What will the NBN look like?

Last December, the NBN Co issued a consultation paper in which it outlined the proposed wholesale offering to retailers. The paper discussed the technology standards that would be used and where on the network the points of interconnect (PoIs) should be located.

There was broad agreement from the industry on the recommendation for a layer 2 Ethernet offering. The location of PoIs was more contentious, with Telstra claiming the design would isolate chunks of their existing backhaul infrastructure.

NBN Co is yet to detail where the PoIs will be located, probably because it will be influenced by the outcome of attempts to buy some or all of Telstra's backhaul infrastructure.

In today's program I call on a few experts to discuss the PoI issue and to help describe the proposed network. What exactly is a layer 2 service for example? And what about all the new abbreviations the NBN is exposing us to, like ONTs, FSAs and FANs.

Prepare to be educated, with the help of:

• Paul Brooks, lead consultant of the NBN Project at the Communications Alliance
• Michael S Cox, independent telecommunications consultant
• Geof Heydon, director of market development and the digital economy at Alcatel-Lucent

Next week we look at how the proposed product offerings will change the shape of the retail industry, assuming it gets built.

Running time: 21 minutes 13 seconds