[x-pubpol] IPTV on the Australian National Broadband Network

[Joly MacFie]

I am just reading up on the latest developments regarding IPTV on the
Australian National Broadband Network.

I am having some trouble unraveling the arcana of the NBN white
paper<http://www.nbnco.com.au/assets/documents/multicast-product-prcing-overview-aug-11.pdf>
but  I
think I am beginning to get the picture. Excuse me if I occasionally
interchange 'channel' for media stream. An ISP is known as a retail service
provider (RSP)

1) One cannot offer the service unless one is also the customer's RSP
2) End user can be allotted 20 ($5) - 60 mbps ($25)
3) 3mbps minimum per channel. Example: SD of 3mbps = 5mbps channel, HD of
6mbps = 10 mpbs channel
4) End users will need extra capacity to allow for recording while viewing,
so double for each STB installed.
5) an IPTV  'multicast domain' to supply the streams requires a "point of
interconnect"
6) capacity is 100mbps - 1000mbps at $2.50/mbps/mo
6) a typical domain might be 20 SD channels and 10 HD channels = 180mpbs =
$450/mo
7) providers must supply TC_2 traffic class streams
8) first 200 channels are free (extra channels are $50 per) *  (minimum is
3mpbs)

Now this is where I get confused. It says "An Access Seeker has 60 Media
Streams, each dimensioned at 3 Mbps – totalling 180 Mbps – at each of the
121 Points-of-Interconnect. The Access Seeker Multicast Domain would
therefore be dimensioned at 200 Mbps at each of the 121
Points-of-Interconnect and priced according to the Multicast pricing
construct detailed earlier."

*But*, it just specified that one only a single point of interconnect (POI),
where does the 121 come from? So is the cost 121 * $450/mo?

Ah, reading the Internode
response<http://blog.internode.on.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/nbnco-multicast-feedback-as-submitted.pdf>
-
it becomes clear, indeed that is the case:  $54,450 / mo to cover the whole
country. Apparently the national number of POIs was just upped from 14 to
121<http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/381997/internode_rebuffs_conroy_poi_concerns/>
.

When the NBN was split off from Telstra, while being forced to share its
plant Telstra got to keep it legacy hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) cable business
(major content provider R.Murdoch esq.).  Internode, an ISP which already
supplies IPTV content via
FetchTV<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FetchTV_(Australia)>, suggests
politely that the above pricing scheme, combined with the RSP/IPTV nexus
requirement, essentially balkanizes & prices multicast IPTV out of the
market. Each ISP will have to set up its own multicast domain across all the
POI's it covers, and each user will have to buy the minimum 20mbps even if
only to view a single 3mpbs SD channel.  They suggest technical fixes be
implemented so that the provider will only have to backhaul to meet actual
demand at any given POI, and also be charged proportionately.

Internode's proposals:

1) ‘Domain 0’  - a basic service available via all RSPs, including pay tv,
 'community channels', and R.Murdoch.
2) The end user minimum be proportionately lowered to 3mpbs = $0.75/mo,
3) The multicast domain minimum be proportionately lowered to 15mpbs =
$37.50 plus the fix mentioned above.
4) TC_1 streams can be sufficient

A further point: Internode says another shortcoming of the NBN scheme is
that, under the IP Multicast protocol spec, what are referred to as "media
streams" are actually "multicast groups" which may include several
"streams".


  j

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Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
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