Seven new towns have been nominated as early recipients of Tasmania's National Broadband Network (NBN), bringing the total number for the island to 10.
The Tasmanian arm of the National Broadband Network Company, NBN Tasmania, has selected the company that will provide the fibre-optic cable for the new backhaul network in the island state.
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.
The Tasmanian State Government, through its utility Aurora, has released a request for tender document for the fibre component of Tasmania's National Broadband Network roll-out.
Global tech giants IBM, NEC and Alcatel-Lucent have denied reports they were planning to pay $5,000 per seat to attend a fundraising dinner this Thursday hosted by Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett and attended by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.
Like the engineers that sat down on day one with an empty blackboard and a mission to get man to the moon and back, building the NBN from the ground up is a daunting and complex opportunity that will present more than its share of challenges.
I have seen the NBN, and it looks a lot like Christina Aguilera. Or, at least, it looked like her when I dropped into Ericsson's Melbourne headquarters recently to see a live demo of their NBN solutions. Yet behind the streaming TV, one question lingers -- and not even the government seems able to answer it.
Earlier this week (Tuesday 3 March) a number of telecommunications industry heavyweights fronted up to the Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network.
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.
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?
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.
Alcatel-Lucent's optical network terminal (ONT) equipment was not considered suitable for an open access fibre deployment similar to the future NBN roll-out at a greenfield estate in Victoria, according to the project's builder.
Many would love to see the Pirate Party and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy face off in the Australian Senate, but the unorthodox political party doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the necessary votes.
This afternoon Communications Minister Stephen Conroy described his opposite, Senator Nick Minchin, as a Luddite as he took questions from reporters on the Opposition's attempt to block the government's wide-ranging telecommunications industry reform legislation, which includes provisions to force the break-up of Telstra.
Mike Quigley and Doug Campbell's long-standing relationships with Telstra and few of its rivals will lead Australia's telecommunications industry to question privately whether Telstra will receive a phenomenal level of access to the NBN decision-making processes.
While most hopes for permanent wireless data connection lay with the new GPRS mobile phone network, one company is already offering a similar service to Australian owners of Palm V series PDAs and IBM WorkPads. Global Wireless Application Service Provider, dotWAP provides an 'always-online' wireless connection through a Neo1 sled modem operating over United Wireless' Mobitex packet-switched network.
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