Even the most ardent supporters of a government built fibre network have been struggling with one thing – closing down Telstra’s HFC network. At the NBN:Rebooted forum the ACCC chair Rod Sims said it could have been a different outcome if the regulator had been involved in the decision.

In this week’s program, Kevin Bloch, CTO for Cisco Australia says, with the now ratified standard of Docsis 3.1, HFC networks can deliver 10Gbps download speeds, with 1Gbps upload to the node (somewhat slower for the individual user). It could be delivered with an upgrade over 2-3 years.

Telecoms consultant Dermot Cox has been calling for the HFC networks to be maintained and offered as open access to all retail service providers. He calls their closure the destruction of capital.

Malcolm Turnbull commented that it makes no sense to build fibre where HFC already exists, at least in the interim. So does that mean we can expect it to figure prominently in the forward looking solution for the NBN? And how does it impact Telstra’s structural separation undertaking?

The program also features Mark McDonnell from BBY, Stuart Lee, Group Executive for Telstra Wholesale and Matt Healy, National Executive Industry & Policy at Macquarie Telecom.