Broadband News

Tue, 22nd Mar 2011

Optus satellite out of control

Optus has conceded it has started losing control of the last of its ageing B-series satellites as it announced plans to upgrade its regional fleet.

Source: Australian IT

Mon, 21st Mar 2011

Filter encourages complacency: Microsoft

Cyber safety will not be delivered by an internet filter alone, a series of high-profile internet companies have told a parliamentary committee.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Government introduces NBN legislation amendments

New amendments to legislation concerning the National Broadband Network (NBN) are being drafted by the Federal Government, according to Greens communications spokesperson, Senator Scott Ludlam.

Source: ARN

Singel-Optus set to expand coverage

Singtel-optus has revealed plans to expand its satellite capacity across its Australia and New Zealand coverage areas.

Source: Australian IT

Coalition: Government will never privatise NBN

The Federal Government will back down on its promise to privatise the National Broadband Network even after its completion, Coalition senators have claimed.

Source: ARN

VHA touts 850 MHz network rollout progress

Vodafone Hutchison Australia has deployed about a third of the 1500 cell sites planned for its new 3G 850 MHz network announced last year.

Source: iTnews Australia

Xenophon takes aim at NBN volume prices

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has outlined "significant problems" he has with provisions of the NBN Companies Bill that could allow NBN Co to vary price terms to access seekers in return for an "efficiency" gain.

Source: iTnews Australia

Govt to change NBN cherry-picking law

The Federal Government has announced plans to introduce a number of amendments to National Broadband Network legislation to address industry concerns around cherry-picking provisions for fibre network providers.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Putting NBN words in Cisco's mouth

Alright, admit it. Who's been feeding News Ltd commentator Andrew Bolt stats published by global networking giant Cisco? Fess up. We know it was one of you anti-NBN guys.

Source: Delimiter

NBN may not be completed, says Turnbull

Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull late last week warned the National Broadband Network may end up not being fully constructed, due to what he described as "the crippling costs of the project" and the likelihood that the Australian Labor Party might lose government in a future election.

Source: Delimiter

Sat, 19th Mar 2011

Telstra urged to disclose NBN deal

Investors and analysts have called on Telstra to provide more detail on its $11 billion deal to transfer its fixed-line monopoly to the NBN.

Source: Australian IT

Fri, 18th Mar 2011

Google CEO: NBN will help Australians waste more time

As Google boss Eric Schmidt knows, whenever he goes on the record about something as politically sensitive as Australia's $36 billion publicly funded National Broadband Network, it will get reported. Therefore, one has to wonder why he so willingly blurted out in an interview that the NBN will enable Australians to waste more time on YouTube.

Source: iTWire

NBN Co not phased by Telstra vote delay

national Broadband Network provider, NBN Co, has moved to allay fears that an announced delay of Telstra's extraordinary general meeting to put a vote to shareholders on selling the company's network for $11 billion could put the brakes on the NBN rollout.

Source: iTWire

Delays threaten $36bn NBN rollout

Delays threaten to hit the rollout of the national broadband network after Telstra postponed a shareholder vote on its deal with the NBN Co.

Source: Australian IT

University: Bundle student NBN access cost into HECS

Upfront technology costs including access to the National Broadband Network (NBN) should be part of the Federal Government's deferred education fee payment scheme for university students, according to Monash University.

Source: ARN

Telstra fails to meet NBN deal vote date

Telstra has announced that its $11 billion deal with the National Broadband Network Company won't be finalised in time for its shareholders to vote on by the 1 July deadline.

Source: ZDNet Australia

NBN plan assailed over curbs on retail

Key legislation proposed for the National Broadband Network faces a scathing new attack from big business and the Coalition.

Source: Australian IT

Thu, 17th Mar 2011

Stop NBN from creeping into retail Opposition demands

The Federal Coalition has launched a campaign to stop NBN Co from retailing broadband services to utilities and telecoms carriers for their internal communications needs. According to the Coalition, two key National Broadband Network (NBN) Bills, due to be debated in Parliament on Monday, if passed without amendments would allow the NBN to creep into the retail market.

Source: iTWire

Senate Committee says pass NBN bills

The Senate Committee examining the NBN companies and access bills has recommended they be passed without change, largely ignoring industry concerns.

Source: iTnews Australia

ACMA seeks views on numbering plan

ACMA is contemplating increasing revenue from its phone number allocation regime as it moves into the third phase of the numbering plan.

Source: Australian IT

NBN Co supplying directly to utilities deemed acceptable by Senate Committee

Utility companies wishing to procure National Broadband Network (NBN) services directly through NBN Co should be allowed to do so, according to a Senate Committee report.

Source: ARN

Critics brand internet piracy report a 'translation' job

Australia's Attorney General Robert McClelland has been pulled up for quoting from a report on the economic impact of internet piracy that critics branded a "direct translation" of another controversial text.

Source: iTnews Australia

NBN cherry picking rules to come under fire

Rules protecting the National Broadband Network's technological turf are expected to come under fire in a report due out on Thursday.

Source: ARN

CSIRO demos 12Mbps symmetrical NBN wireless technology

The CSIRO is to stage a demonstration of its broadband wireless technology claiming it to be superior to established technologies for the wireless component of the National Broadband Network.

Source: iTWire

It's not over yet, that's AFACT

While there have been lofty discussions about who was right and who was wrong in the court stoush between the AFACT and iiNet, it all gets down to authorisation.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Wed, 16th Mar 2011

NextGen completes Victor Harbour NBN link

Telco and network construction company NextGen Networks has completed laying a 146 kilometre fibre backbone link to South Australian town Victor Harbour and other rural locations as part of the National Broadband Network rollout, according to a statement issued today by the office of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.

Source: iTWire

NBN Co sets systems architecture baseline

NBN Co adopted TM Forum frameworks as a "starting point" for its operational and business support system architecture, partially to create a common understanding among the "legacy brains" it had hired.

Source: iTnews Australia

Conroy announces Australia-Korea broadband summit in Tasmania

Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conory, announced Hobart, Tasmania, will host the Korea-Australia-New Zealand (KANZ) Broadband Summit this year.

Source: ARN

Net classification costly: Telstra, RIM

Classifying all games and movies for mobile phones and the internet will be too costly and inefficient, according to Telstra and BlackBerry creator Research In Motion (RIM) submissions to a government inquiry.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Net is world's greatest spying machine

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, says the internet is the "greatest spying machine the world has ever seen" - and an obstacle to free speech.

Source: Australian IT