2009-Nov-20
Friday round-up
Perth company iiNet is the first internet service provider to break cover and say it will move its customers on to the $43 billion national broadband network.
The Federal Government’s Internet filter trial was rife with controversy and as an ISP participant, Highway 1 was right in the thick of it. With the trial now over, Highway 1 general manager, Nicholas Power, spoke to ARN about the ISP’s current stance on an Internet clean feed, his 2010 predictions and the company’s opportunity for resellers.
Optus has made the surprise announcement that it is upgrading its HFC networks to as much as 100Mbps on the same day Telstra unveiled its own 100Mbps upgrades in Melbourne. Telstra’s service will be available to customers from December 1, with nearly 1 million homes able to access the 100Mbps downloads with a 2Mbps upstream connection.
Intentional or not, the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD) appears to have subtly thrown its weight behind shadow communications minister, senator Nick Minchin's calls for the Federal Government to do a cost-benefit analysis of its National Broadband Network (NBN).
Optus will trial Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile technology from next year. Let's hope it's better than their current 3G network.
2009-Nov-19
Thursday round-up
The legal arguments in the iiNet-AFACT case being heard in the Federal Court in Sydney echo those that saw the creation recent 'internet rights' reforms in the European Union – and both sides have been watching these developments with interest.
ISP iiNet would have to break the law to verify allegations of copyright infringement raised in notices from the film industry, the Federal Court heard today.
Communications Alliance has released a paper proposing a definition for wholesale ethernet services to be provided by the National Broadband Network and other broadband infrastructures.
Attempts by AFACT investigators to incriminate iiNet of copyright infringement do not accurately reflect consumers and are therefore flawed, the ISP’s barrister, Richard Cobden SC, claimed in his closing address.
Telstra has completed the 100Mbit upgrade to their Melbourne cable network and are next planning to get 30Mbit speeds into the rest of the country; but first they'll need to dispel those endless NBN comparisons.
ISP iiNet should not have to accept the film industry’s “outsourcing” of rights management or deal with the fallout from passing on infringement notices, the Federal Court heard today.
ISP iiNet was justified in sending the film industry’s copyright notices to Western Australian Police because it was “strongly arguable” the notices were evidence of copyright crimes committed by investigators, the Federal Court heard today.
We spend an increasing amount of our lives online where traditional privacy protections fail to cover us. Now governments are getting set to exploit that, writes Mark Newton.
Internet service provider (ISP) iiNet continued to draw on a 2002 copyright case between Channel 9 and Channel 10 over segments broadcast on The Panel as part of its case against the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT).
One million Melbourne homes will have access to super-fast broadband after the completion of upgrades to Telstra's cable broadband network, the company said today.
Telstra has completed an upgrade of its hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) cable network to the DOCSIS 3.0 specification, to allow download speeds of 100mbps and uploads of 2mbps.
Forests have been felled and new server rooms built to carry the torrent of words written about broadband Internet access in Australia. Some of the country’s most brilliant technical, business and social minds have joined what has become at times little more than a cacophony of claims, counter-claims and lies.
Optus will be the first telco in the nation to trial a new mobile broadband technology that transmits data 20 times faster than current 3G systems.
The chief executive of telecommunications company AAPT, Paul Broad, has attacked the federal government's plan for a $43 billion national broadband network, calling it a "political ploy" to break up Telstra.
2009-Nov-18
Wednesday round-up
Telstra has told the press it will tomorrow announce an upgrade to its cable broadband network and unveil a "new high definition set-top box".
Optus will begin trials of long term evolution or '4G' mobile technology in the first half of next year as part of a coordinated regional test by its parent SingTel.
Optus has stolen a march on Telstra - the long time Australian leader in cellular telephony - with the announcement of plans for the first carrier trials of the next iteration of cellular technology in Australia, Long Term Evolution (LTE) which promises greatly increased broadband data bandwidths (with additional spectrum).
ISP Exetel has changed some of its subscriber's plans from a fixed off-peak download limit to a limit based on an average that users can check every day.
SP Telemedia may introduce unlimited download quotas if its proposed $374 million takeover of Pipe Networks goes ahead, in a move that could prompt other telcos to introduce similar plans of their own.
2009-Nov-17
Tuesday round-up
Concerns have been raised that the cost of connecting new houses to the National Broadband Network will deter developers and drive first home buyers out of the market.
The Government says it will comply with a Senate motion seeking information on the circumstances in which senior Queensland Labor staffer Mike Kaiser was hired by the NBN Company.
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has pulled the handbrake on the Federal Government's Telecommunications Interception Bill, demanding more clarity for network operators and greater privacy provisions for citizens.
The Australian Greens have issued a dissenting report on amendments to the Telecommunications Interception Act, objecting to increased powers given to authorities to intercept internet messages for the purpose of protecting critical computer network infrastructure.
Telstra chief executive David Thodey today said that realism was needed on how many people would take up high speed services offered by the National Broadband Network (NBN) given that only 5 per cent of the telco's home customers had taken up its fast ADSL2+ service.
Cover the windows, stay indoors and bunker down — the war on file sharing has reached Australian shores. Copyright owners have a fair claim to their content, but is it fair to saddle internet service providers (ISPs) with the responsibility of policing their users? And just as file sharers are stealing copyrighted content, should copyright enforcers be able to steal our privacy?
With one of the largest DSLAM footprints nationally, a ballooning share price and plans for an extensive network of domestic and international backhaul infrastructure, SP Telemedia is emerging as one of the heavyweights in the broadband sector.
An Australian-made "bandwidth meter' in a box will be used by the federal government to ensure remote and regional internet users are not being ripped off.
The Federal Government commissioned report into the viability of mandatory ISP-level filtering may never see the light of day according to telecommunications analyst, Paul Budde.
2009-Nov-16
Monday round-up
TPG Soul executive chairman David Teoh has moved to sooth industry concerns about his planned $373m takeover of Pipe Networks. Following the industry’s mixed response to the shock takeover announcement last week, Teoh told CommsDay that Pipe would continue to be its own entity – and that Pipe’s wholesale customers had nothing to fear.
The Tasmanian Government has put out a call to the information and communications technology industry for suggestions on how to best use the National Broadband Network and Digital Education Revolution for the students of the state.
Shadow broadband Minister, Senator Nick Minchin, has lashed out at the Government’s recent NBNco appointments, claiming the organisation is a “dumping ground” for Labor supporters and ex-party staffers.
Telstra will begin a live trial of its new digital set-top "T-box" on Thursday, ahead of its release next year.
2009-Nov-15
Sunday round-up
Melbourne has been selected as the home for the technology team building the national broadband network.
Optus chief Paul O'Sullivan has urged Federal Parliament to pass without delay telecommunications reform legislation scheduled to be debated in the Senate over the next two weeks, saying the changes will unleash a new wave of competition in the sector.
The head of Optus, Australia's second biggest telecommunications provider, says the government's national broadband network (NBN) will be commercially viable and his company will be investing in it.
Thousands of buyers of new homes across Tasmania could be slugged up to $5000 extra from July next year.
Tassie NBN stage 2 announced
2009-Oct-21, 1:00 pm
The Tasmanian and Federal governments have jointly announced the locations for stage two of the NBN rollout.
"Seven new regional, urban and outer urban locations across Tasmania will receive superfast optical fibre broadband connections with speeds of 100 megabits per second under Stage 2 of the National Broadband Network rollout in Tasmania", said the announcement.
The locations are Sorell, Deloraine, George Town, St Helens, Triabunna, Kingston Beach and South Hobart.
"Our approach to this is that we are building this NBN in Tasmania from the outside in", said Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett. "We are starting in regional and outer suburban communities – to provide support for those communities which currently have the least telecommunications infrastructure."
To achieve connectivity in these locations, new optical fibre backbones will be built on the "East Coast, to Kingston and to the new industrial hub being developed at Westbury."
There was no detail on time frames or the number of premises that will be connected in stage two.
The government confirmed that the stage one rollout would begin to see live services in "mid 2010", and that the overall Tasmanian rollout would complete in 2014.
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