Broadband News
Fri, 29th Sep 2017
Telstra's 20-year USO deal savaged by auditor
An explosive audit has questioned the value for money and “net public benefit” of a 20-year contract handed to Telstra for the provision of standard telephony services to Australians.
Source: iTnews Australia
NBN inquiry demands drastic refocus of broadband project
A joint federal inquiry into the NBN wants a drastic overhaul of the project, including an independent audit, better information, and a “minimum” of fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) in the rest of the fixed-line footprint.
Source: iTnews Australia
Belong Mobile launches Telstra 4G services
New MVNO Belong Mobile is providing customers with two mobile plans focusing on data, serving 95 percent of the Australian population with 4G and 98 percent with 3G via Telstra's network.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Vodafone to upgrade cell sites with massive MIMO
Vodafone is set to begin upgrading selected cell sites at the end of next year with new antennas capable of a minimum three-fold increase in site capacity.
Source: iTnews Australia
Vodafone to deploy 4G Massive MIMO in 2018
Vodafone Australia is this week undertaking Massive MIMO trials across its live network, with plans to deploy the technology allowing speeds of around 600Mbps across cities at the end of next year.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Thu, 28th Sep 2017
Fresh fault found on SEA-ME-WE3 subsea cable
A submarine cable repair crew has identified a fresh instance of damage to the insulation of the SEA-ME-WE3 subsea telecommunications cable which connects Perth to Asia.
Source: iTnews Australia
Optus pushes 4G to 800Mbps with Massive MIMO and 3CC
Optus has told ZDNet that it has completed trials of Massive MIMO and three-cell carrier aggregation, attaining speeds of over 800Mbps on its live 4G network in Macquarie Park in partnership with Huawei.
Source: ZDNet Australia
ACCC did not deny Vodafone natural justice: Telstra
Vodafone Australia was not deprived of natural justice as shown through its 'comprehensive submissions' to the ACCC's wholesale domestic mobile roaming inquiry, Telstra has argued in court.
Source: ZDNet Australia
NBN pushing its unified security model for wider adoption
NBN's chief security officer is urging organisations in Australia to give one individual responsibility across all things security, just like his company has done.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Launtel launches first Hobart gigabit Internet
Tasmanian-owned telco Launtel has officially launched its Blue Ocean gigabit NBN Internet service promising “lightning fast” services connecting the State with the global gigabit economy.
Source: iTWire
Vodafone, ACCC meet in court for mobile roaming stoush
Lawyers representing Vodafone, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and Telstra appeared in Federal Court in Sydney yesterday in a fight over the ACCC’s inquiry into mobile roaming.
Source: Computerworld
Wed, 27th Sep 2017
NBN places spending cap on business products
NBN has announced a spend cap for business-grade products as a replacement for its Business Ethernet product slated to launch later this year, allowing RSPs to bundle enterprise services together.
Source: ZDNet Australia
NBN Co home wiring checks 'deserve applause – and condemnation'
One of Australia's better-known network experts says the move by NBN Co, the company building Australia's national broadband network, to use a diagnostic tool to check home wiring to see if it may be causing speed issues should be both applauded and condemned.
Source: iTWire
nbn overhauls wholesale pricing in business sector push
New pricing model developed to help NBN resellers package up plans targeted at medium and enterprise businesses.
Source: ARN
Tue, 26th Sep 2017
Labor wants review of Conrovian NBN satellite service it created
Try as it might, Labor cannot rewrite history and escape its responsibility for the NBN satellite service.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Ericsson and Telstra encrypt in-transit data over 100Gbps link
Ericsson, Ciena, and Telstra have encrypted data while in transit over a 100Gbps link between the US and Australia using multiple subsea cable systems, following their successful trial over a 10Gbps link earlier this year.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Why the ABC should steer clear of talking about the NBN
The ABC is considered by many to be top dog when it comes to intelligent discourse on the more serious topics that concern this country. Yet, when it comes to technology, the ABC often shows that it has no clue at all.
Source: iTWire
Hawaiki trans-Pacific cable system ready for deployment
The deployment of the 14,000km Hawaiki trans-Pacific cable system has reached the point where it is in the final stages of being loaded into the two cable-laying ships.
Source: iTWire
NBN Co wants users to leave their legacy services faster
NBN Co wants to bring customers from legacy services onto its network sooner as it tries to mitigate problems caused by people leaving their move until the last minute.
Source: iTnews Australia
Mon, 25th Sep 2017
NBN Co lost $4.24b in full-year 2017
The NBN Co, the company rolling out Australia's national broadband network, has made a loss of $4.24 billion for the 2017 year, according to the accounts which were released on Friday.
Source: iTWire
Fri, 22nd Sep 2017
Fibre cable break hits internet services in Queensland
Damage to a major fibre cable between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast has disrupted internet services from at least two telcos, TPG and iiNet.
Source: ARN
Thu, 21st Sep 2017
NBN defends its network, says few retail applications need over 50Mbps
Australia's NBN will definitely handle the needs of today, NBN has said, as few retail use cases require speeds of more than 50Mbps.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Labor condemns NBN installation success rate sitting at 90 percent
If there was a one in 10 chance your food would make you sick, you wouldn't call that a success, Stephen Jones has said.
Source: ZDNet Australia
NBN launches Tech Lab to collect data and resolve connection issues
NBN will use its new Tech Lab to collate and learn from both customer experience surveys and current fault-reporting data using open-source machine-learning and big data software.
Source: ZDNet Australia
NBN Co finally reveals satellite users who will lose ADSL
NBN Co has identified 1500 premises in the satellite and fixed wireless footprints that will have their ADSL services cut off due to a “rare circumstance” with the network’s design.
Source: iTnews Australia
nbn taps machine learning and big data to deal with network faults
New Tech Lab will help determine whether network issues can be dealt with remotely and or by a field technician.
Source: ARN
Wed, 20th Sep 2017
NBN to trial tool for detecting in-home copper wiring faults
Pointing out that slow speeds and dropouts can be due to a number of factors, and not necessarily the wholesale network itself, NBN has announced trials of a diagnostic tool for remotely discovering in-home wiring faults.
Source: ZDNet Australia
NBN Co targets in-home wiring faults
NBN Co is set to begin trials within weeks of an internally developed remote diagnostic tool used to find premises in the FTTN footprint with in-home wiring faults.
Source: iTnews Australia
NBN customers in NSW hit by major outage
National Broadband Network (NBN) users in New South Wales have been hit by a major network outage.
Source: ARN
Tue, 19th Sep 2017
TPG mobile network to be complete in Sydney, Melbourne by mid-2018
TPG's AU$1.9 billion Australian mobile network will make use of small cells, macro cells, and fibre assets, with coverage expected to be across Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra by June 2018.
Source: ZDNet Australia