Thanks Klogg, must admit I had a quick look at this before work after seeing your first post and couldn't find much.
Yes, the major players aren't very vocal about it at all... You would think NBN Co would be shouting this from the rooftops, given all the negative press.
I have a feeling the NBN trial in relation to mobile network backhaul (with Vodafone) have more to do with regional areas than they do metropolitan city areas. I suspect there's much less competition in those areas because it's very expensive to build the technology (and less scale etc.).
At the moment, yes. But what happens if the NBN becomes the cheaper option for backhaul? As I understand it, NBN charge for bandwidth, whereas the current utilisation is charged based on data usage. I could be wrong though, needs more work on my part.
Do Telstra and Optus use a bit of satellite technology for some of those regional areas?
From what I've read, the costs are too prohibitive for this to happen. I've only ever seen reference to satelites being used for emergency services or corporate requirements (i.e. where the customer can afford the service).
Then there's 5G, which Telstra is paying a lot of money to get a headstart. I remember reading they even paid big money to send personnel to get involved in the development / testing overseas. In some areas the technology is rumoured to trump the NBN too.
FWIW - the 20Gbps is the theoretical maximum, but the real speeds will be nowhere near that. I believe 4G LTE is quoted at 100Mbps, but the reality is users achieve about 20Mbps.
I'm just not sure how it can trump the NBN though... It can only go as fast as the backhaul allows. If CVC charges weren't so prohibitive, there's no reason why NBN can't provide this level of service, if not more. From memory, a single strand of fibre can accomodate for 1Tbps (1,000Gbps)... Sure, each consumer won't get this, but imagine what the technological limits (rather than financial limits) are.
In a way it's like a nuclear arms race at the moment. Only the big players have the balance sheets to fund it.
EDIT: And of course, then the phone carriers need to build towers every where... and have the technology to transmit all of the different frequencies. Does my head in.
Yeah, it's one of those industries where a few big players just makes sense. Unless the government wants to take part in all of the big capex, it must rely on some big private enterprise. What's even more interesting is that there's a huge amount of noise for the retail component (i.e. NBN developments) but the developments in the corporate space don't even get a mention. Anyone who provides dark fibre to corporates should be able to build a nice competitive advantage without any real problems.
As for the frequencies that are sold... they still confuse me a little. I understand that they split of certain bands and auction them, but I don't quite understand the terms... (e.g. is it Aus wide? How long is it for? Do they sub-let it, if so for how much? etc.)
It's all very confusing, but really fascinating!