Broadband News
Tue, 26th May 2009
Trujillo's got sour grapes: Brumby
Former Telstra chief Sol Trujillo's comments that Australia is racist and backwards are just sour grapes, Victorian Premier John Brumby said today.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Internet filter trials: Smooth sailing with one ISP not started
The majority of ISPs participating in the Federal Government's controversial Internet filter trials report smooth sailing but one is still scrambling to get the service online.
Source: ARN
Telstra loses HFC access battle
Telstra has failed in a bid to exempt rival Optus from accessing its copper network in areas where Optus has its own cable network.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Rudd to pay $11 billion of $43 billion NBN
Communications minister Stephen Conroy has told Senate Estimates hearings that the Government will sink in the vicinity of $11 billion into the National Broadband Network, which is anticipated to cost up to $43 billion.
Source: iTnews Australia
Exetel chief questions cost savings from Pipe cable
Exetel chief John Linton has questioned the cost benefits that early adopters of Pipe International's Sydney-Guam cable might achieve by using the cable over that of competitors like Southern Cross and the Australia-Japan Cable.
Source: iTnews Australia
Net filtering may not be mandatory
The Rudd Government has indicated that it may back away from its mandatory internet filtering plan.
Source: Australian IT
Mon, 25th May 2009
Pipe dream coming true for net users
When cable ship Tyco Durable set off from Sydney's northern beaches to lay a 9000km undersea fibre-optic link to Guam, via Papua New Guinea, last Tuesday, it carried much more than the hopes of its main investor, Pipe International.
Source: Australian IT
Trujillo was a costly mistake for Telstra
We can now conclude that Telstra went backwards during the Trujillo era, and that the board's decision in June 2005 to sack Ziggy Switkowski and install a team of expensive Americans to run the company was a mistake.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Telstra offers relief package for flood victims
Telstra has announced it will waive fees and offer free call diversions and cheaper mobile call prices to flood victims in Southern Queensland and Northern NSW.
Source: iTnews Australia
Telstra stays mum over ACCC call for structural separation
Telstra (ASX: TLS) is staying mum over calls by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman, Graeme Samuel, for the telco to be structurally separated.
Source: ARN
Voda, Hutch plans to stay post-merger
Mobile telcos Vodafone and Hutchison (3 Mobile) today pledged to maintain their voice and data plans for two years to reassure customers their proposed merger wouldn't negatively impact the value they were delivering.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Optus admits slow broadband problem
Optus has admitted that it has been "shaping" internet connections to a slower speed than advertised.
Source: APC Magazine
Sat, 23rd May 2009
Star-Tech buys Unwired WiMAX backhaul
Tertiary ISP Star-Tech Communications has deployed a fully managed internet service to 220 students at the Wesley College residence at University of Sydney.
Source: iTnews Australia
Fri, 22nd May 2009
'I changed Australia': Sol Trujillo
Sol Trujillo's scorn for the Rudd Government's $43 billion national broadband plan on the sidelines of a technology conference in the US prompted a rebuke from Australia's consul-general to New York, Phil Scanlan, and dismay among others who regard the project as cutting edge.
Source: Australian IT
ACCC Samuels endorses Telstra break-up
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel yesterday endorsed Telstra's structural separation, which has drawn strong criticism from the Liberals.
Source: ZDNet Australia
aaNet hardware failure knocks out webmail
Users of EFTel-owned ISP aaNet will have to wait several hours to receive all their emails after a “major hardware failure” cut off webmail access since early Thursday.
Source: iTnews Australia
NBN plan sparks new facility for fibre specialists
The announcement of a homegrown National Broadband Network (NBN) has spurred on local fibre optics company Warren and Brown to build a $4.1m R&D and distribution facility in Melbourne.
Source: iTnews Australia
Telstra culled linesmen in flood-affected NSW
Telstra is sending 130 network engineers to a flood-ravaged area in which the telco culled nine linesmen just two months ago, according to the CEPU.
Source: iTnews Australia
Optus starts filtering trials
The nation's second-largest ISP has fired the starter's gun on its live internet filtering trial, a program by the federal Government as part of its bid to censor the web.
Source: Australian IT
Thu, 21st May 2009
Australian broadband third most expensive in OECD
Australia has the third most expensive broadband services in the OECD, and an over-quota data prices an order of magnitude higher than any other OECD member, according to its latest broadband statistics.
Source: iTWire
NBN critics 'opportunistic': Conroy
Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy has again slammed National Broadband Network (NBN) critics, accusing them of opportunistic misrepresentation when claiming that towns of under 1000 people will automatically miss out on fibre.
Source: iTWire
Trust us with the NBN; we're politicians
There is an alternative dieting theory in which everything of the same colour is deemed to have the same nutritional value: chocolate is as healthy as baked potatoes, for example, and pistachio ice cream is as good to eat as broccoli. To some people, it's blind justification; to others, it's a creed to live and eat by.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Conroy reaffirms funding for comms body
Federal communications minister Stephen Conroy has called for stronger consumer protection in the telco sector to ensure the Government's national broadband network is put to its full potential.
Source: Australian IT
Sol calls broadband plan a bluff
Sol Trujillo was in a typically combative mood yesterday, saying he left Australia with no regrets and cynically suggesting the Rudd Government's $43 billion fibre-optic network plan was little more than a political stunt.
Source: Australian IT
ACCC chief welcomes broadband network
The head of Australia's competition watchdog has praised the Government's $43 billion broadband proposal.
Source: ABC News
Wed, 20th May 2009
Netspace turns on Tasmanian ADSL2+
Melbourne-based internet service provider Netspace today said it had switched on ADSL2+ broadband services in Tasmania, making it one of the first to do so in anticipation of the launch of the Basslink fibre-optic cable across the channel.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Democrats launch anti-filtering site
The Democrats party has launched an anti-censorship web site in the hope of rallying the opponents of internet filtering to its cause.
Source: iTnews Australia
AAPT busts out unlimited off-peak broadband plans
AAPT has fast-tracked the launch of its 'unlimited' ADSL2+ plans which offer users six hours of quota-free downloads per day.
Source: iTnews Australia
Tue, 19th May 2009
NBN panel didn't discuss $43bn NBN ROI
Communications Minister Nick Minchin has attacked the government over reports that the expert panel didn't give any advice on the viability of its $43 billion fibre-to-the-home plan.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Sol sent packing six weeks early
Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo has jetted back to the United States some six weeks earlier than anticipated.
Source: iTnews Australia