Broadband News

Fri, 11th Feb 2011

NBN will kill off fixed-line telephony

The National Broadband Network will kill off the already ailing business of fixed-line local calls that was once the cornerstone of Telstra's business.

Source: The Australian

Optus broadband plans 'misleading'

Optus was found to have engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct when it used the word "unlimited" in advertising broadband plans that slowed down users' speed once the download limit was reached.

Source: The Age

Telstra's consumer chief lures them back

Gordon Ballantyne has warned rivals that Telstra will continue to win new customers in the year ahead.

Source: Australian IT

Telstra network holds up as customer numbers soar

Telstra claims its network is coping with the recent pick-up in new customers.

Source: ARN

Thu, 10th Feb 2011

Conroy remains committed to mandatory filtering

Australia's proposed mandatory ISP filter proposal was very much alive, the Minister for Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy said today.

Source: iTnews Australia

Senetas says NBN traffic should be encrypted

ASX listed encryption technology developer Senetas has told a parliamentary enquiry that all traffic on the National Broadband Network should be encrypted.

Source: iTWire

ISPs lukewarm on Telstra-NBN Co terms

Australia's major internet service providers (ISPs) have issued a lukewarm response to the news of Telstra and NBN Co coming to an agreement on commercial terms, months after initially envisaged and following numerous delays in negotiations.

Source: Computerworld

Conroy suggests fibre to reconnect disaster-affected customers

With the apparent increased frequency of naturally disasters, communications minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, has suggested Telstra should consider the use of fibre, rather than copper, to reconnect customers affected by Cyclone Yasi and the January floods.

Source: Computerworld

Telstra's flood costs mainly opex: Thodey

Telstra chief executive David Thodey says most of the cost to the company from the natural disasters in Queensland and elsewhere will be on operating expenses.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Turnbull backs Greens on NBN FOI change

Opposition Communications Spokesperson Malcolm Turnbull has matched a call from the Greens for the National Broadband Network Company (NBN Co) to be subject to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Telstra eyes future dollars from customer growth

Telstra chief David Thodey has talked up the carrier's ability to win new customers as it recorded a 36 percent drop in net profit after tax for the first half of the financial year.

Source: iTnews Australia

Anti-NBN doc 'ideological dogma': Conroy

Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy has today slammed a research report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit criticising the roll-out and design of the National Broadband Network (NBN), labelling it as right-wing dogma.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Conroy welcomes Telstra-NBN agreement

The federal government has welcomed an agreement between Telstra and the NBN Co finalising key commercial terms for the rollout of the national broadband network.

Source: ARN

Progress? Telstra agrees NBN 'commercial terms'

The nation's largest telco Telstra this morning revealed it had "provisionally agreed" key commercial terms core to its agreement with NBN Co, which will see its fixed-line broadband customers and some infrastructure progressively moved into the fledgling company as the National Broadband Network is rolled out over the next decade.

Source: Delimiter

Telstra posts 1H profit down 35.6%

Telstra Corporation Ltd has reported a 35.6 per cent decline in first half net profit and confirmed its outlook for sales revenue to remain flat over financial 2011.

Source: Computerworld

Debt-laden NBN Co will go retail: Turnbull

The National Broadband Network Company (NBN Co) will be forced to begin offering some retail services in order to pay off the debt racked up in building the network, Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has predicted.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Taxpayers lead the world in funding NBN

Research has found that the Gillard government was spending more taxpayer funds to connect each household to the NBN than any other country.

Source: Australian IT

Wed, 09th Feb 2011

Redundancies hit iiNet management

Just a week after it claimed it was in pole position to take advantage of the National Broadband Network, and in the middle of "its biggest advertising campaign ever", iiNet has confirmed it recently conducted a round of redundancies that predominantly hit its head office workforce.

Source: iTWire

NBN to cost 24 times Korea's network

The National Broadband Network will cost taxpayers 24 times as much as South Korea's rollout, but deliver just one tenth the speed.

Source: Australian IT

NBN Co fights inferior image of fixed wireless services

NBN Co has been forced to defend its planned use of fixed wireless and satellite infrastructure in Tasmania after the state's new infrastructure minister appeared to infer the technologies weren't long-term solutions to broadband availability.

Source: iTnews Australia

"Fat" Internode's plan changes a "joke", claims Linton

The outspoken chief executive of broadband provider Exetel has blasted a series of plan changes by rival Internode yesterday as a "joke of an announcement", claiming the move represented "desperation" in the face of Telstra's recent attempt to win back market share in broadband.

Source: Delimiter

100Mbps NBN uptake surprising: Hackett

The take-up of 100 megabits per second services on the National Broadband Network (NBN) in Tasmania was much higher than originally expected, according to Internode managing director Simon Hackett.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Tue, 08th Feb 2011

Internode touts Power Packs for upload, shaping boost

ISP Internode has given users of its Easy Broadband plans an option of unmetered uploads and faster shaping of excess traffic with two power pack add-ons launched today.

Source: iTnews Australia

Anti-NBN junkies need to go to rehab

Like the junkie who can't quite quit their harmful habit, the haters of the NBN project just refuse to give up the object of their fervent hatred, fumbling around in the dark continuously for their next fix; the next flawed argument that might just prove once and for all that the project is a dud.

Source: Delimiter

Greens to pursue Government on NBN Co FoI exemption

Two key bills to be reintroduced to Parliament this week could result in increased pressure on the Federal Government to explain a number of decisions it has made on its National Broadband Network (NBN) in the past several months.

Source: Computerworld

Telcos scramble to restore lines

Australia's major telcos were scrambling yesterday to restore mobile and landline services to customers caught in Cyclone Yasi's path.

Source: Australian IT

NBN Co details network of spares

NBN Co plans to hold inventories of spare parts at points of interconnect and maintenance depots across its network to cut response times for its technicians to attend and repair geographic failures.

Source: iTnews Australia

Changeover to IPv6 is no time to panic

In about three months, Australia will run out of its last batch of internet addresses under the old IPv4 naming system.

Source: Australian IT

Alcatel creates tiny base stations for data surge

Alcatel-Lucent showed off technology on Monday that shrinks mobile phone base stations to barely bigger than a golf ball.

Source: iTnews Australia

Underground power better than NBN: Opposition

Putting power cables underground in cyclone prone areas would be a better investment than the National Broadband Network, the Queensland opposition says.

Source: ARN