Broadband News

Thu, 11th Aug 2016

​Telstra takes AU$5.8b net profit out of controversial year

Australia's incumbent telco has posted a 36.6 percent profit jump for the 2015-16 financial year, but CEO Andrew Penn is disappointed with the negative opinion mass-market customers held of Telstra's tumultuous 2016 performance.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Optus profit drops 12 percent for 1Q17

Optus continues to remain optimistic about the business transformation it is undertaking, despite seeing net operating revenue drop to AU$2 billion for the first quarter of the 2017 financial year.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Census failure leaves very big issues for IBM and ABS: Turnbull

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said he is angry with the failure of the Census 2016 site due to a "entirely predictable" denial of service attack.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Wed, 10th Aug 2016

Telstra denies involvement in Census stuff up

Australia's incumbent telco has denied it was to blame for a router failure in Tuesday night's Census.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Australian government pins Census collapse on geoblocking failure and overloaded router

The ABS has said it was under denial of service attack throughout yesterday, before a hardware router failure sparked a series of events that resulted in the Census site being pulled down last night.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Vaya Now Has Australia's Cheapest Unlimited Mobile Plan

If you send a lot of text messages and make a lot of calls to your buddies around Australia, then you definitely want a mobile phone plan with unlimited SMS and national calling. You don’t have to spend much money at all to make that happen, though — Vaya says it can do exactly that, plus a little bit of 4G data too, for just $16 a month.

Source: Gizmodo

Is Your Census Data Safe?

At 7:55pm last last the Australian Bureau of Statistics shut down the Australian Census website, revealing this morning that the move was a precaution against a series of denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Two million Census forms were submitted before the site closed, which raises the question — is your data safe?

Source: Gizmodo

The Australian Privacy Commissioner Is Investigating The Census Attack

Today the Australia Bureau of Statistics announced the Census website fell victim to a series of DDoS attacks yesterday, causing the department to shut down the site. Moments ago the Australian Privacy Commissioner announced he will opening an investigation into the “cyber attack”.

Source: Gizmodo

ABS blames Census 2016 site failure on DDoS attack

As widely expected, the Census website fell over last night -- but the ABS has said it was with a little help from external players.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Tue, 09th Aug 2016

Privacy Commissioner 'satisfied' with Census data security

Australia's Privacy Commissioner is "generally satisifed" with the security provisions guarding the extra personal information being collected in this years' national Census, despite widespread public concerns.

Source: iTnews Australia

Tonight Is Census Night, Or Next Month If You're Busy

Can’t make it onto the Census website tonight? The ABS says its server infrastructure is pretty sturdy, but as with all things running electricity through silicon there are no guarantees. If you don’t complete your Census form tonight — for whatever reason — you won’t automatically be fined the government’s default $180 per day penalty. The actual deadline is around six weeks away.

Source: Gizmodo

Mon, 08th Aug 2016

TPG, Vodafone latest to join the mobile data feast

The data feast for mobile phone users continues to roll on, with TPG partnering with Vodafone to hit the market offering big increases in data allowances with three of its newly released plans on the Vodafone 4G network.

Source: iTWire

Telstra to axe, offshore more jobs

Telstra will cut more than 200 jobs across its global finance and service operations businesses and potentially offshoring as many as half of the roles.

Source: iTnews Australia

Telstra considering cutting more than 200 jobs

Telstra is considering axing another 204 jobs, with the majority to be offshored, according to a report from the union.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Fri, 05th Aug 2016

ACCC to examine effects of NBN, mobile, OTT on communications sector

The changing telecommunications landscape thanks to increased data usage, mobility, and the NBN rollout has spurred the ACCC to examine the effectiveness of its market regulation.

Source: ZDNet Australia

​NBN and 5G under scrutiny as spotlight falls on Aussie telco sector

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to launch market study of the communications industry.

Source: ARN

Thu, 04th Aug 2016

Telstra upgrades wireless core for 5G

Telstra is taking steps to prepare its mobile core network to underpin 5G services by deploying a set of undisclosed network function virtualisation (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) technologies.

Source: iTnews Australia

Telstra trialling 5G on Ericsson's radio test bed in September

Ahead of its 5G trial run in 2018, Telstra will use Ericsson's radio test bed to test 5G capabilities next month.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Wed, 03rd Aug 2016

NBN under competitive threat from wireless broadband: Former CTO

While NBN has locked down the wholesale fixed-line broadband competition through regulation, wireless broadband remains a strong competitor for internet access.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Telstra chief information officer resigns

Telstra has now lost its CIO, COO, and CTO over the past six months, coinciding with seven network outages across the country during the same period of time.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Coles, Optus out to grab mobile users with data pitch

The increasingly competitive push by mobile operators to lure data-hungry consumers with much bigger data allowances has been ramped up by Coles in its latest deal with Optus.

Source: iTWire

Tue, 02nd Aug 2016

NBN update: The lowdown on HFC’s debut in Redcliffe

We look at the technology behind the recent Hybrid Fibre Coaxial in Queensland.

Source: PC Authority

Aussie consumers increasingly switch mobile providers

Loyalty to mobile service providers is increasingly becoming a thing of the past for Aussie mobile users as they discard their long-term contract plans and switch to a provider with no lock in contracts.

Source: iTWire

4G now connects 52 percent of Australian mobile users

Despite 4G penetration reaching up to 98 percent of the population, just 52 percent of mobile users in Australia are using a 4G network.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Mon, 01st Aug 2016

What's New On Stan, Netflix, Foxtel Anytime And Presto In August

From Mr Robot, to Fear The Walking Dead and every episode of Dexter — here’s just a taste of what Netflix, Presto, Stan and Foxtel Anytime are streaming for the month of August.

Source: Gizmodo

nbn passes the million home mark with Telstra leading the charge

Over a million Australian homes and businesses are now connected to the national broadband network (nbn) with Telstra responsible for the majority of the connections according to the Australian Competition Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Source: ARN

UK firm buys biggest NBN satellite retailer

Satellite Solutions Worldwide (SSW) will acquire Australian satellite Internet firm SkyMesh as well as Norwegian-based Breiband.no A.S for a total of GBP£11.7 million for be funded through the issue of £12.1 million worth of shares, the company has announced

Source: Computerworld

​Vodafone grows Aussie customer base as losses drop

Australia’s third-ranked mobile carrier, Vodafone, has achieved solid growth during the first six months of 2016, boosting customer numbers while trimming losses, despite a drop in revenue.

Source: ARN

​Aussie watchdog opens up superfast broadband networks to competition

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will regulate access to wholesale superfast broadband services, declaring a five-year ‘superfast broadband access service’ (SBAS).

Source: ARN

Fri, 29th Jul 2016

Vodafone loses AU$10m in EBITDA due to ACCC decision

The ACCC's decision to slash wholesale call pricing cost Vodafone Australia AU$10 million in EBITDA and AU$230 million in revenue over the last six months.

Source: ZDNet Australia