The government has handed out over AU$9 million in two separate grants to bush schools and emergency services in Western Australia.
With an election looming, regional broadband has once again found itself at the centre of a political battle -- this time, it's the Northern Territory's turn for a war of words.
The government has denied that Australia's bush broadband network will be put at risk of interference from common households gadgets -- such as microwave ovens.
update: Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan will allow regional Internet service providers left in the lurch by the sudden closure of a federal subsidy to claim funds under a replacement program.
Australia's communications regulator will carry out its testing overwhelmingly in the populous eastern states, particularly New South Wales, as it judges whether Telstra's new national 3G mobile network provides equal coverage to the previous CDMA one.
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.
Just a few days after the Australia Connected program was launched Communications Minister Helen Coonan was selling the initiative to the TV talk shows.
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.
There must be something in the water in Canberra. After years of measured inaction, the Coalition is taking long-overdue steps towards universal broadband and working around Telstra's continued domination -- after 10 years of deregulation -- of the country's telecommunications wholesale markets.
If someone gave you AU$93.5 million to spend, would you forget it? I wouldn't either. But this is exactly what seems to have happened in the aftermath of the 2007/8 federal budget, which was widely lambasted by many observers -- including yours truly -- for its lack of funding for meaningful ICT related initiatives.
Is this a marriage made in heaven? The federal government and shareholders at Australia's largest carrier certainly hope so.
Unwired CEO, David Spence, has urged Australia's communications regulators to protect a tranche of prime wireless broadband spectrum due to be auctioned September from anti-competitive behaviour by existing carriers.
In an exclusive interview, the Australian Communications Authority's retiring chairman Dr Bob Horton explains why consumer rights continue to lag. He touches on other topics including regulating mobile adult content.
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