2012-Feb-8
Wednesday round-up
NBN Co has signed a $620 million deal with US communications giant Loral to develop two Ka-band satellites for the satellite-broadband component of the of the National Broadband Network (NBN) roll-out.
The Federal Opposition has again incorrectly alleged that it could save money by cutting the Labor Federal Government’s multi-billion dollar National Broadband Network project, despite financial projections which show the project is likely to make the Government billions.
The Federal Government will introduce a three-year trial of virtual English classes via the National Broadband Network (NBN) to new migrants in regional and rural Australia.
The Communications Alliance has submitted its revised telecommunications consumer protection code (TCP code) to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), but the code has been rejected by a peak consumer action body.
Telstra has apologised for a large scale mobile phone failure across Tasmania's North yesterday.
A German economic consultancy has recommended consumers that travel between Australia and New Zealand be allowed to choose any mobile phone carrier they want while roaming in either country, without having to swap out SIM cards.
2012-Feb-7
Tuesday round-up
In this post, Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull responds to the claim that broadband pricing will not increase under Labor’s National Broadband Network plan.
Communications Alliance CEO John Stanton has warned small telcos could exit the market due to the cost of implementing consumer protection reforms currently before the communications regulator.
The opposition is demanding federal Finance Minister Penny Wong take a more hands-on role to ensure the national broadband network (NBN) does not drain the public purse.
Internet service provider Exetel has halved the number of residential plans it will offer users in National Broadband Network mainland trial sites and cut prices by between $5 and $30 a month.
Telstra is warning customers across northern Tasmania its mobile services are patchy, with some services completely down.
A phishing scam has led to a number of compromised BigPond email accounts being used to transmit spam, which has caused some email addresses to be blacklisted, Telstra has confirmed.
More than 300,000 Australian households have changed channels to subscription IPTV which could pose challenges for operators such as Foxtel, according to a new study by analyst firm, Telsyte.
Leading Australian online movie rental company Quickflix announced yesterday that US television giant Home Box Office (HBO) would invest $10 million for a strategic stake in the company.
2012-Feb-6
Monday round-up
Telstra is investigating a mail delivery issue that has blocked emails to hundreds of its home internet customers since the weekend.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has demanded that the Coalition disclose some basic details of its rival broadband policy, noting that Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has not substantially outlined the policy further in public since a landmark speech on the issue in the middle of 2011.
At the stroke of a pen, a federal court judge has potentially wiped many billions of dollars off the value of copyright holders’ balance sheets around the world and reallocated some of this to sports fans, digital media startups and telcos.
2012-Feb-3
Friday round-up
Telstra has rejected claims by its competitors that it is milking universal service obligation (USO) payments for extra cash.
In several radio interviews this week, Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull stated that the National Broadband Network project would cause consumer broadband prices to rise higher than those currently on the market. However, unfortunately this statement was factually incorrect.
Government business enterprises have long been able to escape freedom of information (FoI) requests on the basis of commercial sensitivity and confidentiality arrangements.
The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has revealed exit clauses in a 20-year, $2 billion contract with Telstra that can be enacted if the incumbent's copper network is abandoned faster than expected.
A group of US-based public interest and intellectual property experts has revealed it will seek a radical reframing of the secretive Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) at negotiations in Melbourne next month.
In a new blog entry entitled “What can we learn from the UK?”, Liberal MP Paul Fletcher has lambasted the broadband policies of the Gillard Government, unfavourable contrasting them with the approach of the Cameron Government in the UK.
2012-Feb-2
Thursday round-up
In the long-running football broadcasting rights opera, the fat lady has merely cleared her throat.
Exetel chief executive, John Linton, has passed away overnight after suffering a stroke.
John Linton, the maverick chief executive of Internet service provider Exetel, has tragically passed away, according to several public notices published by Exetel staff this morning.
An appeal of the Optus TV-recording case against the football codes and Telstra is a certainty, as it becomes the first major test of the 2006 amendments to the Copyright Act.
Twisted Wire looks at the AFL and NRL loss in court over how Optus stores TV content in the cloud. There's also the battle to declare Telstra's wholesale DSL. We know who will lose that one too.
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has warned the National Broadband Network Company must not not dodge Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) oversight, echoing concerns by a number of the company’s ISP customers early this year.
Fish, barrel; fox, henhouse; Abbott, NBN. Mocking Tony Abbott's ignorance of telecoms has become so easy and habitual that his latest pronouncements would normally hardly merit a response.
NBN Co has refused to reveal the price paid by a Tasmanian resident to receive a fibre connection outside of the planned footprint because the figure could unleash a chain of events that brings the network to a grinding halt.
