The telecommunications industry is abuzz with speculation that the Tasmanian Government is planning to commence building its part of the National Broadband Network in April 2010 to coincide with the state election, with supplier tender documents to be issued this week.
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.
Facing a possible ban on bidding for 4G wireless spectrum, Telstra chief David Thodey today warned the government to steer clear of its backhaul networks its last front for infrastructure competition.
The coalition will oppose the federal government's telecommunications reforms, introduced as part of its plan to build the $43 billion national broadband network (NBN).
As Telstra CEO David Thodey and CFO John Stanhope fronted a mob of concerned investors at the company's Investor Day this week, it became clear just how far removed the Telstra of today is compared to the Telstra of a year ago.
As Rudd and Conroy railroad the NBN into reality, the Liberals are trying to inject some due process into the whole thing by holding Labor accountable for its decisions. However, with the future of Australian telecoms on the line and no real viable alternative, is it just a bit late for accountability?
For no particular reason that I can discern, a 1979 Kenny Rogers song popped into my head as I was considering the ever more complex morass that is the national broadband network tender which Senator Stephen Conroy defended in his CeBIT keynote speech.
Say what you will about Senator Stephen Conroy, but he is clearly not a man afraid of confrontation. Well, he'd better not be, because by killing off the OPEL WiMax project he has just set himself up for a battle with Telstra of Biblical proportions or a big meal of crow washed down with a $4.7 billion gift to SingTel Optus.
Might I suggest that the government, which so far has handled the issue with kid gloves, take a chance for once and reach over and just pull the digital TV plug?
Boss of internet service provider Exetel, John Linton, says the National Broadband Network should be handed to the only company that can build it Telstra and he's not impressed by NBN Co chief Mike Quigley.
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.
Former Optus executive Paul Fletcher's book "Wired Brown Land? Telstra's Battle for Broadband" details the history of broadband communication in our nation and highlights why it is impossible that Telstra will give up in its fight for dominance, despite the wounds it has recently taken.
New Zealand's new Communications Minister Stephen Joyce has the gargantuan task of dragging New Zealand into the next broadband age, a labour which will take 10 years.
On the same day that the bids for the national broadband network bids were handed into the government, Australia, Baz Luhrman's vain masterpiece was released to the plebs.
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The long-awaited separation of Telstra
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