Broadband News

Wed, 25th Jun 2014

Australian airlines to offer uninterrupted mobile device use

Australia’s air safety regulator has concluded it is no longer unsafe for mobile phones and tablet computers to be switched on during take-off and landing.

Source: iTnews Australia

ACCC powers over Foxtel's content monopoly limited

Greens communications spokesperson Scott Ludlam has said the Australian competition watchdog should intervene and break Foxtel's stranglehold over shows like Game of Thrones, but the ACCC has indicated its powers are limited.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Vodafone, Optus demand fair competition

Vodafone and Optus have both submitted their responses to the Competition Policy Review outlining that Telstra's market dominance is impeding on their shot to increase any market power in the telco sector.

Source: ZDNet Australia

SA Government and Internode gifts Adelaide free public Wi-Fi

More than 30,000 people in Adelaide will now have access to free public Wi-Fi after the South Australian Government launched a new network with Internode.

Source: ARN

Tue, 24th Jun 2014

More data for many Internode customers

ISP Internode has increased the data quotas on several of its Easy Broadband, Easy Bundle, Easy Naked and Easy Reach plans.

Source: iTWire

Vodafone customers live up 'truly unlimited' data weekend

Customers of Australia's third biggest telco Vodafone may have been left without service for a few hours on Thursday but that didn't stop them taking advantage of a weekend of 'truly unlimited' data this past weekend, breaking a data record in the process.

Source: iTWire

New global P2P data sharing network promises to restore Internet privacy

Respect Network has opened public registration for what it deems will be the world's first global network for trusted private peer-to-peer (P2P) data sharing in a bid to restore privacy on the Internet.

Source: ARN

Vodafone customers break download record after weekend of unmetered data

Vodafone Australia customers consumed a record-breaking amount of data following the telco's announcement that it would not count usage this weekend as a way of saying sorry for an outage that left subscribers unable to make or receive calls for several hours last week.

Source: SMH

Competition watchdog should break up Foxtel monopoly: Ludlam

Greens communications spokesperson Scott Ludlam believes making Foxtel-exclusive content available on other platforms is the best method to reduce copyright infringement in Australia.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Mon, 23rd Jun 2014

Massive mobile outage affected 10 million

Outages on the Vodafone and Optus mobile networks affected 10 million Australians, showing who could and couldn't live without their phone.

Source: iTWire

Scale back NBN to save budget: Palmer

Key minority party leader, Clive Palmer, has said that the National Broadband Network could be scaled back to AU$7 billion in cost to reduce government spending.

Source: ZDNet Australia

AusBBS challenges NBN market with budget telephone-only plans

Australian ISP, AusBBS, has launched National Broadband Network (NBN) based telephone plans starting at $34.95 for consumers on the brink of copper disconnections.

Source: ARN

Fri, 20th Jun 2014

Vodafone blames backhaul for outage, offers free data

Vodafone has blamed its backhaul for causing a nation-wide mobile outage in Australia yesterday, and has offered free data to its customers this weekend in apology.

Source: ZDNet Australia

All three carriers hit with major outages

Telstra, Optus and Vodafone all had serious network problems yesterday. Vodafone is offering a free weekend of data to make up for it.

Source: iTWire

Thu, 19th Jun 2014

Good customer service is no longer good enough: Optus

A recent study by Optus has shown that Australian organisations still have a long way to go in achieving 'outstanding' customer experience.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Vodafone's network goes down across Australia

Vodafone has experienced major network issues today which have downed mobile services for customers right across the country, in an afternoon when customers of all three Australian network providers have suffered degrees of service interruptions.

Source: iTnews Australia

Outage strikes Telstra ADSL customers in Victoria

A hardware failure has resulted in an ADSL outage in Melbourne for Telstra customers.

Source: Computerworld

Vodafone, Optus mobile networks down as Telstra's ADSL takes a hit

Vodafone and Optus’ mobile networks took a blow on Thursday, June 19, with the telecommunications providers confirming mobile network outages throughout the day, while Telstra experienced ADSL service disruptions.

Source: ARN

Vodafone's network suffers outage across Australia

Vodafone says it is working to get service back for customers across the country who have been unable to make or receive calls since lunchtime.

Source: ABC News

Govt refuses to support data breach notification bill

The Coalition Government has refused to back a reinvigorated bill that would force companies to notify customers of a data breach, saying while it agrees with the concept in principle, the proposed legislation needs more work.

Source: iTnews Australia

NBN job market thriving as vacancies increase 248 per cent: Indeed

National Broadband Network (NBN) related job vacancies have increase by 248 per cent in the six months since NBN Co submitted its Strategic Review but this has contributed an overflow of IT professionals looking for positions, according to job search Web site, Indeed.

Source: ARN

Slow internet? Maybe you have one of 120,000 vulnerable broadband routers

Is your home internet running slow? Is your monthly internet bill larger than you expected?

Source: SMH

Wed, 18th Jun 2014

Judgement reserved in Telstra underground duct access pricing dispute

Judgement has been reserved in the Telstra (ASX: TLS) case versus Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Vocus Communications (ASX: VOC) and iiNet (ASX: IIN) subsidiaries as Telstra continues to maintain that it acted in accordance with its underground duct access pricing contract.

Source: Computerworld

Vocus buys submarine cable capacity from Telecom NZ

Vocus has paid Telecom NZ nearly $2.5 million to acquire 10 per cent interest in the Sea-Me-We 3 cable between Perth and Singapore.

Source: Computerworld

Foxtel to blame for Game of Thrones piracy, says Choice

Foxtel's "outdated business model" is to blame for Australia's high rate of pirating Game of Thrones, according to consumer advocate and advisory group Choice.

Source: SMH

Cheaper texting on the way

The cost of SMS text messages in Australia is set to drop, with the ACCC deciding to regulate the costs in the same way it does with voice calls.

Source: iTWire

Dodo failed to warn broadband customers of excess usage

Internet service provider Dodo failed to let customers of its fixed broadband services know that they were approaching their monthly quota limits for data, an Australian Communications and Media Authority investigation has found. As a result, thousands of customers incurred excess usage charges without first receiving a warning.

Source: Computerworld

Tue, 17th Jun 2014

ACCC to regulate SMS termination fees

The competition watchdog will for the first time regulate fees charged by network operators to receive and terminate SMS services on their networks, after its inquiry into the regulation of mobile termination access services (MTAS) found commercial negotiations had failed to lower abnormally high SMS rates.

Source: iTnews Australia

Telstra reaches for regional Australia with 700MHz spectrum

Telstra has hit speeds of 235 Mbps in a test of 4G mobile broadband using 700MHz spectrum in Perth.

Source: Computerworld

Downloading 300 gigabytes is small time in the world of pirating

Despite illegally downloading 300 gigabytes of movies and TV episodes every month, Alex Mack* says he doesn't even come close to being Australia's most prolific infringer of copyright.

Source: SMH