2012-Jan-27
Friday round-up
The Federal Opposition is set to develop an alternative to the government's cybersafety policy, today announcing the formation of a taskforce of backbenchers to spearhead the issue, led by Paul Fletcher MP.
National broadband provider TPG has broken what has appeared to be a long-term policy of not criticising the nation’s largest telco Telstra over its supply terms to rivals, slamming the big T’s wholesale approach in a new submission filed early this year with the competition regulator.
2012-Jan-25
Wednesday round-up
Internode has begun offering terabyte data quotas to residents in supported new housing estates for the first time in the latest of several changes bringing its greenfield prices in line with National Broadband Network offerings.
Senator Stephen Conroy's undertaking on the pricing of wireless spectrum renewals seems to offer a very favourable deal to Vividwireless. What's going on?
Vodafone Australia should consider ditching its infrastructure business and instead focus on being a Telstra or Optus reseller, according to one of the country's leading telco analysts.
The nation’s largest telco Telstra has confirmed it will not address several of the largest complaints by other ISPs about the way it is handling its new fibre rollout in the South Brisbane exchange area, despite signing a new accord regarding the region with Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.
You have to question the motives of a monopolist when it suddenly slashes prices by almost half.
The US has introduced formal and binding net neutrality regulations, so where does Australia stand, and what's it all about anyway?
2012-Jan-24
Tuesday round-up
The Competitive Carriers' Coalition (CCC) has come out swinging against the National Broadband Network (NBN) law exemptions granted to select Telstra fibre networks by the Government.
A fault in Cisco switching equipment on Dodo's core network overnight has been blamed for intermittent and downed connections for thousands of users overnight.
Telstra's upgrades to street cabinets will drive some frustrated customers back from mobile broadband to fixed-line internet services, according to the Commonwealth Bank.
It is hard to know what was more surprising for the average online file-sharer - that sleepy New Zealand was home to the likes of Kim Dotcom, the corpulent magnate behind the Megaupload website; or that the FBI had hunted him halfway around the world and arrested him in the panic room of his $30 million mansion.
TPG has issued a scathing review of Telstra’s revised structural separation undertaking (SSU).
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has warned that a secretive proposal — known as ‘data retention’ — by the Attorney-General’s Department to force internet service providers to store a wealth of information pertaining to Australians’ emails and telephone calls is still an issue, with the public needing to remain vigilant on how the Government handles Internet surveillance.
Leading Australian online movie rental and streaming company Quickflix has announced a content licensing agreement with top US television company, Home Box Office, Inc (HBO). However, new shows won’t hit Quickflix’s archive until 12 to 18 months after they first show in the US.
Telstra has managed to avoid having Australia’s competition regulator set the prices of its fibre-to-the-premises networks, with minister Senator Stephen Conroy announcing a regulatory exemption for the carrier’s South Brisbane fibre network.
Truth be told, I'd really like a panda. And I want Julia Gillard to buy it for me. Not personally, of course. But her government could certainly afford it. Think I'm being foolish? In the wake of several recent publications proving many people still don't understand what the government is or should be doing with the NBN — I'd say my panda inquiry is no more ridiculous than the other, more serious proposals being floated about.
With Megaupload now defunct and shut down by U.S. authorities, more file-sharing sites, including FileSonic and now FileServe, are shutting down their services to limit potential fallout.
2012-Jan-23
Monday round-up
Telstra has cut a deal with the Federal Government that will see 118 of its Velocity fibre-to-the-premise communities opened to retail competition for the first time.
National broadband company iiNet revealed late last week that it had installed a Wi-Fi service throughout the Perth central business district that would let any customer of its growing family of brands access free Internet in the area.
Telstra’s pending South Brisbane fibre network will have to offer open access wholesale services and be subjected to ACCC scrutiny.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has granted Telstra exemptions from open wholesale-access laws governing fibre networks for the telco's South Brisbane and Velocity greenfields networks.
Can you imagine living in Wagga with no access to internet? Nearly six months ago Lennard Wilson moved into his new home in Glenfield, and has been frustrated at every attempt to have broadband internet in his house.
The Victorian Government has urged the Federal Government to roll out the National Broadband Network (NBN) more quickly to regional Victoria.
Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has attacked the Federal Government, which his party is in broad partnership with to form Government, for holding what he said were “offensive” secret meetings with the content and ISP industries on the issue of illicit Internet file-sharing.
The operation to arrest the founder of the online file-sharing service Megaupload and close down the website has left users worldwide in limbo and prompted warnings that consumers should not rely on "cloud" storage for their data.
Last week’s arrest of MegaUpload staff in New Zealand and the possibility of their extradition to the United States raises significant questions for users of cloud services the world over.
Telstra has bought one of four fibre pairs on a new subsea cable system connecting Perth and Singapore, partly to gain some control over transmission technology upgrades on the route.
2012-Jan-22
Sunday round-up
Cancer patients and the elderly will be able to see their specialist or GP with the click of a mouse, even if they are hundreds of kilometres away.
