Broadband News

Thu, 24th Sep 2009

NBN construction rolls on in Tassie

Work has officially commenced on the Cambridge to Midway Point section of the National Broadband Network (NBN) in Tasmania, with the first cables being laid in five-year-old foundations.

Source: Computerworld

Tassie starts work on Cambridge NBN link

The Tasmanian National Broadband Network Company has started work on constructing the Midway Point fibre link in the state.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Film industry links ISP's best customers with piracy

The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft has claimed that there is a link between ISP iiNet upgrading the service plans of heavy-internet users and the proliferation of film piracy, according to documents filed with the Federal Court.

Source: iTnews Australia

Telstra instos condemn Canberra's 'draconian impositions'

Large institutional shareholders have written to the chairman of Telstra, Catherine Livingstone, condemning the government's plans for the effective "appropriation" of Telstra's assets and requesting a meeting as soon as possible to discuss the threat to the company's future.

Source: Australian IT

Truth a victim in Telstra war

In war the first casualty is truth. And it is no less so in the Federal Government's assault on Telstra.

Source: SMH

Wed, 23rd Sep 2009

ISP filtering trial company confident it will silence the critics

Enex Testlabs is confident the findings of its report on the Federal Government’s controversial ISP filtering scheme will silence the trial’s critics.

Source: ARN

Review: iiNet BoB wireless modem

iiNet customers who yearn for a simple networking life will do well out of BoB, although like most routers, it's not without its quirks.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Huawei, Alcatel win Singapore NBN work

Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent have been selected to manage and provide the "active infrastructure" for the country's planned next-generation national broadband network (NBN).

Source: ZDNet Australia

Major shareholders rebel over Telstra

A group of Telstra's biggest institutional shareholders has called on the board to explain the "draconian nature" of the federal government's proposed Telstra legislation and reminded directors of their fiduciary responsibility to investors.

Source: Australian IT

iiNet on watch for acquisitions

Internet service provider iiNet is looking for acquisitions to quickly boost its size.

Source: Australian IT

Blacklists should be given to vendors, not ISPs

The testing company that conducted the Federal Government's controversial ISP filtering trial claims any blacklists should be kept away from ISPs.

Source: ARN

Tue, 22nd Sep 2009

Blog: Is Conroy backpedalling on separation mandate?

Now that Minister Stephen Conroy has played his hand regarding Telstra's separation, the hard part begins.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Internode talks up PPC-1 after packet test

Internode has successfully conducted end-to-end packet flow tests between Australia and the US using Pipe's PPC-1, Australia's latest international fibre-optic link.

Source: iTnews Australia

NSW students tear through 40TB a month

Armed with Government-funded netbooks and unlimited access to the internet, students at New South Wales public schools are tearing through 40TB of downloads a month and heading fast for 100TB territory.

Source: iTnews Australia

Pipe's Guam cable carries first packets

Last month, Pipe Network's PPC-1 cable from Sydney to Guam carried its first light. This time, tests run with early customer, Internode, has seen the cable carry its first data packets.

Source: ZDNet Australia

SP Telemedia plans set-top box & phone service

SP Telemedia (the ISP/telco formed in April 2008 from the merger of Soul and TPG) has announced plans for a set-top box to enhance its IPTV offering and plans to launch a home phone service.

Source: iTWire

TPG, Soul bump up ADSL subscribers

TPG and Soul added a combined 88,000 broadband customers in the financial year ended July 31, pushing parent SP Telemedia's results into the black.

Source: iTnews Australia

ACCC leads blitz on Internet scams

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is leading a global initiative to find and eliminate Internet scams.

Source: ARN

Internode tests Pipe's sub cable, promises early customer benefits

Internode has become the first customer to test Pipe Networks' new PPC-1 fibre-optic cable, ahead of its official launch and is promising to revise its access plans to reflect PPC-1's lower connection costs to the US.

Source: iTWire

NBN Co in talks on purchase

Canberra broadband and pay-TV provider TransACT is likely to sell assets into the federal government's national broadband network.

Source: Australian IT

Telstra to finish cable repair

Telstra will today make the final repairs to the copper cables damaged in a construction mishap six days ago that left thousands of customers without phone or mobile services for almost a week.

Source: Australian IT

Mon, 21st Sep 2009

Internode datacentre suffers outage

A storm has caused an outage at Internode's Adelaide datacentre, which affected services in South Australia.

Source: ARN

Tasmania completes NBN design

Aurora Energy has gone to market for equipment to link up the fibre cables to be used for Tasmania's leg of the National Broadband Network.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Minchin claims Conroy and Tanner at odds over Telstra break-up

Shadow communications minister Nick Minchin claims that communications minister Stephen Conroy and finance minister Lindsay Tanner are at odds over the government's determination to wrest the HFC network and Foxtel stake from Telstra's grip, but the rules are set out in black and white in the bills now before parliament. Or are they...

Source: iTWire

Analysts: NBN Co the winner from any Telstra split

While the initial shock of Senator Conroy's plan to corner Telstra into accepting structural separation was met with outrage from Telstra shareholders, there is a growing field of analysts that see the legislation working in Telstra's favour.

Source: iTnews Australia

NBN: Australia's $43 billion iPhone

The National Broadband Network will provide an iPhone-like boom in online applications and services when complete, Federal Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has said.

Source: Computerworld

Telstra to roll out set-top box

Telstra is believed to be planning to launch a personal video recorder and set-top box, likely to be called the T-box, as early as December, in a bid to shift the entertainment, news and sport content it offers under the BigPond brand from people's computers to their televisions.

Source: Australian IT

Crossed lines on Telstra in ministers' mix-up

Federal government ministers yesterday contradicted each other over whether Telstra would be forced to sell its stake in Foxtel as part of the plan to break up the telco and bring more competition to telecommunications.

Source: Australian IT

Sue Trujillo

The story of how Telstra lost its network is one of hubris and bungling, of misreading the play in Australia by men from the US who thought they knew everything already. Shareholders should never forget this.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Tanner's 75pc off broadband

The cost to taxpayers of the government's new high-speed broadband network could be just a quarter of the initial $43billion estimated price tag, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner says.

Source: Australian IT