Broadband News
Tue, 08th Apr 2014
Telstra gets 90Mbps in fibre to the building NBN trials
Telstra has reported peak download speeds of 90Mbps and peak upload speeds of 30Mbps in a trial of NBN Co's fibre to the building technology in Melbourne.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Virgin Mobile curbs excess data charges
Virgin Mobile has responded to widespread consumer criticism around excess data charges, announcing new pricing structures for excess data costs for post-paid customers.
Source: iTWire
Telstra calls on industry to fix NBN migration headaches
Telstra's head of regulatory affairs Tony Warren has called on the telecommunications industry to develop an industry-wide solution to coordinate customer migrations to the national broadband network, suggesting the Comms Alliance take a more active role in handling the transitions.
Source: iTnews Australia
Mon, 07th Apr 2014
Telstra lodges appeal over exchange and underground duct access pricing dispute
Telstra has lodged a formal appeal in the New South Wales Federal Court over its exchange and underground duct access pricing increase dispute against the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Vocus Communications (ASX: VOC) and iiNet (ASX: IIN) subsidiaries.
Source: Computerworld
Telstra appeals ruling in exchange fees fight
Telstra has lodged a formal appeal in the Federal Court against its decision to dismiss the telco's challenge to the jurisdiction of the national consumer watchdog over a pricing dispute.
Source: iTnews Australia
Sun, 06th Apr 2014
NBN Co misses construction plan deadline
NBN Co has missed its first regulated deadline to produce one-year and three-year construction plans, with no firm date given for their creation.
Source: iTnews Australia
Fri, 04th Apr 2014
Defence extends Optus satellite contract
The Department of Defence has extended its managed satellite services agreement with Optus for another four years, the telco announced this morning.
Source: Computerworld
Default password leaves tens of thousands of Optus cable subscribers at risk
When Alex* found flaw in his cable modem that allowed anyone to receive and make calls using his number, his jaw dropped.
Source: SMH
Mobile broadband worth billions to Australian economy
Mobile broadband has been directly responsible for a $33.8 billion increase in economic activity (measured in terms of Gross Domestic Product) in 2013, or a 2.28% contribution to Australia's total GDP..
Source: iTWire
Thu, 03rd Apr 2014
Mobile broadband boosts economy by billions: ACMA
Australians using mobile broadband services added AU$33.8 billion to economic activity in the country in 2013, according to research commissioned by the ACMA.
Source: ZDNet Australia
NBN Co reveals start date of FTTN trial
NBN Co will start its trial of fibre-to-the-node technology from May 1, as it consults with industry on its proposed mix of fibre-to-the-node and hybrid-fibre coaxial technology.
Source: iTnews Australia
Optus activates 4G on Sydney's Eastern Suburbs train line
Rail commuters in Sydney's eastern suburbs will now be able to make calls, send SMS, update social networks and browse the internet all the way from Redfern to Bondi Junction.
Source: ARN
24 million vulnerable home routers primed to launch DDoS attacks
A vulnerability in more than 24m home routers is leading to an increase in denial-of-service attacks, according to network activity company Nominum.
Source: PC Authority
NBN Co brings back regional broadband subsidy
The Australian government, through NBN Co, will subsidise the satellite connections of up to 9,000 regional broadband users at a cost of AU$15.6 million.
Source: ZDNet Australia
NBN Co to subsidise satellite costs for 9000 users
NBN Co has agreed to subsidise the costs associated with setting up 9000 regional users unable to access the oversubscribed interim satellite service (ISS) with commercial satellite services.
Source: iTnews Australia
NBN should be all fibre: NICTA boss
The head of Australia's foremost IT research organisation thinks the Government chose the wrong path with the national broadband network by moving it from an all-fibre model.
Source: iTnews Australia
Wed, 02nd Apr 2014
NBN pause a boon for Tasmanian cloud provider
Tasmanian cloud provider TasmaNet has idle NBN construction crews rolling out its dark fibre for businesses in Hobart while the Commonwealth Government reassesses the NBN rollout in Tasmania.
Source: ZDNet Australia
iiNet slams metadata 'fallacy'
iiNet has lashed out at proposals by government agencies to force internet service providers to retain user data for law enforcement purposes, and outlined its concerns about federal use of section 313 of the Telco Act to force ISPs to block websites.
Source: iTnews Australia
Tue, 01st Apr 2014
Optus customers offered contract release by court
Customers who signed an Optus mobile contract earlier this year will be given the option of release from their contract due to advertising about the company's mobile network size that the Victorian Supreme Court ruled was misleading.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Mon, 31st Mar 2014
ACCC keeps eye on backhaul competition
Most backhaul network services provided by Telstra and other providers will still be regulated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for at least the next five years.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Dropbox under fire for 'DMCA takedown' of personal folders, but fears are vastly overblown
The online storage startup, also used by mid-size businesses and enterprise customers, like any other company has to comply with U.S. copyright law. But how it goes about it can be an entirely different matter.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Govt may ship data to subsea cable telcos
The Federal Government has indicated it is willing to consider handing submarine fibre operators access to data collected by ships passing in the vicinity of cable infrastructure.
Source: iTnews Australia
ACCC waters down Telstra exchange price threat
The ACCC has backed down on a threat to use competition law to control the prices charged by Telstra for exchange access, ducking possible legal action.
Source: iTnews Australia
Sun, 30th Mar 2014
Optus services suffer six-hour Sunday outage
Optus customers across three states lost internet, cable tv and phone line services on Sunday morning, with some customers being left disconnected for up to six hours.
Source: iTnews Australia
Fri, 28th Mar 2014
'Safe harbour' for Facebook, Google proposed for Aus privacy law
The Australian Law Reform Commission last night offered up a sneak preview of recommendations it will make around new privacy law, which will include a 'safe harbour' provision for internet platform providers such as Facebook and Google.
Source: iTnews Australia
Telstra's accounting separation reporting requirements pulled by ACCC
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has revoked regulations requiring Telstra to report its wholesale and retail operations separately.
Source: ARN
Thu, 27th Mar 2014
iiNet distributed 1.2 petabytes of data in December 2013
iiNet’s content delivery network (CDN) distributed 1.2 petabytes (PB) or 1228.8 terabytes (TB) of video and music data in December 2013 alone.
Source: ARN
ACMA warns Optus over billing
Optus has been formally warned by the ACMA for inaccurately billing hundreds of thousands of customers prior in 2011 and 2012.
Source: iTWire
Committee slams NBN strategic review; Coalition slams committee
An interim report of the Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network issued yesterday has expressed "significant concerns with the accuracy and reliability" of the strategic review process that led to NBN Co adopting the multi-technology mix model for the network favoured by the Coalition.
Source: Computerworld
Wed, 26th Mar 2014
NBN strategic review 'inaccurate, unreliable', says Senate committee
The Labor and Greens membership of the Senate Select Committee investigating the national broadband network has found NBN Co's "deficient" and "manipulated" strategic review failed to provide a sufficient basis for the adoption of an alternative deployment path for the rollout.
Source: iTnews Australia