Broadband News
Thu, 07th Jun 2018
Want fibre to your home? It'll cost you $1.2m, couple told
A couple living outside Melbourne, about 7 kilometres from the nearest fibre connection, are told they will have to pay up to $1.2 million to have the NBN's best service connected to their home.
Source: ABC News
Wed, 06th Jun 2018
Fortnite or Netflix: which should NBN Co be more concerned about?
The head of the NBN says gamers are "heavy users", but how much bandwidth do online games actually use?
Source: ABC News
Tue, 05th Jun 2018
Telstra chief mulls cable sabotage possibility:
Telstra CEO Andrew Penn has conceded that sabotage cannot be ruled out as a cause of the fire that damaged one of its cables in early May.
Source: ARN
Aussie Broadband may have to cut some NBN users loose
Aussie Broadband will have to cut loose any customers that can’t afford to shift to NBN’s new price model, encouraging them instead to churn away to a handful of other providers.
Source: iTnews Australia
ACCC could monitor performance of NBN fixed wireless service
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says it engaged in a “few exploratory talks” with the federal government about expanding its broadband monitoring project to cover NBN fixed wireless services.
Source: Computerworld
ACCC needs AU$6m more to monitor NBN fixed-wireless speeds
Another AU$6 million in government funding is needed to extend the ACCC's speed-monitoring reports to fixed-wireless services in order to cover the cost of obtaining 4,000 more devices and the managed services involved.
Source: ZDNet Australia
What's New On Stan, Netflix, Hayu, Foxtel And Amazon For June
From Macgyver to True Crime, Luke Cage to the It - here's just a taste of what Netflix, Hayu, Stan and Amazon are streaming for the month of June.
Source: Gizmodo
Mon, 04th Jun 2018
Virgin Becomes The First Australian Airline To Offer International Wi-Fi
Virgin Australia have just announced that they're switching on international Wi-Fi from today, which is great news for those of us who thirst for connectivity during overseas flights.
Source: Gizmodo
Consumers could lose services over NBN ‘failure’: ACCAN
Telecommunications industry consumer lobby group, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, has raised concerns that consumers will lose services with what it says is the failure of the national broadband network fixed wireless and satellite services not meeting current broadband requirements.
Source: iTWire
NBN Co could target multi-terabyte fixed wireless users
NBN Co is considering whether to rein in users clocking up “terabytes” of data usage each month on the fixed wireless network by throttling their services in the evening peak.
Source: iTnews Australia
NBN considers throttling fixed wireless ‘superusers’
NBN is examining ways it to minimise the impact of what CEO Bill Morrow has dubbed “superusers” on the performance of its fixed-wireless service, including potentially introducing a ‘fair use’ policy.
Source: Computerworld
Huawei: Australia needs us for 5G competition
Following anti-Huawei national security advice from the US, Huawei is looking into how the cost of 5G network rollouts would blow out if it were to be banned from providing equipment to Australia's telcos.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Tackling trolls begins with understanding them
Online abuse is a social problem that just happens to be powered by technology. There are many ways we can make online spaces kinder, from simple design changes to a shift in online social norms, writes Renee Barnes.
Source: ABC News
Fri, 01st Jun 2018
Optus seeks compensation from Telstra over 'unlimited' campaign
Optus is seeking to establish what losses it has incurred from Australia's incumbent telco running its 'unlimited' advertising campaign.
Source: ZDNet Australia
NBN retail prices are starting to rise
Optus is the first major retailer to raise the price of its entry-level NBN services, a decision the rest of the industry is likely to have to confront over coming months.
Source: iTnews Australia
Vocus customer's system hacked, used to swamp triple-zero service
Australia's triple-zero service was hit by a malicious attack last weekend, with up to 600 calls at a time made through a customer of telco Vocus, with the attacker flooding the number during three short periods between 6.09am and 7.55am.
Source: iTWire
Thu, 31st May 2018
Australian shoppers to be blocked from Amazon's US site
The online retail giant will prevent Australian consumers from accessing its global sites to counter new laws to force it to collect the good and services tax on transactions.
Source: ABC News
Amazon to block Aussies from global marketplace
From July 1, 2018, overseas retailers selling goods to Australia will be liable to pay GST on items under AU$1,000, so Amazon has decided to pull out of selling to customers down under from its global marketplace.
Source: ZDNet Australia
NBN Co details ICT channel program
NBN Co has released details on the structure of its ICT channel program, which was launched in April.
Source: ARN
Telstra pit fire not caused by lightning, RFS finds
Fire investigators have ruled out a lightning strike as the cause of a blackened Telstra pit in regional NSW earlier this month that disrupted Triple Zero emergency calls.
Source: iTnews Australia
Wed, 30th May 2018
Court backs Optus after Telstra's
The Supreme Court of Victoria has found that Optus did not engage in a misleading or deceptive conduct over its "empires end" advertisement.
Source: ARN
Optus to stop selling Virgin Mobile services by mid-June
Optus has revealed it will stop selling Virgin Mobile Australia services as of 15 June with all the retail stores under its outgoing Virgin Mobile brand to be closed by the end of June.
Source: ARN
Optus to shut all Virgin Mobile stores by end of June
Optus is set to close all of Virgin Mobile’s retail stores by the end of June this year, with the telco providing more details on its planned closure and integration of the subsidiary brand.
Source: iTnews Australia
New ASIC guidelines for web blocking awaiting legal sign-off
Guidance for Australian Securities and Investments Commission staff on the use of Section 313 (3) of the Telecommunications Act to block Australians' access to particular websites or online services are currently in draft form and awaiting sign-off from ASIC’s legal office, some 10 months after the government issued whole-of-government guidelines.
Source: Computerworld
NBN Co: pay is hardly a reflection of performance
The news that the staff at NBN Co are paid handsomely from the public purse comes in the same week that a study showed chief executives' pay in the US to be up to 5000 times that of an average worker in the companies they headed.
Source: iTWire
NBN Co accountability pledge by Labor if it regains power
The Australian Labor Party has pledged to make NBN Co, the company rolling out the national broadband network, more accountable to consumers if it gets back into power at the next federal election.
Source: iTWire
Tue, 29th May 2018
NBN remediating 3Mbps fixed-wireless cells
NBN is remediating nine congested fixed-wireless cells that provide speeds of just 3Mbps to users during peak periods, adding that it has seen greater uptake than expected across fixed-wireless and satellite.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Melbourne ISP launches NBN challenger in Queensland
Melbourne-based internet service provider Binary Networks has revealed its fixed wireless broadband service being offered in South-West Queensland.
Source: ARN
Optus to cut 400 staff
Optus is set to make around 400 roles redundant in a bid to “remove duplication” and reduce its operating costs.
Source: iTnews Australia
Mon, 28th May 2018
Telstra moves on Geelong train tunnel mobile coverage
As part of the Victorian government's Regional Rail Connectivity Project, Telstra will install cabling, antennas, and base stations to improve train tunnel mobile coverage.
Source: ZDNet Australia