Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Telstra sues NBN Co over AU$11bn deal | ZDNet

Telstra sues NBN Co over AU$11bn deal | ZDNet: "Telstra is taking NBN Co to the New South Wales Supreme Court over claims that the government-owned company has wrongly valued the AU$11 billion deal.

After two years of negotiations, NBN Co and Telstra struck a deal in 2011 that would lease Telstra's pit and ducts infrastructure to NBN Co for the rollout of the fibre-to-the-premises National Broadband Network (NBN) and pay Telstra to shift its customers from the copper network over to the NBN.

Although the agreement was signed by the two companies in mid-2011, Telstra shareholders did not approve the deal until the Annual General Meeting in late 2011."

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NBN's new leader may be in a takeover mood - The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

NBN's new leader may be in a takeover mood - The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): "NBN head honcho Ziggy Switkowski will have to negotiate with the company he used to run for the use of its copper network - and the evidence suggests might be looking to buy it outright, writes Alan Kohler.

The NBN has the potential to significantly transform not only the Australian telecommunications industry, but the social and economic landscape of our country.
Together, we are delivering a nation-building project and we should all be very proud of that.
- Ziggy Switkowski, NBN executive chairman, in a memo to staff yesterday.
Ziggy Switkowski was an interesting choice to take over the NBN. Telstra basically sacked him nine years ago for having too ambitious a growth strategy; his troop-rallying words in the staff memo yesterday suggest that he's not short of ambition for the new telecommunications company that he's now in charge of either."

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NBN Co begins weekly rollout updates | ZDNet

NBN Co begins weekly rollout updates | ZDNet: "NBN Co has begun publishing weekly updates on the status of the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN), revealing that 35,000 premises have been passed by the fibre network since the federal election.

Late last night, the company removed all information about premises that could expect construction to commence in their area in the next three years, instead disclosing information only about areas where construction is already underway and areas that are ready for service.

NBN Co did not comment on the sudden change, but this afternoon announced that it would begin its shift from quarterly updates on the progress of the rollout to weekly updates."

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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

NBN Co posts annual loss of nearly $1 billion - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

NBN Co posts annual loss of nearly $1 billion - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): "The company building the national broadband network has posted a loss of nearly $1 billion for last financial year.

The NBN Co's annual report has just been released, and shows its total loss has grown to $903 million.

The company, which is chaired by former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski, made revenue of nearly $66 million."

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Monday, October 28, 2013

NBN Co expands NBN to 10,600 premises in Tasmania - Telecompaper

NBN Co expands NBN to 10,600 premises in Tasmania - Telecompaper: "The Australian government company rolling out the National Broadband Network, NBN Co, has switched on the network for an additional 10,600 premises across Tasmania. In Launceston, 4,300 premises can now access the NBN via fibre while some 6,300 premises in rural and remote areas can access the network via 4G fixed-wireless technology. NBN Co says that Tasmania is set to be the first state in Australia to be fully connected to the NBN by the end of 2015."

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Sunday, October 27, 2013

NBN Co picks consultants for review

NBN Co picks consultants for review: "NBN Co has selected three consulting firms, Deloitte, KordaMentha and Boston Consulting Group, to help it complete its 60-day strategic review. 
The three firms were selected for different reasons, NBN Co said in a statement on Friday afternoon. The request for consultancy proposals was issued last week.
‘‘Deloitte will provide governance and program management office services to ensure the Strategic Review fits within the parameters and tight deadline for submission set by the Government, KordaMentha will contribute to the analysis of the current NBN operational and financial performance, Boston Consulting Group will participate in the review of the timing, financials and product offers under alternative models for delivering very fast broadband.’’ 

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Saturday, October 26, 2013

NBN Co picks 'turnaround experts' for company review | ZDNet

NBN Co picks 'turnaround experts' for company review | ZDNet: "NBN Co has picked three consulting firms to help the company undertake its 60-day strategic review of the National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout in light of the change of government.

Despite a claim last month from Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull that consulting firms would not be producing the 60-day review into NBN Co's operations, the company has today announced that Deloitte, KordaMentha, and Boston Consulting Group have been appointed to advise NBN Co through the 60-day review of the company."

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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

NBN Co's Kaiser shafted for ex-Telstra exec Rousselot | ZDNet

NBN Co's Kaiser shafted for ex-Telstra exec Rousselot | ZDNet: "The controversial Labor-picked NBN Co head of quality, Mike Kaiser, will leave the organisation effective immediately, after executive chair Dr Ziggy Switkowski announced that he would be replaced by ex-Telstra executive and friend of Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, JB Rousselot.

Rousselot had long been expected to take on a role with the company, after he left his executive director of media role at Telstra in May this year to return to France. Rousselot will join the company in the new role of head of strategy and transformation, leading the company through its 60-day review to be completed by early December."

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Monday, October 21, 2013

NBN review team looks like old Telstra board • The Register

NBN review team looks like old Telstra board • The Register: "The strategic review into Australia's National Broadband Network commissioned by the nation's new government is starting to look like a Telstra alumni party, with the carrier's former CEO Ziggy Switkowski (now NBN Co chairman) being advised by yet-another former executive of the incumbent.

The Australian Financial Review reports that former Telstra BigPond boss Justin Milne has been brought into NBN Co, and is working with former Telstra Digital Media executive director JB Rousselot on the review, due November 22.
The government's strategic review is designed to give the government a plan for implementing its network plans, which would largely replace the original fibre-to-the-home National Broadband Network with fibre-to-the-node, where that can be done without breaching existing construction contracts."

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Saturday, October 19, 2013

iiNet's NBN customers chose higher speed plans - Telecompaper

iiNet's NBN customers chose higher speed plans - Telecompaper: "About 70 percent of customers of Australian ISP iiNet that have National Broadband Network (NBN) connections have chosen plans that offer faster speeds than the 12 Mbps minimum. Speaking at the CommsDay Melbourne Congress, iiNet's chief technology officer John Lindsay said the company has over 20,000 NBN customers, ZDNet reports. More than 60 percent of the NBN customers were new customers for iiNet, many of them in NBN-connected greenfields estates."

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Thursday, October 17, 2013

Dodo announces NBN pricing | ZDNet

Dodo announces NBN pricing | ZDNet: "Dodo has finally revealed its National Broadband Network (NBN) pricing, making it the cheapest NBN retail service provider (RSP) by a very slim margin, and has included an "unlimited" plan for less than AU$60 per month.

Announced on Wednesday, the M2-owned telco has services starting at AU$29.90 for 10GB of data (5MB on peak and 5MB off peak) on line speeds of 12/1Mbps, and goes up to AU$89.90 for 2TB of data (1TB on peak and 1TB off peak) on 100/40Mbps. Its "unlimited" offering is for the 12/1Mbps line speed, and is available for AU$59.90. The plans do not include the connection fee, ongoing line rental, and cost of the modem. Dodo has also said that for an extra AU$15 per month, end users can extend the off-peak data on any of its plans to also be unlimited."

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Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Fast broadband critical to future of education: teachers - MOOC, education, learning, Simulation, teaching, virtual reality, NBN, broadband - CIO

Fast broadband critical to future of education: teachers - MOOC, education, learning, Simulation, teaching, virtual reality, NBN, broadband - CIO: "The NBN could be a transformational tool for teaching, according to educators who spoke at the Connected Australia conference this week.

After connecting to the NBN in the McLaren Vale, South Australia, Willunga High School improved student attendance and engagement in learning, according to the school’s principal Janelle Reimann.

The NBN was a “catalyst in changing our teaching and learning practice,” she said."

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Tuesday, October 15, 2013

NBN construction model failed, says Conroy - Delimiter

NBN construction model failed, says Conroy - Delimiter: "Ex-Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has acknowledged that the private contractor model which NBN Co attempted to use in its national fibre rollout has failed due to the inability of the company’s partners to deliver on their commitments, in an admission which again raises the possibility of Telstra being brought back in to assist with the rollout.

In every other country currently conducting nationwide telecommunications infrastructure rollouts, the company’s incumbent telco, which historically has owned the nationwide copper network, is involved in a pivotal fashion in also conducting the upgrades to that infrastructure, often with government assistance. In the UK, for instance, BT’s Openreach division is conducting a major fibre to the node-based network rollout; in NZ Zealand it’s a new division, Chorus, split off from Telecom New Zealand, in Germany it’s Deutsche Telekom, and so on."

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Fast broadband critical to future of education: teachers - MOOC, education, learning, Simulation, teaching, virtual reality, NBN, broadband - Computerworld

Fast broadband critical to future of education: teachers - MOOC, education, learning, Simulation, teaching, virtual reality, NBN, broadband - Computerworld: "The NBN could be a transformational tool for teaching, according to educators who spoke at the Connected Australia conference this week.

After connecting to the NBN in the McLaren Vale, South Australia, Willunga High School improved student attendance and engagement in learning, according to the school’s principal Janelle Reimann.

The NBN was a “catalyst in changing our teaching and learning practice,” she said."

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Monday, October 14, 2013

Telstra must fix "dilapidated" copper for Libs' FttN NBN: iiNet | ZDNet

Telstra must fix "dilapidated" copper for Libs' FttN NBN: iiNet | ZDNet: "“Absolutely enormous” difficulties in getting Telstra to fix copper network faults confirm the value of fault-free fibre networks, iiNet’s chief technology officer has argued while outlining the company’s efforts to accommodate the new Coalition government’s FttN strategy and expected legislative changes."

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Sunday, October 13, 2013

4K video streaming will choke Malcolm's NBN

4K video streaming will choke Malcolm's NBN: "According to Netflix’s US CEO, Reed Hastings – naturally a self-interested proponent of 4K video streaming – “with H.265 hardware compression 4K video streaming is not ‘too bad’ at 15Mbps but if you have around 50Mbps you will be fine.”
Australian techies say he is dreaming – streaming a 4K movie at the lower speeds is like trying to swim thorough molasses - it could take 50 hours to buffer and play at 15Mbps."

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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Back-to-the-future Coalition fails its own NBN tests: Husic | ZDNet

Back-to-the-future Coalition fails its own NBN tests: Husic | ZDNet: "The new Coalition government has hypocritically failed to meet its own expectations in appointing Ziggy Switkowski as new CEO of NBN Co, Labor MP Ed Husic has argued in a broad-reaching address in which he promised the Coalition will be held to account “every step of the way” on its claim that 9 million homes will be connected to its NBN by the end of 2016.


Addressing the CommsDay Melbourne Congress, Husic – who stood in as opposition communications spokesperson while the Labor Party's formal oppositionstructure is still up in the air – lambasted the Coalition’s moves to return to the policies of a Howard government that he said had “struggled to come up with a cogent broadband plan”."

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Push for action on network

Push for action on network: "The telecoms industry wants Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull to be quick and decisive as he considers what to do with the national broadband network.

With no more information likely to emerge about the project until around Christmas - when a 60-day review is completed - there were questions about jobs and investment at the annual CommsDay industry conference in Melbourne on Tuesday."

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TPG Telecom fibre optic plan not threatened by ACCC | Fool Australia

TPG Telecom fibre optic plan not threatened by ACCC | Fool Australia: "As I reported in this article, TPG Telecom (ASX: TPM) has announced plans to start rolling out fibre to the basement (FTTB). The brilliance of this plan is that now that the NBN is not going to be fibre to the premises, there is no reason that customers would ever bother switching to the NBN.

TPG has some major competitors that could also roll out optical fibre to buildings. Telstra (ASX: TLS), Singapore Telecommunications’ (ASX: SGT) Optus and iiNet (ASX: IIN) all own fibre infrastructure. However, once a building is connected to fibre, there is little reason why another company would duplicate the connection. That’s why some commentators suggested the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) might have an issue with the plan."

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Australians pick cheaper broadband, quality over fast speeds | ZDNet

Australians pick cheaper broadband, quality over fast speeds | ZDNet: "Speed of broadband services ranks low in the priorities of both Australian businesses and consumers, according to two surveys released today.

An Australian Industry Group survey of 170 businesses in the manufacturing, services, construction, and mining industries released today showed that 75 percent of respondents see high-speed broadband as being important to their business, but the quality and cost of the service rates higher than the download and upload speeds. A total of 40 percent of the users said that quality of service is important, while 30 percent ranked costs and access pricing highest, with 15 percent focusing on upload and download speeds."

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Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Quality, reliability has priority on NBN speed | The Australian

Quality, reliability has priority on NBN speed | The Australian: "BUSINESS wants its broadband services to be reliable and cheap before simply being fast, as almost 40 per cent of businesses report their broadband is inadequate.

An Australian Industry Group report due to be released today, The Business End of Broadband: What Businesses Want from High-Speed Broadband, found 44 per cent of surveyed businesses believed the priorities for a high-speed broadband service such as the NBN were quality and reliability.

Thirty per cent nominated access and connection costs, 15 per cent said upload and download speeds and 10 per cent said the timeframe for a rollout."

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Monday, October 7, 2013

Shift thinking on NBN: Google boss

Shift thinking on NBN: Google boss: "Google's new Australian boss Maile Carnegie has expressed frustration that the broader economic benefits of the national broadband network are not being recognised as the global internet heavyweight has positioned itself behind the high-speed infrastructure project.

In her first interview since taking charge of Google Australia in July, Ms Carnegie has outlined plans for Google to better contribute to Australia's digital economy."

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Thursday, October 3, 2013

Switkowski appointed new NBN boss | Business News | Business and Finance News | | Herald Sun

Switkowski appointed new NBN boss | Business News | Business and Finance News | | Herald Sun: "FORMER Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski has been appointed executive chairman of the new NBN Co board, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull says.

"The project needs new leadership," Mr Turnbull told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

Dr Switkowski replaces outgoing chairwoman Siobhan McKenna and will be joined by current NBN Co board members Kerry Schott and Alison Lansley."

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Disconnecting NBN a big call for Turnbull | The Australian

Disconnecting NBN a big call for Turnbull | The Australian: "NEW leaders often come with a BHAG - a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. A classic BHAG was John Kennedy's commitment in early 1961 to land a man on the moon within a decade.

Closer to home, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said last week he wanted to "depoliticise" the National Broadband Network and run it according to "rational economic criteria". Given the history of telecommunications in Australia, including the NBN's own short history, this easily qualifies as a BHAG - albeit a worthy one."

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Quigley departs NBN Co, farewells staff | ZDNet

Quigley departs NBN Co, farewells staff | ZDNet: "On his last day at NBN Co, the company's first CEO Mike Quigley has paid tribute to the staff working for the government-owned company charged with rolling out the National Broadband Network (NBN), and has defended his legacy in setting up the company."

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Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Turnbull to leave NBN cuts to new board | ZDNet

Turnbull to leave NBN cuts to new board | ZDNet: "At the opening of NextDC's flagship S1 datacentre in Macquarie Park, Sydney, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull confirmed that the size of NBN Co's headcount will not be determined directly by the Cabinet, but rather by the new NBN Co board appointed by the Cabinet."

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