Broadband News
Wed, 17th Feb 2016
Infrastructure Australia calls for full benefits of NBN but skirts technology choices
In its over 200-page report, Infrastructure Australia lauded the benefits of broadband, but failed to state the obvious fact that the days of fibre to the node are already limited.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Work underway to get rid of mobile blackspots
Moves are afoot to rid regional and remote Australia of mobile blackspots where mobile phone users suffer inadequate, spasmodic or little or no network coverage.
Source: iTWire
Split up and sell off the NBN: Infrastructure Australia
The Turnbull government should split up the National Broadband Network and start preparing to sell it off to private companies, according to a landmark infrastructure plan.
Source: SMH
Infrastructure Australia plan backs NBN split up, USO reform
The Australian Infrastructure Plan endorses the eventual break up of NBN into separate business units as part of the process of privatising it.
Source: Computerworld
Metro fibre race on: TPG reaches almost 1000 buildings
Internet service provider TPG has activated 995 buildings across the country with fibre, according to information sent out to resellers early this month.
Source: CRN
Tue, 16th Feb 2016
Slow speeds, poor performance levels plague broadband services
Broadband services are letting down consumers with slow speeds and poor performance levels and the problem is compounded by a lack of reliable information on broadband quality and consumer expectations when choosing a plan.
Source: iTWire
Consumers let down by broadband speed and performance: ACCAN
Broadband speeds and performance are leaving consumers disappointed with their services, according to a recent survey from the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN).
Source: ARN
Telstra reseller Lycamobile in hot water with watchdog
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has alleged Telstra 3G mobile reseller Lycamobile of failing to provide adequate complaints-handling.
Source: CRN
Mon, 15th Feb 2016
Cabinet reshuffle adds rural communications and 'digital transformation'
The two new portfolios emphasise the Australian government's focus on communications in rural areas and digital innovation.
Source: ZDNet Australia
1,841 Terabytes Of Data Downloaded On Telstra's Free Data Day
After Telstra’s 3G and 4G networks went down last week, compensation was offered in the form of a free day of data. So exactly how much free data can you use in a day? It seems some were on a mission to find out.
Source: Gizmodo
Telstra customers double downloads on free data day
Telstra’s network saw twice as much traffic as it would normally during the telco's ‘free data’ day on Sunday.
Source: Computerworld
Fri, 12th Feb 2016
Revenues up, profits up as Optus continues network expansion
Optus says it has made significant progress building an even better network for customers as it announced that operating revenue was up 6% to A$2.43 billion for the three months to the end of December.
Source: iTWire
Virgin Will Give You 12GB Of Data For $50 A Month
The race for your mobile data dollars is hotting up. If you don’t mind the Optus network that it’s hosted on, Virgin Mobile will give new and upgrading customers a total of 12GB of 4G-friendly data per month for $50, with no fine print or finicky eligibility periods.
Source: Gizmodo
Kogan Mobile unveils $9 unlimited plan
Australian online retailer Kogan Mobile has heavily discounted its unlimited plans, revealing $8.95 and $10.95 monthly deals.
Source: CRN
Optus delivers a quarter of revenue, EBITDA and profit growth
Optus has reported a nine per cent increase in quarterly net profit, for the quarter ending December 31, 2015. The company’s EBITDA was up five per cent to $685 million, while its revenue was up six per cent to $2.43 billion.
Source: ARN
Thu, 11th Feb 2016
What the Dallas Buyers Club ruling means for piracy in Australia
The DBC resolution appears to cement the Federal Court's methodology in calculating damages for online copyright infringers, but how will this be affected by the three-strikes code and the TPP rules?
Source: ZDNet Australia
Tasmanian council seeks refund on 'underwhelming and exorbitant' NBN FttP estimate
Meander Valley Council is looking to get back the AU$11,000 NBN charged to provide a cost estimate to upgrade two areas to fibre-to-the-premises technology.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Quickflix asks Stan to restructure AU$11.7m 'debt'
The board of Quickflix has said it will not be able to attract further investors or fund redemption of its RPS without rival Stan agreeing to restructure the shares.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Telstra sees connection issues with US-hosted websites
Telstra has followed up its nationwide mobile network outage earlier this week with problems connecting to websites hosted by third-party US-based providers.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Our ‘woeful FTTN NBN’: an open user letter
Last night in a Senate Estimates hearing, former ALP Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy grilled nbn CEO Bill Morrow about numerous complaints that offices of various MPs had received about the poor performance of users’ FttN NBN services.
Source: iTWire
Dallas Buyers Club Throws In The Towel On iiNet Piracy Case
It’s finally over. For a year and a half, lawyers for Dallas Buyers Club have been fighting iiNet to access the details of over 4,000 of its customers that had allegedly committed copyright infringement — pirating the 2013 Matthew McConaughey film. Now it has been confirmed that the case has finally come to an end, with DBC LLC throwing in the towel.
Source: Gizmodo
Copyright notice scheme takes back seat to website blocking
Representatives of the telecommunications and Australian content industries have yet to finalise key details of a scheme that will see alleged pirates sent a series notices warning them to cease illicit downloads.
Source: Computerworld
Wed, 10th Feb 2016
DBC gives up on iiNet piracy case
The owners of the film Dallas Buyers Club have chosen not to take further action in their legal fight with iiNet over its users' alleged copyright infringement, bringing an official end to the year-and-a-half long saga.
Source: iTnews Australia
FttN complaints are not caused by the technology: NBN CEO
NBN CEO Bill Morrow has told Senate Estimates that the technology used in the fibre-to-the-node (FttN) rollout across Australia is not to blame for customer complaints about FttN services.
Source: ZDNet Australia
'Netflix tax' bill hits parliament
The federal government has introduced draft legislation that would see the goods and services tax applied to digital products purchased from overseas.
Source: iTnews Australia
The NBN Debate Will Never Be Over
Opinion: “Let’s quit fussing around.” The chief executive of the National Broadband Network company hopes that we are “past that” annoying war over fibre to the node versus fibre to the premises, and that we can all as a nation just concentrate on getting everybody connected to the NBN. But it’s not that easy.
Source: Gizmodo
NBN quizzed over FTTN complaints
The electorate offices of Labor MPs in the Macquarie and Newcastle areas are being “flooded with complaints about fibre to the node”, the architect of the original all-fibre blueprint for the National Broadband Network, Senator Stephen Conroy, said yesterday during a Senate Estimates hearing.
Source: Computerworld
Carriers celebrate as Telecommunications Act of 1996 turns 20
The winners in a broadband industry heavily shaped by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 celebrated publicly this week, as February 8 marked the 20-year anniversary of the law taking effect.
Source: ARN
NBN to finally give its PoI network redundancy
NBN will address long-held concerns over the resiliency of its 121 points of interconnect by introducing a redundancy capability in 2017.
Source: iTnews Australia
Tue, 09th Feb 2016
Telstra outage: 'Embarrassing human error' to blame
Today's Telstra outage occurred due to human error in handling a mobile node going down, the COO has disclosed.
Source: ZDNet Australia