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.
Telstra has warned using National Broadband Network funding to provide alternatives to its own rural infrastructure may lead to increased costs and other problems.
The Western Australian Government has named a backhaul telecommunications link between Perth and Geraldton as its top priority in negotiations with the Federal Government on the $43 billion National Broadband Network.
Over the coming weeks Nextgen boss Phil Sykes will be touting a new pricing regime for regional backhaul, which the telecoms industry hopes will undercut Telstra's pricing.
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.
The potential acquisition of Pipe Networks by SP Telemedia has raised the question about whether vertically integrated backhaul providers will mean higher wholesale prices for ISP customers.
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?
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.
Earlier this week (Tuesday 3 March) a number of telecommunications industry heavyweights fronted up to the Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network.
The South Australian government hopes to build a fibre broadband network in the regional centre of Mount Gambier.
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.
The Rudd Government's decision to build its own broadband network significantly cranks up the threat to Telstra's dominance in the telecommunications sector.
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.
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