Broadband News

Sun, 20th Sep 2009

Telstra pay TV role 'dreadful': minister

Key cabinet ministers have given differing views on Telstra's ownership of Foxtel, as the government prepares to carve up the telco giant.

Source: The Age

Welcome to the brave new world

What a week for Telstra shareholders. One minute they were proudly milking monopoly profits from their national copper wire network, next they found out that the same people who had sold them this monopoly at up to double the current share price were going to rip it away from them. What meanness!

Source: SMH

Sat, 19th Sep 2009

Alcatel-Lucent unveils converged backbone

Networking firm Alcatel-Lucent has developed a converged IP optical backbone designed to help service providers cope with accelerating demand for network capacity.

Source: iTnews Australia

yARN: Leave Telstra alone

As the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, launched into his morning press conference announcing the Government’s move to divide Telstra by force, voices of celebration rose up across the land.

Source: ARN

Fri, 18th Sep 2009

Telstra: Gotta keep 'em separated

ZDNet.com.au takes to the streets to see what opinions the public has to voice regarding the Telstra separation.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Consult with NBN users: Deloitte

The federal government needs to engage with consumers and the business community about how they plan to use its $43billion national broadband network if the ambitious project to ever succeed, advisory firm Deloitte says.

Source: Australian IT

Telstra behind broadband network: Livingstone

Telstra is still firmly behind the federal government's push for a national broadband network (NBN), according to the telco's chairwoman, Catherine Livingstone.

Source: Australian IT

For what the NBN will mean tomorrow, look are AARNet today

Australia's academic and research network today provides bandwidths well in excess of what the NBN will deliver, and cutting edge applications that exploit that bandwidth. CEO, Chris Hancock says they provide a foretaste of what the NBN will deliver to consumers and other users a few years down the track.

Source: iTWire

Telstra's monopoly meant mediocrity for consumers

Sol Trujillo was the George W. Bush of telecommunications. For both, the American way was the only way. Being the biggest meant you did not have to do diplomacy, and both were better at starting wars than finishing them. Both used patronage and punishment to ensure a like-minded leadership group that made worse decisions more harmoniously.

Source: SMH

Thu, 17th Sep 2009

Samuel hails new pricing powers

Competition watchdog Graeme Samuel yesterday hailed as a telecommunications revolution the strengthened powers that would enable him to impose pricing settlements on Telstra, ending two decades of "repetitive strain injury" litigation pursued by the company.

Source: Australian IT

Telstra confirms support for NBN

Telstra is still firmly behind the federal government's push for a national broadband network (NBN), the telco's chairwoman Catherine Livingstone says.

Source: The Age

ISPs refuse to join TERRiA

The revived TERRiA telco consortium’s recruitment plans may be stifled as several Internet service providers (ISPs) have refused to join the group.

Source: ARN

Greens attack Conroy on P2P filtering

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy had "shifted the goalposts" in the debate on the internet filtering of peer to peer traffic, Greens senator Scott Ludlam has claimed.

Source: iTWire

Blog: Special edition Telstra break-up podcast

In a massive "special edition" of our telco podcast Twisted Wire, we talk to virtually everyone in the telecommunications industry about the break-up of Telstra, including man of the moment, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Bligh gets cooking on NBN

The core ingredients of Queensland's bid to host the national broadband network (NBN) headquarters are secret but "very, very attractive", says Celebrity MasterChef and state premier Anna Bligh.

Source: Australian IT

France passes revised three-strikes rule

The French legislature has passed into law a revised version of the controversial so-called Hadopi 'three strikes' law targeting illegal online peer-to-peer file swappers.

Source: iTnews Australia

IIA releases draft eSecurity for ISPs

The Internet Industry Association (IIA) has released a draft eSecurity code to help internet service providers (ISPs) to improve security for their customers.

Source: Computerworld

Cable cuts cause panic in CBD

Telstra's overreaction to the severing of fibre-optic cables in the city today created panic among businesses and residents in the CBD who were told they would be without their phone, internet or mobile for up to a week.

Source: SMH

Wed, 16th Sep 2009

NBN should not have RF channel for cable TV, says Ericsson

iTWire understands that part of the capacity on the NBN will be set aside to bandwidth to carry cable TV services, as presently delivered over the Optus and Telstra HFC networks. This is not a good idea, according to Ericsson.

Source: iTWire

Quigley sets out timetable for NBN Co's first six months

NBN Co executive chairman Mike Quigley has spelt out an ambitious programme for the company's first six months that, if accomplished, would see many details of the NBN emerging. He has also canvassed the possibility of NBN Co building and launching its own satellite.

Source: iTWire

NBN could create a multi-million battery environmental headache

NBN Co CEO, Mike Quigley has foreshadowed that the customer equipment for the network will have battery backup to ensure telephone services operate in the event of power failure. These would need replacing every few years, and could end up in landfill.

Source: iTWire

Greens to question ISP-level filtering

Greens Communications spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam will today push for Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, to abandon his ISP-level filtering plans.

Source: iTnews Australia

Telstra gets offer it can't refuse

Investors dumped Telstra shares yesterday as the federal government placed its regulatory sword of separation against the telco's throat and made real its threats to dismember the telecommunications industry giant.

Source: Australian IT

Sydney telco services cut after Telstra's cables are jackhammered

Thousands of Telstra customers in Sydney's CBD have lost fixed, wireless and mobile network services after a contractor ripped through cabling at 9:30pm last night (September 15).

Source: ARN

Quigley offers ISPs a rough sketch of NBN architecture

NBN Co has developed a rough architecture for the build-out of the National Broadband Network in an attempt to keep ISPs and carriers in the loop as to how their services will intersect with it.

Source: iTnews Australia

Telstra must move quickly on NBN

Telstra should move quickly to negotiate as favourable a strategic NBN position possible, analysts have warned after the government's bombshell announcement yesterday that it would separate the telco's retail and wholesale operations if the company didn't voluntarily separate first.

Source: ZDNet Australia

NBN process already taking shape

The Rudd government may be forcing the break-up of Telstra to help realise its national broadband network dream, but the first NBN rollout is already under way, bypassing Telstra.

Source: Australian IT

Small ISPs to benefit under new telco reforms

It may have been upstaged by news of Telstra's structural separation, but the Federal Government's flurry of telecommunication regulatory reforms will also improve conditions for small ISPs with network assets.

Source: ARN

Cables cut: CBD phone and internet services lost

Thousands of homes and businesses in Sydney's CBD have lost phone and internet connections after a contractor accidentally severed crucial cables.

Source: SMH

Samuel: A new era for telecommunications regulation

ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel has told iTnews the Federal Government's regulatory reform bill enters Australia into a "whole new paradigm" for telecommunications regulation, in which the competition watchdog will find it much easier to resolve access disputes.

Source: iTnews Australia