The FTTH system used in Japan actually encompasses ISDN, ADSL and FTTH services. It is a very balance system for the LBOC, ISP's big and small, and Consumers. You contract for your FTTH, ADSL or ISDN service with your LBOC and the apporpiate fee is added to your phone bill $9-$40 depending on which service. Then you contract any ISP that is connected to this network $9-$30 depending on your ISP.
For an ISP to connect to this nationwide LBOC network is primarily just the cost of the appropriate size circuit between the closest LBOC switching point and the ISP.
an Example of this would be my service 100Mbps FTTH LBOC fee- $40, ISP fee- $15 (dynamic IP).
LBOC is happy making their cut, ISP is happy because they make their fee without having to invest in traditional expensive items like RAS's, DSLAMS and maintenance. All that equipment is handled by the LBOC. And the consumer has extremely high bandwith connection. If the customer is unhappy with their service due to speeds, lack of or quality of other services ie email etc., they just change providers from the several thousand connected to the LBOC.
Really this is not that different than the old 56k model where the LBOC handled the phone line the ISP connected to the phone network via PRI circuit etc. except the ISP can scratch the cost of RAS's.
Slashdot Mirror
The FTTH system used in Japan actually encompasses ISDN, ADSL and FTTH services. It is a very balance system for the LBOC, ISP's big and small, and Consumers. You contract for your FTTH, ADSL or ISDN service with your LBOC and the apporpiate fee is added to your phone bill $9-$40 depending on which service. Then you contract any ISP that is connected to this network $9-$30 depending on your ISP. For an ISP to connect to this nationwide LBOC network is primarily just the cost of the appropriate size circuit between the closest LBOC switching point and the ISP. an Example of this would be my service 100Mbps FTTH LBOC fee- $40, ISP fee- $15 (dynamic IP). LBOC is happy making their cut, ISP is happy because they make their fee without having to invest in traditional expensive items like RAS's, DSLAMS and maintenance. All that equipment is handled by the LBOC. And the consumer has extremely high bandwith connection. If the customer is unhappy with their service due to speeds, lack of or quality of other services ie email etc., they just change providers from the several thousand connected to the LBOC. Really this is not that different than the old 56k model where the LBOC handled the phone line the ISP connected to the phone network via PRI circuit etc. except the ISP can scratch the cost of RAS's.