Senate Estimates Committee

18 February 2002

Committee name: ENVIRONMENT, COMMUNICATION, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE ARTS LEGISLATION 

Department: COMMUNICATIONS, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE ARTS PORTFOLIO 

Program: Telstra

Senator LUNDY —Can I ask a couple of questions about line sharing and Pair Gains. Can you tell me what proportion of Telstra's consumer access network would deploy the practice of Pair Gains?

Mr Scales —Do you mean in actual percentage of the total copper network?

Senator LUNDY —Yes.

Mr Scales —I cannot tell you that off the top of my head, I must say. 

Mr Barda —I will take the number on notice, but generally it is a fairly smallish number.

Senator LUNDY —Ten per cent or five per cent?

Mr Barda —I will have to take it on notice. That is the sort of feel I have and my general impression is of that sort of order.

Senator LUNDY —For the committee's benefit, can you clarify what a Pair Gain is?

Mr Barda —It is an electronic device that basically allows you to run two services on one line.

Senator LUNDY —What are the implications of a Pair Gain—

Mr Scales —It is primarily electronic.

Senator LUNDY —So it is one phone line—

Mr Scales —With two services.

Senator LUNDY —with two services. Could you run more services on a Pair Gain?

Senator MACKAY —How many consumers do you have hanging off the end of a Pair Gain?

Mr Barda —There are many different types of Pair Gain systems. The ones I think you are alluding to are the ones where there are two to one.

Senator LUNDY —So, when someone purchases an additional line, it has been Telstra's practice to put in place a Pair Gain rather than install a new physical copper wire, has it not?

Mr Barda —Not as universal practice.

Senator LUNDY —No, but it has been the case.

Mr Barda —Yes, it has. When that is the best solution, Telstra does on occasions use a Pair Gain system.

Senator LUNDY —Does that mean it is not economic or efficient to install another physical line?

Mr Barda —That is generally the situation when you use a Pair Gain—that the work involved in putting through a second line is more expensive than what is involved with a Pair Gain system.

Senator LUNDY —When you install a Pair Gain line, do you charge customers a differential price than if you install a complete new copper wire?

Mr Barda —No. They receive the same service to the same specification.

Senator LUNDY —They pay rent on that new line even though it is still the old line physically.

Mr Barda —Yes.

Senator LUNDY —When people request a fax line to be installed, could you use a Pair Gain for a voice and a data line?

Mr Barda —Yes, that is a good application for a Pair Gain.

Senator LUNDY —But they would pay rent on both services even though they still physically had one line.

Mr Barda —One copper line—yes.

Senator LUNDY —Do you think that is a little deceptive?

Mr Barda —It is one technical solution to provide the service. The customer is paying for the service as specified and the Pair Gain system is delivering that to the customer.

Senator LUNDY —For billing purposes, do you describe both services as different lines?

Mr Barda —I am not sure. I would need to take that on notice.

Mr Stirzaker —Yes, we would. In terms of the Pair Gain system, the technology is normally placed out in the street and there is, typically, an extra pair of copper wires that go into the house.

Senator LUNDY —But there is still one physical copper pair?

Mr Barda —Out on the street, back to the exchange. 

Senator LUNDY —When people ask for an additional line for Internet access, do you use Pair Gains for that second line?

Mr Scales —Paul Granville may be able to give you a better understanding of this, if you wish.

Mr Granville —We have many different types of Pair Gains for different sizes and applications that can vary from the type that my colleague mentioned which provides two lines up to some which provide up to many hundreds of lines. The application varies depending on the circumstance. One of the main drivers is the time scale required to provide service. In certain areas where we lack infrastructure, to meet CSG times and provide good customer service, providing alternative solutions can take quite a long period of time, so the Pair Gain actually allows us to provide service in a shorter time frame.

Senator LUNDY —When you create a Pair Gain, in technical terms you are reducing the bandwidth available on that particular piece of copper, are you not?

Mr Granville —It depends on the different technologies. Some are actually connected by optical fibre and are in effect outposted parts of the telephone exchange to provide exactly the same performance. Others provide lower data rates, as mentioned.

Senator LUNDY —To use a scenario: it is a suburban house, there is an Internet connection and one telephone line for voice, and you have used a Pair Gain to provide both of those services. What is the maximum kilobit connection that you can provide with a dial-up modem on a Pair Gain service?

Mr Granville —It varies over quite a range depending on the technology. Typically, for many of them, it is around 26 kilobits per second. Others are provided at a lower rate. That is one of the reasons behind the Internet assistance program—which was started as one of the outcomes of the Besley inquiry—whereby we are using different techniques to bring up the minimum equivalent throughput of 19.2 kilobits. Many of those Pair Gains which provide lower data rates are in fact improved by that program. A large number of them are around 26 to 28 kilobits per second.

Senator LUNDY —So, if people were on a Pair Gain and they did not know it and they went and bought a 56k modem, they are never going to be able to get their 56k bits, are they?

Mr Granville —No, but it also depends on other factors such as the length, even for straight copper lines. It depends on the length of the copper, for example.

Senator LUNDY —But you do not tell consumers whether they have a Pair Gain, do you?

Mr Granville —No, not usually.

Senator LUNDY —When do they find out?

Mr Granville —It is not the normal thing to tell them. As my colleague said, we are providing a telephone service and we choose the technology to enable us to provide the service in the time frames required.

Senator LUNDY —What are the implications for customers wanting to sign up to an ADSL service if they have a Pair Gain?

Mr Granville —At this point in time it is not available to those customers.

Senator LUNDY —So, for all of the consumers out there that have a relationship with Telstra, there is a line going into their house, they want ADSL and, if they have a Pair Gain, which they were not aware of, they cannot get the ADSL service?

Mr Granville —That is correct. On the other hand, we do have other products such as cable modems which are available to a large number of Australians, and satellite is another broadband alternative that we offer—both one-way and two-way satellite.

Senator LUNDY —Can you take on notice to provide details of how many of your customers Australia-wide currently have a Pair Gain and therefore are unable to access your ADSL service? Secondly, what is the maximum bandwidth that they can achieve off that Pair Gain, and if that differs give me an average?

Mr Scales —Yes, we will take that on notice.

Senator LUNDY —Thank you.

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