Broadband News

Thu, 18th Apr 2019

Vodafone makes aggressive play for 100Mbps NBN users

Vodafone has launched aggressive promotional NBN pricing that cuts its top-tier 100Mbps product by $20 a month for six months.

Source: iTnews Australia

Wed, 17th Apr 2019

NBN Co board urged to resign over competition ‘failures’

Commpete has called for the resignation of the NBN Co’s board for allegedly “failing" to create a level playing field” for smaller players.

Source: ARN

Call for NBN Co board resignation over ‘failure to deliver’ on core mission

Commpete, the former Competitive Carriers Coalition, has called for the resignation of the board of NBN Co, the company rolling out the Australian national broadband network, accusing it of comprehensively failing in its core mission, including driving a more competitive telecommunications sector.

Source: iTWire

Tue, 16th Apr 2019

Foxtel's GOT Game: season premiere up 17% on 2017

With the biggest daily VPM or "video player measurement" audience for 2019 across Australian television, with Foxtel's linear viewing smashing previous season openers, GOT isn't just coming but has arrived at long last. 

Source: iTWire

Gympie gets a new mobile tower as Optus continues blackspot program

Optus has switched on a new mobile tower in the Queensland town of Gympie as it continues work on undertaking its mobile blackspot program.

Source: iTWire

US to press allies to keep Huawei out of 5G in Prague meeting - sources

The United States will push its allies at a meeting in Prague next month to adopt shared security and policy measures that will make it more difficult for China's Huawei to dominate 5G telecommunications networks, according to people familiar with the matter and documents seen by Reuters.

Source: iTnews Australia

Mon, 15th Apr 2019

Optus launches NBN plans ahead of ‘new customer initiatives’

Optus has launched three new NBN plans promising more speed for selected home users, and with unlimited data for “data hungry” streamers.

Source: iTWire

Fri, 12th Apr 2019

Telcos wary of ACCC push for scrutiny of dark fibre, NBN wholesale markets

Network operators have called for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to back away from proposed rules that would allow the ACCC to collect a range of new data about the state of Australia’s dark fibre and NBN wholesale aggregation markets.

Source: Computerworld

Telstra, TPG, Vocus and Optus say they aren't an NBN bottleneck

Telstra and Vocus, who are among a handful of telcos that supply dark fibre or backhaul services to and from NBN points of interconnect, say their services are not a bottleneck to the NBN user experience, and that any bottleneck sits with NBN Co itself.

Source: iTnews Australia

Thu, 11th Apr 2019

New wi-fi security standard broken already

Security researchers have discovered multiple bugs in the wi-fi protected access version 3 (WPA3) protocol used to secure wireless local area networks, which allow attackers to intercept and steal sensitive information.

Source: iTnews Australia

China slams Australia over 'double standards' in cyber security

China has taken a swipe at Australia over the country's encryption law, saying it was "baffling" how Canberra could on the one hand claim that other countries posed security threats, while on the other hand engage in acts that endangered the cyber security of other nations.

Source: iTWire

Complaints to TIO over NBN service halved for six months to December 2018

Overall complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman are back to 2016 numbers, sitting at 61,000 made between July 1 and December 31, 2018.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Wed, 10th Apr 2019

First Australia - Hong Kong data cable to be built

Australia's connectivity with Asia looks set to receive a multi-terabit per second shot in the arm as the Singapore-based H2 Cable company signed up Subcom to supply and install a data circuit spanning Sydney to Hong Kong, and onwards to the United States.

Source: iTnews Australia

Up to 6,000 Telstra employees on strike in Australia

In another action against Telstra's plan to let go 9,500 staff by 2022, up to 6,000 Telstra workers are expected to go on strike today.

Source: ARN

How Labor will fix NBN technical woes

Cabling issues, internet access, affordability and an economic review were some of the top line points for Shadow communications minister, Michelle Rowland.

Source: ARN

'I have to reset my password': How the Lincoln Lewis catfish duped Optus

Optus apologises after a stalker in Melbourne's northern suburbs repeatedly tricked the telecommunications giant into giving her the phone numbers and account login details for one of her victims.

Source: ABC News

Telstra workers set to stage second strike today

Telstra workers across Australia will walk off the job on Wednesday (today) following what they claim is the company's continued refusal to provide them with fair pay and conditions.

Source: iTWire

Tue, 09th Apr 2019

NBN Co's wireless congestion likely worse than reported

NBN Co may have under-reported levels of congestion on its fixed wireless network after revealing one in ten - or 250 - microwave and fibre transmission links suffer unacceptable levels of packet loss, and that this isn't captured in publicly-reported numbers.

Source: iTnews Australia

Labor faces reality on NBN but the dream died long ago

Liberal party may crow that its version of the NBN won out, but that's because it oversaw the network for most of its life.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Vodafone CEO warns of Huawei ban’s ‘long-term’ impact

There are likely to be “significant long-term implications” from effectively only allowing Australian telcos to choose between two vendors to provide equipment for their 5G rollouts, the CEO of Vodafone Hutchison Australia has warned.

Source: Computerworld

Telstra CEO defends call to block sites showing terrorist attack videos

Andy Penn says he would make the same decision again, and welcomes abhorrent streaming laws.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Fifield claims Labor has adopted Coalition's NBN policy

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield claims the NBN policy announced by the Australian Labor Party on Tuesday is an admission that "the NBN technology debate of the last six years was just about politics".

Source: iTWire

Southern Cross inks deal with Alcatel Submarine Networks for Next project

​Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) has signed a contract to supply the Southern Cross Next submarine cable, based on an open cable architecture, leading to the manufacturing and construction phase of the project.

Source: ARN

NBN Co may fix in-home cabling free for 750,000 homes

NBN Co will foot the bill to upgrade in-home wiring at 750,000 premises in the fibre-to-the-node footprint under a plan floated by the federal opposition today.

Source: iTnews Australia

Another NBN review floated as Labor plan to 'make best of what we have'

A Shorten Labor government would direct NBN to fix in-home cabling for copper connections for free.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Labor’s Rowland pledges digital inclusion drive, action on FTTN performance

Shadow communications minister Michell Rowland has committed a Labor government to waging war on Australia’s digital divide, addressing factors that can degrade fibre to the node performance, and examining the feasibility of co-investment to boost the proportion of fibre in the NBN network.

Source: Computerworld

Labor pledges economic review of NBN if voted in

The Australian Labor Party has said it would review the economics of the NBN, including the implications of the multi-technology mix, on the cash-flow of the NBN Co, the company which is rolling out the network, if it were voted back into office in the forthcoming Federal Election.

Source: iTWire

Mon, 08th Apr 2019

Optus offers to install and repair NBN services itself

NBN Co should train and certify retail service providers to perform installations and repairs to cut down a backlog of work causing delays of up to three months, says Optus CEO Allen Lew.

Source: iTnews Australia

NBN Co's enterprise play catches ACCC's gaze

NBN Co’s shift into the enterprise space is being watched “closely” by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which remains unconvinced the move is not simply “mission creep”.

Source: iTnews Australia

NBN Co 'should' set entry-level broadband prices at ADSL levels

NBN Co “should” be anchoring the price of entry-level broadband services to existing ADSL fees instead of trying to drive up retail costs for consumers, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has said.

Source: iTnews Australia