The Federal Government today revealed it had organised what it described as a "major forum" on the future of Australia's digital economy in the wake of the construction of the National Broadband Network.
At Telstra's annual general meeting today, the telco's chief executive David Thodey today said it was facing challenging times as it sought to leverage its position as a "great Australian company" in the face of proposed legislation to split up its operations.
The company being put together to construct and operate the National Broadband Network will be formally named "NBN Co. Limited".
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.
The opposition has unveiled a scathing amendment to draft laws proposing to fundamentally restructure Telstra, in an attempt to delay the changes.
This week, Stephen Conroy showed with great certainty that the NBN remains a touch-and-go affair with no clear timeline, a relatively questionable lack of governance, and lots of unresolved mysteries.
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.
Fair is not what the National Broadband Network tender is about; it's bloodsport, and a fight for survival, and a challenge of the wills, and all the other sorts of superlatives you might expect from an Olympics announcer.
Post-election adrenaline surging through his veins, one of the first acts performed by new Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was to disband the expert panel that his predecessor Helen Coonan had appointed last June to evaluate tenders for fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) construction.
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.
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.
ACCC officials with glasses of wine, a golden medal for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and a few faux pas: the annual awards night of the Australian Telecommunications Users Group (ATUG) had it all.
Stephen Conroy's opus on the future direction of Australia's Digital Economy mainly curates existing success stories and government policies, and does little to demonstrate any form of roadmap to take the nation out of the Dark Ages.
The Rudd Government's decision to build its own broadband network significantly cranks up the threat to Telstra's dominance in the telecommunications sector.
In the year leading up to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's $43 billion National Broadband Network decision, a group of chief executives was quietly working away at winning over important members of federal cabinet to the merits of a digital economy.
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