Broadband News

Thu, 02nd Jul 2009

NBN HQ decision will wait for board

The location of the National Broadband Network headquarters will not be decided until after the NBN company's board and chairman are appointed, Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told his state counterparts this week.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Internet filter sparks gaming war

Online games played by millions of Australians could be blocked by the Federal Government's controversial internet filter.

Source: The Courier-Mail

Wed, 01st Jul 2009

China delays Net filtering; Australia sticks to its guns

As China backs off from controversial PC filtering plans, Australia is looking to expand its censorship net, with plans to ban computer games too.

Source: APC Magazine

Cisco fleshes out strategy for $US34b collaboration market

Last October Cisco flagged its aim, based on its WebEx portfolio to become a major player in the market for enterprise collaboration. This week gave some indication of how it plans to get there, including expanding its collaboration portfolio to include office applications.

Source: iTWire

Rudd's big backhaul day in Darwin

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is shortly expected to announce during a trip to Darwin what areas of regional Australia will be targeted by the backhaul aspect of the government's National Broadband Network plans.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Federal Government picks towns for NBN bush kick-off

The Federal Government has opened a tender process seeking candidates to build, operate and maintain backbone transmission links to regional towns as part of the first steps in its $43 billion national broadband network (NBN) plan.

Source: ARN

Tue, 30th Jun 2009

Telstra billing woes worsen

Stress caused by problems plaguing Telstra's customer service and billing system is forcing the telco's retail employees and even some dealers into new lines of work.

Source: Australian IT

Net address change chaos feared

The international community fears that major changes to the world's internet addressing system being attempted by its peak regulator will destabilise the global network.

Source: Australian IT

EFTel rights issue to raise $1.6m

Broadband ISP EFTel has launched a rights issued to raise in excess of $1.6m. Existing shareholders will be offered one new share for ever two held, at 1.95 cents per share, a 45 percent discount on their 15 day volume weighted average price to 26 June.

Source: iTWire

NBN bill worries infrastructure players

Representatives of Australian critical infrastructure providers have expressed concern that delivering information to the government under its amended National Broadband Network legislation could be costly and conflict with anti-terrorism rules.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Being throttled at least saves money

Doubleclick got throttled the other day and we didn't like it a bit.

Source: Australian IT

ISPs test Basslink cable

Internode and Exetel will test the Basslink cable in the next week with the first customers to jump on by the middle of July.

Source: iTnews Australia

Mon, 29th Jun 2009

Conroy's busy network diary

This week is shaping up as a big test for the Minister for Communications, Stephen Conroy, and his gestating child, the $43 billion national broadband network.

Source: SMH

3 mobile broadband customers get security software

Mobile broadband customers from Hutchison 3 are being offered a free 12 month subscription to the "premium" AVG Internet security software suite.

Source: iTnews Australia

Bringing Telstra into the NBN fold

Optus CEO Paul O'Sullivan had it right when he said that the new National Broadband Network would be a commercial failure unless there was only one network that included Telstra's fixed-line assets.

Source: ZDNet Australia

KPMG, Consultel win more NBN work

Consulting firm KPMG and technology consultancy Consultel have been awarded new contracts to provide the Federal Government investment and technical advice for the Tasmanian National Broadband Network roll-out.

Source: ZDNet Australia

The cost of 'free love' net neutrality

Net neutrality has the superficial attraction of 1960's free love, argues Telstra's Justin Milne, until you realise that one party gets all the gratification while the other bears all the costs.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Sun, 28th Jun 2009

NBN legislation facing months of delays

The Government has tabled its first piece of legislation aimed at expediting the rollout of the National Broadband Network, only to have it referred to a Senate enquiry - a move likely to delay its passage by several months.

Source: iTWire

Fri, 26th Jun 2009

Leak: Vodafone customers protest poor network

In the Voice of Retail newsletter obtained by iTnews, Vodafone tabled the biggest headaches raised by customers and retailers from March to May. Coverage, degradation, dropouts and echo are users' biggest bugbears.

Source: iTnews Australia

Broadband bill introduced

Telcos and utilities would be forced to surrender confidential information about infrastructure assets as part of the NBN project.

Source: Australian IT

Australian businesses reap $81bn on the Internet

Australian companies reaped $81 billion over the Internet in the 2007 to 2008 financial year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) 2007-08 Business Characteristics Survey (BCS).

Source: ARN

Thu, 25th Jun 2009

Legal advisors sought for NBN implementation study

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is looking to appoint a primary legal services advisor to assist with the national broadband network NBN implementation study.

Source: ARN

AAPT shuffles executive ranks

AAPT has lifted its head of international carriers to general manager of its wholesale division.

Source: iTnews Australia

Pipe Networks pushing towards $100m revenues in FY2010

Pipe Networks is forecasting consolidated revenue for FY2010 of $92m-$96m, with EBITDA of approximately $50m-$51m and NPAT of approximately $20.5m-$21.5m from a combination of its existing business and its submarine cable arm, expected to start generating revenues later this year.

Source: iTWire

Conroy lands first NBN legislation

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy this afternoon introduced one of the first pieces of legislation into parliament to deal with the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Source: ZDNet Australia

Wed, 24th Jun 2009

Conroy lays out civil engineering interests

Senator Conroy has used an address at the National General Assembly of Local Government to invite more inputs on how the NBN might "interact" with local planning laws.

Source: iTnews Australia

Joyce flags NZ fibre delays

The New Zealand Government's $1.5 billion investment in its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network faces lengthy delays as the government untangles 104 submissions on its broadband plan.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Telstra welcomes one small reduction in its regulatory burden

Wishful thinking or Telstra trying to be conciliatory to the Federal Government? Whatever, Telstra's over-enthusiastic welcome to a minor piece of legislation was in stark contrast to the song and dance the Trujillo-Burgess double act used to kick up.

Source: iTWire

Conroy: NBN won't be an eyesore

Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy today assured local council representatives that the National Broadband Network (NBN) fibre infrastructure would not be an eye-sore on their landscapes.

Source: ZDNet Australia

Bill shock: BigPond users charged thousands for 'data they didn't use'

A Telstra BigPond customer has been slugged thousands of dollars for excess data usage and others have been hit with unexpected bills for downloads they claim they didn't use.

Source: The Age