Broadband News
Fri, 24th Oct 2025
Telstra finds firmware locked Samsung handsets to Vodafone for Triple-0 calls
Australian users of about 70 dated Samsung handsets face being cut off from mobile service due to problems with their devices’ firmware, which exclusively attempts to route Triple Zero calls to the shuttered Vodafone 3G network.
Source: iTnews Australia
Thu, 23rd Oct 2025
Vocus scores three new federal government contracts
The federal government has awarded Vocus three telecommunications contracts valued at around $6 million over the next three years.
Source: iTnews Australia
Optus brings in ex-NBN Co CIO to run technology
Optus’ chief information officer of four years Mark Potter will leave the telco in March of next year to make way for NBN Co’s veteran IT chief, John McInerney.
Source: iTnews Australia
Wed, 22nd Oct 2025
ACMA cracks down on mobile 000 'camp-on' failures
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has tightened mobile phone testing standards and imposed new network equipment monitoring rules on carriers as the fallout over recent emergency call failures continues.
Source: iTnews Australia
Tue, 21st Oct 2025
This ChatGPT browser is genuinely impressive. Will anyone actually use it?
OpenAI’s AI-powered browser can book holidays and build shopping lists while you browse. But it’s competing against the most stubborn force in tech: user habits.
Source: SMH
Telstra completes one-third of national fibre rollout
Telstra has completed one-third of the rollout of a new national fibre network that it is now branding as 'Aura'.
Source: iTnews Australia
‘They’re watching’: How Monday’s internet crash became China’s training
Trump’s former cyber boss warns China and criminals are studying internet crashes such as the AWS outage to launch devastating strikes on Australia.
Source: SMH
Telstra’s Aura Network to add AUD $29 billion to Australia’s GDP as Sydney-Melbourne route opens
Telstra has activated the Sydney-Melbourne coastal leg of its new fibre network, now called the Aura network, a critical milestone in Telstra’s $1.6 billion investment aimed at powering Australia’s digital future.
Source: iTWire
Telstra activates new $1.6B fibre coastal link Aura Network
Telstra has unveiled the next iteration of its $1.6 billion fibre network – a Sydney to Melbourne coastal route and a rebranding from Intercity Fibre Network to Aura Network.
Source: ARN
Why one company’s glitch just broke half the internet
When Amazon sneezes, the world catches a cold. It’s time we stopped accepting that as normal.
Source: SMH
Mon, 20th Oct 2025
Internet still struggling after mammoth Amazon outage
Amazon’s cloud arm is still struggling to recover after a major cloud services outage impacted the likes of Canva, Roblox, Snapchat, Amazon and other companies globally, including in Australia, affecting millions of users and effectively bringing the internet to a standstill.
Source: SMH
Major AWS outage disrupts apps and services worldwide
Network connectivity issues in AWS' US-EAST-1 facility have caused widespread outages affecting thousands of websites along with some of the world's most popular apps - Snapchat and Reddit - and disrupted businesses globally.
Source: iTnews Australia
Internet Archive Celebrates One Trillion Web Pages Preserved
The Internet Archive this week marks a once-in-a-generation achievement under the banner “The Web We’ve Built: Celebrating 1 Trillion Web Pages Archived.” Several events will celebrate the milestone of the Wayback Machine having now preserved more than one trillion web pages, a vast, public record of our digital lives, safeguarded for the future.
Source: iTWire
Sun, 19th Oct 2025
Vocus ISP Dodo's email system breached on Friday
Vocus-owned ISP Dodo’s email system was breached on Friday last week, with some 1600 accounts accessed and a small number of customers then falling victim to SIM swapping.
Source: iTnews Australia
NBN Co ‘focused on energy and resource efficiency’ with new devices for home broadband connections
NBN Co has announced that it is connecting households and businesses across Australia in a way that is focused on reducing emissions and resource use with new energy-efficient customer premises equipment.
Source: iTWire
Tue, 14th Oct 2025
No sex, drugs or dangerous stunts: Instagram limits teens to PG-13 content
Teenagers on the social media app will be restricted to seeing PG-13 content by default and won’t be able to change their settings without a parent’s permission, Meta has announced.
Source: SMH
Fri, 03rd Oct 2025
TPG Telecom shakes up the way it finances smartphones
TPG Telecom has restructured the way it finances mobile handsets, allowing it to free up cash while still offering interest-free payment plans to customers.
Source: iTnews Australia
Telstra to pay $20.3m for mass cut of Belong NBN upload speeds
Telstra will pay $18 million in fines and $2.3 million in compensation to Belong customers whose NBN services had the upload speeds cut in late 2020.
Source: iTnews Australia
Tue, 30th Sep 2025
‘I’m still a new minister’: Anika Wells under pressure over Optus saga
Anthony Albanese has publicly backed the communications minister in the wake of multiple Triple Zero outages and three deaths.
Source: SMH
Mon, 29th Sep 2025
Triple Zero system under fire after Optus, Telstra outages
Fresh outages at both Optus and Telstra have disrupted emergency calls in multiple states, leaving thousands of people stranded.
Source: SMH
Sun, 28th Sep 2025
Optus hit with fresh Triple Zero outage
Optus has confirmed that it has suffered another Triple Zero outage, with NSW customers affected on Sunday.
Source: SMH
Optus investigates more failed triple-0 calls in NSW outage
Embattled telco Optus has apologised for a network outage that led to nine failed triple-0 calls near Wollongong on the NSW south coast over the weekend.
Source: ABC News
Thu, 25th Sep 2025
The emails that reveal how Optus downplayed the Triple Zero disaster
It began with what should have been a routine upgrade but the result was catastrophic. Within hours, three people were dead.
Source: SMH
Optus handed $100M penalty on unconscionable conduct
The Federal Court has agreed to impose a $100 million penalty on Optus after engaging in unconscionable conduct when selling mobile phones and contracts to hundreds of Australians.
Source: ARN
Wed, 24th Sep 2025
Optus says traffic not diverted away from firewall before upgrade
A firewall upgrade at Optus that caused Triple Zero calls to fail for 13 hours did not follow internal traffic routing guidance and processes.
Source: iTnews Australia
Optus CEO to keep job as human error blamed for Triple Zero failure
Stephen Rue says that human error by staff at home and abroad was responsible for the catastrophic Triple Zero failure that cost at least three lives.
Source: SMH
Tue, 23rd Sep 2025
ACMA proposes digital ID for prepaid mobile SIM verification
Australian telcos could soon accept Digital ID to verify the identity of prepaid mobile phone users under a proposal floated by the Australian Communications Media Authority.
Source: iTnews Australia
Mon, 22nd Sep 2025
Optus accused of low-effort, "inaccurate" outage notifications
Optus initially characterised its Triple Zero outage in emails to government officials on Thursday afternoon as impacting just 10 calls, with the regulator labelling communication from the telco as “pretty perfunctory”.
Source: iTnews Australia
Firewall upgrade behind Optus Triple Zero failure
Optus has cited a firewall upgrade as the reason why Triple Zero calls made from South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia failed to connect to emergency services last week.
Source: ARN
Albanese says he’d be surprised if Optus boss wasn’t considering his future
The prime minister says Optus hasn’t fulfilled its Triple Zero obligations, while Communications Minister Anika Wells says the telco “perpetuated an enormous failure on the Australian people”.
Source: SMH