got your PM, thanks! Will reply in a sec

Basically from what the other telco providers have told me, they are prevented from providing access to their networks by HomeLinx. That's all I've been told.

I am assuming that is why the TIO wouldn't do anything - because they're unable to. The ACCC guy I spoke with was quite understanding and he said they have received a similar complaint in the previous fortnight up in QLD.

The question now is, can competitors actually provide access? From what i've been told about HomeLinx; it's not possible.

[dh58]

Originally Posted by Taymaishu

Ok - got your PM, thanks! Will reply in a sec

Basically from what the other telco providers have told me, they are prevented from providing access to their networks by HomeLinx. That's all I've been told.

I am assuming that is why the TIO wouldn't do anything - because they're unable to. The ACCC guy I spoke with was quite understanding and he said they have received a similar complaint in the previous fortnight up in QLD.

The question now is, can competitors actually provide access? From what i've been told about HomeLinx; it's not possible.

There is a way to find out