British Telecom on Tueday in the UK announced plans to roll out fibre connectivity to millions of UK homes, in an initiative worth 1.5bn.
The phony war is over, the real battle is now on -- the government's expert taskforce has published its full list of guidelines that would-be bidders for Australia's urban high speed broadband network will need to abide by.
With a battle ahead to build Australia's fibre-to-the-node infrastructure, Optus has warned the government that the new network should not come at too high a price.
An overlap between the OPEL network and existing wireless networks need not be a bad thing, according to analyst house Market Clarity.
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.
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.
As Christmas roars in upon us and the Rudds, Trujillos, and Conroys of the world hang their Christmas stockings, everybody is casting an eye to 2008 and the changes it will bring.
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
64-bit Windows: It's time to get serious
IE patch: Microsoft's eight days of hell
Fowl play foiled, Telstra's fairy tale is over
Top 10 Desktops
The votes are in: check out the Top 10 desktops for this month.
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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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