Broadband News
Tue, 26th May 2020
Telstra's latest hotspot promises faster 5G speeds, but we won't see them until next year
Telstra is expanding its range of 5G devices with the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro, a new 5G portable hotspot that supports higher speed mmWave 5G. This makes it the first mobile broadband device in Australia that can connect to both Sub 6 and mmWave 5G networks. Of course, mmWave 5G is still a while off in Australia.
Source: WhistleOut
Mon, 25th May 2020
Aussie Broadband offers 1Gbps on fibre and HFC
Gigabit NBN plans have been few and far between, but Aussie Broadband is about to join the market.
Source: iTWire
More than 7m Australians can now connect to the NBN
More than seven million Australians are connected to the national broadband network after 455,000 new services were activated in the first quarter of 2020.
Source: iTWire
Telstra claims 5G rollout ahead of schedule, 47 cities covered
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Telstra claims it is ahead of its schedule as far as providing 5G coverage in Australia goes, with 47 cities now able to use the technology.
Source: iTWire
Optus takes up to $850 off handsets in EOFY sales
The next lot of discounts expected to hit Australians come from End of Financial Year sales, Optus is starting the celebrations early with savings of up to $850 on selected devices.
Source: WhistleOut
A new streaming service in Australia is aiming to 'kill the scroll'
Foxtel launches its new TV and movie subscription platform Binge, hoping a focus on strong brands and less reliance on algorithms will help it succeed in an increasingly crowded market.
Source: ABC News
Telstra CEO wants NBN upgrade paths reflected in govt policy
Telstra CEO Andy Penn wants a “long term” strategy for Australian telecommunications to be developed with government, spelling out upgrade paths for the NBN and removing barriers to 5G and edge compute deployments.
Source: iTnews Australia
AFP has issued the United States with 98 telco data requests since 2014
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has provided a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) for its review of the nation's pending Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (International Production Orders) Bill 2020 (IPO Bill) after failing to do so when the committee called for submissions earlier this year.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Sun, 24th May 2020
UK eyes cuts to Huawei's 5G network involvement in wake of COVID-19 - report
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is planning to reduce Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's involvement in Britain's 5G network in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.
Source: iTnews Australia
Sat, 23rd May 2020
Telstra 5G clocks 157 Mbps on average, says Opensignal
Telstra's 5G service is hitting average download speeds of 157 Mbps according to Opensignal's latest survey, placing it above average among the pack of telcos offering 5G services.
Source: iTnews Australia
Fri, 22nd May 2020
UK changes Huawei 5G stance, to eliminate gear by 2023: report
Ahead of a visit to the US in June, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has decided to reduce the involvement of Chinese telecommunications equipment vendor Huawei Technologies in the country's 5G network to zero by the end of 2023, a report claims.
Source: iTWire
Foxtel's Streaming Service Binge: Everything You Need To Know
Foxtel's new streaming service has been announced after weeks of rumours and speculation. The upcoming addition, called Binge, will join a crowded market of streaming offerings competing for Australian dollars. Here's everything you need to know: including the price and how you can watch it.
Source: Gizmodo
Vodafone Australia and TPG merger: Everything you need to know
Earlier this week, the scheme booklet [PDF] for the proposed merger of TPG and Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) was released to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
Source: ZDNet Australia
Thu, 21st May 2020
NBN speeds, performance decline, then recover after COVID 19 demands: ACCC
NBN speeds and performance declined as Australians followed social distancing instructions to stay home due to COVID-19, but picked up following measures by NBN Co and streaming providers, according to the competition regulator, the ACCC.
Source: iTWire
New Optus mobile tower in Paget to improve coverage in Mackay
Singtel Optus has improved mobile coverage and connectivity in the south-east of Mackay with the commissioning of a new mobile tower in Paget.
Source: iTWire
Fastly outage hits world news websites
News websites including The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age were affected on Thursday afternoon by an outage on content delivery network Fastly.
Source: SMH
It wasn't just you, the NBN was slower at the back end of March
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released its first monthly edition of its Measuring Broadband Australia report on Thursday, which covered the performance of the National Broadband Network (NBN) between February and April.
Source: ZDNet Australia
ACCC questions consumer need for higher-priced 100Mbps NBN services
Australia’s competition watchdog took the unusual step of questioning whether consumers really needed to pay a premium for 100Mbps NBN services, given the performance characteristics of cheaper 50Mbps plans.
Source: iTnews Australia
Curtin Uni to launch 5G research lab with Optus
Optus and Curtin University have teamed up to use the telco’s nascent 5G network for teaching, research and industry collaboration and establish an on-campus 5G lab.
Source: iTnews Australia
Extra RSP network capacity sees NBN speeds recover
Speeds on the NBN have shown signs of recovery according to a new report, and the extra 40 per cent network capacity for RSPs is thought to mostly be the cause.
Source: ARN
Wed, 20th May 2020
Aussie Broadband cuts $10 per month from NBN prices for Click Frenzy
As part of Click Frenzy, Aussie Broadband has cut $10 per month from most of its NBN plans, excluding its entry-level NBN 12 plan and top-tier NBN 250 plan.
Source: WhistleOut
Tue, 19th May 2020
Telco complaints surge pinned on natural disasters
The number of complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman were up in the third quarter, with recent natural disasters cited as a backdrop to the increase.
Source: ARN
Vodafone's Click Frenzy deal gets you more data for less
Vodafone is slinging a $35 SIM-only plan with 25GB for Click Frenzy.
Source: WhistleOut
Grab Telstra's best SIM-only deal ever
Click Frenzy leads to some insane discounts, and Telstra has blown themselves out of the water offering one of the best Telstra deals to date.
Source: WhistleOut
Australian poll finds 1 in 8 blame Bill Gates and 5G for coronavirus
When it comes to believing stupid conspiracy theories related to coronavirus, young Australians are the most susceptible, or at least that's what they're telling pollsters.
Source: ZDNet Australia
Mon, 18th May 2020
Australians warned of ‘misinformation’ linking 5G and COVID 19
Australians have been warned about a campaign of misinformation linking 5G and the coronavirus, with the Federal Government urging confidence in the country’s stringent safety standards and decades of global scientific research about electromagnetic energy (EME).
Source: iTWire
Optus spent three years setting standards for its outsourced call centres
Optus has spent the past three years setting common standards and metrics across its offshore contact centre operations in India and the Philippines, leaning on data and analytics to get the sizable project done.
Source: iTnews Australia
Australian government justifies decision to go with AWS for COVIDSafe
The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has provided further detail on the federal government's COVIDSafe coronavirus trace tracking application, including around the procurement of the solution from Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Source: ZDNet Australia
Netflix Streaming Quality Is Coming Back In Europe, But We Don't Know About Australia Yet
Back in March Netflix reduced the bitrate of its streams in various parts of the world, including Australia, to help with network congestion during the COVID-19 pandemic. The streaming giant has begun returning its streaming quality to normal in some parts of Europe, but it can't confirm when this might happen in Australia.
Source: Gizmodo
Foxtel's Binge Streaming Service Launches Next Week, Here's Everything We Know
Foxtel's new streaming service is expected to launch next week after weeks of rumours and speculation. The upcoming addition, tipped to be called Binge, will join a crowded market of streaming offerings competing for Australian dollars.
Source: Gizmodo