Broadband News

Mon, 19th May 2014

Telcos see low adoption of data plans for tablets

Why buy mobile broadband when you can tether? That's the question many Australians are asking, according to a Telsyte report released today.

Source: Computerworld

NBN Co renews Service Stream greenfields contract

NBN Co construction partner Service Stream has inked a contract renewal with the government-owned company charged with rolling out the National Broadband Network.

Source: Computerworld

Fri, 16th May 2014

Faulty DHCP server downs iiNet NBN, IPTV services

Customers of iiNet’s NBN fibre broadband and iiNetTV services were unable to connect to the internet for five and a half hours on Friday due to a faulty DHCP server.

Source: iTnews Australia

MyBroadband cost up to $223k

The Department of Communications has spent AU$223,225 so far on the set up and running of its MyBroadband speed test and broadband information website.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Thu, 15th May 2014

SingTel reports 4Q net profit climb, revenue drop

Singapore telco clocks 4 percent increase in net profit but sees revenue drop of 8 percent, closing the year with S$3.65 billion in net profit and lower operating revenue of S$16.85 billion. Growth was muted by weakening regional currencies.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Vodafone scraps CIO role

Australia's third largest telco Vodafone will ditch the role of chief information officer after its current CIO Andrew Wiles departs from the role today.

Source: iTnews Australia

Senate votes to protect domestic submarine cables

A bill to afford Australian submarine fibre optic cables the same protection as fibre links to international locations is set to become law, after the proposed legislation passed the Senate today.

Source: iTnews Australia

Coalition seeks to break Conroy's NBN committee dominance

The Australian government wants a less Conrovian NBN committee with Coalition senators voting against extending the Senate Select Committee's life to the end of the first term of the Abbott government.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Thousands of seniors lose their phone number

Potentially thousands of elderly Australians have lost their phone number for good, with the new receivers of telecommunications company ONESeniors announcing existing landline numbers will have to be terminated.

Source: iTWire

Optus boosts yearly profit despite tough quarter

Optus has managed to lift its net profit for the full fiscal year by 10 percent to $835 million despite a tough last three months, thanks to its ongoing efforts to cut costs and restructure the business.

Source: iTnews Australia

Telstra claims world first 450Mbps network speeds over LTE

Australian telecommunications giant, Telstra, has hit network speeds of 450 megabits per second (Mbps) by coupling the 1800MHz and 2600MHz bands on LTE Advanced Carrier Aggregation.

Source: ARN

Wed, 14th May 2014

Senate extends life of NBN committee

The Senate late today voted to extend the life of a select committee investigating the national broadband network for up to two and a half more years.

Source: iTnews Australia

Budget 2014 - NBN funding goes private after FY2017

The National Broadband Network will have to rely on private funding after the 2017-18 financial year, according to the 2014-15 budget released last night.

Source: Computerworld

Telstra makes $A561m profit from $A2.03bn sale of CSL

Telstra has made $US1.99 billion for its 76.4 per cent stake in CSL, having completed the sale of the Hong Kong-based business to HKT Limited on May 14.

Source: ARN

How Optus left millions of customers' mobile voicemail accounts exposed for months

A security flaw in the way Optus handled its voicemail allowed for anyone to access any one of its millions of mobile customers' voicemail accounts without a PIN using caller ID "spoofing".

Source: SMH

Canberra's tech projects handed expiry notice

Treasurer Joe Hockey has taken a knife to some of the Australian Governmen's most ambitious technology projects in his 2014-15 Federal Budget, with looming funding deadlines now in place for the National Broadband Network and National ICT Australia.

Source: iTnews Australia

Tue, 13th May 2014

NBN Co calls for telco guarantee shakeup

NBN Co wants the Government to abandon the customer service guarantee (CSG) on fixed-line voice services, capping months of concerns over the company's lack of support for the standards.

Source: iTnews Australia

NBN Co buys VDSL2 vectoring gear from Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent has revealed NBN Co is one of the customers for its VDSL2 vectoring products used for fibre to the node (FTTN).

Source: Computerworld

NBN Co releases medium business services

Business customers waiting for improved speeds and service levels from the national broadband network have been given more options to choose from, as new plans are released to service providers.

Source: iTnews Australia

Mon, 12th May 2014

Telstra trialling 4G in the skies

It's long been the bane of existence for business travellers wanting to do business in the skies - a lack of Internet for doing business - but that all could change with a new Telstra trial.

Source: iTWire

$100 million submarine cable planned for NT, WA

Natural gas projects in north-west Australia will soon get a boost from a new submarine cable system connecting Darwin in the Northern Territory and Port Hedland in Western Australia.

Source: Computerworld

Microsoft strikes cybercrime agreement with ACMA

The Australian Communication and Media Authority have formed an alliance with Microsoft to fight cybercrime.

Source: ARN

Turnbull's pride the NBN's biggest problem

Malcolm Turnbull has published a detailed rebuttal of the Senate's criticism of his plans for the NBN. It contains an admission that he is committed to most of Labor's spending.

Source: iTWire

Fri, 09th May 2014

Regional Western Australia lands $45m for mobile coverage

As part of the Western Australia state budget, royalties from taxes on the resources industry will fund mobile phone towers in regional parts of the state.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Thu, 08th May 2014

NSA director praises Australia's Huawei ban

Australia made a "tremendous" decision to block Chinese owned telecommunications provider Huawei from competing for work on the NBN, according to a former NSA director.

Source: iTWire

Level 3 accuses major ISPs of forcing internet traffic into the slow lane

Slow internet? According to Level 3, it could well be that your ISP of deliberately throttling your traffic.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Wed, 07th May 2014

NBN Co to spend $1.4bn more on regional rollout

NBN Co will need to allocate up to $1.4 billion in additional funds to its fixed wireless and satellite rollout in regional areas after underestimating demand for the services by almost 400,000 users.

Source: iTnews Australia

NBN Co to ramp up fixed wireless

NBN Co's current plan to deliver broadband services to the 7-8 per cent of population outside the NBN fixed line footprint woefully underestimates the demand in those areas according to a report released today by the government-owned company.

Source: Computerworld

Vocus picks up ONEseniors, iBOSS, One Telecom

The businesses and customers of iBOSS International and One Telecom including the ONEseniors customers, have been acquired by the Vocus Communications group.

Source: iTWire

Vocus cannot guarantee service reactivation for iBoss, One Telecom customers

Telecommunications company, Vocus, is rushing to reconnect services interrupted by the court-ordered administration of iBoss International last week, which subsequently hit sister company, One Telecom, but is not promising that all services can be reactivated.

Source: ARN