Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is shortly expected to announce during a trip to Darwin what areas of regional Australia will be targeted by the backhaul aspect of the government's National Broadband Network plans.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has called for tenders to build the $250 million backhaul telecommunications links, which target six regional centres in all states and territories except Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.
Part of the government's National Broadband Network plan, the $250 million injection to create new backhaul links in regional areas, could start construction by September this year.
The government has committed to spending $53.2 million on its implementation study for the National Broadband Network.
Telstra has warned using National Broadband Network funding to provide alternatives to its own rural infrastructure may lead to increased costs and other problems.
Rural areas will be welcoming the government's decision to put its money where its politicising is, funnelling $250m into a regional fibre upgrade to six rural centres. Remedying over a decade of near-neglect at the hands of telecoms privatisation, the investment could be the firmest step yet for Labor's NBN dream but with inevitable political questions and a looming election, Rudd and Conroy need to deliver, and quickly, to preserve the NBN's credibility.
Earlier this week (Tuesday 3 March) a number of telecommunications industry heavyweights fronted up to the Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network.
Will the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee's report linger as simply yet another ineffectual review guiding limp and ineffectual efforts to improve regional services?
May fever has hit New Zealand's mobile carriers. Telecom New Zealand and Vodafone both have big initiatives under way ... and is that three? NZ Communications (formerly Econet) kicks off a third competitive network to give the big guns nightmares.
The government dumped its well-intentioned bidders and spent the day awash in adulation from an industry that suddenly felt all its Christmases had come at once. But isn't this the same government that, two weeks ago, was warning it had to ditch key election promises for lack of funding?
The proposed buyout of Pipe Networks by SP Telemedia is an absolute travesty for Australia's telecommunications industry and will be overwhelmingly negative for customers, Pipe Networks staff, shareholders and the industry as a whole.
Yes, says iiNet, and the telco giant's price chains are keeping smaller players from venturing down the rural broadband route.
Mike Quigley and Doug Campbell's long-standing relationships with Telstra and few of its rivals will lead Australia's telecommunications industry to question privately whether Telstra will receive a phenomenal level of access to the NBN decision-making processes.
2008 was a cracker year for telco in Australia, with so many huge events happening that those at the beginning of the year have been drowned by the importance of those at the end.
In his role as Telstra's chief executive, Sol Trujillo is the most talked about and controversial telecommunications executive in Australia. ZDNet.com.au sister site CNET News.com sat down with Trujillo during a recent trip to the US to quiz him about wireless and handsets.
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