Telstra today signed the Definitive Agreements with NBN Co and the government covering its participation in the rollout of the National Broadband Network. It’s a complex deal, with the details of key documents still hidden thanks to confidentiality.
Broadband
Telstra deal puts more momentum behind the NBN
The Telstra-NBN deal announced this morning puts more weight behind the broadband network, leaving the Coalition ever further behind.
At last, the NBN Business Plan
The government has finally released the NBN Corporate Plan that caused so much fuss while Parliament was sitting. It unveils a 7% rate of return and lower-than-expected wholesale prices as part of a set of conservative projections over the next 30 years.
Essential: Broadband support strengthens, Labor wedged on gays
Australians think the NBN is important and will benefit the economy, businesses, themselves and their kids, the latest Essential Report reveals. And on gay marriage, Labor finds itself caught between the two sides.
NBN Co business case — truly a curiously inadequate document
“It is a curiously inadequate document,” wrote Malcolm Turnbull of the NBN Co Business Case Summary. He’s right. A business case that doesn’t, y’know, present a case for the business, supported by proper numbers? WTF?
If the Liberals oppose the NBN, they have to back splitting Telstra
If the Liberals are serious about an alternative approach to NBN, they have to start with the vertical separation of Telstra, write Bernard Keane and Glenn Dyer.
Conroy comes knocking
Watch out - Conroy’s about! He’ll make you use the NBN and he’ll charge you thousands for the privilege. At least, that’s what some in the media want you to think.
Graeme Samuel’s NBN slug
As if Telstra didn’t have enough to deal with, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has raised the prospect it will do an about-face on its attitude to Telstra’s wholesale ADSL access regime.
Admit it: people don’t get the NBN
The NBN debate is becoming increasingly sterile as critics and supporters alike stick to their guns. Another study isn’t going to help.
Parliament hangs on a broadband fibre
Who ends up governing Australia will depend on how three, maybe four independent MPs and The Greens view broadband. Early indications are that the independents will favour Labor’s publicly-funded, publicly-owned National Broadband Network.
MacCallum: It’s about the broadband, stupid
Buried beneath the mirrored policies, limp leadership and so-what? stump speeches, one issue has actually provided a legitimate point of difference between the two parties: the awoken beast of broadband, writes Mungo MacCallum.
Net nerds declare Abbott a knuckle head
In the wake of Tony Abbott again declaring that he is “not a tech head,” a growing community of internet experts are savaging Abbott and arguing the Coalition’s broadband policy should be sent on a one-way trip to the recycle bin.
The broadband battle: what will they really deliver?
The political message of the Coalition’s broadband policy is that they can deliver the same outcome as Labor sooner, for less cost and with less risk. But while both Labor and the Coalition promise the same speeds, they’re otherwise wildly different propositions.
At last, the Coalition broadband policy
Finally, we have the Coalition broadband plan. It’s confusing, pitched at outer-suburban electorates and it won’t deliver anything like the NBN.
Turnbull is not connecting with broadband realities
Malcolm Turnbull’s recent claim that Australians don’t want Labor’s proposed 100Mbps broadband connection is a load of hogwash. ABS stats clearly reveal Aussie households and businesses continue to crave faster speeds and more data, says Trevor Clarke.
Online students download poorer test results
New research claims children who use computers with high-speed broadband connections may suffer academically as a result. Are parents trying to get little Tommy a quick net connection inadvertently scoring an F for responsibility?
Australia online: stuck in 2005
Ten years ago Australia was a world leader of digital space. Fast forward to now and we’re stuck five years behind the rest of the world, thanks to expensive and slow broadband.
Crikey Says: Gorillas in the midst of broadband battle
There are few more absorbing sights than watching two big gorillas going head-to-head in a battle of wits and strength.
Australia’s internet: not neutral, not cheap, not very good
“Net neutrality” is a hot issue in the States, where folks don’t want their access to online content limited or influenced by ISPs. But Aussies needn’t worry their pretty little heads about it: our internet hasn’t been neutral for years.
Stephen Conroy: Dear Crikey, here’s why you’re wrong
It’s fighting words from Senator Stephen Conroy as he rebuts the “disingenuous” coverage of his Great Firewall of Australia. You can’t access RC-rated content in newsagencies, libraries, DVDs, cinemas or on TV, so why should it be allowed on the internet? asks Conroy.
graph pr0n Who is getting faster, cheaper internet than you?
Well, the Japanese for a start, who get an average connection speed of 61mbps (versus our 1.7mbps) at a fraction of the price. This great infographic compares broadband speed, price and penetration around the world. See how behind we really are.
Country voters miss out on blogging PM
PM Kevin Rudd may be in a tweeting and live-blogging frenzy, but it’s alienating regional voters who don’t have access to the fast speed internet required to interact, writes North Coast Voices.
Will East Africa become the new India?
You know internet use is rocky when pirate attacks and damaged sea cables can stop connections and only 5 in every 100 people use the internet. But with the arrival of broadband to Tanzania, there is talk of East Africa becoming the new outsourcing hot spot.
Telstra set to embrace National Broadband
The possible addition of Telstra means the dominoes are falling into place for the Federal Government’s National Broadband Network.
Alston’s cold, dead hand still controls broadband
The National Broadband Network should be the solution to Australia’s commerical television woes. It isn’t.
