Broadband News

Wed, 15th Jul 2009

Telstra nabs Conroy's $4.7bn NBN man

Telstra has hired Tim Watts, a former senior policy advisor to Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy, who was a key player behind Labor's initial $4.7 billion National Broadband Network proposal.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Aussies download 81m gigabytes in a month

Businesses downloaded more than twice as much data over their broadband connections in December 2008 than for the same month in the previous year, according to analyst Paul Budde.

Source: iTnews Australia

Tue, 14th Jul 2009

Telstra's sea cable lifeline

Telstra and its fellow shareholders in Australia Japan Cable (AJC) have rescued the international internet submarine cable operator from a tricky financial situation.

Source: Australian IT

Telstra to upgrade inter-city links

Telstra plans to upgrade the capacity of its Sydney to Melbourne inter-city link to deal with growing internet traffic.

Source: iTnews Australia

Conroy to unveil digital economy plans

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is releasing his vaunted Future Directions for the Digital Economy paper tonight at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Qantas censors anti-censorship ad

Qantas has put the kybosh on online activist group GetUp's latest anti-censorship campaign, refusing to run the "Censordyne" ad on its flights.

Source: SMH

What direction for Australia's digital economy?

Communications minister Stephen Conroy has released a report on the Future Directions of Australia's Digital Economy, following a consultation paper issued in December. While it is full of good information, it is far from clear exactly what it is meant to achieve.

Source: iTWire

Blog: The Tasmanian devil's in the detail

This week, Stephen Conroy showed with great certainty that the NBN remains a touch-and-go affair with no clear timeline, a relatively questionable lack of governance, and lots of unresolved mysteries.

Source: ZDNet Australia

ACCC readies phone-tapping powers

Australia's competition watchdog will soon be given powers to tap Australians' phones.

Source: iTnews Australia

Mon, 13th Jul 2009

National broadband will usher in a reshaped industry

The federal government has brought forward plans to overhaul Australia's media laws to accommodate its $43 billion plan to give 90 per cent of the population access to high-speed broadband.

Source: The Australian

Broadband madness: how to waste $43bn

There is no business sense in the national broadband network.

Source: The Age

Big calls on broadband have to be seen to tick all the boxes

Politics must not drive decisions on staff, roll-outs and headquarters.

Source: The Age

Thodey hails $146m Catholic NBN

Telstra chief David Thodey today announced a $146 million broadband network project to connect over 1550 Catholic Australian schools.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Conroy launches re-jigged cyber safety site

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has re-launched its Cybersmart web site, with the emphasis shifting to providing school teachers with tools to protect children using internet technologies in the classroom.

Source: iTnews Australia

Space station pilots 'interplanetary internet'

A new networking technology called Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) could give astronauts direct Internet access within a year.

Source: iTnews Australia

Conroy named Internet Villain of the Year

Stephen Conroy's mandatory internet filtering plans have earned him the title of Internet Villain of the Year at the 11th annual Internet Industry Awards.

Source: SMH

Pipe Networks to pitch Tas Basslink backup

Pipe Networks, builders of the PPC-1 cable between Sydney and Guam, will pitch access to its Sydney to New Zealand PPC-2 cable to a Tasmanian infrastructure company.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Sat, 11th Jul 2009

A few alternatives to ISP-level content filtering

The Federal Government's proposed Internet content filter plans have incited furore among the Australian public.

Source: ARN

Fri, 10th Jul 2009

Twists and turns to leave broadband team flying blind

The telecommunications industry is abuzz with speculation about who might be on the board of the $43 billion national broadband network which is expected to be announced over the next few weeks.

Source: The Australian

Anti-fibre activist tells businesses to foot NBN

An opponent of the Government spending $43 billion on a fibre-to-the-premise national broadband network said the private sector should foot most of the bill.

Source: iTnews Australia

NBN team flying blind

The telecommunications industry is abuzz with speculation about who might be on the board of the national broadband network.

Source: Australian IT

Conroy: NBN to bring 100s of TV channels to Australia

Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, has predicted the national broadband network (NBN) will bring hundreds of TV channels to Australia and flagged a consequential need for radical change in the media sector's regulatory framework.

Source: ARN

ISP's speeds almost dead as dodo, customers say

Dodo's broadband network performance and customer service woes have plumbed new lows, with the ISP's customers reporting cripplingly slow browsing speeds for the past two weeks.

Source: SMH

Thu, 09th Jul 2009

Filter trial report in September: Conroy

A report on the first round of internet filter trials is still up to eight weeks away due to the staggered approval of ISPs, said Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.

Source: iTnews Australia

Net filtering a $33m waste: child groups

Child rights groups have come out in force to criticise the Rudd Labor government's controversial plan to censor the internet.

Source: Australian IT

Bad planning will delay NBN, Huawei warns

The government's plan to construct a national broadband network could face lengthy delays unless hardware providers are able to guarantee supply chain integrity.

Source: Australian IT

Internode trying hard to make broadband easy

Cheap, easy and a large chunk of data allocation is what most people want from broadband and Adelaide-based ISP Internode has come up with a new product that it thinks will tick all the boxes. So what makes Internode Easy Broadband different from what's already out there?

Source: iTWire

FTTH on the rise at ADSL expense globally

The next two years will see a rapid increase in FTTH broadband across Western countries and the big loser will be ADSL. This is the forecast of a leading global telecommunications analyst.

Source: iTWire

Broadband penetration set to hit half a billion

The growth of broadband internet connections is set to top more than 500 million by next year, according to researchers.

Source: iTnews Australia

Country Energy adds NBN to smart grid thinking

Country Energy has foreshadowed a significant body of work ahead between the electricity sector and the Government to work through overlaps between smart grids and the national broadband network.

Source: iTnews Australia