aapt acquisition???, page-2

If this acquisition comes off, it will complete the full vertical integration of the wholesale and retail parts of the ISP = they will really be able to steal market share from Optus and Telstra.

These key points are taken from this article writen by the founder of iiNet, TPG's nearest competitor. (http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/NBN-Structural-Separation-Policy-pd20100507-584MP?OpenDocument) -- I choose to ignore the rubbish about the government coming in to regulate -- I think Mr. iiNet is angry at the world because TPG is going to own his ISP before too long.

1) They'd own the Optical fibres (obtained from Optus decades ago) that mean TPG would then own intercapital fibre to link directly with its recent acquisition of PIPE (that gives it fibre all the way to most competitive DSLAM's in Australia).

2) They'd own a major shareholding in iiNet, via AAPT's existing major shareholding in iiNet.

3) They would have access to the zero cost peering agreement that lets AAPT (and by extension, TPG in this scenario) exchange traffic with the BigPond and Optus national networks at (effectively) no cost, while all other market players are required to pay for that access.

4) If TPG can manage a takeover of Amcom (who own the other major stake in iiNet), suddenly TPG owns an effective controlling interest in iiNet.

Interesting times ahead!