ISPs get together

At a meeting held yesterday (10th November) at Internet Service Provider Ram Management in Hawkes Bay, several ISPs from the central and lower North Island agreed to proceed with establishing an Internet Hub in Napier. This hub would connect to KC Computer Services in Auckland.

The main reason behind this proposal is due to the current Telecom pricing policy on Digital Data Services. The monthly rental of a DDS circuit is based on some fixed price components plus a distance charge.
Telecom have defined five such distance charges know as Steps, the lowest cost being a City Step and becoming more expensive through an A step to a D step. Telecom produce a step table showing which step charge is applied between different cities in New Zealand.

For many central and lower North Island ISPs the only options available have been B and C step connections to Waikato University and Auckland.
From the Telcom pricing table it seems that Napier is in a central location for A step connections to many locations, ranging from Gisborne, Taupo, Palmerston North, Kapiti, Masterton and Wellington.

The potentional for cost savings in reduced Telecom charges and in combining resources to obtain lower cost fixed bandwidth international links has immediately attracted several existing ISPs to this scheme. Several new ISP operations are also keen to become involved since initial investment requirements for expensive DDS connections is reduced.

At a technical level the moving and upgrading of several ISP's DDS links to various KCCS routers was discussed and the topology of the resulting network planned. The resulting network will have a hub in Napier at ISP RAM Management initially with three ISPs connecting in November using Telecom 64K A step DDS links.
A Cisco multiport router was setup and configured at Napier ready for the first of the DDS connecting in November.
A further three or possibly four ISPs are expected to connect by early next year. Initially a 128K compressed DDS link will connect the Napier hub to the KC network in Auckland. This link will be upgraded to a 2meg Wideband DDS early next year when Telecom are able to provide the Wideband DDS to Napier. This WDDS can be increased in steps of 64Kbits up to 2Mbits as more ISPs connect to the hub. Each ISP can in effect be guaranteed bandwidth directly to one of the International bandwidth providers with service delivery at KCCS in Auckland.

The meeting was attended by David Dix (KC Computer Services) and Alan Marston (Auckland PlaNet) from Auckland, Ross Allen (RAM Management ISP, Napier), Dale Spittle (Wellington PlaNet), Phil McKenna (Kapiti PlaNet), Richard Lummus (Hamilton PlaNet), Mike Sanderson (Hamilton TheNet), Ron Brice (Gisborne, Brice Parker Associates), and Andrew Johnston (Napier, HBIN). Since the meeting four other ISPs have expressed interest in joining and enquiries have been received from other businesses in Napier/Hastings.

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Last modified: 12 November 1996.