Our General Manager Michael Vumbaca was quoted in the Financial Review recently after being asked to provide an opinion on behalf of the Strata Management sector with regard to this evolving and confusing issue. To access the Financial Review article click here and for our most recent thoughts on this matter, here is a recent article.
Following our last article (about TPG in which we listed some handy questions for attempting to negotiate the ever evolving puzzle that is the NBN, TPG and fibre optic internet), we have a bit of a clearer picture – albeit not that clear – of the landscape.
While it is still uncertain when and how the Owners Corporations might get access to fibre optic internet services, we now understand that TPG has decided to pull out of the sector (for the time being).
The reason given by TPG is that due to new legislation enforced by the Federal Government, TPG would be forced to share its infrastructure with any other retailer that wanted to enter the space (such as the NBN, Telstra, iinet etc). Given the change in legislation, it may be that it’s simply not profitable for TPG to be approaching the market in the aggressive way they have been since entering the space around a year ago.
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What this decision means for owners corporations at the moment is still a little unclear. Here are a few questions on our mind:
- What if you had the TPG product installed already? Will it continue to operate or will you revert back to your old connection?
- When will fibre optic internet make its way to the rest of Sydney and will there be providers other the NBN in the market place?
- Will the costs of using Fibre Optic remain the same or increase due to a lack of competition for the NBN?
All this being said, it’s still our belief that all of these providers need to have a really good hard look at how they intend to approach the extremely diverse landscape that is the Strata Sector. It’s one with so many different types of properties, each with so many different complexities. Serious consideration needs to be given to the age, wiring set up, if there is a meter room and existing connections at the building (just to name a few items) because what works at number 1 Strata Street, simply might not work at number 2. Each building is different and we hope the providers recognise this before trying to storm in with their new products.
We believe consultation needs to be had with each scheme to review key building elements before any intention to install any equipment is provided. This should help to avoid wasting owners and strata managers time alike.
Stay tuned for more information on this evolving issue, we will report it as soon as we have it. Here is a great article from the SMH on the issue written in January that discusses TPG deciding to leave the sector for the time being.
