NBN contracts reveal the state of Telstra’s ducts

Earlier this week, Telstra wrapped up its contracts for the duct remediation the carrier committed to under its National Broadband Network agreements. The telco contracted Visionstream to carry out remediation work in Victoria and Tasmania, at a cost of $AU90 million. Industry newsletter Communications Day has tallied up the …

[LaeMing]

Ducts?

I thought they were secondary stormwater pipes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Ducts?

They are.

Most of Telstras wiring and ducts are rotten and corroded.

All the management have decided to do, is when one wire fails, use another, then another etc., and when they are all gone, then share them, between users.....

All part of John Howards "up the share value" by "reducing the overheads" (like staff and maintenance).

12 years later, the shares are worthless, the CEO's for the most part, have been nothing more than corporate gold brickers, and the tax payer and the stupid share holders,. have footed the bills.

It's still a shit company though.

I have closed my accounts with them 10 years ago... never been back or ever intend too.

[P. Lee]

Not surprised

ADSL often drops out when it rains hard.

Mind-you, its only rather recently that we've stopped having power outages several times a month in suburban Melbourne.

[Neoc]

It's always been a standard joke...

It's always been a standard joke in QLD that it's a good thing it doesn't rain that often - every time it happens, landlines crackle and ADSL speeds plummet.

[mathew42]

What about direct buried cable?

I'm still curious as to what is going to happen on streets where the cable is direct buried. You will find many streets like this on inner-suburbia.

On my street there are several houses where the telephone connection is underground from the pit on the footpath and on the opposite side of the property to the electricity connection.

[-tim]

Re: What about direct buried cable?

How about all the subdivided lots where the phone line attaches to the front house with no options for buried or overhead lines? The last time I looked, they would be getting NBN via satellite since there won't be much 12 mb NBN wireless in urban areas.

[Oddb0d]

What IS direct buried cable?

I am not quite sure what you mean by "direct buried cable".

As a rule of thumb Telstra is responsible for maintenance up to the network boundary which on the average free-standing house ends either at the grey Madison box on the outside wall or the nearest socket inside the premises.

[Anonymous Coward]

1st Socket

They'll bill you for replacing it if its inside the house. :-) Don't you love vermin damage.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What IS direct buried cable?

At a guess, cable buried without being run through conduit/ducting. That how it's run to my house, or it seems that way. My reticulation control wiring runs in conduit about 1' underground and starts level with the phone cable entry point. Having dug down 1' the phone cable did not appear to be run through any conduit.

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder if using fibre for the connection will negate the requirement for a "certified installer" to do comms work in your house. The primary reason given for this requirement is that it is to protect guys up the line from getting buzzed if your work wasn't up to scratch and shorted to mains power or similar. If it's 100% fibre at the end then that reason goes away.

[JT163]

So the NBN will rent ducts, and Telstra will spend the money on making the ducts serviceable?

Hey why not feed the mayonaise to the tuna?

E.g. engineer the deal is such as way that Telstra does not end up owning national infrastructure....

I guess every pollie needs there post retirement/election sinecure...