Broadband News

Thu, 08th Oct 2009

IIA to AFACT: 'We offered to help'

The Internet Industry Association wrote to copyright owners more than two years ago seeking to address piracy concerns, only to be told the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft would instead start taking service providers to court.

Source: iTWire

iiNet: 3000 pages of copyright breach notices from 1350 emails in 7 days

Iinet has hit back in its civil case against the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) at the Federal Court of Australia with a statistical retort.

Source: Computerworld

iiNet v AFACT: Film studios had contractual agreements with BitTorrent partners

Iinet has used contractual relationships between movie studios and BitTorrent websites to counter AFACT's accusations the ISP is guilty of "authorising" copyright infringements by customers through inaction.

Source: ARN

Day Three: iiNet deals with thousands of "robot notices"

ISP iiNet has revealed it received 1,356 notifications from a variety of sources seeking action on alleged copyright infringements in just one week last year.

Source: iTnews Australia

Day Three: iiNet lawyers link film studios to BitTorrent

Several film studios listed as applicants in the copyright case against ISP iiNet had "contractual relationships" with BitTorrent, counsel for iiNet alleged in court today.

Source: iTnews Australia

NBN: Pipe presses Feds for better facilities access

Even as Pipe Networks partied in Sydney Thursday night to celebrate the launch of its PPC-1 trans-Pacific cable, the company was pressing Government for changes to proposed legislation to give it better access to interconnect facilities.

Source: iTWire

Blog: Separation: The UK experience

How can the UK experience of BT's separation inform our understanding of Telstra's future? In this week's Twisted Wire podcast, we talked to the key UK players to get the lay of the land.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Quigley quenches Malone's NBN scepticism

After "a healthy debate" with NBN Co chief executive, iiNet supremo Michael Malone has been convinced that the National Broadband Network will be delivered.

Source: ZDNet Australia

NBN Tasmania announces fibre contract

NBN Tasmania today announced Corning Cable Systems Pty Ltd will provide fibre optic cable for the construction of Tasmania’s backhaul network in the first tender issued under the Australian Government’s National Broadband Network (NBN) project.

Source: iTnews Australia

PPC-1 submarine cable switches on

The PIPE Networks undersea cable system, PIPE Pacific Cable (PPC-1), stretching from Sydney to Guam, was officially launched today at an event at Sydney’s Australian Technology Park.

Source: Computerworld

AFACT director to take the stand in civil case against iiNet

The civil action between the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) and ISP iiNet continues today, with AFACT's executive director, Neil Gane, likely to take the stand as the first witness.

Source: Computerworld

iiNet says no laws were breached

iiNet yesterday told the NSW Federal Court that movie studios accusing it of sanctioning illegal file sharing on the internet had vastly exaggerated the extent of copyright infringement carried out on its service.

Source: Australian IT

Telstra investors take a stand

Telstra shareholders have railed against the government's plans to split the telco giant, describing the action as a betrayal of trust, vindictive and a monumental swindle.

Source: Australian IT

Wed, 07th Oct 2009

iiNet lawyers pan film industry figures

Almost six-figure sums of copyright infringements alleged to have taken place on iiNet's network were "pings" by an investigator rather than downloads of a file, the ISP's general counsel told the court today.

Source: iTnews Australia

Amcom options initiative to raise $21m

Perth-based telco Amcom (ASX: AMM) has announced plans to cancel 81 million outstanding options and to underwrite the exercise of 150 million 17 cent options: a move that will net it $21m in cash and , it says, alleviate concerns of its share base being diluted and leaving it with too much cash had all the options been exercised.

Source: iTWire

Day Two: iiNet pursued prosecution of film industry investigator

In the Federal Court in Sydney today, an iiNet employee was alleged to have asked a computer crime officer from the WA Police to prosecute the investigator employed by the film industry to collect evidence of copyright infringement on the ISP's network.

Source: iTnews Australia

It's official: 'NBN Co. Ltd' is the name

The company being put together to construct and operate the National Broadband Network will be formally named "NBN Co. Limited".

Source: ZDNet Australia

Day Two: iiNet, Westnet email trails revealed

The film industry has attempted to use a trail of internal training documents and emails to prove ISP iiNet turned a blind eye to copyright infringement on its network.

Source: iTnews Australia

First LTE networks will deliver 20 Mbps of download speed

When the first LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks and devices are launched next year, users can expect to see a download speed of about 20Mbps, according to Motorola and ZTE.

Source: ARN

WiMAX v LTE-A: battle for the 4G wireless standard ramps up

The battle between the cellular and WIMAX camps for future 4G wireless networking standards ramped up this week with the IEEE formally submitting its 802.16m standard (the next iteration of today's 802.16e mobile WiMAX standard) to the ITU as a candidate radio interface technology for IMT-Advanced standardisation.

Source: iTWire

The spleen files: The rage of Telstra shareholders

Senator Stephen Conroy is a "Communist" hellbent on destroying Telstra out of "ego" and "spite", according to submissions from Telstra shareholders to a Senate Standing Committee inquiry into the Communications Ministers' plan to split Telstra.

Source: iTnews Australia

iiNet case to determine future of downloads

The Federal Court yesterday became the theatre for a fiercely contested legal battle that could mark the end of the illegal movie and music download free-for-all for hundreds of thousands of internet users, and leave Australia's third-largest internet company facing millions of dollars worth of damages claims.

Source: Australian IT

Telstra to lodge split-up response

Telstra will today lay bare its response to the government's threats to dismember the company, in its submission to a Senate inquiry into the biggest shake-up of the communications sector in a generation.

Source: Australian IT

Tue, 06th Oct 2009

Telstra expands Next G coverage

Telstra claims that more than 100 locations around Australia now have mobile coverage for the first time as a result of the continuing expansion of the carrier's Next G 3G network.

Source: iTWire

Undersea cable ushers in hope for new era of bigger data allowances for Internet users

After years of waiting, the PIPE PPC-1 fibre-optic link stretching from Sydney via Guam, is going live. In a big win for consumers of some ISPs, a new era of cheaper plans and bigger data allowances may await.

Source: PC Authority

Timeline: iiNet and AFACT suit up for Court

The Australian ISP community is holding its breath as the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) and iiNet enter the Federal Court over a landmark copyright case that has transpired over the past year.

Source: ARN

Vodafone cuts prepaid mobile broadband to $99, doubles data to 1GB

Vodafone's Prepaid Mobile Broadband Starter Pack now sells at $99 and throws in 1GB of data for the bundled dual-band USB modem.

Source: APC Magazine

Sanctuary Cove won't wait for NBN fibre

Queensland resort and gated community Sanctuary Cove isn’t waiting for the National Broadband Network to roll past its upmarket residences, and will instead roll-out its own fibre to the home infrastructure in preparation for higher bandwidth services.

Source: iTWire

Judge wants to see live BitTorrent demo

Justice Cowdroy, presiding over the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) versus iiNet copyright infringement hearing, today said he wanted to see a live demonstration of how BitTorrent is used to download movies.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Internode drops Optus ADSL2+ offering

ISP Internode today dropped its Optus ADSL2+ offering to avoid confusion when it came to choosing from its ADSL plans.

Source: iTnews Australia