Displaying items by tag: fibre

There are few more politically emotive issues in Australia (aside from asylum seekers) than the NBN. One of the issues is the cost of services for users. Make no mistake, under the proposed mandated regime the NBN will cost more than what consumers and businesses currently pay for broadband and the reasons should be clear to anyone with a modicum of objectivity.

According to a new mobile research report, Mobile network operators need to spend almost $840 billion globally over the next five years in order to address serious bottlenecks in their backhaul networks. The report claims that the massive investment needs to be made if operators are to meet the increasing demands of mobile broadband users.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued a discussion paper seeking submissions on the service description from non-NBN last mile fibre telecoms in order to create a framework for the ACCC to regulate their services.

It looks like NEXTDC's first Brisbane data centre will be well connected.

NBN Co has used the results of a new super fast fibre transmission test in Germany to highlight the superiority of fibre and justify the current $36 billion NBN project.

After two years, NBN construction should have been well underway, but instead, we have Opel cancelled, tenderers labelled as price gougers, NBN Co resignations, no clear and affordable NBN path and still no NBN - where the bloody hell are you?

The National Broadband Network could be deployed much cheaper and quicker by using existing water and sewerage infrastructure rather then building new ducts to house fibre, according to a fibre infrastructure provider. The claim comes amid a continuing controversy over the cancelled NBN Co building tender, and accusations of price gouging by building companies.

Global telecoms hardware maker TE Connectivity has won a $400 million contract with NBN Co to supply connectivity products for the National Broadband Network. The five-year deal will see TE Connectivity, which recently changed its name from Tyco Electronics, supply a range of equipment for the second release sites of the NBN.

A new 426 kilometre Government built fibre-optic cable linking Geraldton to Perth has given the central west coast city of almost 40,000 people access to the same quality of broadband available in Australian capitals. iiNet subsidiary Westnet has launched a new network off the back of the link at an event today attended by Westnet and iiNet CEO Michael Malone and his sometime adversary Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy.

A poll purporting to show that 4G wireless broadband will not threaten the business case of the FttH National Broadband Network (NBN) appears to show the exact opposite. According to the Compare Broadband poll, 40% of respondents to the small online poll say they would prefer to use 4G wireless to the NBN in the future, which if true would put a severe dent in the NBN business case.

The flush of enthusiasm for installing a fibre broadband network in Brisbane's sewers is over after i3's project got bogged down. But the idea of a city-backed network hasn't gone completely down the toilet, with other providers said to be ready to step in.

New projections from the telecoms research group that provides market intelligence for NBN Co has forecast that wireless broadband growth will easily outpace that of fixed line connections in Australia for the next five years. By 2015, projections show that the number of wireless broadband connections will outnumber fixed line connections by more than 5 to 1.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt raised a few eyebrows during his keynote presentation at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, claiming Prime Minister Julia Gillard had announced that 93% of Australians would get NBN fibre by '2015 or 2016.' Schmidt praised the NBN and said Australia was leading the world.

Over coffee not long ago, a friend chided me over my NBN skepticism with a leading question 'what's the best way to connect to the net?' I conceded that a fibre connection would be fastest. 'That's it, do it once, do it right!' he exclaimed with a grin, as he continued checking his email on his iPhone over 3G.

The roll-out of Australia's National Broadband Network won't be impacted by the roll-out of Telstra's highly anticipated 4G LTE network, or the coming future upgrade to LTE-Advanced, because of the current Government's kamikaze-like superhuman effort to 'make it so', and because 5G, 6G and BeyondG wireless networks will clearly be in place long before the NBN is finished.

The perils of fixed fibre cables flapping about in cyclonic winds has been exposed in Townsville, which was 'almost completely fitted out for the NBN', but due to Cyclone Yasi is likely no longer, while Telstra's Next G wireless broadband network (WBN?) was apparently unaffected.

Government funded National Broadband Network operator, NBN Co, has reiterated its plans to provide fibre broadband infrastructure in new estates to property developers going forward. New estates will be among the first to get fibre to homes, although what that means in terms of broadband bang for buck is still fuzzy.

Transmission services provider Nextgen Networks today celebrated the completion of 3000km of construction in the Australian Government's Regional Backbone Blackspots Program (RBBP) in an event attended by Communications Minister in Melbourne. According to Nextgen, it has now reached the half-way point of its network construction.

An interesting article on Malcolm Turnbull's stance on the NBN has appeared from iTWire colleague James Riley, but as is possible in a democracy, or at least what we have left of democracy, I completely disagree with James' views.

Australia's Federal Government is pushing ahead with plans to build its national fibre broadband network in Australia at a cost that could be less than $43b, $46b with connections to all homes, or even up to $100b - even as Brisbane prepares to roll out its own fibre broadband network years before the Brisbane part of the official NBN is complete.