Telstra's website makes the claim that for the Telstra Next G network 99% of the Australian population is covered. This claim just does not hold water. Many Australian towns and large regions of the country do not have Telstra Next G coverage. A recent journey through some of the regions bordering Australia's remote regions has found that Telstra's claim is very likely to be overstated. The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission must look into the accuracy of Telstra's claims.

The Government has made a giant leap and will now form a company that is 51% public owned to build fibre to the premise for 90% of Australians. The remaining 10% of the Australian public that will not gain access to fibre to the premise will be supported by better wireless and satellite broadband access.

More details emerge daily and summaries of what we have learnt to date abound. What is of more interest is what we have not learnt so far through all of the press releases and statements by Government MPs. The list of things we need to know is quite large and some of the more pressing items include whether a new cable will be laid to Tasmania or will the fibres laid with BassLink to be used to overcome the current Telstra connection bottleneck to the Apple Isle. What this leads onto is the question of a second national wholesale backhaul network and whether this is going to be built independently of the existing Telstra wholesale backhaul network or will Telstra be able t ... Read More »

The Federal Government has indicate the National Broadband Network (NBN) tender winner will be announced soon. Of more interest to people in the indusry is the legislative framework that will accompany the decision announcement. Will Senator Conroy be able to convince his colleagues to provide a truly competitive framework for the NBN such that the telecommunications sector can move forward with fair and reasonable competition for all.

Telstra is now out of the NBN race after submitting a non-conforming tendor response. Telstra's gamble on what the future holds will provide many twists and turns in Australia's effort to gain a next generation network.

Telstra now appears to be in the box seat to win the Fibre to the Node tender. The global financial crisis has caught competitors unaware and they will now find it difficult to fund their bids. Telstra should be immune from the problem of finding global finance for the rollout with anticipated revenues being redirected to cover the cost of the Telstra bid.

It now appears that the Fibre To The Node contract will either go to Testra or a consortium representing the remainder of the Australian carriers.

The OPEL contract for regional and remote broadband access has been cancelled.

Media pundits have indicated that digital radio is doomed because GCap, one of Britain's largest commercial radio operators, announcing it would quit digital radio to concentrate on analogue and online services.

Professor Jock Given, a professor of media and communications at Swinburne University, who specialises in digital broadcasting has predicted digital radio will struggle to attract support and that users will move to iPods and online content.

Professor Given's argument is reasonable where you have existing analogue services for which most families have 10 or more radios competing with new digital radio services where families have 0 radios. Professor Given has failed to mention that new mobile phone handsets soon to come onto the market will have digital radio tuners built into the handset. With the rate of change of handsets, approximately 12-18 months, most of the youth market will have digital radio tuners in their hands very soon. For youth the quest ... Read More »

Opel has purchased regional wireless licenses from Austar. Read More »

Telstra has submitted a new model to the ACCC for competitor access to Band 2 Exchanges. The new model called the "Efficient Access" pricing method gives the same result as the previous model - $30 per month. Read More »