Despite fears the Australian Broadband Guarantee (ABG) might be axed, the Rudd government has approved the subsidy for Australia's most remote Internet users for one more year.
The Federal government has issued a reminder notice to stakeholders in the national fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) network, as the deadline for submissions on the project nears.
After Bruce Billson, Opposition spokesperson for Communications, claimed yesterday that the federal government is planning on cutting subsidies to rural and regional broadband providers, a number of industry sources have cast doubt on whether the policy axe has been raised over the Australian Broadband Guarantee.
The government yesterday laid down AU$8 million for the next year to fill mobile phone black spots on sections of highway as well as selected towns in WA and NT.
The national carrier has said the federal government's decision to cancel the Optus-Elders (OPEL) consortium's rural WiMax network contract was a matter of "common sense", after Communications Minister Stephen Conroy gave indications as late as yesterday that he was still considering the proposal.
Last week, a family friend rang for some technical help. "Telstra sold me this wireless Internet service and they promised it would work both at my home and at my office," he said. Said home is in the Melbourne CBD, and said office is in Kyneton, a lovely town about an hour away from Melbourne.
If there was ever evidence that the stoush over broadband had gotten personal, it came when Telstra's sour-grapes mentality led it to sue Helen Coonan, personally, for claimed procedural flaws in the OPEL contract.
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.
Hopefully, you've been spending your end-of-year break better than the executives at Optus, who seem to have taken advantage of the annual industry-wide lull to get onetime WiMax aspirant Austar United Telecommunications to the negotiating table.
The South Australian government hopes to build a fibre broadband network in the regional centre of Mount Gambier.
The rural Spanish region of Extremadura has seized on the potential of open-source software to improve the lot of its citizens and kick start the local economy.
New technology gains legitimacy when it solves real business problems, but becomes indispensable when it offers to take that business in completely new directions. Such has been the case at Maroochy Shire Council, where a quite conventional thin-client rollout is now facilitating new ways of working for employees in the office and on the road.
Getting broadband to everyone in Australia should be a major concern for businesses and government.
Government departments have shed their initial reluctance to use open source technologies, but the problem persists -- how do you determine appropriate usage?
The Queensland government has used its buying power to increase mobile coverage within the state, after it "got tired of waiting for the federal government to do something".
Telstra Country Wide has announced a AU$231 million investment in 2003/04 to improve services to regional areas.
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For Australia's remote rural web users, relying on a dial-up modem has meant that video technology is still a long way off.
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