AAPT a high-speed target

By RICHARD BRADDELL

Telecom's Australian offshoot AAPT will be a target customer when a subsidiary of rival Cable & Wireless Optus offers high-speed services over incumbent Telstra's local network.

Wholly owned Optus subsidiary XYZed has selected Lucent Technologies as the lead vendor of new-generation DSL facilities in a project aimed at securing a prime position in the burgeoning business market for high-speed data and internet.

It offers services to other carriers, including AAPT and parent Optus, in central business district and metropolitan areas of five Australian capital cities.

Its ability to offer DSL is only possible due to the decision by the Australian regulator to force incumbent Telstra to unbundle its local copper network to give competitors direct access to the copper lines rather than simply reselling Telstra's wholesale services.

The issue of local loop unbundling is being considered by the New Zealand inquiry into telecommunications, which has made a preliminary recommendation that it not be mandated yet.

But XYZed's chief financial officer, Ramon del Carmen, said unbundling was vital in gaining an early advantage in the marketplace.

This week he addressed the inquiry on behalf of Clear Communications, which has been the leading advocate of local loop unbundling in New Zealand.

"From Optus' perspective, it's expanding its footprint, it's expanding its market using the latest technology," Mr del Carmen told the Business Herald.

While XYZed's DSL rollout involved considerable investment risk, it also offered good opportunities for return, he said.

"As a wholly owned subsidiary of Optus, we will enable Optus to reduce its cost base because instead of relying on Telstra's ISDN and leased lines, Optus can purchase it from us.

"The future is broadband and we want to be one of the earlier players to establish a presence."

XYZed plans to operate from 129 of Telstra's exchanges, taking advantage of standard access obligations imposed by the Australian regulator.

Under those obligations, Telstra is required to allow competitors to "co-locate" their equipment in a Telstra exchange.