Broadband News

Wed, 28th Mar 2012

Conroy named a community visionary

Federal Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, who is overseeing the government's $36 billion National Broadband Network (NBN) project, has received an award from a New York-based think tank.

Source: ARN

Pay TV piracy hits Murdoch

A secret unit within Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation promoted a wave of high-tech piracy in Australia that damaged Austar, Optus and Foxtel at a time when News was moving to take control of the Australian pay TV industry, a four-year investigation by The Australian Financial Review has revealed.

Source: SMH

Tue, 27th Mar 2012

ACCC taking Apple to court over misleading '4G' iPad claims

The ACCC is taking Apple to Court alleging that it has mislead consumers by touting the new iPad has having '4G' capabilities. Exactly as iTWire predicted when the product was announced.

Source: iTWire

Pacific Fibre stirs up FUD about Huawei's sub cable technology

Pacific Fibre the New Zealand company planning to build a submarine cable system linking Australia, New Zealand and the USA, has seized on the Australian Government's concerns about the security of Huawei equipment to disparage a potential rival TransTasman cable system that plans to use Huawei gear.

Source: iTWire

NBN Co to release three-year rollout plan Thursday

NBN Co has revealed it will release the much-anticipated forward rollout plan for the National Broadband Network on Thursday.

Source: iTnews Australia

Big news for IPv6: Akamai to launch service in April

Akamai will offer IPv6 services to its entire customer base in April - a long-awaited move that will be a major boon to the adoption rate of the next-generation Internet Protocol.

Source: Computerworld

Telstra International revamps subsea cable

Telstra International has deployed a 40-gigabit per second (Gbps) Infinera DTN digital switching technology for its Reach subsea network in Asia.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Townsville tornado rips through NBN infrastructure

NBN Co's Townsville first release sites for the National Broadband Network (NBN) suffered severe damage last week after a mini tornado hit the area.

Source: Computerworld

Mon, 26th Mar 2012

iiNet and Internode users can now share unmetered content

iiNet and Internode customers will now be able to share access to the content libraries of each internet service provider without being charged from their monthly quotas.

Source: Computerworld

Greens call for govt to explain Huawei ban

The Greens have called for the Federal Government to explain the reasoning behind its decision to ban Chinese network giant Huawei from tendering for the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Source: ZDNet Australia

NBN security more than just the network

Creating an open, borderless network for the ever-expanding NBN Co organisation came down to creating a highly segmented network divided across the company's different businesses, according to the company's general manager of information and security Peter Watson.

Source: ZDNet Australia

How to configure your router

An introduction to important setup options on your router for getting the best performance and security. If you're not across modulation types, NAT and port forwarding, QoS and IPv6 then read on.

Source: PC Authority

Huawei links to cyber attacks 'absurd'

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer has criticised suggestions that Huawei is somehow involved in cyber warfare after the Chinese vendor was blocked from bidding for NBN work over security fears.

Source: iTnews Australia

NBN Co inks $300m construction contract in Tasmania

NBN Co has inked a $300 million construction and maintenance contract with Visionstream Australia for the complete rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) in Tasmania.

Source: Computerworld

Sat, 24th Mar 2012

Govt banned Huawei from NBN bids

The government has reportedly banned Chinese-owned Huawei from tendering for National Broadband Network contracts, with the office of Attorney-General Nicola Roxon issuing a statement saying the government needed to protect the integrity of Australia's information infrastructure.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Fri, 23rd Mar 2012

Primus first to be NBN Co certified for B2B interoperation

Primus has become the first retail service provider to be certified by NBN Co for direct integration of its systems with those of NBN Co, enabling it to automate order management, assurance and billing operations for services provided on the NBN to its end user customers.

Source: iTWire

ACTA treaty mauled in hearings

Academics have savaged the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) treaty over the power it affords intellectual property rights holders during a second round of joint committee hearings in Canberra.

Source: iTnews Australia

Telstra sparks 900 MHz LTE movement

Telstra is investigating the viability of using its remaining 2G mobile spectrum stocks to deploy the second phase of its 4G mobile network.

Source: iTnews Australia

Thu, 22nd Mar 2012

iiNet makes claims against Foxtel-Austar merger

iiNet has publicly rallied against the imminent merger of pay TV providers Foxtel and Austar, warning approval from the competition watchdog would give Telstra an increased advantage in the regional broadband market.

Source: iTnews Australia

NBN key for Royal Children's Hospital

Although the new Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne is already equipped with a fibre backbone, director of ICT architecture Brendan Kelly says "thank god" for the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Source: ZDNet Australia

NBN Co gets first Emerson build modular data centre

Emerson Network Power has handed over to NBN Co the first of 10 modular data centres it has been contracted to build for the company.

Source: iTWire

Pipe Network's Brisbane data centres suffer outage

Australian fibre wholesaler, Pipe Networks, suffered an unexpected outage at its Brisbane-based DC1 and DC2 data centres in the early hours of this morning due to power and air conditioning issues.

Source: Computerworld

Will users reject native 4G for Wi-Fi?

analysis Long-term evolution (LTE) may be the technology that brings faster mobile broadband speeds, but research shows that users are rejecting native 3G connectivity for Wi-Fi, and, if history repeats itself, the same could occur for native 4G support in tablets.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Emerson hands keys to first NBN PoI

Emerson Network Power has delivered the first of ten purpose-built data centres to NBN Co to be used as points of interconnect on the National Broadband Network.

Source: iTnews Australia

Wed, 21st Mar 2012

VoIP providers prepare NBN attack

VoIP and telephony providers Engin and MyNetFone are set to become retail service providers over the National Broadband Network in the first move by non-traditional ISPs to broadband services.

Source: iTnews Australia

Telstra starts selling 4G wireless hotspot

Telstra has today launched its first 4G long-term evolution (LTE) Wi-Fi hotspot to business customers in collaboration with Sierra Wireless.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Engin launches NBN plans via Nextgen and provides white label VoIP to Nextgen's NBN retailers

VoIP and broadband service provider, Engin - a Seven Group subsidiary - has announced its retail broadband and VoIP plans as part of a two way deal with Nextgen Networks under which it will: use Nextgen's wholesale NBN services to deliver its own NBN services; and provide white-labelled VoIP services to Nextgen for resale to Nextgen's other retail NBN service provider customers.

Source: iTWire

VHA appoints new CEO, reiterates roadmap focus

Bill Morrow has been appointed as CEO of Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA), with the role of chairman to be taken over by Hutchison Whampoa managing director, Canning Fok.

Source: ARN

TPG boosts half year profits by 65 percent

TPG Telecom has reported a 65 percent increase in NPAT for the half year ended 31 January 2012 to $55.7m, and a 17 percent increase in EBITDA to $131.9m on revenues of $324.5m, up 17 percent.

Source: iTWire

Hundreds likely to go in Optus review

More than 750 jobs could be made redundant under an internal review currently underway at Optus.

Source: iTnews Australia