In a blow to the Coalition, key independent Tony Windsor has backed Labor's $43 billion national broadband network, criticising the opposition's cheaper alternative as a 'retrograde policy' that would create a digital backwater in rural Australia.
Telstra sees its future as a company devoted to service, but some have heard it before, writes Lucy Battersby.
Labor senator and technology advocate Kate Lundy has told a New Zealand conference that only high-speed broadband offered by the National Broadband Network will lead to a true open government in Australia.
The Communications Law Centre (CLC) has called for a tightening of Australian laws to more effectively prohibit access to online casino-style games like poker, blackjack and roulette.
Three of the members of the newly formed Alliance for Affordable Broadband have said that there was never any discussion with the telecommunications industry as a whole about whether the National Broadband Network should exist.
TransACT will build a second FTTP gateway in the Canberra suburb of Lyons as part of its recently-touted network expansion. The service provider revealed last week that it would also add half a terabit-per-second to its fibre network capacity.
ISP AAPT has sent blank emails to customers in an attempt to advise them of the impending sale of their consumer broadband or phone account to iiNet. Multiple copies of the email were sent to customers yesterday but many who opened it saw only an "important message" from AAPT customer service - with nothing inside.
The closure of a South Brisbane telephony exchange has Telstra's competitors fuming. They fear the giant telco could use it as a precedent to revive its monopolistic grip on telecommunication services around the nation.
I feel blessed to live in a society where even the most disingenuous are allowed to have their say, unmolested by thoughts of the common good. But as fascinating as it has been to hear the discredited views of a group of self-interested telco chief executives, you really have to wonder why they've only found their voice now.
How much carriers will be charged for access to the National Broadband Network has not been finalised, according to an NBN Co response to a question on notice asked during Senate Estimates earlier this year.
Potential revenue inflow for the company charged with rolling out Labor’s NBN remains up in the air as it continues to negotiate final wholesale pricing with the industry watchdog. Mike Quigley told the Senate select committee in April that negotiations with the ACCC over wholesale access pricing would begin in June.
Queensland Liberal senator Ian Macdonald has branded the NBN a 'farce' on the strength of NBN Co's lack of any pricing structure, but he is oversimplifying the situation.
One of the signatories to a national broadband proposal unveiled at the eleventh hour to rival Labor’s own long-running NBN project has accused vendors and telcos of stirring up hype for a fibre-optic cable future in line with a view to serving their own interests in generating massive contracts and gaining operating certainty.
The Coalition's promised savings from scrapping the National Broadband Network were $900 million out over four years, a Treasury analysis claimed. Independent MP Rob Oakeshott posted online the costing analyses of Labor and the Coalition's election promises that were prepared by Treasury.
Despite promises made by Prime Minister, Jullia Gillard, a proper costing of the Labor party’s proposed NBN is missing from Treasury documents delivered to the three independent MPs deciding the potential formation of a minority government.
You might have expected that the Treasury’s costings of the two major party’s election policies — released to the Independents and the media late yesterday — would contain a fair amount of detail about how much each party’s wildly differing broadband policy would cost. Not so.
The members of the Alliance for Affordable Broadband, which last night released a manifesto with an alternative plan for a national broadband network, are looking out for their own interests and not those of the nation, according to IDC telecommunications analyst David Cannon.
Telstra has embarked on a $5.3 million project to improve broadband services for islands in the Torres Strait region of far northern Queensland. Telstra will upgrade 15 existing exchanges across the islands, and install five new high-capacity microwave radio links. The speed improvements from the upgrade will allow residents on the island to access Telstra's Next IP service.
Telstra’s DC-HSPA+ upgrade promises extremely high-speed wireless broadband across much of Australia, but how well does it perform in the rural areas which are suddenly the focus of national politics? Today I headed to Dubbo in the central west of NSW to find out.
The state's ICT minister Robert Schwarten indicated that although the State Government favoured the existing NBN over the Coalition's "much more limited plan", it would "look to Member for Kennedy Bob Katter to tell Canberra what Queenslanders wanted".
One, tantalising possibility is the ability to deliver broadband wirelessly to 98 percent of the Australian population at speeds "up to 100Mbps" for mere $3b, and within the term of one government using '4G' wireless. However, as I'm sure they all know only too well, the technologies they are advocating are not true 4G.
Analysts have provided lukewarm responses to an open letter from senior telco executives that criticises the Government’s National Broadband Network. Paul Budde claimed the telcos involved were not representative of the industry as a whole and that the major players all backed Labor’s NBN.
National sales manager for Internode, Daryl Knight announced the opening of the Brisbane-CBD office with an initial staff of four, and put the company’s competitors on notice of the intention to take its business in Queensland to the “next level”.
The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) says rural broadband access must be a priority for the independent MPs who will help form the next government. RDAA president Dr Nola Maxfield says rural areas need better broadband services to give patients access to specialist advice.
Yesterday, a group of telecommunications CEOs put out an open letter that described an alternative broadband infrastructure. The letter received plenty of coverage in the media but in our view creates more questions than it provides answers. So we thought we’d give them a quick reply.
Members of a hastily formed alliance of mobile phone and wholesale fibre operators have written a broadband manifest urging independent parliamentarians to go for a wholesale fourth-generation national wireless broadband network.
A group of high-profile telco execs has hammered out a new alliance to deliver a manifesto for ‘NBN 3.0’, hoping to influence the future shape of Australian broadband – currently hanging in the balance of lingering election uncertainty and a welter of political horsetrading.
A splinter group of rebel telecommunications players have broken with their Australian brethren’s long-standing support for Labor’s National Broadband Network policy, publishing their own, “NBN 3.0″ model in an apparent attempt to influence the independent members of parliament who may help decide the next Federal Government.
Vodafone Hutchison Australia, the company formed out of the merger of the Vodafone and 3 brands, has increased the data download allowances for its capped voice and mobile broadband plans.
How Australia's political uncertainty could impact global negotiations.
If you were ever a kid (and so many of us were) you probably, at one point in time, played that game where you tried to think of a bigger number than your friends. And, when a million bazillion jazillion jazillion just wouldn't do, it was time to pull out the trump card: googol (that's 1e100 for those of you keeping track).
Computerworld Australia presents the Alliance for Affordable Broadband's open letter on national broadband.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has argued that the national broadband network should not be cut or savaged "just when it's making a real difference".
Bob Katter won't find a single paragraph devoted to broadband in a briefing prepared by two local government officials.
Telstra doubled the speeds of its Next G network but delayed its announcement for a week after the election campaign, fearing it may "influence the debate" between the independents who are deciding who will govern the country.
National broadband provider Internode will follow its larger rivals Telstra and iiNet into the brave new world of online entertainment, revealing plans last night to kick off an internet television trial in late September.
Key independent Andrew Wilkie has named completion of Tasmania's National Broadband Network in a list of requirements to win his support.
The Tasmanian Opposition is right to propose that Australians should have to opt out from having their houses connected to National Broadband Network (NBN) fibre cables — not have to opt in as the process currently stands.
The fiery chief executive of internet service provider Exetel has opened fire on the National Broadband Network’s support for 1Gbps speeds, saying those excited by the higher speeds are “unthinking and just plain stupid”, with wireless broadband waiting in the wings.
Nationals leader Warren Truss has blasted Labor’s National Broadband Network project, as increasing signs continue to mount that the clutch of independent MPs who will decide the next Federal Government are highly concerned about telecommunications and broadband as an issue.
Should we now consider Broadband a necessity of life, a utility in the same way we consider water, electricity and gas? According to a newly released poll, the answer is a resounding yes.
Internode has confirmed its plans to launch a trial of internet-delivered pay-TV service FetchTV by the end of September.
Networking vendor Ericsson has urged Australian telcos to be more creative with mobile broadband prices, despite most service providers lacking the systems to support such flexibility.
The National Broadband Network appeared likely to survive a fierce debate over its immediate future but would not escape unscathed, said telecommunications analyst Paul Budde.
The influx of new internet access technologies and accompanying devices has put pressure on the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to rethink how it regulates service providers and manages user identities.
Telstra has become the first telco in the world to launch dual carrier HSPA+ services offering downstream speeds up to a theoretical maximum of 42Mbps.
Government intervention will be required to give Australian households super-fast fibre, writes Lucy Battersby.
Uncertainty over Labor's $43 billion National Broadband Network is causing chaos in new commercial and residential property projects.
