After this correspondence, an NDA was required. I don’t think I’ve got to the point of signing and scanning that yet – I really should (If @TelstraClear from Twitter reads this, I haven’t forgotten about getting this started – been busy busy, you know!)
Hi Mark,
Not to worry. It happens. So, let’s try this again!
I appreciate that dialup isn’t dead in New Zealand yet, however, assuming we keep the same company name in NZ as we do here (Hayai), selling Dialup services may not be entirely appropriate – Hayai is a Japanese word meaning “fast” or “quick”. The overall philosophy we have is to bring the level of speed and service available in most of Europe to New Zealand – at a reasonable price.
By comparison with Europe and Japan (areas in which I spend my time when I’m not in India), New Zealand broadband is quite rubbish. In France, I can have a triple-play service including a 100Mbit Fiber Optic Internet connection for a mere 30€ per month – and it is brilliant. Similarly in Finland (perhaps a better case study for New Zealand due to the population and density and so forth), I can get the same for about 50-55€ – all with unlimited data. My Finnish ISP uses about 3.5Gbits at any one time on all of their 3 connections at FICIX (so, just over 10.5Gbits in total), and I can download a file at as fast as my poor little laptop’s hard drive will go.
As for wireless, standard 3G is slow and expensive by comparison – I’ve seen Vodafones plans. Again, using Finland as an example, I used to have a 2Mbit, unlimited connection using a 3G phone (or dongle if I so chose) for all of 30€ per month. I used to use Fring to have international Skype conversations without paying a single cent to the operator.
Perhaps here there is an opening in the market for FSO and WiMax
operators: FSO could be used to provide a building wide network, which would share a 1.25Gbits uplink to the ISP, and WiMax could potentially be used in building an LTE network. I’m aware of Woosh and I think Maxnet and a couple of others who have Wireless products that don’t do as well as they could: would have to check why this is. Perhaps since I was last in New Zealand the place has come of age that a little USB-modem isn’t as unusual as it once was.
But, as mentioned in my original email, if it is possible for us to create our own DSL product and provide services and plans which we see fit, I would be only too happy to look in that direction – my main concern is being restricted in what I’m “allowed” to offer, considering I can only assume we get “second-rate” access under Telecom’s UBS system. Obviously, this is something we need to discuss in far greater detail.
Because of the state of copper here in India, we’re having to build our own Fiber to provide the level of service we’re after – so, if TCL is building Fiber, I would be be more interested in working with that than DSL. Additionally, we don’t have mirrors like you do there, which may be why you don’t see the same level of demand on your international links, though I can’t say for sure.
Perhaps part of the reason also is that the restrictive data caps on New Zealand internet services may come in to play here. We might find that if we offered 100Gbytes a month to everyone that we could support only ~2500 customers on an STM-1. Whether such a feat is possible at a reasonable price in New Zealand I can’t say yet – perhaps this is where we could differentiate ourselves from the other players in the market.
I appreciate that such high expectations may not be possible in New Zealand due to what I can only assume is significantly higher cost of wholesale bandwidth and international circuits – I don’t know about in New Zealand, but here I pay based on the amount of kilometers in my circuit. It works out to about US$400k per year for a Mumbai-Singapore link at 155Mbits (SMW4), and about 25% less using i2i. By comparison, I’m told a London-New York 10GigE link goes for about US$10k.
Another major cost for us is that we have to pay about US$1 per GB in peered downstream traffic, and subtract US$1 per GB in peered upstream traffic. At a 4:1 ratio, it still works out nearly 200% of the price of an international circuit. In New Zealand, I don’t yet know the rates so I can’t make a comparison, but I expect they should probably still be similar or less than this. In the US and Europe it’s basically free.
My reading of the latest report from Epitiro does suggest though that there is some congestion issues on the domestic trunk: even with 2.5Gbits capacity, it doesn’t seem to be enough, considering that the speeds in Dunedin are half that in Auckland. Perhaps we need to consider aggregating another 2.5Gbits line between Wellington and Auckland to mitigate that issue.
So with all this in mind, I have your product brochures, and would still like information on your VISP services, but if you wouldn’t mind, I would also like information on your other wholesale data products too, in case purchasing an IPLC is an option we can take with TCL.
Best Regards
Mathew Carley
> Hello Mathew
>
> Please excuse my previous correspondence – I had a rather busy and hectic day yesterday.
> Yes – we do receive a lot of emails from within New Zealand as well as international inquiries such as yours on a regular basis.
>
> I’m not sure VISP would be the best solution – however it really depends on if you wish to own your infrastructure or as a VISP customer – allows you to focus on pure Customer Service, Sales and Marketing – as TCL manage the back-end platforms of this product.
>
> Dial-up is not dead in this country – believe it or not.
> There is still a very large part of the internet market still using a cheap dial up solution – potential DSL customers…?
>
> The state of Broadband in this country – in fact is not rubbish at all – Telecom are currently building fibre to the home across the country – Vector, FX, City Link , Compass, Call-Plus, Orcon, Maxnet etc etc are all installing DSLAMS and building fibre to various exchanges across the country while TCL are is also in the middle of a very big project regarding LLU.
>
> I would have to also disagree on your statement that DSL is a mess here in NZ and the Wireless solutions are complete rubbish – try discussing this with Telecom, Vodafone, Compass and 2-Degrees – all have new 3G wireless networks.
>
> The only reason I asked if you were to move back to NZ and manage this new ISP is simple – you need to commit in today’s ISP environment – resources on the ground to assist your customers – this cannot be done remotely – I’ve seen the results.
>
> In regards to the STM-1 and STM-4 capacity you were requesting – there really is not that demand here in NZ for both domestic or International Traffic apart from 1 or 2 big players within the NZ market. VISP customers generally purchase MB’s for domestic and international bandwidth.
> I’m not sure the international bandwidth requirements and $$ to Tata or Bharti – but one can assume this is not relevant in comparing prices or capacity to the NZ market.
>
> I would suggest you carry our a little more due diligence on the DSL services here in New Zealand before committing to building your own ISP. This would help you to understand the current market place here in NZ.
>
> I have no doubt you are qualified and understand the necessary building blocks required to build and operate a ISP – but understand the market place here in New Zealand is currently going through some very radial changes.
>
> I can forward you more details on the TCL VISP product – just let me know.
>
> Regards
