Telstra seeks 120 voluntary redundancies

1
Telstra is seeking up to 120 volunteers for redundancy from its Networks Delivery operations, according to the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

British ISPs demand BT separate from Openreach

1
The CEOs of Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone in the UK have contacted the communications watchdog Ofcom demanding that BT-subsidiary Openreach be split off from the telco in order to improve services for customers and build a "truly world-class national broadband network".

Telcos want to write own guideline for broadband speed claims

28
Telecoms industry body Communications Alliance, along with the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA), have together proposed a new industry guideline for firms making representations to consumers about the performance of broadband services.

Telstra to launch new home Wi-Fi tech and Internet bundles

4
Telstra is introducing new Wi-Fi technology that it says will take in-home broadband speeds and coverage to "new levels".

Telstra profits should go to job creation, not destruction, says union

0
Following Telstra's announcement of a record profit for the 2015-16 financial year, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has called on the telco to use some of those funds to invest in its Australian workforce, rather than continue with its outsourcing and offshoring initiatives.

iiNet launches unlimited data plans

2
Unlimited data broadband plans are the new black, it seems. Just a day after Westnet announced its range of unlimited data deals, so too does iiNet, with spookily similar pricing and nomenclature, to boot.

Unlimited data plans unveiled by Westnet

0
Broadband provider Westnet has launched a number of new unlimited data bundles, covering ADSL and, for those in the footprint, NBN too.

Cisco unveils DOCSIS design for massive HFC upload speeds

20
Cisco has unveiled a royalty-free design for a Full Duplex DOCSIS specification that it claims will produce upload speeds of up to 10 Gbps.

Vodafone UK dumps telephone line rental on broadband plans

1
Vodafone UK has said it is "removing" home broadband line rental charges, and is touting the claim in its latest ad campaign.

Telstra to invest $3bn in network, customer service

2
Telstra has announced it will spend up to an extra $3 billion over three years on a range of investments aimed to improve its networks and "digitise and simplify" customer service.

ACCC to undertake market study of the communications sector

5
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has said that its next market study will focus issues affecting the Australian communications sector.

Former Telstra staffer criticises offshoring initiatives

8
Former long-term Telstra staff member Rod Bruem has criticised the “massive wave" of offshoring that has occurred under the last two CEOs.

Telstra to offshore over 170 more jobs, says union

8
Telstra is planning to offshore over 170 more jobs, according to the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

USO scope should be broadened, says ACCAN

2
The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has said the Universal Service Obligation (USO) needs an "expanded scope", as well as measures to increase affordability and inclusion for people with disabilities to ensure all consumers have access to essential communications services.

Telstra plans 5G trial with Ericsson tech

2
Telstra has announced it will soon be testing 5G with Ericsson's radio test bed to examine the potential of the technology.

Cox is rolling out gigabit broadband across its US markets

272
US-based telco and entertainment provider Cox Communications has announced the launch of a gigabit Internet service for residential customers called "G1GABLASTSM", that it claims offers speeds "100 times faster" than the average speed in the country.

ACCC opens up superfast broadband to competition

134
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has announced it is opening up the wholesale superfast broadband services to competition with the declaration of a five-year "superfast broadband access service".

Vodafone announces continued “solid growth” in 2016

4
Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) has announced continued "solid growth" during the first six months of the year, with both customer base and earnings on the rise.

Visionstream secures $250M Telstra ‘wideband’ contract

1
Visionstream, a services provider to the telecoms industry, has inked a new deal with Telstra to extend its delivery of 'wideband' services across Australia.

Vodafone CTO quits to join Hutchison

1
Benoit Hanssen, Chief Technology Officer at Vodafone Hutchison Australia, is to leave the company late next month for a post with the Hutchison group.

iiNet launches unlimited NBN plans

38
iiNet has announced a trio of new plans offering limitless data on the NBN, starting at $69.99 a month.

Unions challenge Telstra on redeployment during redundancy rounds

2
The Communication Workers Unions (CWU) has challenged Telstra over low rates of redeployment, even though the firm has powers to move people into new roles under the current enterprise agreement (EA).

ACCC calls for better broadband speed information

15
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has called for consumers to be provided with better information about broadband speeds.

Telstra boosts 4G capacity in some areas

0
Telstra has expanded its 4G mobile capacity in North Queensland and South Australia, with "up to 200 sites receiving up to 50% more capacity", the firm said.

Spirit Telecom continues fibre rollout at up to 400Mbps

10
Fibre-optic broadband provider Spirit Telecom has released a shareholder update to the market, stating that it continues to expand its superfast broadband service to new buildings and that it is considering making acquisitions that would "complement" the firm's direction.

Amaysim buys AusBBS to capitalise on NBN market

1
Mobile SIM card company Amaysim Australia has announced its entry into the broadband market via the acquisition of Internet service provider Australian Broadband Services (AusBBS).

TPG launches unlimited HFC NBN plans from $59.99

11
Internet provider TPG has announced a number of broadband plus phone plans offering unlimited NBN via hybrid-fibre coaxial (HFC) cable starting at $59.99.

AT&T expands gigabit business fibre at cities across US

41
AT&T is giving a speed boost to its Business Fiber internet services in a long list of US markets, including San Francisco, Miami and Dallas.

Telstra buys MSC Mobility to boost enterprise mobility focus

1
Telstra has announced it is acquiring long-term partner MSC Mobility (MSC), a provider of mobile device solutions for businesses in Australia, in a move that is designed to enhance the telco's enterprise mobility capabilities.

Telstra employs drones to inspect mobile towers

4
Telstra has announced that it is using unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to inspect its mobile towers, and said that the technology has "enormous potential" to change the way Australians work.

Telstra kicks off recruitment program to deal with NBN HFC contract

64
Telstra has launched an internal recruitment programme aimed to fulfil workforce needs as the firm prepares to design and manage the upgrade of its former hybrid-fibre coaxial (HFC) cable TV network as part of the NBN roll-out.

Optus to refund $2.4m over mobile insurance breaches

0
Optus is being forced to refund around $2.4 million to around 175,000 of its mobile customers following the Australian Securities & Investments Commission's (ASIC's) concerns about the telco's compliance with financial services laws.

Telstra offshores 326 more call centre jobs

5
The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has condemned Telstra for its decision to sack 326 Australian workers and send some of those jobs overseas.

Telstra rejects Choice’s unfavourable price comparison as “flawed”

7
Telstra has said that a price comparison of some of its mobile and Internet plans that suggested consumers are paying a premium of up to 92% over other telcos' products is "flawed".

Consumers paying up to 92% more with Telstra, says Choice

3
Choice, the not-for-profit consumer advocacy group, has said that consumers are paying "up to a 92% price premium" to access Telstra’s network, which has experienced a number of major outages in the last six months.


Optus gives retail ISP customers access to 121 NBN POIs

6
Optus Wholesale has announced that it will provide wholesale NBN access to smaller ISPs, and has already signed an exclusive deal with SpinTel to allow wholesale NBN access for its residential broadband customers.

ABC suspends Catalyst host after “inaccurate” Wi-Fi show

61
The ABC has suspended a TV host and accepted there were errors in the "preparation and ultimate approval" of a February episode of the popular science show Catalyst, which discussed the health risks of wireless devices such as mobile phones.

NBN Co deploys solar arrays across network

56
NBN Co has deployed solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays across its network in an effort to reduce its environmental impact.

Telstra launches new mobile broadband plans

3
Telstra has introduced new mobile broadband plans with what it calls its "most generous" data allowances to date.

Telstra to invest $250m more to fix network issues

6
Telstra CEO Andrew Penn has announced that his firm is to spend $250 million addressing issue that have hit users of its mobile and broadband networks in recent months.

Vocus to buy Nextgen Networks for $861m

2
Vocus Communications has announced the acquisition of Nextgen Networks, along with two undersea cable projects, the North West Cable System and Australia Singapore Cable.

iiNet to double quota in new NBN satellite plans

11
iiNet has announced it will soon launch broadband products based on the wholesale availability of services from NBN's Sky Muster satellite, which was successfully launched last October.

Five more telcos get access to Vodafone 4G

1
Vodafone has announced it will give five more mobile virtual network operators access to its 4G network.

iiNet’s NBN HFC trials will soon kick off in Queensland

22
iiNet has announced that it will soon be starting trials of HFC cable as part of the NBN rollout, adding that they will "bring faster, more reliable Internet to Australians faster".

Internode directly matches ADSL broadband plans to iiNet

34
National broadband player Internode has updated its broadband plans to almost precisely match those of its parent iiNet, as the two companies continue their drive to harmonise their operations almost precisely following their acquisition by TPG.

Telstra to roll out ‘small cell’ 4G coverage in over 130 areas

3
The Federal Government and Telstra have announced the telco is to roll out small cell mobile technology to boost data coverage in more than 130 rural and regional communities.

Visionstream to cut workforce, says union

2
Telecoms and ICT services provider Visionstream is to slash its workforce, the Communications Workers Union (CWU) has said.

iiNet gives huge quota boost to ADSL2+ plans

10
Internet provider iiNet has updated its on-net ADSL2+ plans, giving all options hefty quota increases without additional conditions.

Basslink completes cable repairs, enters final testing stage

0
The undersea power and telecoms cable linking Victoria to Tasmania has been repaired, according to its operator, Basslink.

Nokia partnership will build “Europe’s first” 10Gbps residential network

41
Nokia and Estonia-based cable operator Starman have announced that they will deploy the first nationwide 10-gigabit residential network in Europe.

Vodafone launches new range of business plans

1
Vodafone has announced a new range of mobile plans for small and medium businesses (SMBs), along with new additions to its suite of 'Ready Business Apps'.

iiNet cuts price of terabyte 100Mbps NBN plans

33
National broadband company iiNet has launched several new National Broadband Network plans, including a plan featuring 1000GB (one terabyte) of download quota and 100Mbps speeds for $99 per month -- $10 a month cheaper than its previous terabyte, 100Mbps NBN offering.

Vodafone to spend $9 million on new rural expansion

1
Vodafone has announced it is to spend $9 million expanding its regional mobile network over the next 18 months.

Telstra reportedly turfs CTO Nandlall

10
I'm not sure what has precisely happened here, but it appears that there is more than one side to this story. While there may have been some irregularities with regard to Nandlall personally, it also appears that Telstra is scrapping the CTO role from its executive line-up. This isn't a surprise, given that the role has always been a bit nebulous. I'd encourage readers to keep an open mind as to what is going on here.

Digital Tasmania criticises ISPs following broadband issues

9
Consumer action group Digital Tasmania has called on Internet service providers to improve their technical performance and customer service standards following issues that have affected Tasmanian consumers in recent days.

Telstra apologises for further network disruption

4
Telstra has apologised to customers for disruptions to broadband services in recent days, and offered advice to those still suffering issues.

Telstra launches new email platform for customers

7
Telstra has launched a new and improved email service for customers of its home broadband service.

Nokia achieves “world first” symmetrical 10Gbps over HFC cable

35
Nokia has announced that it has achieved 10 Gbps symmetrical data speeds using a traditional hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) cable system.

Vodafone, Huawei complete Narrowband Internet of Things trial

2
Vodafone has completed a trial of Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) – a 4G technology that could make connecting devices to the internet more efficient.

Optus ropes in Thorpe, Wahlberg for small business focus

0
Optus is launching a celebrity-endorsed campaign to emphasise its "refocus" on providing custom solutions for Australia’s two million-plus small business owners.

AT&T continues 1Gbps FTTP rollout across US

40
AT&T has announced the expansion of its ultra-fast all-fibre broadband service into more parts of the USA, with the aim of vastly expanding availability by the end of 2016.

BT announces huge FTTP rollout to 2 million premises

53
BT today announced an investment in the UK's broadband infrastructure that will see a major rollout of fibre to the premises (FTTP) alongside other initiatives the firm said will help the country remain "the leading digital nation in the G20".

Optus launches Voice over LTE on 4G Plus network

3
Optus has announced that it is rolling out Voice over LTE (VoLTE) across its 4G Plus mobile network in Australia’s major metros.

Telstra ploughs $50m into fixing network outages

3
The nation's biggest telco Telstra today revealed it would plough a combined $50 million of funding into initiatives designed to stop it from suffering future major mobile network outages of the type that it has suffered over the past several months.

Optus launches unlimited data broadband bundles

20
Australia's second-largest telco Optus this morning announced it would bring unlimited downloads to all of its broadband bundle packages, in a move which further ramps up the telco's challenge against cut-price unlimited data challenger TPG.

Virgin Media announces “largest” UK FTTP rollout ever

20
Virgin Media has committed to what it called the "largest UK fibre broadband rollout", that will bring fibre optic services directly to domestic and business premises.

Visionstream inks $350m Telstra facilities management deal

3
Visionstream, an Australian services provider to the telecoms industry, has just inked a deal with Telstra to supply maintenance and building services to more than 40,000 assets nationwide.

Basslink completes first leg of Tasmanian cable fix

1
The damaged undersea cable linking Tasmania and Victoria has undergone its first phase of repairs, according to operator Basslink.

Telstra launches “best ever” terabyte broadband plan

26
Telstra has launched what it is calling its "biggest and best value home bundle offer" that sees users get a hefty 1 terabyte of data, along with other features.

Vodafone announces new national HQ in Sydney

1
Vodafone has revealed plans tp establish a new national corporate headquarters in North Sydney, following the signing of an agreement to lease new premises at 177 Pacific Highway.

BT FTTN network hits 25 million premises milestone

201
BT has announced that its UK wholesale fibre network, Openreach, has passed the 25-million premises milestone.

Vodafone reveals 70 new base stations to fix mobile blackspots

3
Vodafone has announced the full rollout schedule for new base stations to be built under the first round of the Mobile Black Spot Programme.

Optus restructuring could see up to 480 jobs lost

1
Optus has announced plans to restructure its Consumer and Enterprise divisions that will lead to hundreds of jobs being lost.

Vodafone 4G network reaches 23 million Australians

2
Vodafone has announced that its 4G network now reaches almost 23 million Australians, or more than 95% of the country's population.

Redditor downloads 994GB on second Telstra ‘free mobile data day’

13
A single Australian who set records by downloading 421GB of data during Telstra's free mobile data day in February has more than doubled his previous record during the second such occasion yesterday, pulling down a total of 994GB of data during the 24 hour period.

Second fatality mars NBN rollout

19
The National Broadband Network project has suffered what is believed to be its second fatality, with a contractor in the Blue Mountains town of Katoomba reported to have lost his life while working on NBN infrastructure on Friday.

Internode sets up first ever offshore call centre

70
Adelaide-based ISP Internode this week revealed to staff that it would set up its first ever offshore call centre, in a move that represents a radical departure of the company's customer service and sales approach since its acquisition by iiNet and then TPG.

SingTel, SubPartners, Telstra to build new Perth-Singapore fibre cable

6
Singtel, SubPartners, and Telstra have inked a deal to build a new international submarine cable that will carry data between Perth and Singapore.

NBN election: Labor polling voters on Coalition’s NBN performance

230
The Australian Labor Party has started directly calling voters to ask whether the Abbott/Turnbull Government's handling of the National Broadband Network will influence how they vote at the upcoming Federal Election, in a sign Labor sees it as a key election issue.

‘Open letter’ galvanises marketing sector into NBN action

101
An 'open letter' from a senior figure in Australia's marketing and advertising sector calling for action to address the Coalition's "sub-standard" National Broadband Network has generated an instant and strong response from other high-profile industry figures.

AT&T, Google launch new 1Gbps FTTP networks in US

58
US technology giants AT&T and Google this week launched new Fibre to the Premises networks in several US cities, with the flagship feature of the networks being their ability to offer gigabit speeds (1Gbps) to residents and businesses in the areas they cover.

Basslink pinpoints cable fault but moves fix date to June

2
Basslink has announced that it has pinpointed and removed a fault in the telecoms cable linking to Tasmania and Victoria, but warned that the deadline for a resumption of normal services has been pushed back to June.

auDA dumps CEO Chris Disspain after 16 years … but why?

1
What I can't understand at this point is why the auDA board itself would turf Disspain from the position he has done an admirable job in. Was it a personality conflict? A professional disagreement of opinion? The statement says auDA is looking for "new leadership", but isn't the essence of auDA that it needs to remain stable -- something which Disspain has certainly been able to deliver to the organisation?

“No debate”: Australia needs “gigabit” fibre, says Atlassian co-founder

32
Billionaire software mogul Mike Cannon-Brookes last night stated that there was "no debate" about Australia's need for "gigabit fiber", in comments that come in direct contrast to controversial statements made on the topic last week by the chief executive of the National Broadband Network.

Q&A panellists agree: Politicians have completely screwed up the NBN

100
A trio of independent technology experts on the ABC's Q and A program last night heavily criticised Australia's political sector for politicising, lying about, and ultimately destroying the all-fibre National Broadband Network they agreed the country needed to progress its innovative future.

Queensland will be first to get NBN HFC cable, says Fifield

89
Minister for Communications Mitch Fifield has announced that residents in Queensland will be the first to experience the NBN's "superfast" HFC cable broadband service when the network goes live in June.

BT follows NBN with ‘skinny’ fibre trials in UK

10
British telco BT has reportedly followed the NBN company in Australia and conducted trials of so-called 'skinny' fibre technology that could allow the telco to substantially cut the cost of deploying fibre throughout its network.

As NBN visits, Verizon insists FTTP is “superior” to HFC

77
One of the US telcos visited by the NBN management this month, Verizon, has deployed a new advertising campaign with the aim of 'making it clear' to Americans that "there is a difference" between the dominant HFC cable broadband service and Verizon's own "superior" FTTP-based 'Fios' offering.

Australia in huge slip down global broadband rankings

187
Australia has taken a substantial leap down the table of countries globally with good broadband, with the nation's poor average peak connection speeds seeing it slip 14 spots in just the past six months by one measurement, and other benchmarks also slipping slightly.

Budde says Turnbull may announce FTTdp as NBN election policy

138
Veteran telco analyst Paul Budde this week said it was his view that the speed and cost advantages of the NBN's new Fibre to the Distribution Point (FTTdp) model might lead Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to announce it as the Coalition's new NBN policy ahead of this year's Federal Election.

TPG releases unlimited NBN business plans

36
National broadband provider TPG has released a new range of National Broadband Network plans aimed at businesses, with the headline plan offering 100Mbps speeds and unlimited data and telephone usage for $120 per month.

Vodafone offers free month for customers switching networks

1
Vodafone has announced it is offering a month of fee-free access for new customers who switch from another provider on any post-paid voice or mobile broadband plan.

Google Fiber shows people don’t want FTTP, says Morrow

262
The chief executive of the NBN company this week reportedly said briefings with the team behind the Google Fiber project showed broadband users didn't want Fibre to the Premise infrastructure or the gigabit speeds behind it, and that the NBN company was built to make money, not as a public service.

NBN changes mind again: Some HFC suburbs to get FTTN after all

194
The NBN company last week reportedly said it would deploy its Fibre to the Node rollout model to some areas already covered by HFC cable networks, in a move which appears to represent the second time the company has changes its policy on the issue.

Telstra flags redundancies in Defence contract

0
The nation's largest telco has flagged a small redundancy and redeployment round as part of its huge $1.1 billion contract with the Department of Defence, in the latest set of job cuts that appear to be sweeping across Australia's technology and telecommunications industries.

Optus to cut “several hundred” jobs, union says

0
Australia's second-largest telco Optus is set to cut several hundred jobs, one of its main unions claimed last week, as part of a "company-wide restructure" that may involve outsourcing and offshoring some aspects of Optus' operations.

Govt open to NBN using skinny fibre, FTTdp, says Fifield

29
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has confirmed the Government is open to using 'skinny' fibre and Fibre to the Distribution Point models as part of the National Broadband Network, as speculation continues to mount the two technologies may form the basis of a new Coalition NBN policy to be released ahead of this year's Federal Election.

Huge mobile outage spurs second Telstra free data day on 3rd April

6
The nation's largest telco Telstra has offered mobile customers another free data day -- with mobile traffic not counting towards their quotas -- on April 3 in an effort to make up for another major nationwide outage last night.

Insight: Kevin Russell will probably be the next Telstra CEO

2
It doesn't take a particularly bright spark to guess that Telstra's weak current chief executive Andy Penn won't be in the role forever ... and that the telco's new hire Kevin Russell is now the most likely person to succeed him.

NBN reveals new FTTdp trials, but says FTTN not ‘dead’

97
The NBN company today revealed it would undertake a new set of trials in Sydney and Melbourne of the Fibre to the Distribution Point technology which some believe represents a viable path forward for ditching the company's Fibre to the Node rollout style once and for all.

Labor teams up with Coalition again to support data retention

19
Australia's two major political parties teamed up again yesterday to block a Greens motion in the Senate which would have called upon the Government to repeal the data retention scheme, in a move which demonstrates enduring bipartisan support for the controversial policy.

Infrastructure Australia reveals almost no specific basis for NBN privatisation push

17
Infrastructure Australia has revealed it did not consult more than a handful of sources or organisations when making its recommendation in mid-February that the National Broadband Network be split up into pieces and sold off to the private sector.

Telstra hires Kevin Russell and … Stephen Elop?

6
Telstra has announced two notable executive hires in its retail and innovation divisions as it moves to simplify and strengthen its core business.

NBN staff nickname for HFC upgrade is “Operation Clusterfuck”, says Conroy

11
According to Labor Senator Stephen Conroy, even the NBN company's own staff have their doubts about the upgrade project.

NBN board, Govt blocking FTTdp despite FTTN-like cost

78
The NBN company yesterday revealed its board and the Federal Government were blocking a switch to a Fibre to the Distribution Point model, despite the fact that new revelations have shown the cost of the FTTdp option is coming very close to that of the technically inferior Fibre to the Node incumbent model.

Telstra: New Wi-Fi gateway is first with 4×4 Broadcom chipset

8
Telstra has launched a new Wi-Fi gateway for businesses, which it claims is the world’s first using Broadcom’s 4x4 Wi-Fi AC chipset.

Success: “Skinny” fibre trial cut FTTP costs by $450, rollout time by 4 weeks

123
The NBN company this morning revealed that its trial of "skinny fibre" to some 4,500 homes in the Victorian towns of Ballarat and Karingal had been highly successful, cutting the cost per premise of a Fibre to the Premise rollout by $450 and the rollout time by four weeks.

“Simply incorrect”: Morrow refutes most NBN leaks with evidence

70
The CEO of the NBN company has delivered a strong rebuttal of negative conclusions which commentators had drawn from a recent spate of leaks, providing a Senate Committee hearing this morning with evidence that the NBN was ahead of its targets on all measures and that its technology was performing well.

Tassie Govt criticises TPG over Basslink Internet issues

12
The Tasmanian Government has expressed its disappointment over service interruptions for customers of TPG's Internet service provider brands following the cutting of the Basslink cable.

MyNetFone demands NBN ‘level the playing field’ for mid-sized ISPs

8
MyNetFone has demanded that the NBN "level the playing field" for mid-size telcos in Australia by taking several measures it said would bring healthier competition in the telecoms industry.

Optus rolls out guest Wi-Fi at Mirvac shopping centres

3
Optus Business is now providing Wi-Fi services for Australian property group Mirvac at two of the firm's flagship shopping centres.

Fifield says Shorten’s FTTP NBN promise is “flaky”, uncosted

144
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has labelled a pledge by Bill Shorten to bring a "greater role" for Fibre to the Premises technology in the NBN as "flaky", saying the Opposition Leader did not specify exactly what the promise would cost and what it meant.

Shorten promises “greater role” for FTTP in NBN if Labor wins election

78
Bill Shorten this week said Labor would make sure that there would be a "greater role" for Fibre to the Premises technology in the National Broadband Network if it won the upcoming Federal Election. However, the Opposition Leader also intimated Labor wouldn't be able to reverse the changes Malcolm Turnbull has made to the project.

NBN Co, Telstra help Greg Hunt out with election campaign event

64
The NBN company join Telstra at an election campaign event to be held by Environment Minister Greg Hunt in his electorate of Flinders in late March, Delimiter can reveal, in a move that further calls into question the NBN company's independence in the pre-election period.

Foxtel and Stan agree: Peak hour broadband congestion real, significant

24
Senior executives from two of Australia's largest online content providers have provided testimony to the Senate that peak hour and weekend broadband congestion is a real phenomenon that is significantly affecting broadband users around Australia.

NZ brings FTTP costs down to FTTN levels

255
The telco deploying New Zealand's own version of the National Broadband Network has revealed that it was able to cut the cost of deploying its Fibre to the Premises model by 29 percent in a single year in 2015 and will cut it evern further this year, bringing the overall cost down to a comparable level with rival mdoels such as Fibre to the Node.

Telstra, Cisco team up for Software-Defined Networking products

1
Telstra has joined forces with Cisco to launch a suite of software-defined networking products that are aimed to enable Australian businesses to quickly deploy and configure services over its networks.

ABC ignores damaging NBN leaks in lengthy Fifield interview

135
The ABC's political flagship Insiders failed to ask Communications Minister Mitch Fifield a single question about the National Broadband Network in an extensive interview yesterday, despite several damaging leaks regarding the project which dominated parliamentary debate over the past week.

FTTN congestion often ‘user error’, says Turnbull

88
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has dismissed widespread complaints from early adopters of the Government's preferred Fibre to the Node rollout model that the technology is slower than ADSL, attributing many of the issues to end users' home setups, including their computers and Wi-Fi routers.

NBN supports Coalition MPs as election campaign escalates

21
The NBN company has taken minor steps to support two Coalition MPs this week in promoting their work bringing broadband to their local areas, in moves that call into question the company's independence in the pre-election period before the national poll expected to be held later this year.

Fletcher praises Turnbull’s “very competent” NBN stewardship

50
Government frontbencher Paul Fletcher has praised Malcolm Turnbull's stewardship of the National Broadband Network project in response to sustained criticism from the Opposition, stating yesterday that the project was on track and that Turnbull had done a "very competent" job of reforming it.

Leaking NBN Co staff in “rebellion” against MTM, says Husic

82
The NBN company's staff is leaking internal documents because they are in a "rebellion" against the Multi-Technology Mix model which is being foisted against them, Labor MP Ed Husic said yesterday, in a fiery speech which also touched upon the lack of suitability of HFC cable for the NBN network.

Watch: Angry Labor shouts down Fifield in Senate over NBN leaks

85
An outraged Opposition shouted down Mitch Fifield in Senate Question Time today over the latest set of National Broadband Network leaked documents, accusing the Communications Minister of not knowing that the Coalition's election costing on the NBN was a "lie".

“Desperate” Labor misrepresenting FTTP cost, says Fifield

28
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield this morning said an increasingly "desperate" Opposition was "misrepresenting" the cost of the NBN company deploying Labor's preferred Fibre to the Premises model, in response to new documents leaked from the NBN company this morning.

Fifield refuses to accept NBN Co’s own evidence of FTTN delays

117
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has repeatedly refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of evidence contained in leaked internal documentation, in which the NBN company's chief network engineering explicitly states that its Fibre to the Node rollout is categorically behind target.

Senate Committee calls NBN Co for full day of hearings

44
The Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network has resolved to hold another full day of hearings in Canberra, with the date to be 15 March and the only witness to be called being the NBN company.

Telstra switches on free public Wi-Fi across Tasmania

1
Telstra has switched on over 40 public Wi-Fi hotspots across Tasmania in a joint partnership with the Tasmanian Government.

Watch: Labor ‘fooling itself’ on NBN “copper” delays, claims Turnbull

82
Malcolm Turnbull yesterday accused the Opposition of 'fooling itself' with relation to significant delays revealed in the rollout of the Prime Minister's preferred Fibre to the Node technology, in a fraught Question Time in which Labor pursued Turnbull relentlessly on the National Broadband Network issue.

Turnbull’s MTM NBN plan “in crisis” says Jason Clare

53
The Opposition today said the Multi-Technology Mix plan which Malcolm Turnbull imposed on the National Broadband Network project was "in crisis", following revelations published over the weekend that its Fibre to the Node centrepiece was substantially behind projections and suffering a litany of issues.

Litany of problems: Internal NBN doc warns of FTTN failures

148
The NBN company is reportedly suffering a litany of issues with respect to Malcolm Turnbull's preferred Fibre to the Node technology, with an internal document warning the company's management that its FTTN rollout has gone badly off track due to a "plethora of faults".

“Cheap buy”: Budde and Ludlam believe the NBN will be sold to Telstra

68
Senior figures Paul Budde and Senator Scott Ludlam this week said they expected that the only company likely to buy a privatised National Broadband Network would be Telstra, as speculation continues to mount about a sale of Australia's largest ever infrastructure project before it is even finished.

NBN Senate Committee will hold hearings next week … without NBN Co

23
The Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network has resolved to hold hearings in Parliament House in Canberra next Friday 4 March, but has opted to hear from a diverse range of witnesses in academia and industry, without the presence of its usual target, the NBN company.

Not today, Conroy: House of Reps rejects NBN transparency reform

27
The Government has used its dominance of the House of Representatives to reject amendments successfully moved by Labor Senator Stephen Conroy in the Senate which would enforce a degree of radical transparency on the NBN company.

“A whole mess of garbage”: Ludlam blasts Turnbull’s “mongrel” NBN

167
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has given a fiery speech to Parliament this week damning the Coalition's version of the National Broadband Network as instigated by Malcolm Turnbull, labelling it as a "whole mess of garbage" and as being held together with "gaffer tape and plastic bags".

ACMA outlines management strategy for mobile broadband spectrum

0
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has outlined its strategy for addressing growth in mobile broadband traffic and its latest work plan in a package released yesterday.

NBN Co estimates up to $10.5k for 300m of fibre in Newcastle CBD

179
The NBN company has given a Newcastle business an estimate ranging up to $9,500 to extend fibre cables 300 metres from the local streetside 'node' through existing Telstra pipes to their facility in the Newcastle CBD, as signals continue to grow that the Coalition's election estimates on fibre on demand costs were inaccurate.

Foxtel launches unlimited broadband plans

15
Pay TV giant Foxtel today launched a set of broadband plans offering unlimited download quota, although customers will need to be signed up to its subscription television offering to get the full benefits.

Vodafone grows customer numbers by 135,000, revenue by 4.5 percent

0
Vodafone has announced its Australian growth figures for 2015, saying that its customer base increased by 135,000 customer – a 2.5% year-on-year increase to 5,437 million.

Telstra preparing mobile network for 1Gbps speeds ‘later in 2016’

1
Telstra has made a raft of announcements this week, including the launch of 1Gbps speeds on its mobile networks in certain areas.

Watch: Conroy’s NBN transparency reform a “legislative stunt”, says Fifield

6
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has labelled Stephen Conroy's successful amendments to force a radical degree of transparency on the NBN company as being a "legislative stunt" from the Labor Senator he said was still serving as the defacto Shadow Communications Minister.

Key commentators agree the NBN should be broken up, sold off

53
Several influential commentators on the National Broadband Network have publicly agreed over the past several days with Infrastructure Australia's recommendation that the NBN company should be broken up into chunks along technological lines and privatised.

NBN HFC trial achieves 84Mbps/33Mbps average speeds

68
The NBN company today revealed it had completed its HFC cable in the Queensland region of Redcliffe and was on track for a June commercial launch of the technology, with users on the trial achieving average downlaod speeds of 84Mbps and average upload speeds of 33Mbps.

Conroy bushwhacks Fifield with NBN transparency reform

48
Former Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has blindsided the Government in the Senate, successfully passing an amendment to an otherwise innocuous piece of NBN legislation that will enforce a degree of radical transparency on the NBN company.

NBN gridlock resolved: FTTN congestion fixed for some

92
Some of the early adopters of the Government's preferred Fibre to the Node NBN rollout model have now resolved their problems and are achieving the speeds they were promised on the service, following pressure on the issue from Delimiter and the Opposition.

Optus, Huawei achieve 1.41Gbps speeds in 4.5G wireless trial

14
Optus and Huawei late last week said a live trial of 4.5G technology has produced mobile download speeds of 1.41Gbps.

ISPs will take coordinated approach to site blocking

15
A number of internet service providers (ISPs) have agreed to take a coordinated response to orders requesting website blocking over copyright infringement.

NBN raises possibility of multi-gigabit symmetric HFC speeds

218
NBN could soon roll out symmetric multi-gigabit broadband via the HFC network following developments announced by CableLabs, the US consortium that sets standards for cable technology.

Truth: A lack of Wi-Fi is definitely bad for your health

17
Australia's national broadcaster has unfortunately let one of its senior journalists engage in a fear-mongering campaign to convince Australians we should be scared of a technology we invented: wireless data transmission. The truth is that the only thing we should be scared of is a lack of signal.

IT’S BEGUN: Split up the NBN and sell it off, says Infrastructure Australia

146
Australia's independent authority on infrastructure has recommended the Federal Government split the NBN company into pieces based on technology or geographical lines and sell it off to the private sector, but without publishing any justification at all for such a move.

NBN calls for ‘experienced technicians’ to help with Tassie rollout

17
The NBN company has called for experienced telecoms technicians and workers to assist the network rollout in Tasmania during 2016 and beyond.

Satellite NBN a “great opportunity”, West Tasmanian MP claims

80
Tasmanian MP Brett Whiteley has told residents and businesses unhappy with the satellite broadband the NBN company is planning to deploy in his electorate in Western Tasmania that the infrastructure represents a "great opportunity" and they should stop pining for a Fibre to the Premise instead.

NBN blogger predicted FTTN congestion seven months ago

177
A prominent blogger about the National Broadband Network appears to have predicted significant congestion problems with the Coalition's preferred Fibre to the Node technology about seven months before early FTTN adopters started revealing them in the past week.

Redditor downloads 421GB on Telstra ‘free mobile data day’

35
Follow @renailemay !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s),p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs'); news A single individual Australian appears to have taken advantage of Telstra's 'free mobile data' day on Sunday to download...

New Nationals leadership slammed copper as “redundant” in 2005

15
The new federal leadership team of the Nationals unveiled late last week -- Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash -- personally criticised the use of copper for broadband services in 2005, it has emerged, telling the then-Howard Government to focus on the use of Fibre to the Premises technologies instead.

“Hopeless, useless and a joke”: Labor MP sets Turnbull NBN policy on fire

99
Federal Parliament erupted into a fiery debate yesterday over Malcolm Turnbull's reshaping of the NBN project, with Labor MP Lisa Chesters stealing much of the show with a furious diatribe in which she labelled the PM's NBN plan as "incompetent, hopeless, useless and a joke".

Labor has 60 complaints from congested FTTN users who want their ADSL back

181
The Opposition said this week that it has received about 60 complaints from early adopters of the Government's preferred Fibre to the Node NBN rollout model, many of whom were receiving such poor service that they would prefer to have their original ADSL broadband back.

Telstra offers free data following mobile network outage

5
Telstra is offering free data for a day for all customers this Sunday following an outage in its national mobile network that affected voice and data services for some customers.

NBN gridlock: Peak hour congestion takes down FTTN for some

193
Some early adopter users of the Coalition's preferred Fibre to the Node technology on the National Broadband Network are seeing their broadband service slow to a crawl during peak hour periods, leading to questions about the fitness of model for permanent use on the NBN.

‘ABC did not gag Nick Ross’: MD Mark Scott tells Senate (full video)

17
The managing director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has categorically denied that the broadcaster "gagged" its former technology editor Nick Ross from reporting on the National Broadband Network, stating that it merely wanted the journalist to comply with its editorial policies in doing so.

Fault brings month-long outage for PPC-1 international cable

2
A fault discovered on the 6,900km PPC-1 submarine cable connecting Australia to Guam is likely to take around 30 days to repair, according to TPG Telecom.

Most Australians now support MTM NBN, claims Morrow

125
The chief executive of the NBN company last week said that the debate over different technologies for the National Broadband Network was effectively over, with 'most' Australians having now accepted the rationale for the Coalition's technically inferior Multi-Technology Mix model for the network.

NBN says customers just as happy with FTTN or FTTP

228
The NBN company today stated that customers using its Fibre to the Node service were just as satisfied with their broadband service as those using Fibre to the Premises services, on the basis of the industry standard Net Promoter Score rating.

Telstra hires Turnbull’s sacked, foulmouthed MTM policy mastermind

12
Those of you who've been around the traps for a while may recall the name of Stephen Ellis, a former advisor to Malcolm Turnbull

Watch: Turnbull implies he complained to ABC about “failed” NBN coverage

79
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull appears to have implied that he made the same complaint to ABC management that he has previously made in public before the 2013 Federal Election, stating that the broadcaster had "failed" to provide balanced coverage of the competing National Broadband Network policies.

Defying the Senate: NBN Co refuses to disclose brand new copper needs past 1800km

76
The NBN company has flatly refused to say how much brand new copper it need beyond its existing reserves of 1800km to make its Fibre to the Node broadband rollout model function correctly, in response to a question by one of the most powerful Senators overseeing its operations.

“Political indecision” leaving Australia a broadband backwater: ex-NBN CTO

158
The NBN company's first chief technology officer this week said that the protracted disagreement between Australia's two major political parties on how to best upgrade broadband networks was leaving Australia languishing in global broadband rankings, despite several obvious ways forward.

Govt releases assurance policy for migration to NBN

9
The government has released a Migration Assurance Policy (MAP) that sets out its plans to limit disruption during the switch-over to the National Broadband Network.

Political “untruths” poisoning the NBN, says Budde

107
Subjective political "untruths" have subverted the debate over the National Broadband Network policy, veteran telecommunications analyst Paul Budde said late last week, with "factual technical information" becoming polluted by false rationality.

Now Jason Clare writes to ABC over Nick Ross ‘gag’

24
Shadow Communications Minister Jason Clare has stated that he is "very concerned" about claims that the ABC gagged its former technology editor from reporting on the NBN, and has joined his Victorian counterpart Philip Dalidakis in demanding answers from ABC managing director Mark.

Vic IT Minister requests inquiry into “grave allegations” of ABC NBN gag

23
Victoria's Innovation Minister has written to the ABC's Managing Director requesting a meeting and internal investigation regarding what he described as "grave allegations" that the broadcaster had gagged its former technology editor Nick Ross from reporting on the National Broadband Network.

Telstra not forced to deploy brand new copper, says Fifield

53
The office of Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has issued a statement denying that regulatory decisions by the Government were forcing Telstra to install brand new copper in new greenfields estates, adding that it was up to Telstra to decide what technology it wanted to install.

Basslink cable repairs ‘on schedule’ for March repair

2
Basslink has said repairs to the failed cable linking to Tasmania and Victoria are on schedule and the faulty section has been located. However, the fault will likely take until mid-March to fix, according to the firm's timeline.

Morrow hints at long-term FTTP upgrade for MTM NBN

175
The chief executive of the NBN company has stated in a radio interview that the National Broadband Network will eventually go to "the same place" as Labor's original Fibre to the Premises model through continual upgrades to the network over time, in a move which appears to offer long-term hope for those displeased by the Government's controversial multi-technology model.

NBN satellite engineer wins Australia Day honours

4
One of the key engineers who helped guide the NBN company's first satellite into orders has been awarded Australia Day Honours.

NBN critic and historic Liberal supporter Henry Ergas wins Australia Day honours

26
One of the most strident critics of Labor's original National Broadband Network policy and open Liberal Party supporter Henry Ergas has received one of the highest honours in this year's Australia Day awards, and will now become an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).

Govt censors NBN Co’s FTTP projection data

115
The Federal Government has taken steps to stop the public getting access to a key data set which details why the NBN company believes a full-Fibre to the Premises rollout would cost up to $38 billion more and take eight years longer to finalise than its currrent controversial Multi-Technology Mix plan.

Labor, Greens slam Turnbull hypocrisy: PM pumps innovation but ‘trashes’ NBN

158
Labor and Greens politicians have this week labelled Malcolm Turnbull a hypocrite for pushing Australia's innovation credentials in the United States while simultaneously having "trashed" the National Broadband Network, as debate grows about the infrastructure's significant to the Prime Minister's innovation vision.

iiNet offers 50% discount on terabyte HFC cable plans

5
iiNet is offering a 50 percent discount for a limited period on HFC cable plans in some parts of Victoria where it owns its own infrastructure.

Telstra says Govt policy forcing it to deploy brand new copper instead of fibre

68
The nation's largest telco Telstra today said regulatory decisions made by the Government were forcing it to install brand new copper in new greenfields estates, rather than the next-generation fibre-optic cables which many Australians would expect in new developments.

Telstra may be deploying brand new greenfields copper

73
The Department of Communications has published statistics which appear to show that incumbent telco Telstra has deployed brand new copper to hundreds of new development premises around Australia, as a direct result of the Turnbull Government's new greenfields NBN policy.

How to fix NBN Fixed Wireless: Install a roof antenna extension

34
Having trouble with your NBN Fixed Wireless connection? The solution may be simple: Install a 'mast' on the roof of your premises that will boost your antenna higher than nearby trees. It sounds stupid, but it's done the trick for some -- and it may fix your connection too.

Telecoms industry raises concerns over latest TSSR draft

2
A coalition of industry groups has raised concerns over new national security legislation for the telco sector – the draft Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015.

Exetel to compensate heavy downloaders over ‘unfair’ contracts

7
Internet service provider Exetel is to compensate consumers over residential broadband contracts that were deemed "unfair" by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

ACMA seeks consumer representatives for advisory forum

3
The Australian Communications and Media Authority is seeking to appoint up to seven consumer representatives to the Consumer Consultative Forum.

61 agencies apply for metadata access

13
61 separate departments and agencies around Australia have petitioned the Attorney-General's Department to gain unwarranted access to Australians' metadata under the Government's Data Retention scheme, including minor organisations such as Bankstown City Council and the National Measurement Institute.

Whinge: Telstra wants to stop NBN Co helping smaller ISPs at all

42
The nation's biggest telco Telstra has told the Federal Government that the NBN company must not be allowed to assist smaller ISPs to better compete for customers on the National Broadband Network, despite the fact that Telstra itself already has a 50 percent NBN market share.

Choice calls for help to defeat Netflix geo-blockade

16
Following Netflix's announcement that it will prevent users accessing its international content via location-masking tools, consumer advocacy group Choice is calling on Australian Internet users to help others find ways around the blockade.

‘Appalling treatment’: Vic IT minister to take Ross’s cause to ABC MD

57
Victoria's Innovation Minister has described the ABC's treatment of its former technology editor Nick Ross as "appalling" and has expressed a desire to meet with the journalist and take his case directly to the managing director of the broadcaster.

Copper rapidly losing ground to fibre in global broadband figures

20
IT market intelligence provider Point Topic has released new figures revealing that the numbers of people using fixed broadband globally climbed in the third quarter of 2015, with the numbers using copper-based technologies to connect taking a sharp downturn and fibre rapidly on the way up.

ABC tech editor claims broadcaster “gagged” his NBN coverage

88
The ABC's outgoing technology editor today claimed he had been "gagged" by the broadcaster from publishing further articles about the National Broadband Network, after several initial articles heavily criticised the Coalition's Multi-Technology Mix model.

Telstra says it has 50 percent NBN market share, wants more

41
Telstra this week said it had already taken a 50 percent market share of National Broadband Network customers and wanted to push to achieve even more, in news set to call into question controversial NBN decisions made by the Government and the ACCC meant to advance broadband competition.

NBN kicks off FTTN roll out in new areas of Tasmania

53
The NBN has commenced construction work in Tasmania that will use fibre to the node (FTTN) technology to connect several new communities.

Fixed Wireless NBN turns out worse than ADSL for some

104
It was supposed to be next-generation infrastructure which would make their old broadband connection obsolete. But for some connected to the NBN company's Fixed Wireless infrastructure, the performance of the platform is leading them to question whether their old ADSL broadband was actually a better option.

NBN Co rejects FOI request for basic FTTN modem details

94
The NBN company has flatly rejected a seemingly innocuous Freedom of Information request which sought to establish the specifications which Australians would need to meet in order to connect their end user hardware to its Fibre to the Node and Basement networks.

NBN rejects analysis: FTTP rollout to take “significantly longer”

55
The NBN company has called into question the validity of a detailed value analysis by a Monash University researcher, stating that a full Fibre to the Premises rollout would take significantly longer to achieve in Australia than its current Multi-Technology Mix model.

NBN FTTN kills off ADSL for metro customer, to be replaced with satellite

187
The NBN company has confirmed plans to terminate the ADSL connection of a customer living in metropolitan Adelaide and replace it with a high-latency satellite connection, due to the installation of Fibre to the Node services to neighbours in the same street.

Detailed analysis of NBN Co’s finances shows FTTP better value than FTTN

149
A researcher from Monash University has published a detailed analysis of the NBN company's costs which appears to show that Labor's technically superior Fibre to the Premises model represents better financial value than the Coalition's preferred Fibre to the Node technology only a scant few years after FTTP was deployed.

NBN goes to market for FTTdp hardware

37
The NBN company has gone to market to purchase 'Fibre to the Distribution Point' (FTTdp) hardware that will allow it to deploy fibre further out into its growing Fibre to the Node network, as speculation increases that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will formalise a widespread FTTdp rollout ahead of this year's Federal Election.

amaysim buys fellow mobile telco Vaya

2
Mobile telco amaysim this morning announced it had bought privately owned Vaya for $70 million, in a move that will add some 140,000 subscribers to amaysim's customer database and further consolidate the already tight mobile market.

Comcast runs successful real-world test of gigabit HFC

18
In what it is calling a "world first", Comcast has switched on gigabit hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) broadband at a home in the US.

Telstra meets CWU over alleged issues with redundancy procedures

0
Telstra has met with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) over claimed procedural discrepancies as the telco seeks to reduce staff numbers via voluntary redundancies.

NBN Co to pay Telstra to fix its own copper network

59
The NBN company today announced it had signed or was working on deals with Telstra and Optus that would see the pair continue to fix, maintain and operate the legacy copper and HFC cable networks which they have already sold to the NBN company.

Spectrum re-farming in NSW, ACT boosts Vodafone 4G coverage

0
Vodafone has completed re-farming the low-frequency 850MHz mobile spectrum in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory to bring about stronger 4G coverage and extra capacity.

Optus pays $51k fine over false claims broadband speeds are ‘NBN-like’

14
Optus has paid fines of $51,000 for making false claims about its broadband services, saying they were "NBN-like" in their speeds.

FTTN rollout hits 50,000 homes in record time

158
The NBN company today revealed its Fibre to the Node infrastructure was ready to be used at some 50,000 homes, a milestone that it reached just 51 days after formally launching the infrastructure in September.

NBN rejects claims it puts medical alarm services at risk

14
The National Broadband Network has rejected as "inaccurate" claims that its next-generation infrastructure rollout is placing medical alarm services at risk.

Blackspot programme reopens to further boost mobile coverage

1
A second round of the Mobile Black Spot Programme (MBSP) has opened to help boost the consistency of mobile coverage across Australia.

Google Fiber considers expansion to Chicago and Los Angeles

3
Google Fiber may soon come to Chicago and Los Angeles, following a call from the tech and search giant for the two cities to explore the feasibility of a rollout there.

NBN controversy mars Turnbull’s innovation launch

31
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was this morning forced to answer questions about the Coalition's controversial National Broadband Network policy, in the context that his much-hyped Innovation and Science Agenda released today barely mentions the foundational infrastructure it will rely on.

NBN offers 50Mbps/20Mbps fixed wireless product

12
The NBN company this morning announced it had launched a fixed wireless broadband service offering download speeds of 50Mbps and upload speeds of 20Mbps -- double the speeds currently available on the company's wireless platform.

Budde says he warned Turnbull about Optus HFC cable issue

60
Veteran telecommunications analyst Paul Budde late last week said he publicly warned Malcolm Turnbull that the HFC cable network which the NBN company bought from Optus for $800 million was not suitable for use as part of the National Broadband Network, but that the Prime Minister had ignored the analysis, surrounding himself instead with "yes men".

NBN revamps CVC pricing scheme

1
As you may have seen last week, the NBN company announced that it would conduct a trial of revamped pricing on its CVC product -- the structure through which the NBN company actually charges retail ISPs for downloads over its network, rather than customer connections.

Critics “mistaken”, says NBN Co: We’re not going to “scrap” Optus HFC

34
The NBN company today said those who believed it was going to "scrap" Optus' HFC cable network were "mistaken", and that leaked documents published last week showing the network was not fit for use as part of the National Broadband Network were only a "hypothetical exercise".

Fifield misleads Senate on Labor’s NBN policy history

74
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield appears to have this afternoon inadvertently misled the Senate regarding the history of the Labor Party's National Broadband Network policy, falsely alleging that the party had not considered re-using existing network infrastructure during the development of the policy.

‘We’re fixing Labor’s NBN mess,’ says Turnbull

40
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has avoided directly answering the question of whether he still stands behind the NBN company's existing cost estimates with respect to its use of HFC cable and copper technologies, instead claiming that the Coalition Government was cleaning up the NBN "mess" which he said Labor had created.

“Political hacks”: Conroy says NBN board responsible for Optus HFC disaster

18
Former Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has accused the board of the NBN company of being "incompetent political hacks" who abrogated their responsibility in allowing the purchase of unfit networks such as Optus' HFC cable infrastructure in an ill-fated attempt to ensure the Coalition's Multi-Technology Mix model could be delivered.

Telstra confirms South Brisbane NBN negotiations on ice

7
Telstra has reportedly confirmed it has stopped actively negotiating with the NBN company to sell off its fibre network in the South Brisbane exchange area, as a lack of action by both companies on the issue continues to leave customers in the area paying exorbitant prices for poorer services compared with NBN regions.

50Mbps good enough for ‘ten years’, says NBN’s Morrow

148
The chief executive of the NBN company, Bill Morrow, has stated in several comments over the past month that the 50Mbps base speeds which the company is aiming for across much of its network will be good enough "for the forseeable future" -- ten years after the NBN is initially built.

Bell Canada plans 10Gbps speeds for ‘easier to maintain’ FTTP

52
Canadian telco Bell Canada has revealed it is planning to extend its Fibre to the Premises network to some 2.2 million premises by the end of 2015, hyping the technology as being far easier to maintain than Fibre to the Node and also being capable of delivering 10Gbps speeds to customers by 2017.

TPG will raise $300 million to repay iiNet debt and support initiatives

0
Australian telco giant TPG Telecom Ltd announced yesterday it plans to raise $300 million through a placement of shares to "sophisticated and institutional" investors in Australia and certain overseas jurisdictions.

Vocus and Nextgen to build Australia-Singapore 100Gbit/s high-speed cable

7
Vocus Communications has confirmed that it has signed a non-binding agreement with Nextgen Networks to construct a high-speed Australia-Singapore submarine cable (ASC) and and is currently "engaged in due diligence on the opportunity".

NBN CEO won’t talk South Brisbane, TransACT

40
The chief executive of the NBN company has flatly refused to comment on contentious situations with relation to the company's rollout in the South Brisbane and Canberra areas, where it appears to be overbuilding existing open access high-speed broadband infrastructure.

Telstra claims ‘world first’ following 1Gbps mobile speed test

4
Mobile provider Telstra claims to have achieved a "world first" following "successful" tests of 1Gbps speed capability on its commercial mobile network.

Quigley’s right: Morrow says $15bn NBN blowout “mostly” relates to MTM

110
NBN chief executive Bill Morrow this morning broadly confirmed analysis by his predecessor Mike Quigley showing that the up to $15 billion blowout in the NBN company's costs was due to the Multi-Technology Mix imposed by Malcolm Turnbull, in a move that appears set to increase the pressure on the Government over the issue.

ACCC moves to regulate ‘superfast’ broadband networks

10
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released a draft decision proposing regulation via a Superfast Broadband Access Service (SBAS) in order to prevent local monopolies by service providers.

Quigley releases detailed evidence showing MTM NBN cost blowout

148
The former chief executive of the NBN company has released an extraordinarily detailed and highly referenced document analysing the company's costs, to back his claim that the up-to-$15 billion blowout in the cost of the NBN was due to the Multi-Technology Mix imposed by Malcolm Turnbull.

Optus targets renters with 50GB 4G wireless broadband plan

10
Australia’s second-largest telecommunications company, Optus, has announced a new 50GB 4G wireless broadband plan it says is perfect for renters or students who need to quickly set up a reliable Internet connection or those living in areas with no access to cable broadband.

NBN CTO pitches 5Gbps speeds for HFC cable modems

75
The chief technology officer of the NBN company yesterday said new modems launched by the company's equipment supplier ARRIS will allow theoretical top speeds of 5Gbps down and 2Gbps up, in comments which appear to run contrary to ongoing claims by the company that Australians are not interested in gigabit NBN speeds.

Turnbull’s NBN blowout caused by MTM, says Quigley

130
Former NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley has stated that the up to $15 billion blowout in the cost of the National Broadband Network was due to the Multi-Technology Mix imposed by Malcolm Turnbull, using previous comprehensive audits of the company as evidence.

Telstra to make 480 positions redundant

2
On October 27th, Telstra informed the Communication Workers Union (CWU) about its proposed operational changes that will result in making 480 positions redundant. The majority of the affected positions are held by Telstra employees, while the rest include agency staff.

Fifield gets serious about VDSL cross-talk issue

31
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has registered a new regulation which will force Australia's broadband industry to develop its own industry code dealing with the thorny issue of cross-talk interference in the new generation of Fibre to the Node and Basement technologies.

Telstra offshores 34 Tasmanian jobs

4
Your writer can't imagine that it's easy working at Telstra. Although Australia's biggest telco has an extensive workforce with many career opportunities, it also conducts regularly redundancy rounds as part of its ongoing drive to become more efficient and cut costs.

NBN G.Fast “more hype than reality”, says Budde

192
Veteran telecommunications analyst has described the G.Fast technology which the NBN company plans to deploy into its network from 2017 as "more hype than reality", questioning whether it will actually be able to deliver on its close to a gigabit speed promises.

“Awash in cost over-runs and red ink”: Kiwis sledge Australia’s NBN

30
When it comes to broadband, it's safe to say that New Zealand is beating Australia hands down.

Telstra still upgrading the HFC network it is selling to NBN Co

6
The nation's largest telco Telstra has revealed it will invest a significant amount of capital upgrading the HFC cable network it has contracted to sell to the NBN company, in a move which raises questions about the long-term future of the network.

Fifield praises “superfast” Fibre to the Node rollout

79
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has praised the controversial Fibre to the Node technology which the NBN company is launching at the moment as part of the Coalition's Multi-Technology Mix vision, describing FTTN as "superfast", despite the fact that some residents may only get speeds of 50Mbps.

NBN Co sets 150GB cap on long-term satellite access

34
The NBN company has proposed setting a series of caps on usage of its two satellites, with entry-level plans featuring a cap of 75GB per month and higher level plans offering between 100GB and 150GB per month.

Telstra “unable” to sell South Brisbane FTTP to NBN Co

37
Negotiations appear to have broken down over the planned sale of Telstra’s Fibre to the Premises network in South Brisbane to the NBN company, with the Government stating that Telstra has been “unable” to reach an agreement for the infrastructure to become part of the National Broadband Network.

Andrew Bolt slams Turnbull for ‘fumbling’ NBN fix

60
Conservative commentator Andrew Bolt has opened fire on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over his handling of the National Broadband Network, stating Turnbull has “fumbled” the catch on the NBN and let the project blow out to twice the cost and four years behind the delivery that Turnbull promised.

TPG/iiNet shuts down TransACT’s Canberra call centre

10
TPG and its subsidiary iiNet have quietly shut down the dedicated call centre supporting ACT and Victoria-based ISP TransACT, making all of its staff redundant and shifting call volumes to other call centres around Australia.

NBN Co secretly overbuilding Telstra’s South Brisbane fibre with … more fibre

61
The NBN company is secretly overbuilding portions of the Fibre to the Premises network which the nation’s biggest telco Telstra built in the several years up to 2013, in a move that calls into question whether the Telstra FTTP infrastructure will ever become part of the National Broadband Network.

NBN Co’s G.Fast FTTB trial hits close to 1Gbps over copper

34
While your writer was whiling away his time in the Senate Environment and Communications Committee last night listening to NBN company chief executive Bill Morrow field a variety of questions from Senator Stephen Conroy, the NBN company’s media relations team was busy briefing other journalists on the company’s initial trial of the G.Fast standard which allows much higher speeds than previously thought possible to be delivered through extending Fibre to the Node closer to customers’ premises.

Switkowski worried about “heroic” effort needed to meet NBN targets

20
Some of you may recall that then-Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull was fond of using the word "heroic" with reference to the NBN company's rollout targets and revenue assumptions under the previous Labor Government, indicating that he did not believe they were realistic. With this in mind, we were surprised this week to read in the pages of the Financial Review that the NBN company's chair Ziggy Switkowski has chosen the same word to apply to the NBN's rollout plans for the next five years.

Labor should just leave the MTM NBN alone, says M2

80
It hardly comes as a surprise that the head of M2 Group, Geoff Horth, is calling for a bit of bipartisanship on the NBN from here on in.

Labor’s NBN was a “fantasy model”, says Fifield, despite FTTP progress

66
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has described the previous Labor Government’s near-universal Fibre to the Premises approach to the National Broadband Network as a “fantasy model” and “unachievable”, despite the fact that almost all of the progress on the NBN thus far has been based on that model.

Nonsensical farce: NBN massively overbuilding Canberra’s FTTN with … more FTTN

80
The NBN company’s new three-year rollout plan has revealed the company plans to overbuild TransACT’s long-established Fibre to the Node and HFC cable networks in Canberra, Mildura and Geelong with more Fibre to the Node cables, in a decision which appears to make no technical or commercial sense.

NBN HFC trial to start in November

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The NBN company has revealed it will conduct a pilot trial of HFC cable technology on the National Broadband Network starting in November this year and lasting until March 2016, in a move which appears set to finally provide some hard data around the performance of the HFC networks the company is buying from Telstra and Optus.

Vocus/M2 consider FTTB rollout to compete with NBN Co, TPG

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You may recall that several weeks ago, mid-tier telcos M2 and Vocus announced they would merge into a large company with a market capitalisation in excess of $3 billion, in a move that will further cement M2’s place as Australia’s fourth-largest broadband player and further consolidate the already minimalist Australian telecommunications industry. But what was not widely reported at the time was that the merged pair of telcos are also considering pursuing a Fibre to the Basement rollout to compete with the NBN company and TPG, which are already deploying this kind of infrastructure.

They did it

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From this day on, whenever Australian engineers are facing a tough task, they should look up into the skies and remind themselves of the power of the Australian mind. If Australian ingenuity can put such a hunk of incredibly complex communications infrastructure into orbit to serve our broadband needs, purely on the strength of some clear thinking and a lot of hard work, then we truly can do anything. And we will.

The Inside Track: The history of Vodafone’s $1bn deal with TPG, and its deep...

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Vodafone’s $1 billion deal with TPG announced this morning has been 18 months in the making and will have substantial implications for the rest of Australia’s technology sector. Delimiter goes behind the scenes of the deal, speaking to the major players and looking at the impact it will cause over the next few years.

$1bn deal: TPG to shift all mobile customers to Vodafone, build dark fibre

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As speculation increases about a possible merger, Vodafone and TPG this morning announced a $1 billion deal which will see the pair increasingly link their operations together, with TPG to shift its mobile customers to Vodafone’s mobile network and construct an extensive dark fibre network to support its partner’s mobile towers.

M2 to merge with Vocus

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Mid-tier telcos M2 and Vocus this morning announced they would merge into a large company with a market capitalisation in excess of $3 billion, in a move that will further cement M2’s place as Australia’s fourth-largest broadband player and further consolidate the already minimalist Australian telecommunications industry.

Telstra launches Voice over LTE, 600Mbps mobile hotspot

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news The nation’s largest telco Telstra this week revealed it would shortly launch 4G Voice over LTE calling over its mobile network, in a...

Rod Tucker’s right: Turnbull’s MTM model will leave Australia behind

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University of Melbourne academic Rod Tucker attracted strident criticism this week for his claim that Malcolm Turnbull’s Multi-Technology Mix approach to the National Broadband Network will result in Australia remaining an “Internet backwater”. However, the unfortunate reality is that Tucker’s comments are all too accurate.

We must determine how the $15bn NBN cost blow-out occurred

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The full resources of the Federal Parliament and other Government accountability mechanisms must be deployed to determine how a cost blowout of between $5 billion and $15 billion was allowed to occur in the National Broadband Network, and how to stop a similar situation from occurring again in future.

Turnbull has “no-one else to blame”, Labor says on NBN cost blow-outs

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The Opposition has blamed the up to $15 billion National Broadband Network funding blow-out revealed this morning on “poor decisions” and “wrong assumptions” made by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull during his stewardship of the project, as the war of words between the major parties on the issue ramps up.

NBN Co dumps FTTP plan for another half a million premises

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The National Broadband Network Company this afternoon revealed up to 550,000 less Australian premises would receive the full Fibre to the Premises rollout than had been previously been planned under the Coalition’s Multi-Technology Mix, with the project’s funding requirement also blowing out by between $5 billion and $15 billion.

NBN Co doubles coverage, user base over past year

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The NBN company has doubled the amount of premises it serves and the number of end user customers actually connected to its network over the past year, the company announced this morning, as the deployment of its broadband network around Australia continues to proceed.

NBN Co delays FTTN rollout for further testing

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The National Broadband Network company has acknowledged it is significantly delaying its rollout of Fibre to the Node technology in order to better test its own systems involved in the deployment, as debate continues to swirl around the controversial broadband rollout style.

Turnbull revises history on NBN satellite demand

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Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has accused the Australian Labor Party of underestimating how much demand the National Broadband Network would see for its satellite service, without mentioning that he personally had stated in Opposition that sufficient capacity already existed, alleging there was no need to build more.

SkyMesh offers symmetric 100/100Mbps NBN

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news SkyMesh has launched a set of broadband plans with symmetric speeds of 100/100Mbps over the National Broadband Network’s Fibre to the Premises infrastructure,...

Turnbull’s NBN hiring spree is pure election fodder

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Like the fictional Frank Underwood’s ‘America Works’ program, the massive nbn hiring spree unveiled by Malcolm Turnbull in the wee hours of this morning is pure election fodder — a beguiling program designed to demonstrate to the electorate that the reigning Government is instantly responsible for thousands of new jobs.

nbn project to hire 4,500 more staff

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nbn this morning unveiled plans to train a further 4,500 workers to join the ranks of its construction partners and the company itself, in a move which Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has hailed as a victory for a project he dubbed “The Coalition’s NBN”.

Hypocrisy? Fletcher pushs tech exports to China while TSSR bill looms

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Parliamentary Secretary Paul Fletcher has taken the extraordinary step of publicly advocating for Australian technology firms to sell products and services into the booming Chinese market, while the Federal Government that he is part of is seeking to pass legislation which may block Chinese companies from selling to Australia’s public sector.

Turnbull defends Geelong MP from FTTN critics

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Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull this morning travelled to Geelong to spruik the benefits of its looming Fibre to the Node deployment, braving the ire of local residents and Labor politicians, who are increasingly demanding local Liberal MP Sarah Henderson support the technically superior Fibre to the Premises version of the NBN instead.

Back off: Optus, TPG tell Govt on Telstra pricing

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Major telcos Optus and TPG have joined the rest of Australia’s broadband sector and sharply warned Malcolm Turnbull’s Department to stop interfering in the competition regulator’s decision to cut Telstra’s wholesale pricing by 9.6 percent.

“Extraordinary”: Telcos slam Turnbull’s Dept for backing Telstra over consumers

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A group of major Australian telcos have issued a fiery statement damning Malcolm Turnbull’s Department of Communications for its “extraordinary” attempt to support Telstra’s profitability and keep telecommunications prices from dropping.

Huawei thaws Coalition’s Chinese freeze

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Huawei appears to have become increasingly successful at collaborating with senior figures in the Coalition, as the party gradually warms up to the Chinese manufacturer’s advances.

Turnbull’s Dept says ACCC could delay NBN migrations

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A war of words has erupted between the ACCC and Malcolm Turnbull’s Department of Communications, with the department claiming a pricing decision by the regulator has the potential to delay Australians migrating to next-generational National Broadband Network infrastructure.

Hockey says Govt spending $70bn on NBN

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Treasurer Joe Hockey has stated that the Government is spending about $70 billion building its version of the National Broadband Network, in comments which appear to run contrary to existing estimates about the Government’s investment in the project.

Labor will abandon its FTTP NBN policy

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There is absolutely no doubt that the Australian Labor Party will abandon its Fibre to the Premises National Broadband Network plan and adopt the Coalition’s alternative Multi-Technology Model as official policy before the next Federal Election.

nbn meets Turnbull’s June 30 rollout targets

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Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull today confirmed nbn would meet its rollout targets for the start of the 2015/2016 financial year, although the success appeared to be based almost entirely upon the continual deployment of Labor’s previous Fibre to the Premises model, and not the Coalition’s technically inferior multi-technology alternative.

What should the ACCC’s role be in guiding infrastructure spending?

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Those of you who have been in the industry for some time may recall that the national competition regulator played a substantial role in the previous Labor Government deciding to restructure the telecommunications sector through implementing an all-fibre model for its National Broadband Network project. This week, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull made a few somewhat controversial comments about the ACCC's historical role in the situation.

Telstra gets $150m for NBN FTTN trial

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Remember how in early June, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull revealed that Telstra was working on a wide-scale trial of the Coalition’s preferred Fibre to the Node network rollout style that would encompass about a thousand nodes? Well, it looks like the pedal is about to hit the metal with the trial, with the Financial Review quoting Turnbull this week as stating that the two telcos had signed a deal which would see the trial go ahead.

How Australia got online 25 years ago

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It is a quarter-century since Australia first connected to the internet, but this technological breakthrough had a long gestation. What is now a global phenomenon was once the property of an exclusive community.

Palmer pushes for minimalist NBN policy

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The National Broadband Network Company's Strategic Review found conclusively that under almost every model, the company's network rollout would make a long-term return on investment, ultimately costing the Federal Government nothing due to the cost being reimbursed by subscriber fees paid by millions of Australians. Despite this, Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer this week referred to the cost of the NBN and how it could be brought down further.

NBN debate heats up at IEEE conference

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I don't want to get too deep into commenting on the merits of the various arguments coming from each side, but I wanted to make readers aware of a somewhat extraordinary debate which has been happening at, and on the sidelines of, the IEEE's International Conference on Communications, being held in Sydney last week.

Spirit deploys 200Mbps FTTB to Southbank

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It’s only a very limited rollout so far, but Melbourne residents might be interested to know that local telco Spirit Telecom has deployed what appears to be a Fibre to the Basement broadband rollout in the Triptych apartment facility in the Southbank area. It appears that Spirit has been able to achieve speeds of up to 200Mbps by using Fibre to the Basement and then deploying its own in-building network to extend broadband to each apartment — skipping the existing in-building copper infrastructure.

The NBN is in a regulatory hole: Time to stop digging

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As the saying goes, when you are in a hole, stop digging. The NBN is looking like a large pit, and at present, everyone is digging in deeper.

Turnbull dumps ABC spots; 7:30 dumps NBN talk

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Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has cancelled four scheduled appearances on various ABC television and radio shows over the past month, it emerged yesterday, as last night yet another ABC flagship cut short a discussion of Australia's largest ever infrastructure project, the NBN, with the portfolio minister responsible for it.

Telstra, NBN Co planning “thousand node trial”

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The National Broadband Network Company is working with Telstra on a trial of the Fibre to the Node rollout style which could see a thousand nodes connected to fibre, in a move which would deliver real-life results of the rollout style's performance across a series of diverse use cases.

NBN Co adds “build preparation” zones into map

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The National Broadband Network Company yesterday revealed it had added a new category of construction into its dynamically updated network rollout map, with the company now providing additional transparency around areas where "build preparation" activities are being undertaken ahead of the actual physical construction of its network.

‘Innocent’: Morrow defends role in PG&E disasters

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Bill Morrow has maintained he acted in good faith during his time leading Pacific Gas & Electricity, in a fraught Senate Estimates session in which the Opposition pursued the NBN Co chief executive and another NBN Co staffer, Brad Whitcomb, over a series of tragic accidents at the US utility.

NBN Co “misleading” FTTN/FTTB users, says ACCC

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The head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission this morning said NBN Co would be "misleading" consumers on its planned Fibre to the Node or Basement (FTTN/B) infrastructure if it went through with its decision to allow them to order speeds between 50Mbps and 100Mbps which their connections could not actually deliver.

NBN imports Canadian HFC cable expert as CTO

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The National Broadband Network Company has appointed a new chief technology and security officer who has extensive experience running a HFC cable network but little with other forms of network deployment, in a move which mirrors the Coalition's changed focus for the company's network rollout.

News Corp CFO to lead NBN Co’s financials

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The National Broadband Network has taken the extraordinary step of hiring one of the most senior executives of media organisation News Corp Australia to be its new chief financial officer, in a move which appears destined to bolster theories about the Coalition's close connections with the Murdoch publishing empire.

Optus revamps plans with easier data sharing

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The nations number two telco Optus has revamped its mobile phone plans, allowing customers to pay only a once-off setup fee of $5 to share data between devices with different SIM cards, launching SIM-only plans, bolstering voice and data value and setting excess data fees at $10 per gigabyte per month.

The ABC must now deal with its NBN problem

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Over the past month, the evidence has become overwhelming that the ABC is actively censoring coverage of the National Broadband Network issue in a way that runs counter to the public interest. The broadcaster must now face the issue squarely and deal with it head-on, or run the risk of losing credibility with its highly informed and vocal audience.

Huge surprise: FTTN trials already delayed

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Well, we knew it was coming. The extensive delays suffered by NBN Co during its rollout under the previous Labor administration are starting to hit the project under the Coalition as well. Last week it was revealed that NBN Co's new deal with Telstra may not be inked until the end of 2014. And later on in the week ZDNet confirmed that NBN Co's trials of the Coalition's preferred Fibre to the Node technology have also been delayed. Surprise!

iiNet to blanket Canberra with free Wi-Fi

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National broadband provider iiNet today revealed that it had been selected by the nation’s capital to build Australia’s largest free Wi-Fi network, blanketing 12 business districts across Canberra during the coming year.

NBN/Telstra deal could be six months late

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It’s extremely hard to see this as a surprise, given the fact that NBN Co’s previous delay with Telstra was extensively delayed, and given that as late as mid-January the pair had not even begun talking, but the Financial Review reported today that NBN Co’s negotiations with the nation’s largest telco Telstra over access to its copper and HFC cable networks could run up to six months late. Yup.

Scott misleads Senate about Q&A’s NBN coverage

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Mark Scott appears to have unintentionally misled the Federal Senate about the degree to which the broadcaster's Q&A program covers the National Broadband Network issue, with the ABC managing director yesterday erroneously claiming that Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull had faced "many questions" about the issue on the show.

Jason Clare a ‘coward’, claims Turnbull

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Malcolm Turnbull has taken the extraordinary step of accusing his opposite Jason Clare of not having the "courage" to question him about the National Broadband Network project in Parliament, in response to building allegations that the Communications Minister and other Coalition figures are openly lying about the project in public.

“Liar!” Rowland demands Turnbull tell NBN truth

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Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland has accused Malcolm Turnbull of being a "liar" and failing to "tell the truth", with respect to the Communications Minister's ongoing false statements about the cost of Labor's National Broadband Network policy.

Telstra still abusing monopoly powers, warns ACCC

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The nation's incumbent telco and industry-described 800 pound gorilla Telstra is still abusing its quasi-monopoly powers and not treating its wholesale broadband customers the same as its retail customers, the national competition regulator has warned, as debate continues to swirl about the telco's role in the future National Broadband Network rollout.

Tell them they’re joking: Telstra still wants to own copper or HFC

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What we're seeing here with Telstra during the negotiation process over access to the telco's networks is Telstra leveraging its position of strength over the Government to get the best possible result from the negotiations. Under Labor, the Government had Telstra up against a wall, because it fundamentally did not need Telstra's assistance to build its NBN fibre infrastructure. It had the advantage. Under the Coalition, Telstra has the advantage -- because the MTM mix approach cannot be delivered without Telstra's active assistance. And Telstra is leveraging that situation to the hilt.

Liberal MP misleads Parliament with NBN motion

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Liberal MP Ann Sudmalis has moved a motion in the House of Representatives which appears to contain demonstrably false information about Labor's National Broadband Network policy, in a controversial move which caused instant uproar on the part of Labor figures focused on the NBN policy.

Labor “surprised” by ABC’s NBN coverage

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Labor MP Ed Husic this morning told the Federal Parliament that he was "surprised" by the ABC's coverage of the National Broadband Network issue, following news that several of the broadcaster’s flagship current affairs shows have largely ignored the issue recently and that it delayed a pro-NBN article by Lateline host Emma Alberici until after the Federal Election.

ABC insists NBN coverage “adequate, appropriate”

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The ABC has issued a statement insisting its coverage of the National Broadband Network debate has been "adequate and appropriate", despite several of the broadcaster's flagship current affairs shows largely ignoring the issue and revelations that it delayed a pro-NBN article by Lateline host Emma Alberici until after the Federal Election.

Morrow must receive the dignity that Quigley never did

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Those opposed to the Coalition's rival broadband policy must not step over the line into offensiveness in their pursuit of NBN Co chief executive Bill Morrow over past failures at US utility Pacific Gas & Electric. The better path of valor would be to treat Morrow with the same level of respect and dignity that his predecessor Mike Quigley deserved, but never got.