The Federal Government and NBN Co ditched plans to establish a joint venture operation with Tasmanian state-owned utility, Aurora Energy, because it was delaying the construction of the state's fibre network.
Victoria has earmarked $20 million for building new fibre optic links to rural areas in order to improve regional backhaul and network connectivity
The long-awaited Basslink fibre cable, which will end Telstra's monopoly over the Bass Strait between Tasmania and the mainland, will start carrying customer traffic by 30 June, the cable's operator said today.
NBN Tasmania has awarded Corning Cable Systems its second deal to supply the state's fibre optic cable to connect around 5000 homes by mid-2010 under the $38 million initial phase of the project.
Internet service providers (ISP), mobile telcos, and bidders for the $250 million regional backhaul build have welcomed the launch of the initiative, but questions remain over whether the plan will deliver competition.
Faced with a renewed threat in newly-appointed Tony Abbott and unknown-quantity communications portfolio ankle-biter Tony Smith, Stephen Conroy responded this week in the way any politician would: he gave lots, and lots, and lots of speeches.
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.
Why the National Broadband Network should be free, and other stories from another day of the Senate Select Committee on the Rudd Government's telco infrastructure baby.
In today's Twisted Wire, Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett explains his vision for a broadband enabled Tasmania, that will "leapfrog every other nation on earth".
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?
If the world's homes are to enjoy the same high speed connectivity as its offices, the current thinking goes, then fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) will soon become necessary. However, not all Internet economies were created equal.
The South Australian government hopes to build a fibre broadband network in the regional centre of Mount Gambier.
The Rudd Government's decision to build its own broadband network significantly cranks up the threat to Telstra's dominance in the telecommunications sector.
Yes, says iiNet, and the telco giant's price chains are keeping smaller players from venturing down the rural broadband route.
Reading Telstra's submission to the government on NBN regulation is a bit like reading a combination of Dicken's David Copperfield, specifically the simpering character known as Uriah Heep, and Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.
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