Cup, Apec, New Year threat to NZ pipe

By Keith Newman

Telecom has introduced extra satellite capacity to overcome network overload at its Netgate internet gateway, used by the bulk of the country's internet service providers.

The action comes in response to criticism that performance at Telecom's Netgate had, in recent weeks, taken a dip. One ISP, which did not wish to be named, claimed it had only been able to drive data circuits at 60 per cent capacity because of overloading at the gateway. The overloading comes hard on the heels of Telecom Xtra announcing its unlimited, flat-rate Internet access service in June - a move subsequently mimicked by other major ISPs.

Telecom said the problem had now been resolved as satellite capacity had been added to its network from Commsat. No further measures would be taken until the Southern Cross fibre optic cable went live in January.

"We're confident satellites can meet the demand," said Mr Sowry.

But some remain unconvinced.

"I fear we may have a real internet Y2K problem on January 1, 2000, not because of bugs in the software, but simply because our pipes are too small," said Bruce Simpson, webmaster of the 7am.com and Aardvark news sites.

He was concerned that as well as the usual surge of traffic from new PC owners going on line but at Christmas, "every man and his dog from all corners of the globe will try to tune into the various web-cams around New Zealand at sites set up to promote our 'first into the new millennium' status."

Managing director Craig Meek of multimedia development house Terrabyte said the current situation was like having a high-pressure hose inside the country and only a garden hose going out.

The company conducted research on available bandwidth to determine the best way to host the web site for the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series and found our maximum outgoing traffic was no greater than 100megabit per second for the whole country. Mr Meek said gigabit per second speeds would be required for New Zealand to handle the internet traffic generated by such a major event as the America's Cup Regatta. As a result, the company must host the site offshore.

Mr Meek was concerned, too, that despite the talk of gigabits per second speeds possible with the Southern Cross cable, the desired effect would only occur if enough bandwidth was set aside for internet traffic.

He said there was also concern that the Apec meeting in Auckland in September would put strain on our telecommunications infrastructure.

"The sheer volume of calls alone will be an issue. The US delegation has literally hundreds of dedicated phone lines back to the US, plus the mobile networks and data services. It's a massive telecommunication requirement," said Telecom's Glen Sowry.

He said upgrade work had been carried out on Auckland exchanges in anticipation of the demand.

Over the next year the "bandwidth bottleneck" should be alleviated as the high speed undersea Southern Cross cable and new satellite-based circuits are bought into service. Telstra and Clear also plan to increase their capacity.

But the moves have not come quick enough to prevent criticism from those planning the communications side of the America's Cup.

Telecom has also been concerned by potential overload of its voice network caused by internet usage and has forced internet providers and users to move their access to a new type of network or face per minute charging. But the company is also contributing to the load on the internet gateway with its recently introduced fast Jetstream digital subscriber line Internet service.

Exact figures are hard to come by, but it is believed Telecom's total outbound capacity is 45Mbit/sec for Netgate. Many local ISPs have their own capacity too. It is believed Clear has about 40Mbit/sec, Telstra around 100Mbit/sec, and Ihug, which supplies bandwidth to about 90 ISPs in Australia and a couple locally, has about 50Mbit/sec spare, claiming an overall capacity of 150Mbit/sec. TVNZ also has access to international data circuits.

Telstra holds a "fairly large chunk" of transtasman capacity and is about to open up another slice from New Zealand to the US. However, the company has struck some "protracted negotiations" with Telecom on the delivery of that.

Telstra, which currently delivers raw bandwidth to Clear, Ihug, Netlink and other ISPs, as well as business customers including Fletcher Challenge, and would be buying capacity on Southern Cross.

Voyager, wholly owned by OzEmail, Australasia's largest internet services group - itself owned by MCI Worldcom, the world's largest IP backbone provider, also has satellite capacity to spare and access to the Southern Cross cable.

Clear Communications would not disclose its overall capacity, but has just signed off for an extra 4Mbit/sec for outbound traffic through Intelsat including cable and satellite capacity. It also has a relationship with Telstra to handle all Australian-bound traffic and as a back-up can re-route traffic. Clear has its own internet gateway, Clear Internet Exchange. Spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove said more cable capacity was about to be made available to Clear from another source, but would not elaborate.