Broadband News

Tue, 10th Dec 2019

How NBN Co struck its bothersome business deals

NBN Co is continuing to assert itself in the enterprise and government market, recently signing on big four bank Westpac in addition to the likes of Woolworths, Coles and Australia Post.

Source: iTnews Australia

Sat, 07th Dec 2019

Vodafone will now email out your eSIM phone plan

Customers will no longer need to go a Vodafone store to get an eSIM-powered phone plan, with the telco today enabling online orders and SIM swaps for subscribers with a compatible device. Vodafone customers after an eSIM will now receive a QR code email, along with a confirmation code sent to their phone via text. Scanning this QR code will add the to a compatible device.

Source: WhistleOut

Fri, 06th Dec 2019

Telstra's Tumut exchange "severely damaged" by fire

Fire has “severely damaged” the Telstra exchange in the NSW Riverina town of Tumut, cutting fixed-line and Telstra mobile services to the entire town.

Source: iTnews Australia

Telco industry called to pitch in on mobile number porting fraud rules

The consumer watchdog wants industry help to work out how best telco providers should handle the porting of mobile numbers to avoid fraudulent requests.

Source: ARN

NBN contractor fined $40K over unpaid work

​Queensland networking contractor Attain Solutions has been fined $41,040 for failing to pay a teenage worker for a month of work.

Source: ARN

Thu, 05th Dec 2019

Sydney has the worst mobile network out of major Australian cities

Sydney has the worst performing mobile network out of major Australian cities, according to global mobile data analyst Tutela, who just dropped a new report on 3G and 4G mobile quality. The report looked at the five most populated cities in Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.

Source: WhistleOut

Optus CEO Allen Lew steps down

Optus has a new CEO with Allen Lew stepping aside and deputy CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin taking the role “with immediate effect”.

Source: iTnews Australia

Vocus to build subsea loop to Barossa gas project

Vocus is set to build a 500km cable loop off its north-west cable system to service the forthcoming multi-billion dollar Barossa gas project.

Source: iTnews Australia

Huawei ban will act as ‘5G tax’ on Australians

Excluding Huawei from Australia’s 5G roll-out will act as a ‘5G tax’ on citizens and increase the cost of deploying the technology by between $700 million and $2.1 billion, the networking giant said on Wednesday.

Source: ARN

Wed, 04th Dec 2019

TPG expects ‘margin headwinds’ until NBN roll-out completes

​TPG has signalled its business will face “headwinds” for the next two years until the NBN is finally rolled out.

Source: ARN

Aussie Broadband customer opens new office in outer Melbourne

Broadband retail service provider Aussie Broadband has opened a new office in Lynbrook in the outer South East of Melbourne, with one of the company's customers officially opening the office at a ceremony on Wednesday.

Source: iTWire

Vodafone creates new lead role for major incidents

Everyone knows outages at telcos and banks are always bad news from a customer perspective.

Source: iTnews Australia

TPG questions why NBN is overbuilding business infrastructure

TPG has added its voice to the chorus of commercial telcos querying NBN's targeting of business customers.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Tue, 03rd Dec 2019

Loyalty schemes on runway for data harvesting reset: ACCC

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has called on retail giants Coles and Woolworths to stamp out the entrenched practice of automatically linking their members’ payments cards to their customer loyalty profiles.

Source: iTnews Australia

Labor says it will fix encryption laws it voted for last year

This time last year, the Australian Labor Party waved through the government's encryption Bills, formally known as the Assistance and Access Bill, and threw out the line that it to keep the nation safe.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Mon, 02nd Dec 2019

Get three months of unlimited data through amaysim

amaysim is kicking off the holiday season with a rather nifty promo: customers who take up one of the telco's top two mobile plans will get unlimited data for their first three recharges. That's truly unlimited, no strings attached data, as opposed to "unlimited" data where your speeds are capped after you exceed a base allowance.

Source: WhistleOut

ACCC to steer clear of eSIM regulations for now

Telstra and other mobile network operators are to be given more time to open eSIM functionality up to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs).

Source: iTnews Australia

Aussie Broadband pauses IPv6 trial due to Cisco bug

Aussie Broadband has temporarily paused an IPv6 beta trial “due to an ongoing bug” affecting the firmware of Cisco aggregation services routers (ASRs) it uses in its network.

Source: iTnews Australia

NBN broadband tax referred to Senate committee

After being introduced in the House of Representatives, the government's Telecommunications (Regional Broadband Scheme) Charge Bill 2019 and Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer) Bill 2019 were last week referred to the Senate Standing Committees on Environment and Communications.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Optus cops $6.4m fine for dodgy NBN disconnection claims

The Federal Court has ordered Optus pay $6.4 million in penalties after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission pursued it over making misleading claims to customers that their home broadband would be imminently disconnected.

Source: iTnews Australia

NBN Co shows its top user now hits 26TB a month

NBN Co’s biggest user is based in Queensland and is consuming 26TB of data a month.

Source: iTnews Australia

Optus to pay AU$6.4 million for misleading NBN disconnection claims

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has collected another victory, with Optus to pay a AU$6.4 million penalty for misleading its customers over NBN disconnections.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Amaysim closes $7.8M Jeenee buy

Amaysim has wrapped up its $7.8 million acquisition of mobile virtual network operator Jeenee Communications, a move aimed at further building its presence in the local market.

Source: ARN

Fri, 29th Nov 2019

The best Black Friday phone plan and NBN deals

Black Friday is back and bigger than ever, with more and more Aussie retailers offering great deals. Here's a look at some of the best phone, mobile, and NBN deals around.

Source: WhistleOut

NBN Co connection complaint management only 'partially effective'

NBN Co is not reaching its own timeliness targets for managing connection-related complaints, the Australian National Audit Office has found.

Source: ARN

Labor claims govt going against stated policy with NBN tax

Labor shadow communications minister Michelle Rowland claims the government's move to put in place a cost-recovery tax on networks that compete with the NBN directly contradicts the communications minister's statement that he favours competition in this field.

Source: iTWire

Thu, 28th Nov 2019

JGA South cable lands at Sydney

The Japan-Guam-Australia South subsea cable system (JGA South) has been landed at Sydney's Narrabeen Beach in Sydney.

Source: iTWire

Broadband tax now planned to kick in July 2020

The federal government has reintroduced long-delayed legislation for a broadband tax on non-NBN operated fixed line services, which it hopes will be in place from 1 July 2020.

Source: iTnews Australia

New rules for telcos to meet emergency call services obligations

Telcos are required to do a welfare check on people who have tried to call during a large network outage of telecommunications systems, under newly legislated rules for emergency call services in Australia.

Source: iTWire

Wed, 27th Nov 2019

Telstra brings 5G to 15 more towns and cities

Australia's 5G networks are still very much a work in progress, but as of today, Telstra customers will find 5G in more towns and cities around the country. Telstra 5G is now available in 25 towns and cities, up from 10 when the next generation network first launched in May.

Source: WhistleOut