An overlap between the OPEL network and existing wireless networks need not be a bad thing, according to analyst house Market Clarity.
The Northern Territory government has bitterly complained about a lack of competition in the telecommunications market that it claims has led to it paying Telstra three to five times more for some communications services than the rest of the nation.
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.
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.
Much has been made of Telstra's decision to finally stop holding Australia to ransom, and to actually turn on the ADSL2+ equipment it has installed in what is apparently over 900 of its exchanges around the country.
Australian telecoms is increasingly resembling the US during Prohibition, with Telstra as Al Capone and the ACCC as Eliot Ness.
It has been a busy year in telecoms, whether because of the increasingly bitter relationship between Telstra and the government; the awarding of the contentious but (finally) progressive broadband contract to OPEL; the pivotal election that led to a change of government; or the move of 3G mobile technology into the mainstream at last.
CES 2009: Microsoft previews Windows 7
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer opens the show with a look at the f… Watch it now
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Bootstrappr
From boom to bust, from unconference to BarCamp and beyond, Renai LeMay tracks the fortunes of Australia's startup community.
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