Despite an ongoing legal stoush which threatens to derail the network, the government and OPEL have finally sealed the deal that will bring WiMax to the bush.
Communications Minister Helen Coonan has hit back at Telstra, accusing the telco of sour grapes, after it announced it had filed suit against her over its failed bid for some AU$1 billion of WiMax funding.
Optus believes that Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's decision to scrap plans for an AU$1 billion WiMax network, set to be built by Optus-Elders (OPEL), was "flawed" and the telco has left the door open for legal action.
A ruling preventing Telstra from accessing documents relating to the government's decision to award nearly AU$1 billion in funding to OPEL has been overturned.
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.
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.
Sprint's WiMAX roll-out in Baltimore will prove the Australian government's decision to worm its way out of the Opel WiMAX contract was a short-sighted, and ultimately damaging, political stunt that has benefited nobody.
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.
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.
As expected, Senator Stephen Conroy -- who made a career out of picking holes in the actions of his predecessor Helen Coonan -- was named to Kevin Rudd's front bench, bearing the interesting new title of Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (BCDE).
Ahead of the election, with promises for nationwide broadband networks and digital revolutions in schools, the ICT industry could hope the government was on their side. But now the glamour of a sparkling new government has worn off, how ICT-friendly is the Rudd government really?
An analysis by representatives of Australia's two largest IT industry groups shows that neither political party in the federal election has come up with a comprehensive policy around technology.
With only weeks to go to the election, how are the main parties shaping up on their tech promises?
When the government announced that Optus and Elders had won the bid to build Australia's bush broadband network, it provoked jeers and plaudits alike, but it was the ISPs' choice of WiMax as the bearer technology that has provoked the most furious storm of argument. Just how will the technology stand up to life in the bush?
Visa CIO touts new transaction technologies
Michael Dreyer, CIO of Visa, expresses what innovation means to him in different areas, such as their PayWave … Watch it now
Industry-leading performance and availability by HP and Intel
Driving Business Growth Through Enterprise IT Management
Australian Govt funds IT start-ups
Google should come clean on datacentres
US shows what OPEL could have been
Achieve continuous availability with high performance NonStop blade technology
Download Your Microsoft Unified Communications Fact Pack now.
Microsoft Unified Communications - Take your Self Assessment Today.
Broadband speedtest
How fast is your Internet connection?
Calculate the speed here.
Superguide: Printers -- all you need to know
Looking to buy a printer? Our superguide rates the latest printers and shines a light into the industry.
Click here for more.
Storage and server superguide
Over the last decade the art of maintaining the datacentre of a large organisation has evolved into an art form.
Click here for more.
