Broadband News
Wed, 25th Jan 2017
NBN launches 'Gen NBN' marketing campaign
The new marketing campaign features a 60-second TV ad, outdoor advertising, and targeted digital and social media advertising encouraging customers to use the NBN for home, business, education, and healthcare.
Source: ZDNet Australia
NBN still no case study for nationalised broadband
Australia’s experience with the national broadband network should be reason enough for US policymakers to rebuff attempts by “broadband populists” to similarly nationalise broadband infrastructure, according to a US policy think tank.
Source: iTnews Australia
What's New On Netflix And Stan For February
From Jurassic Park, to Santa Clarita Diet - here's just a taste of what Netflix and Stan are streaming for the month of February.
Source: Gizmodo
Canberra's NBN Delays Are Bad, But Not As Bad As They Seem
The "NBN has abandoned Canberra". That's the strong proclamation from the ACT's Riot Act website, even if it's not entirely accurate. A former Labor candidate for the ACT's legislative assembly in the 2016 election is saying that some areas in the territory have had their NBN connections delayed by as much as 2.5 years.
Source: Gizmodo
Internet Australia appoints new chair
Anne Hurley has replaced George Fong as chair of Internet Australia, the not-for-profit organisation has announced.
Source: Computerworld
How close is the NBN to meeting Australia’s connectivity needs?
The NBN is almost halfway to completion, but will it meet Australia’s connectivity needs?
Source: ARN
Tue, 24th Jan 2017
Satellite operators get spectrum license tax cuts
Satellite operators will pay less tax on the annual spectrum licenses needed for their services, but the cuts aren’t as deep for high-density areas as NBN Co and Communications Alliance had wanted.
Source: iTnews Australia
Rural Mobile Broadband Coverage Is Getting A Boost From Optus
Australia's remote internet coverage is so bad there is a dedicated lobby group to campaign for services. Steps are (slowly) being taken to increase coverage, and now Optus is installing satellite small cells in five locations across regional Northern Territory - as well as six locations across regional South Australia.
Source: Gizmodo
DNS: The ‘Achilles’ Heel’ of the Internet
Arbor Networks has released its twelfth annual Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report (WISR), singling out the Domain Name System (DNS) as one of the Internet services most targeted by DDoS attacks and saying it remains the Achilles Heel of global Internet infrastructure.
Source: Computerworld
Mon, 23rd Jan 2017
Vodafone pushes to curb future NBN Co 'bad behaviour'
Laws used to sanction Telstra for alleged anti-competitive conduct should be kept to stop NBN Co from trying anything similar, according to Vodafone.
Source: iTnews Australia
Fri, 20th Jan 2017
Labor 'very concerned' about telco data retention use in civil cases
Mark Dreyfus has said the review of whether data retention should contain exceptions for use in some civil cases should be public, and needs to be explained 'very, very carefully' by Australia's 'incompetent attorney-general'.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Thu, 19th Jan 2017
Metadata ruling 'an analog decision in a digital age'
The Australian Privacy Foundation has described the Federal Court's judgment that key metadata is not personal information as an effective gutting of the Privacy Act.
Source: iTWire
Landmark Australian ruling on what counts as 'personal information'
A full bench of the Federal Court has today handed down a hotly awaited judgment on its interpretation of Australian privacy law, and what qualifies as personal information.
Source: iTnews Australia
Your Metadata Isn't Private Personal Information, Federal Court Decides
A long-running case on whether you're allowed access to view your own mobile phone metadata -- retained by Australia's telecommunications companies for government snooping, including comprehensive call logs and location data -- and whether that data is classified as "personal information" has come to an unceremonious end.
Source: Gizmodo
Wed, 18th Jan 2017
Canberra to bolster its websites against DDoS attacks
The Department of Finance is weighing up ways to protect dozens of federal government websites on its Drupal-based GovCMS platform against DDoS and other potentially devastating attacks.
Source: iTnews Australia
NBN rollout progress a ‘pyrrhic victory’, says Patton
Internet Australia chief Laurie Patton is unimpressed with the latest rollout forecasts for the National Broadband Network and says the predicted disruption caused by rollout works in metro areas of major cities could be avoided if the “inferior” copper FttN network is abandoned in favour of a full fibre network.
Source: iTWire
NBN warns of 'disruption' as it takes rollout to cities in 2017
NBN will begin rolling out its network to cities including Sydney, Brisbane, Hobart, Fremantle, and the Gold Coast, with the company warning of disruptions as it needs to access pits and existing infrastructure.
Source: ZDNet Australia
NBN Co anticipating 'new problems' in metro rollout
NBN Co is expecting to hit “new problems” in its rollout as the company’s contractors begin connecting more of Australia’s high-density city areas to the network this year.
Source: iTnews Australia
Tue, 17th Jan 2017
Hawaiki ‘on schedule’ as route survey is completed
Hawaiki Submarine Cable and its main supplier, TE SubCom, say they have completed the survey of the cable’s 14,000km route and the project remains on schedule for completion in mid-2018.
Source: Computerworld
Vodafone voice outage caused by error in planned network maintenance
The almost three-hour outage in voice services was caused by an error made during planned work on the network, Vodafone has said, with services restored around 8am.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Telstra and Ericsson encrypt in-transit data over 10Gbps link
Having encrypted data while in transit over a 10Gbps link between the US and Australia, Ericsson and Telstra are now looking towards testing the optical encryption technology over a 100Gbps link.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Vodafone taps Ericsson and Cisco for full-scale network virtualisation
Vodafone Hutchison Australia has named Ericsson as prime contractor with Cisco as the main subcontractor for a five-year project to virtualise both the core of its mobile network and the IP network supporting services and applications.
Source: Computerworld
Mon, 16th Jan 2017
Qantas to start NBN satellite trial next month
Qantas will commence testing of a proof-of-concept NBN-based satellite service onboard its aircraft at the start of February for the next nine months.
Source: iTnews Australia
ACMA opens applications for 700MHz mobile broadband spectrum auction
The 700MHz spectrum will be auctioned off in two lots: 2x 10MHz and 2x 5MHz, with bids starting at AU$571.8 million and AU$285.9 million, respectively.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Optus boosts WA coverage with satellite small cells
Mobile coverage in Western Australia will improve thanks to the small cells being installed along a 2,000km stretch of highway by Optus in an effort to bring 3G and 4G to remote areas.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Vic state property developer to sell off controversial FTTH network
The Victorian government's property development agency is seeking to sell off its controversial fibre-to-the-home network after deciding it no longer wants to manage telco networks.
Source: iTnews Australia
Telstra to guarantee connectivity over key subsea cable routes
Telstra said today that in the coming months it will launch an ‘Always On’ service guarantee for its Hong Kong to Singapore and Japan to Hong Kong cables routes.
Source: Computerworld
Fri, 13th Jan 2017
Telstra warns container ships off its subsea patch
Telstra is forced to warn the captains of between 30 and 50 container ships a month that are seen to be travelling too close to the telco’s subsea cable infrastructure paths.
Source: iTnews Australia
Thu, 12th Jan 2017
NBN Co drops tiers, talks speed without mentioning speeds
NBN Co used to talk about the various tiers of service it offered. Now, presumably due to the shortcomings of the multi-technology mix, it refers to "speeds" and "plans" instead of "tiers" – but studiously avoids quantifying the speeds delivered.
Source: iTWire
Daniel Saffioti built his own private radio network to get access to NBN
The last straw for Daniel Saffioti came in mid-2014 when the National Broadband Network installed a fibre pillar right in front of his house – but refused to connect him.
Source: SMH