Broadband News
Thu, 25th Oct 2018
NBN Co inks strategic deal with Dell EMC
NBN Co has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Dell EMC, further entrenching itself into the channel ecosystem.
Source: ARN
Fall in complaints on services from Telstra, Optus, Vodafone: report
Complaints about services delivered by Australia’s biggest telcos Telstra, Optus and Vodafone continued to fall over the three months to the end of September, according to the latest Complaints in Context report from the Communications Alliance.
Source: iTWire
Labor terms Switkowski's $50b NBN valuation 'departure from reality'
The Australian Labor Party has questioned the value apportioned to the NBN Co by its chairman Ziggy Switkowski, who said during a Senate Estimates hearing that the company could fetch a price of $50 billion if it was sold post-2020.
Source: iTWire
Vodafone NZ goes large on tech security in Telstra deal
Vodafone has inked a deal to offer Telstra's cloud based security platform to New Zealand corporate and government customers.
Source: ARN
Wed, 24th Oct 2018
Telstra 5G tower switched on in Perth, but no one can connect to it
WA's first 5G mobile phone tower was switch on Wednesday, but you can't connect to it yet.
Source: SMH
Andy Penn on how Telstra is deploying 5G
Andy Penn explains how the telco is choosing its first 5G sites, with the Telstra CEO also outlining recent 5G and IoT trials the telco has done with Linfox and the National Farmers Federation.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Optus runs into problems trying to share mobile towers
Optus has run into interference when trying to co-locate antennas on other operators’ towers in regional areas, an admission that is likely to reinvigorate calls for a crackdown.
Source: iTnews Australia
NBN Co to spend $80m on DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade
NBN Co is expecting to spend around $80 million upgrading its hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) network to DOCSIS 3.1, but says the costs will be “more than offset”.
Source: iTnews Australia
Telstra launches 5G across Canberra, Adelaide, Perth
Telstra now has 50 live 5G sites, with the latest across parts of the cities of Canberra, Adelaide, and Perth.
Source: ZDNet Australia
NBN chair rules out network write-down
Ziggy Switkowski said the ability to properly value the network will not happen until the 2020s.
Source: ZDNet Australia
NBN Co won't contemplate Telstra's $20 price cut demand
NBN Co CEO Stephen Rue has dismissed Telstra boss Andy Penn’s call to halve wholesale rates, in part because a drastic cut would not reflect the “significant lift in internet capability in Australia” that Rue says the NBN is realising.
Source: iTnews Australia
Telstra's pitch to buy NBN leads to valuation row
Telstra’s unsolicited offer to eventually buy NBN Co has reignited industry speculation around whether the asset can command anywhere near the $51 billion it cost to build when and if it is ever put up for sale.
Source: iTnews Australia
Tue, 23rd Oct 2018
No need to regulate ISP peering arrangements, ACCC says
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has welcomed moves by Telstra, Optus and TPG — which along with Verizon are sometimes dubbed the ‘gang of four’ — to publish the criteria which they use to assess requests by other ISPs to enter peering arrangements.
Source: Computerworld
Mon, 22nd Oct 2018
ASIO chief says encryption-busting scheme would not involve persistent monitoring
Head of ASIO Duncan Lewis has said there is a time limit to any assistance rendered under the Assistance and Access Bill.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Telstra accepts blame for triple-zero outage that led to 1,433 unanswered calls
Telstra apologises for the national outage of the emergency phone service earlier this year, saying "one failed call to triple zero is one too many".
Source: ABC News
Telstra overlooked card failure that led to Triple Zero outage
Telstra missed a transmission controller card failure amid a sea of network alarms in early May, meaning it also missed early warning signs of problems with Triple Zero emergency call routing.
Source: iTnews Australia
Telstra pledges to improve network redundancy following issues connecting Triple Zero calls
Telstra has committed to improving the redundancy and diversity of its network, developing new communication protocols to strengthen the emergency call service.
Source: ARN
Telcos flailing against tide to turn into dumb pipes
Streaming, 5G, and thoughts and prayers are being deployed by telcos to be anything other than bit handlers.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Fri, 19th Oct 2018
Government should have better Telstra USO info: Audit committee
The joint audit committee wants more information across cost savings and the number of phone services being provided by Telstra under the USO, as well as Telstra's net costs in supplying these.
Source: ZDNet Australia
ACCC hits hard with $170 million in penalties for consumer law breaches
The communications and telecommunications sector, including major telcos like Telstra, was under the glare of the spotlight of the competition watchdog, the ACCC in the 2017-2018 financial year, when it secured nearly $170 million in penalties for breaches of competition and consumer laws.
Source: iTWire
Thu, 18th Oct 2018
Anti-piracy bill takes aim at ‘cyberlockers’, search engines
The government has introduced a bill that will significantly widen the scope of Australia’s site-blocking laws.
Source: Computerworld
Piracy site-block laws to be expanded
The government's piracy site-block amendment expands injunctions to search engine providers, reduces the burden of proving that a site is hosted outside of Australia, and expands it to sites that not only have the 'primary purpose' to those that have the 'primary effect' of infringing copyright.
Source: ZDNet Australia
New anti-piracy laws to target search engines
The government wants to significantly expand the scope of laws that currently allow copyright owners and licensees to seek court orders forcing Australian Internet service providers (ISPs) to block their customers from accessing sites that facilitate online piracy.
Source: Computerworld
NBN Co claims decrease in some categories of complaints
The NBN Co, the company rolling out Australia's national broadband network, has welcomed what it says is a drop in the number of complaints about retail services offered over the network in the second half of the financial year 2017-18, compared to the first half of the same year.
Source: iTWire
Wed, 17th Oct 2018
Spirit Telecom wins $1.7M Vic Govt contract in NBN alternative play
Publicly-listed Spirit Telecom has been awarded $1.7 million to deliver high-speed broadband to the city of Horsham as an alternative to the NBN.
Source: ARN
YouTube confirms major technical issues
YouTube says it is working to fix problems preventing access to videos hosted on the service.
Source: Computerworld
Optus customers refunded $31M over third-party billing services
Optus has paid approximately $12 million to customers affected by its third-party billing services, with third party providers refunding another $19 million to Optus customers.
Source: ARN
Telstra says it could buy NBN when sold
Telstra has raised the prospect of its newly split out infrastructure business InfraCo making a commercial play for the NBN, should the government proceed to privatise the network in future.
Source: iTnews Australia
Telstra's board may be angry about the protest vote, but they have only themselves to blame
Telstra chair John Mullen says executives are paid too much and bonuses are too complex, but his board has only itself to blame for a massive protest vote, writes Stephen Letts.
Source: ABC News
Cake shop owner fears Telstra payphone will sink his business
A cheesecake shop owner in Melbourne's CBD says a payphone which includes a billboard over 2.5 metres high is blocking his shop front, and should be moved down the street to sit in front of Telstra's store instead.
Source: ABC News