Broadband News
Mon, 25th Nov 2013
Singapore, South Korea revealed as Five Eyes spying partners
Singapore and South Korea are playing key roles helping the United States and Australia tap undersea telecommunications links across Asia, according to top secret documents leaked by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. New details have also been revealed about the involvement of Australia and New Zealand in the interception of global satellite communications.
Source: SMH
Site to stop NBN turning into insulation batts debacle
Industry groups have joined forces to stop the national broadband network (NBN) project turning into another insulation batts debacle.
Source: SMH
Mixed messages on Telstra copper complicate FttN NBN case
Is Telstra's copper network dead or isn't it? Experts just can't seem to agree - nor can those people that were supposed to be Malcolm Turnbull's allies, who are compromising his Telstra renegotiations and his case for rural FttN at the same time.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Lifting the veil on the NBN as industry initiative launched
Australia's telecommunications infrastructure industry has banded together to launch a new initiative to address what it says is the problem of 'public confusion' about what to do to make the most of the NBN at home.
Source: iTWire
Fri, 22nd Nov 2013
Telstra turns to data to reduce customer churn
Armed with up to three years of historic data and a suite of analytics tools, Telstra is making sure that it does not waste a cent of its marketing budget in order to attract customers - and keep them - on its books.
Source: iTnews Australia
Thu, 21st Nov 2013
Telstra tests Voice over LTE
Telstra has confirmed it is conducting lab tests of technology that would allow voice calls to be carried over its 4G LTE network.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Indonesian hackers target Australia, again
A hacker claiming to be an Indonesian member of the loose hacking collective Anonymous has claimed responsibility for attacks on the AFP and Reserve Bank websites, which were down for a number of hours this morning.
Source: iTWire
TPG suffers critical outage
TPG Telecom has suffered a critical outage affecting a range of its services across Australia.
Source: iTnews Australia
Wed, 20th Nov 2013
Telstra's copper is 'nearly beyond repair' and 'an absolute disgrace': union
The union representing Telstra field staff says the telco's copper-wire network is "beyond repair" and "an absolute disgrace", casting new doubts over the federal government's plans to use it to deliver faster broadband in its mixed-technology national broadband network (NBN).
Source: SMH
End in sight for long-running NBN access negotiations
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is edging close to making a decision on whether to accept NBN Co's crucial special access undertaking.
Source: ZDNet Australia
NBN Co agrees to varied SAU
NBN Co has accepted changes requested by the ACCC to the document which will set out the minimum terms and conditions for services supplied over the NBN.
Source: iTnews Australia
KFC Australia continues free Wi-Fi rollout
KFC Australia has plans to extend its free Wi-Fi service to all stores around the country following a successful deployment to 190 restaurants in 2012.
Source: Computerworld
Optus home wireless broadband trial kicks off
Telecommunications provider, Optus, is poised to begin a trial of a premium home wireless broadband product in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane which promises ADSL2+ speed to all homes and small businesses.
Source: ARN
Ziggy quizzed - it's FTTP for now
Despite the Abbott LNP Goverment's fervour to remake the NBN into a cheaper FTTN version, NBN Co executive chairman Dr Ziggy Switkowski says the network will stay with fibre to the premises (FTTP) construction for another year.
Source: iTWire
NBN chief puts brakes on FTTN upgrade path
Australian internet users given a fibre-to-the-node connection under a rebooted NBN scheme are unlikely to see the last-mile upgraded to fibre within a decade, according to NBN Co's acting chief Ziggy Switkowski.
Source: iTnews Australia
Telstra copper network 'robust': NBN chief
Telstra's decades-old copper network continues to "perform robustly", new NBN chairman Ziggy Switkowski says.
Source: Computerworld
Tue, 19th Nov 2013
Former OECD economist welcomes chance to work on NBN review
Former OECD economist Henry Ergas says he would welcome the chance to help conduct a cost benefit analysis of the National Broadband Network.
Source: ABC News
One-in-three Aussies online while watching TV
Australians are getting used to multi-tasking, with new research showing we are increasingly spending time online while watching television at the same time.
Source: iTWire
Malone to take months-long break from iiNet
ISP iiNet's finance chief will temporarily take the reins as CEO of the company after Michael Malone revealed plans to take a "3-6 month break" before returning to oversee a fresh round of growth.
Source: iTnews Australia
NBN Co invites RSPs to take part in fibre-to-the-building pilot
NBN Co has sent out expressions of interest (EOI) to all of its retail service providers (RSPs) today to take part in a three-month fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) pilot which will start in January 2014 across Australia.
Source: Computerworld
Telstra defends copper network, says it's not ageing
Telstra has defended the quality of its copper network saying "it's like a grandfather's axe" that is fixed as needed.
Source: SMH
Australian government mulls NBN satellite options
The Australian government is considering its options as the NBN Co interim satellite service reaches capacity.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Internode to use NBN tower to stream music festival
Internode will be using an NBN tower to live stream the performance of The John Butler Trio in high definition at South Australia’s iconic Gorgeous Festival.
Source: ARN
Mon, 18th Nov 2013
NBN VDSL trials a success: NBN Co CTO
NBN Co's chief technology officer Gary McLaren has said that the speed and product trials of VDSL technology conducted by NBN Co have proven to be a success.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Fibre to the node NBN offers 'optionality': Turnbull
Ahead of the release of NBN Co's strategic review, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said that fibre to the node offers flexibility and optionality on future upgrades for broadband.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Virgin matches Voda, offers double data
Virgin Mobile has matched rival Vodafone in doubling the data of its postpaid plans over the Christmas period; from now to 13 January.
Source: iTWire
iiNet mulls moving NBN satellite users onto 3G, 4G
ISP iiNet is considering whether some of its 8000 customers on interim NBN satellite services would be better served by switching across to Optus mobile broadband.
Source: iTnews Australia
Turnbull slams media over NBN
Communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has accused the mainstream media of letting down the Australian public by not being sufficiently interested in the National Broadband Network.
Source: ARN
Turnbull calls for NBN documents release
Federal Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten, is under pressure to authorise the release of confidential cabinet documents on the national broadband network's costings Labor received while in government.
Source: ARN