TechNews
NBNCo To Make 500 Jobs – 10% of Staff Redundant By The End of June
New Daily – Matthew Elmas
‘Not competitive’: NBN racks up billions in debt while alternatives grow
Alan Burkitt-Gray – Capacity Media
NBN Co to fire 10% of staff as Australian competition rises
Mary Lennighan – telecoms.com
NBN addresses competition by cutting jobs
Lucas Baird – AFR
NBN Co braces for sweeping job cuts
Will the National Office For Cybersecurity have the right power to stop the cyber security turf wars?
Cybercrime has become one of the most serious criminal events over the last decade and its effects are a dangerous threat to governments, businesses, and individuals alike. Over coming years this is only going to increase, so decisive and coordinated action is overdue. It will only be a matter of time before we see major …
Autonomous sensors are looking over the horizon.
Autonomous sensors are the bridge that connects the physical and digital worlds. A new team of CSIRO researchers are working on the next generation of sensor technologies needed to unlock digital innovations that allow us to rapidly understand and predict the world around us. Broadly, Autonomous Sensors will accelerate the emergence of new tools to …
Autonomous sensors are looking over the horizon. Read More »
First half year 2022/2023 progress report from the NBN Company
In February 2023 NBN Co released its first half-yearly result to December 2022. I will be looking behind the self-congratulations that took place. However, for the statistics, it has reported total revenue of $2.6 billion — a 4% increase on H1 FY22. None of that is unexpected; as the roll-out keeps going, new premises are …
First half year 2022/2023 progress report from the NBN Company Read More »
Does Technology requires a radical change?
If you think you’re smarter than your future phone, think again A discussion with international information and communications technology (ICT) colleagues recently on the dangers of our current highly technically-dominated world revealed that what we now see around us is a world composed almost exclusively of technology — which many of us find broken and …
We need to move innovation towards Impact Innovation
I believe we have a problem with technical innovation. So, this week we will dig a bit deeper as the problem most likely is not technology. Recently, I attended an innovation masterclass from Griffith University presented by Professor Ingrid Burkett. She started by asking the question: “Will innovation save today’s business leaders?” This question was …
We need to move innovation towards Impact Innovation Read More »
Tough times ahead for the NBN company
As I have mentioned before, things are not all going to plan for NBN Co. As the Minister for Communication, Michelle Rowland, has mentioned, this has more to do with the quality of the service than the technology. This is giving other providers a chance to compete with the NBN and there is a number …
Energy Central
Six cities in NSW are developing a smart integrated region.
The future of artificial intelligence — explained by chatGPT
We have talked about artificial intelligence (AI) in previous articles. Recently, a new AI service was launched called ChatGPT. I have used it now several times and I am amazed at the accuracy of this AI tool. ChatGPT is a large language model developed by OpenAI. It is a variant of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer …
The future of artificial intelligence — explained by chatGPT Read More »
Tech Tribune – France
Le Chinois Huawei Se Tourne Vers Les Ports Et Les Usines Pour Reconstruire Ses Ventes ..
3D News – Russia
Huawei успешно расширила сферу деятельности и компенсировала потери от санкций США
El Sol de Yakima – USA
Huawei apuesta por puertos y fábricas para recuperarse
Joe McDonald – The Associated Press
China’s Huawei looks to ports, factories to rebuild sales
ABC Western Qld – Victoria Pengilley
Federal MPs, advocates call for mandated roaming to improve mobile phone reception in the bush
Growth in broadband demand is set to slow with fewer innovations hitting the market
There is an argument going on between the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and NBN Co in relation to the broadband requirements of Australian consumers. ACCC research indicates that by 2028, the median household speed requirement will be only 29 Mbps and 95% of households will not require speeds of 58 Mbps or more. …
Growth in broadband demand is set to slow with fewer innovations hitting the market Read More »
Six cities in NSW are developing a smart integrated region.
Back in 2015 and 2016, I took a number of smart city initiatives aimed at lifting the issue of smart cities to the senior levels of the dozen or so councils I was working with. What had been the case in previous years was that the concept of smart cities (enhancing liveability, social structures and …
Six cities in NSW are developing a smart integrated region. Read More »
NBN back to where it stared a project for the good of the nation
While there is still a lot that needs fixing, going into the new year, the basis for the NBN is back on a much better foundation. Just before the end of last year, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland released an extensive Statement of Expectations for NBN Co. This basically brings the NBN policy back to its …
NBN back to where it stared a project for the good of the nation Read More »
Big News Network
Albanese Government hits the restart button on NBN
Trouble in the digital financial markets
At the close of 2022, it has become clear that the financial markets are taking a deep breath and several steps back in the wake of the many problems in relation to digital systems. Both blockchain and cryptocurrencies are certainly not living up to their promise and this could set the digital financial market back …
David Braue – Information Age
ACCC blocks Telstra-TPG network merger
Alan Burkitt-Gray – Capacity Media
Australia blocks Telstra-TPG network-sharing deal
Byron Kay – Reuters
Australia blocks Telstra-TPG wireless internet deal, sparking legal fight
Blocked Telstra – TPG merger will lead to an overhaul of Australian telecoms regulations
As I had foreshadowed in previous opinion pieces on the Telstra – TPG merger, it was expected that the ACCC would block this. It was very obvious from the beginning that the merger was contra to the regulatory strategy that has been in place in Australia for over three decades. In my opinion Telstra played …
Blocked Telstra – TPG merger will lead to an overhaul of Australian telecoms regulations Read More »
Better prices and services needed for NBN Co to stay competitive.
Recently I covered the Special Access Undertaking Variation that NBN Co presented to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The major news here was that this resulted in a $30 billion write-down of the losses that the NBN occurred during the rollout of its infrastructure. However, interestingly, its submission also included supporting documentation to …
Better prices and services needed for NBN Co to stay competitive. Read More »
Matthew Elmas – The New Daily
NBN update: Consumers pay more for stagnant service standards, ACCC finds
NBN $31 bn write-down confirms its national importance
The previous Coalition Government under then Minister for Communication, Malcolm Turnbull, promised a cheaper, good-quality NBN that would be delivered faster. However, since it became clear that his Government was unable to deliver on this promise, I knew that eventually, something had to give. Instead of costing $25 billion as Mr Turnbull promised, the costs …
NBN $31 bn write-down confirms its national importance Read More »
IG News
NBN Co’s $31 billion write-off caused by coalition disaster
John Davidson – Australian Financial Review
Tough decisions ahead for NBN as rival options open up
Macro Business
Path paved for cheaper NBN
Dick Weisinger – Formtek
Coding: Date-Format Bugs Cause Big Headaches
Lucas Baird – Australian Financial Review
NBN writes off recovering $31b invested to build network
Better NBN deals and better mobile competition
Australia’s oldest telecommunications society, TelSoc, organised a very interesting forum discussion with Anna Brakey, a commissioner and chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)’s communications committee and the most senior person in the ACCC in charge of telecommunications. In her presentation, Ms Brakey covered a variety of issues such as competition, the NBN, …
CircleID
Starlink Now Covers All of Australia
Starlink now covers all of Australia
My colleague, Robert Smallwood in Geraldton, WA at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (WA Government), has been testing Starlink now since March 2022 and he reports on his experience and in general, provides updates about Starlink and its mother company, SpaceX. He allowed me to use his report to write this article. …
Matthew Elmas – The New daily
Calls for tougher fines after latest Telstra scandal
Energy Central
Tele-energy
Tele-Energy Technology
TELE-ENERGY, or more accurately wireless power transfer, is a generic term for a number of different technologies for transmitting energy by means of electromagnetic fields. Wikipedia describes it as follows: ‘A transmitter device, driven by electric power from a power source, generates a time-varying electromagnetic field, which transmits power across space to a receiver device, …
Video-on-Demand services are suffering from the economic downturn
Kanter’s recent Entertainment on Demand data on the Australian streaming market reveals that between July to September 2022, the number of Video on Demand (VoD)-enabled households that subscribed to at least one video streaming service fell by nearly 180,000, with over one million services cancelled. Furthermore, this third quarter of 2022 saw the largest drop …
Video-on-Demand services are suffering from the economic downturn Read More »
Despite its austerity the Budget included a lot of IT investments.
There was not a lot of good news in this “extra” October Budget. And while I will concentrate on the I.T. side, I can’t help wondering why the Government was not brave enough to start looking at true reforms. A tax reform – along the lines that then Secretary of the Treasury Ken Henry suggested …
Despite its austerity the Budget included a lot of IT investments. Read More »
Australians are loving their mobile phones
While nearly two in three Australians are now only using their mobile to make telephone calls, close to a third don’t have a landline at all anymore. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) recently produced an extensive report on mobile use in Australia. While just over 70% of people still have a landline, the …
Big News Network
Australian innovation could convert petrol engines to electric
The South East Queensland City Deal.
Earlier this year the Federal Government announced the’ South East Queensland (SEQ) City Deal’, With my interest in smart city developments I had a good look at this plan. This region hosts several of the leading smart city councils in Australia. Over the last decade or so I have been involved with smart city developments …
Worldakkam – India
Digital Boost in South East Queensland is off to a good start
The hack will be a costly affair for Optus.
More and more information is becoming available about the breach of the Optus systems. It looks like the hacker is more of an amateur than a professional criminal or a “state actor”. This makes the hack even more worrisome. It looks as though Optus didn’t have its security house in order. This makes the issue …
eSIMS are going to be a mobile gamechanger.
Approximately a decade ago, I wrote an article with a headline like this, however with the proviso that the mobile operators at that time would fight tooth and nail against its introduction. An eSIM is a form of programmable SIM card that is embedded directly into a device instead of a physical SIM that is …
Sam Varghese – ITWire
Government should also share blame for Optus fiasco: Budde
Southern Coast Register
Paul Budde | Optus data breach should be a wake-up call for cyber security, privacy policies
Alan Burkitt-Gray – Capacity Media
Retired CEO says Telstra ‘did not embrace reality’ of wholesale NBN
Andy Penn says sorry about not speaking out earlier against the NBN
I did feel a bit of vindication when I read in the Weekend Australian the interview with outgoing Telstra CEO Andy Penn titled: ‘After the storm, Andy Penn ponders his legacy.’ A key point of regret was that he had not been more forthcoming with his criticism of the NBN as it developed during its …
Andy Penn says sorry about not speaking out earlier against the NBN Read More »
Transforming Defence: key trends that will change the world
From brain-computer interfaces to programmable materials, these are the trends that are going to change the world as we know it today. These defence technologies will have a profound impact on beyond the defence sectors, according to a recent report “Transforming Defence: six science and tech trends set to change the world’ from UK based …
Transforming Defence: key trends that will change the world Read More »
Sezen Bakan – New Daily
Customers pay a price for loyalty to their telco, but SIM evolution will make change easier
Big News Network
Key defence technology trends that will change the world
CircleID
Cyberhygiene Requires Critical Thinking
Cyberhygiene requires critical thinking and protect privacy.
Cyberhygiene requires critical thinking and protect privacy. At his farewell speech in August outgoing Telstra CEO Andy Penn mentioned that the cyber threat has never been as serious as present. He mentioned the deteriorating geopolitical situation as well as the big shift in the way that criminals operate in the cyber domain. One thing is …
Cyberhygiene requires critical thinking and protect privacy. Read More »
LunaNet – developing the internet for the Moon.
The NASA-sponsored Artemis program is the first step in the next era of human exploration. Together with a large number of international government and academic partners as well as businesses – and based on international standards – NASA will establish a sustainable presence on the Moon. The aims of the programme are: demonstrate new technologies, …
CircleID
Telecoms Development Booming in the French Pacific Territories
Telecoms development booming in the French Pacific Territories
After the nuclear submarine debacle with France, political ties have been restored and both France and Australia have agreed further cooperation in the South Pacific, where France has several overseas territories. Also, here telecoms is a key issue. Such cooperation has become more urgent with the increased political interest of China in the region as …
Telecoms development booming in the French Pacific Territories Read More »
Fiji leading Pacific economy and its importance to Australia
Last year, we started an annual overview of the telecommunications developments in the South Pacific and this is the 2022 update that I have been able to piece together with the researchers at BuddeComm. Last week, we discussed the effect of geopolitics on the telecommunication submarine market in the South Pacific. As mentioned, the Australian …
Fiji leading Pacific economy and its importance to Australia Read More »
Telecommunications in the South Pacific is a security issue for Australia
Over the last few years, it has become clear that Australia and the Western countries, in general, have to become more serious about developments in the South Pacific. With China moving further and further into this region – based on rather different geopolitical international engagements – there is obvious anxiety about its policies for the …
Telecommunications in the South Pacific is a security issue for Australia Read More »
Sam Varghese – ITWire
Affordability remains NBN Co’s main problem, says Budde
Minister asks NBN Co to withdraw its proposal for price increases
As I have mentioned before, the only way to stop the rot is for the Government to intervene and address the financial situation of the NBN. This should result in a structural change to the NBN business model that allows it to truly become a national asset for all Australians, not just those who can …
Minister asks NBN Co to withdraw its proposal for price increases Read More »
Energy Central
Finally, smart energy is back on the national agenda
John Davidson – AFR
NBN at risk of being a ‘white elephant’ unless speed is the focus
Smart cities with citizen assemblies could lead the way to better democracies.
Over the years, I have regularly mentioned my involvement in smart cities. I have been involved in this for over a decade. It was obviously my background in the application of technology that had drawn me to this concept. And indeed, it was technology companies such as IBM and Cisco who were key players in …
Smart cities with citizen assemblies could lead the way to better democracies. Read More »
Jason Markram – Worldakkam.com
Citizens’ meetings can guide the way to better democracy
Xinguang.com
开始就仅批发NBN的未来进行辩论 – 新广网
Users are in control of a disintegrated video-based entertainment market.
Over the last 20 years, we have seen a dramatic change in the way we are using the TV. At the same time, the word “TV” has changed as well. It has split into two parts — the hardware and the content. On the hardware side, we have seen a further split with set-top boxes, …
Users are in control of a disintegrated video-based entertainment market. Read More »
Rod Meyer – New Daily
Australians make 63,000 complaints about mobile services during pandemic
David Braue – Information Age
Frustrated town decides to build its own network
Crypto in limbo
I would like to share an article written by my Dutch friend and colleague, Fred Kappetijn. In his younger years, the internet was a network of networks on which someone with a telephone connection, modem, PC, navigation and search program could visit places to find information, make transactions, exchange messages and entertainment. One of the …
Violette Laurent – Fr.Tribune.net
La crypto-monnaie ajoute aux problèmes de l’internet moderne
Robert Clark – Light Reading
Telstra’s rivals push back against TPG sharing deal
The need for a comprehensive mobile telecommunications review
In a precious article I discussed the proposed merger between the mobile operations of TPG and Telstra. I also mentioned my support for domestic roaming in regional areas. For the last 20 years, I have consistently argued that it doesn’t make economic sense to overbuild infrastructure in most regional areas. As a result, Telstra remains …
The need for a comprehensive mobile telecommunications review Read More »
NBN Co wants the regulator to limit competition between NBN and mobile operators
It was interesting to note that NBN Co used its submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) regarding the proposed mobile infrastructure sharing arrangement between Telstra and TPG Telecom to ask the regulator for more protection against mobile competition. Under the ten-year Telstra-TPG regional Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) commercial agreement, TPG customers will …
NBN Co wants the regulator to limit competition between NBN and mobile operators Read More »
Sam Varghese ITWire
Telstra-TPG deal: Budde urges overall review of mobile telco services
Sezen Bakan – New Daily
The price hikes Telstra will roll out on July 1
Warwick Jones – New Daily
Netflix will soon have ads, but it might not be what you think
Finally, smart energy is back on the national agenda
For almost a decade, the Coalition failed to develop a national energy plan, even though such a plan existed before they took office. As energy is of national importance, a national policy, national rules and regulations are necessary. At the same time, we are facing massive changes in the energy sector. The states and the …
Finally, smart energy is back on the national agenda Read More »
Sezan Bakan – New Daily
Experts warn mobile internet prices will rise if Telstra-TPG deal is approved
Free NBN or discounted with Commonwealth Bank services.
Back in the late 1990s and early ’00s when I discussed my vision on how broadband would develop, I mentioned that organisations would start offering free broadband access, linked to the core services of their organisation. The reason is that it would either be more cost-effective for those organisations if customers use the digital service. …
Free NBN or discounted with Commonwealth Bank services. Read More »
The National Party is culpable in the poor-quality broadband service in regional Australia
There is never a dull moment in the Australian telecommunications industry. While on holiday in northwest Queensland, along the Gulf of Carpentaria, I was often still able to get a mobile signal from Telstra (Lawn Hill, Adels Grove, Gregory, Burk and Wills Roadhouse and Karumba, just to name a few rather remote places visited on …
Competition struggling, NBN not delivering
The latest Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) ‘NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report’ shows the top three telcos (Telstra, TPG and Optus) have suffered a slight loss in customers, while smaller internet retailers have increased their customer numbers. Each one of them lost 0.3% market share and the new standings are now: Telstra 43.7%, TPG …
David Braue – ACS Information Age
NZ’s fibre broadband is faster than Australia’s NBN
Stephen Withers – Computer Weekly
The state of Australia’s national broadband network
Rod Meier – NewDaily
Telstra’s fines show why checking out smaller telcos’ offerings is worth your while
Labor Government must now intervene in the NBN to make high-speed broadband more affordable
We have covered the government and opposition plans for the NBN in the past, but there is a commitment from the new Government to extend fibre deeper into the market. However, the real problem is the high costs of the NBN. This makes the wholesale prices higher and therefore also the retail price. As I …
Matthew Elmas – NewDaily
‘Excessively high’: NBN Co plan to hike internet prices stirs controversy
Sam Varghese – ITWire
Labor needs to make high-speed broadband more affordable.
Paulien Roesink – SBS Dutch Radio
Nieuwe uitdaging voor IT-wereld: in 2038 zijn de eentjes en nulletjes op.
Sezen Bakan – New Daily
Small telcos gathering steam as Telstra, Optus lose customers
Bitcoin is progressing across the globe
Central Banks across the world have been exploring the possibility of implementing a digital currency — Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). A digital currency can provide a safer financial environment as it will enable individuals, private companies and several financial institutions to settle directly in central bank money rather than through bank deposits. Therefore, through …
James Purtill – ABC Science
Why the NBN still matters — and how it can be improved after the election
Telstra buys into Fetch TV – will this shake-up the videostreaming market?
Like so many telcos around the world, Telstra has been floundering through the video streaming market over the last few decades. It will be interesting to see if its acquisition of a 51% stake in the content aggregation company Fetch TV for $50 million will herald a new beginning. For the last 25 years plus, …
Telstra buys into Fetch TV – will this shake-up the videostreaming market? Read More »
combinedprediction.com
Telstra Partners With Fetch In An Effort To Increase Streaming Potential
The new Twitter – free speech for Elon Musk
It is a bit expensive, but if you are the richest man in the world, you can afford $60 billion-plus to buy yourself a free speech outlet. This is just what prolific Twitterer Elon Musk has done. He was not happy with the way Twitter was managed and in the way it stops fake news …
he Great Irony of Technology
My colleague Pat Scannell asked me the other day to assist in reviewing his manuscript: ‘The Great Irony of Technology’. In this upcoming book, he mentioned an issue that really intrigued me — the “disruption of thought”. He makes the point that the rapid acceleration of technology exceeds the ability of any one person or …
What will the future of Sky Muster be?
Users across the country are complaining about the Sky Muster service. They complain about ongoing dropouts and diminishing download speeds. So, let’s look a bit deeper into these issues. At the start of the ’00s, it was envisaged that the country needed at least two satellites to deliver a good quality satellite service to people …
Dutch solar foil to turn Australia into a major hydrogen exporter
One of my Dutch colleagues, Vincent Dekker, has specialised himself over the years in sustainable energy matters and with his interest in smart technologies, I have been following his articles with interest. His articles appear on the website of the Dutch newspaper, Trouw. Of course, when he included Australia in one of his articles, I …
Dutch solar foil to turn Australia into a major hydrogen exporter Read More »
Telstra’s new CEO Vicki Brady – well positioned to face the challenges.
There were no indications that Andy Penn would retire as CEO of Telstra, but obviously, internally they have been working on this for some time. Telstra is really good at organising smooth internal CEO successions. It has an excellent pool of talented C-level people and there is no longer the ego element that, for example, …
Telstra’s new CEO Vicki Brady – well positioned to face the challenges. Read More »
Andrew Miller – North Queensland Register
Pork barrelling, poor mapping hampering better communications
Further NBN discussions following the Budget announcement
HE 2022 BUDGET has been characterised as a political budget and one that mainly consists of short-term policies and handouts, while what is needed are strategic long-term policies. Where is the national long-term vision for the country, linked with appropriate long-term policies? This applies across all the areas the Budget covers: wages, cost of living, …
Further NBN discussions following the Budget announcement Read More »
AAP – Michael West Media
Next Telstra boss talks up growth ambition
Sam Varghese – ITWire
No matter who wins election, NBN changes will remain
Sam Varghese – ITWire
Appointment of Brady as Telstra CEO indicates ‘steady as she goes’ policy
Alan Burkitt-Gray – Capacity Media
CFO Vicky Brady to lead Telstra as Penn retires
Indranil Sarkar – Today
Australia’s Telstra names insider Brady as its first woman CEO
Much needed boost for the NBN in regional areas
With the election looming, money becomes available, especially for those projects that are drawing a lot of criticism to the Government and the NBN certainly is one of those areas. Predictably, the NBN is receiving a boost in the upcoming Budget. The Government has indicated that it will invest a further $480 million in the …
Julia André – ABC News North West Qld
Rural residents say $750m NBN boost ‘not enough’ to bridge digital divide in the bush
Eliza Borrello – ABC News
$750 million federal cash splash to boost regional internet speeds and connect more homes to NBN wireless
Sezan Bakan – NewDaily
Government shrugs off decade of ‘mistakes’ with $750 million NBN upgrade
Leith van Onselen – Microbusiness
Is Foxtel cannibalising itself into extinction?
Robert Clark – LightReading
NBN’s fixed wireless access, satellite networks get $555M boost
Sam Varghese – ITWire
Throwing money at NBN in regions will not lead to automatic fix
Foxtel still struggling in the streaming market
As we have been discussing in the past, Foxtel has been struggling and is continuing to struggle in the video streaming market. The rumour that Telstra is negotiating a majority share in Fetch could further undermine Foxtel, as Telstra still is a shareholder in this venture, be it at a much-reduced level. Its relationship with …
Telstra’s OneWeb deal caught up in the Russian war.
Telstra might regret having signed a commercial deal with London based OneWeb as this company has now become a pawn in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Telstra agreed to host two OneWeb gateway Earth stations in Australia, one in the west and one in the north, which would also cover the APAC region, with …
Telstra’s OneWeb deal caught up in the Russian war. Read More »
Sam Varghese – ITWire
Vocus rules out any effect on OneWeb deal due to Russia-Ukraine conflict
James Purtill – ABC News
Telstra partners with Starlink-like OneWeb satellite internet service to compete with Elon Musk and Sky Muster
CircleID
The Battles in the Online Video Game Streaming Market Are Heating Up
The battles in the online video game streaming market are heating up
In a previous article I reported on the problems that Facebook (Meta) is facing — currently betting the house on its Meta service, based on a software platform that will create a virtual reality (VR) networked environment. I mentioned that I was critical about this business model and that I don’t see, at least for …
The battles in the online video game streaming market are heating up Read More »
Government advised to accept ‘sunk’ NBN costs
Over the last years, I have written many articles in which I argued that the high costs for building the NBN have at least partly to do with the party politics that have been pursued by the Government. As soon as Tony Abbott announced that the NBN should be killed, the issue became political and …
Matthew Elmas – New Daily
Telstra and Optus lose as small NBN retailers take on the giants with tailored plans: ACCC
Sam Varghese – ITWire
Telco expert backs ACCC call to treat NBN costs as sunk
NBN Co’s financial worries are still not over
In the running up to the company’s six-month financial announcement, NBN Co indicated that it would start in April rolling out its latest rebate campaigns — under the themes “Step Up” and “Light Up”. They aim to attract new connections and migrate existing users from low to mid-level speeds. The offers are again only temporary …
Sezen Bakan – NewDaily
Four tips to avoid pushing your mobile data plan past its limit
Matthew Elmas – New Daily
Australia Post offers more accurate delivery estimates with major upgrade
Sam Varghese – iTWire
NBN Co’s financial worries far from over
Are we seeing the slow demise of Facebook?
It was all over the news, so I am sure you have seen the dramatic beating that Facebook received at the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street. Facebook parent company Meta slumped more than 26 per cent, erasing more than U.S.$237 billion (AU$332 billion) in market value, the largest one-day drop in history, also …
How humans employ technologies to work, govern, and co-exist
I have mentioned before my astute group of international colleagues with whom I have ongoing discussions about the many different social, economic and political issues in relation to technology. I regularly report on some of the interesting conversations we are having. I have mentioned Dr David Bray before, the Executive Director for the bipartisan Commission …
How humans employ technologies to work, govern, and co-exist Read More »
Circle ID
Is technology the problem?
Is technology the problem?
We do live in turbulent times. There is such a lot happening, with many people feeling overwhelmed and lost. One of the reasons given why we do have these problems is technology. I would argue against that. In all reality, technology is a tool that we can use and yes, we all know that we …
The Year 2038 computer problem – a repeat of Y2K?
The Year 2038 Problem relates to representing time in many digital systems as the number of seconds passed since 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970 and storing it as a signed 32-bit integer. Such implementations cannot encode times after 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038. At that time, systems might crash and will be unable …
The Year 2038 computer problem – a repeat of Y2K? Read More »
Danielle O’Neal – ABC Radio Longreach
Pilot project uses Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites to provide connectivity to regional farms
Australian farms get connected to the Starlink satellites
Last year, I reported on the possibility that LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellite-based systems might be a gamechanger for the delivery of high-speed data services, including internet access, to people in regional and remote Australia. What has become clear with the rollout of the NBN is that the quality of data connections in metropolitan cities …
Australian farms get connected to the Starlink satellites Read More »
HPCigar
LATEST NEWS Starlink calls on NBN to improve Australian agriculture
My telecoms and digital economy predictions for 2020
Of course, let me begin by wishing you a good start to the new year. It will be an interesting year in many aspects and it remains a year of high levels of uncertainty, so it is important to stay flexible. As always, the year will provide many “wow” moments in relation to technology, but …
My telecoms and digital economy predictions for 2020 Read More »
Is information a fundamental part nature?
I have mentioned my friend and colleague Fred Kappetijn before. We regularly look at bigger issues and one of these has been the role of information in our universe. This might be an article you might want to ponder about over the Christmas break This is not your usual way of discussing information. This goes …
Would it have been better if Abbott had killed the NBN?
There has again been a lot of discussion about the NBN in recent weeks. As we already discussed, there was the announcement by the Labor Party and in a separate development, The Guardian reported the cost blow outs of the NBN under the Coalition Government. In my analysis of the Labor plan, I mentioned that …
Would it have been better if Abbott had killed the NBN? Read More »
Regional telecommunications services are simply not good enough
For decades, we have been arguing about poor telecommunications for people that are living in regional Australia and in many cases, this includes the fringes of the metropolitan cities as well. Let’s first discuss the broadband network before we address the mobile networks. This issue started to become more prevalent in the mid-to-late 1990s when …
Regional telecommunications services are simply not good enough Read More »
EnergyCentral
Using smart cities to build bastions to protect democracy
China using cyber technologies to expand their political cloud
A few month ago, I mentioned that China’s social code will also be expanded to companies who want to deal with China. I have come across information that shows that China is indeed serious about this. China’s cyberspace regulator has proposed requiring companies pursuing share listings in Hong Kong to apply for cybersecurity inspections if …
China using cyber technologies to expand their political cloud Read More »
EnergyCentral
C-V2X standard for autonomous vehicle services
The NBN remains a political football
A recent revelation published in The Guardian shows that the NBN is much more expensive than what the Coalition let us believe in 2013. The beginnings of the NBN date back to the Howard Government with Kevin Rudd in the Opposition seat. Around 2005, both Parties agreed that extra money was needed to ensure that …
Rod Myer – NewDaily
Australian NBN speeds improving, but we still lag the world
Labor’s NBN plan full fibre NBN will reach 8 million households
It seems Labor has bitten the bullet and decided that to have an overall better quality NBN, more money is needed to upgrade the Fibre-to-the-Node (FttN) to full-fibre. While the Government has indicated that the next stage of the NBN needs to be financed by NBN Co through private debt, Labor believes that this will …
Labor’s NBN plan full fibre NBN will reach 8 million households Read More »
Chris Duckett – ZDNet
Labor commits to making AU$2.4b ‘investment’ to extend on-demand FttN upgrades
Radio Interview 6PR – Olivier Petersen
Labor’s plan to fix NBN “won’t be enough”
Pearls and Irritations
Money and policy are the keys to elevate Australia into top broadband league
James Riley – Innovations Aus
Federal Labor to boost NBN fibre, retain public ownership
Sam Varghese – ITWire
Analyst puts Labor NBN plan in same basket as govt efforts
Cirque de Solei explores the new options of VR and holoportation.
A few weeks ago, I talked about Facebook’s Metaverse and the issues that I have with this service, in a regulatory vacuum. I hope we have learned our lessons with the current way social media have developed and that we are making sure we are not going to use new developments in these media purely …
Cirque de Solei explores the new options of VR and holoportation. Read More »
Sam Varghese – ITWire
NBN likely to end up with $90 billion bill, top telco analyst says
Big News Network
IA Book Club: ‘Why You Should Give A Fck About Farming‘
Rod Meyer – New Daily
Foxtel may float as the competition increases in streaming
Interplanetary Internet
We had a very interesting presentation and discussion regarding the topic of interplanetary internet with my international colleagues of which Vint Cerf – one of the “fathers of the internet” – is also a member. As a partner of the Interplanetary Networking Special Interest Group (IPNSIG), he took us on a journey that he has …
Telstra’s Digicel South Pacific buy is politically motivated
Telstra is partnering with the Australian Government in a deal that sees the telecoms company acquire the mobile business of Digicel South Pacific for U.S.$1.6 billion (AU$2.14 billion), plus an additional U.S.$250 million (AU$333 million) depending on how the business fares over the next three years. The Government has committed to pay U.S.$1.33 billion (AU$1.73 …
Telstra’s Digicel South Pacific buy is politically motivated Read More »
Architecture & Design
Using smart cities to protect democracy
Zach Marzouk – ITPro
Telstra to acquire Digicel Pacific for $1.6 billion with help from government
Taiwan Daily
澳收購最大電信商阻中插旗太平洋島國 – 美洲台灣日報
SPRÁVY
Austrálska Telstra kupuje Digicel Pacific, Canberra chce znížiť vplyv Číny v regióne
Teraz – Slovakia
Austrálska Telstra kupuje Digicel Pacific
On.cc Hong Kong
防華滲透太平洋澳洲官商購通訊企業 – 東網
ACS InformationAge
Crypto and the metaverse lead tech innovation
The Straits Times – Singapore
Telstra to buy Digicel Pacific in Australia government-backed $2.2 billion deal
Nasdaq
Telstra to buy Digicel Pacific in Australia government-backed $1.6 bln deal
Oct 21 – Irish Times
Denis O’Brien welcomes sale of Digicel Pacific to Telstra in $1.85bn deal
Oct 21 – Kathryn Robinson – ABC TV
VIDEO: Telstra joins with the federal government to buy South Pacific telco
Oct 21 – Byron Kaye – Reuters
Telstra to buy Digicel Pacific in Australia government-backed $1.6 billion deal
Using smart cities to build bastions to protect democracy
Over the last few years, I have written various articles about smart cities and I have reported on several of them during my international smart city expedition in 2018. Moving three years forward, COVID-19 has had a positive and a negative effect on the development of smart cities. On the positive side, the awareness of …
Using smart cities to build bastions to protect democracy Read More »
Oct 21 – Sam Vargherse – ITWire
Analyst Budde terms Telstra’s Digicel move ‘a political decision’
Telehealth and Mental Health
Around 2005, in the days when we started to prepare for building the NBN, we had a special workgroup working on telehealth. At that time, we also discussed this with health professionals and asked them which areas of healthcare would benefit the most from the use of the new digital media. The professionals’ answers to …
Zuckerberg’s Metaverse hype, reality or does it just suck.
Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg launched his metaverse vision for Facebook beyond it being a social media outlet. He envisages an augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) internet in which we all can immerse and do things basically as virtual beings. In his vision, we will all soon be wearing VR goggles and …
Zuckerberg’s Metaverse hype, reality or does it just suck. Read More »
Oct 21 – Big News Network
Zuckerberg’s metaverse comes with serious flaws
How AI and a systems approach can be used to better understand our world
In 2002, computer scientist, physicist and businessman Stephen Wolfram published his book, A New Kind of Science. Rather than looking at mathematics as the solution to unravel the mysteries of the world and the universe, Wolfram looked at how systems work and concluded that they do follow certain patterns to eventually create a particular outcome. …
How AI and a systems approach can be used to better understand our world Read More »
Unveiling T25, Telstra’s vision of its future.
In September 2021, Telstra CEO Andy Penn revealed the company’s plan for the next four years, unveiling T25 — the next tranche of T22, which is part of an ongoing transformation of the telco. This is the company’s strategic program aimed at leading the Australian telecommunications market by simplifying its operations and product set, improving …
Sep 21 – Architecture & Design
The future of automated vehicles has a long and winding road ahead
C-V2X standard for autonomous vehicle services
Around 20 years ago, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in the USA allocated 75 MHz (5.85-5.925 GHz) to Intelligent Transportation Systems. This led to the dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) standard, 802.11p, which is a tweak of 802.11a. Approximately zero cars adopted it. There were demo projects and some roadside units were built, but it never …
Government want NBN Co to focus on the money.
Rather conveniently, NBN Co has removed all forward financial projections beyond the next 12 months in its Corporate Plan for 2022, released last week. As I also mentioned when the Government released its financial results a few weeks ago, understanding how the company is really performing remains rather murky. The new corporate plan only adds …
Global developments in broadband
High-speed fibre overtakes DSL as OECD countries add 21 million fixed broadband connections in pandemic year High-speed fibre Internet subscriptions surpassed copper-wire DSL connections across OECD countries for the first time in 2020 as the need to move work and home life activities online during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a record 21.15 million new …
Vale Professor Reg Coutts
By Ben Grubb in InnovationAus In 2008, Professor Coutts was appointed by then-communications minister Stephen Conroy as one of six members of a panel of experts to assess proposals to build the NBN and to advise the government on the awarding of a $4.7 billion contract to part-fund its construction. The panel eventually rejected all …
Satellite another tool in the fight against Covid
Over the last few decades of an increasingly well-connected world, the use of data to assist us in managing the many complex issues that we as a global society are facing has become more and more important. We have seen this in the IPCC report on climate change, which uses massive amounts of data that …
Satellite another tool in the fight against Covid Read More »
NBN hits a financial target that has been revised downwards several times
In August, NBN Co announced its financial results for the financial year ending 30 June 2021. It showed that it had activated 8.2 million customers. Interestingly they mentioned that this was on target — returning $4.6 billion of revenues and an improved net loss of $3.8 billion. But as I have also mentioned in previous …
NBN hits a financial target that has been revised downwards several times Read More »
Success of Telehealth in Australia in glowing numbers
Last year I reported on the success of telehealth. I can now tell that the service will be permanent feature of the medical service in Australia. People including myself have been arguing for this for more than 15 years, but it required a crisis such as Covid to see it implemented and becoming a key …
Success of Telehealth in Australia in glowing numbers Read More »
Aug 20 – CircleID
Massive Changes to the Chinese Tech Industry
Aug 20 – Rod Myer – New Daily
Why News Corp isn’t doing as well as its results suggest
Massive changes to the Chinese tech industry.
It was on the cards. For weeks, Jack Ma, the digital tycoon of China, founder of Ant and of e-commerce giant Alibaba (the Chinese Amazon), disappeared off the radar after he was summoned by the Chinese Government and most likely lectured on the fact that his company was out of step with official Chinese policy. …
Back to the future with FttH and finally mobile roaming is on the cards.
In a surprise move, the Commonwealth Bank took a 25% stake in two of the NBN Retail Service Providers (RSPs): More Telecom and Tangerine. As electronic banking is growing exponentially, the bank wants to become more involved in the telecoms market which is key in providing access to such services. As Australia has one of …
Back to the future with FttH and finally mobile roaming is on the cards. Read More »
July 21 – Big News Network
Telstra bids on Digicel amid South Pacific tech expansion
Broadband Developments in the South Pacific
The Australian Government together with Telstra have made a $2 billion offer for the Digicel telco assets in the South Pacific. The Irish company is one of the largest mobile operators in island nations in both the Caribbean and the South Pacific. It is facing financial difficulties because of the drop in revenues from tourists …
Is our mobile market competitive?
The reason why I am asking about our mobile market competitiveness is the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recently argued that because the courts allowed the merger between Vodafone and TPG, the market has become less competitive. The ACCC had argued against the merger but lost that case. It is not easy to give …
July 21 – Matthew Elmas New Daily
Telstra fails again: Telco cops $25 million refund bill over NBN plans
July 21 – Illinois News
ACCC declares mobile market uncompetitive
Using technologies for the good of all.
For those involved in technology from a government and industry perspective, as well as from a user’s point of view, we all have a responsibility to monitor developments in this space to ensure they’re utilised for the benefit of society. I have addressed this in a few previous articles but would like to come back …
Will 5G be a game changer or simply a 4G upgrade.
We have covered several articles about the potential of 5G being a competitor to the NBN. I have always downplayed this but have also indicated that there certainly are new niche market opportunities of 5G. However, these will be incremental, and its main development is simply replacing 4G, as it offers significant network efficiencies for …
Will 5G be a game changer or simply a 4G upgrade. Read More »
New NBN proposal smoke and mirrors, no real reform.
While the NBN Co’s discussion paper on its special access undertaking variation is to be welcomed, the question remains whether this really is going to make true high-speed broadband more affordable. On several occasions, we have discussed the contentious wholesale pricing regime and, in particular, a charge known as the connectivity virtual circuit (CVC), which …
New NBN proposal smoke and mirrors, no real reform. Read More »
June 21 – Illinois News Live
Australian Electric Vehicle Penetration
June 21 – Illinois News Live
NBN has problems as a result of the coalition government’s cost-cutting policies
June 21 – JNews
Telstra NBN is going to take a monopoly
The ACCC is worried we will use the NBN too much.
Recently, IT was reported that a new Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Commissioner, Anna Brakey, said: We have got an opportunity to have a look at the regulatory framework and to make sure, that we efficiently use the NBN. If we set prices too low, there would be overuse of the NBN. And as …
The ACCC is worried we will use the NBN too much. Read More »
June 21 – Big News Network
Viscount Christopher Monckton: Lord of the lies on climate change
Also, with electric vehicles Australia is trailing the world.
We have had former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s “kill the NBN” policy, Scott Morrison bringing a lump of coal into the Parliament and then-Small Business Minister Michaelia Cash tried to scare Australian ute drivers by proclaiming they would be obliterated by electric vehicles (EVs). Scott Morrison also questioned the need for big batteries, which he …
Also, with electric vehicles Australia is trailing the world. Read More »
Challenging telecoms conditions for the Northern Territory
Recently, I visited the Northern Territory. Apart from the occasional business meeting in Darwin, this was my third trip to this amazing part of Australia. I first spent time here in 1988, when I lived for two weeks with the Angatja people in Amata, approximately 100 kilometres south of Uluru. My second trip some 10 …
Challenging telecoms conditions for the Northern Territory Read More »
May 21 – energycentral
Australians are going to pay for a failed national energy policy.
NBN faces new problems but executives paid bonusses
There is never a dull moment in the NBN saga, with the following happening over the last few weeks: NBN executives paid themselves $77 million in bonuses; construction staff went on strike as they missed out on proper payments and are also frustrated with the inefficiencies of the rollout activities; NBN Co announced it will …
NBN faces new problems but executives paid bonusses Read More »
May 21 ChannelNews
You Can’t Please Everyone: IT Initiatives Draw Mixed Reax \
May 21 – Robert Clark – Light Reading
Aussie telcos take aim at costly NBN with 5G
Enough is enough ACCC will become involved in the NBN monopoly.
NBN Co has released its plans for the 2021 pricing review consultation process. It is seeking retail service provider (RSP) and broader industry feedback on current and future matters of NBN wholesale pricing. However, in its outline of what will be reviewed, it became clear that the key issues are not on the discussion list. …
Enough is enough ACCC will become involved in the NBN monopoly. Read More »
April 21 – Michael Lester Radio Northern Beaches
Broadband, Internet, Telecomms, Starlink – developments
April 21 0 Sam Varghese – ITWire
NBN Co wholesale pricing model needs structural change
$100 billion national broadband plan for America.
The new Biden Administration in the USA laid out a $100 billion proposal for broadband investment as part of its $2 trillion+ infrastructure plan. Under the proposal, the plan is to provide national broadband coverage. The Administration will use better competition measures, such a price transparency, the use of public utility infrastructure and subsidies for …
$100 billion national broadband plan for America. Read More »
Australians are going to pay for a failed national energy policy.
The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has indicated that the electricity grid is struggling to cope with the changing power landscape, which is generating more solar energy than ever before. It has also flagged therefore that Australians with rooftop solar panels could soon be charged for exporting electricity to the grid. This is, of course, …
Australians are going to pay for a failed national energy policy. Read More »
Connected Farms
Late last year I wrote an article on e-agriculture activities based on my trip into outback Queensland Agriculture ICT and travelling in Outback Queensland. I received this follow up from Tom Andrews from Connected Farms. I recall that last October you did an excellent article about the importance of connectivity for the Australian farming sector …
Cybersecurity, an essential weapon in the cyberwarfare to protect our democracy.
We see the problems that we are facing within an increasingly digital society and economy. We cannot go backwards; the only way forward is to ensure that this new digital environment is made as safe as possible from a personal, social, political and economic perspective. We are currently struggling on these fronts. Unfortunately, we have …
Cybersecurity, an essential weapon in the cyberwarfare to protect our democracy. Read More »
April-21 – James Purtill – ABC
Elon Musk’s Starlink is now live in Australia. Will it really deliver faster internet, and to whom?
Broadband users are going to pay for failed NBN policies.
For more than a decade – dating back to the original NBN plan from the Labor Government – the retail service providers (RSPs) have argued against the unpredictable variable elements in its wholesale charges (the so-called connectivity virtual charges or CVCs). We have covered this at length in previous articles going back at least to …
Broadband users are going to pay for failed NBN policies. Read More »
April 21 – Australian News.Net
Broadband users will pay for failed NBN policies
April 21 – Kate Castellari – ChannelNews
Low-Earth Satellite Services Set To Rule In Outback Oz
April 21 – Chris Zappone – SMH
Elon Musk’s Starlink poised to shake up Australia’s broadband
Are the LEOs going to disrupt the telco market?
We are getting closer to using alternative broadband solutions, offered by international companies. Local telecommunication entities will in this respect be relegated to resellers. The reality of accessing low Earth orbiting satellite (LEO) services is now clearly on the horizon. Most of the telcos as well as governments are not prepared for the potential shock …
April 21 – Jonathan Edwards – Brinkwire
TPG shares at record low after Teoh exit
March 21- Kate Castellari – Channel News
Industry Sings Teoh Praises As He Quits TPG As Chairman
Telstra restructuring too little too late?
Telstra is finalising its restructuring that we discussed in previous articles here and here. With the restructuring, it very much looks like the focus will shift towards infrastructure rather than digital services — that battle might have been lost. While the Telstra restructuring is heralded as a good move, it is important to put this …
March 21 – Steven Deare – AAP
TPG shares at record low after Teoh exit
The digital transformation of the Australian economy
The current pandemic, but also the previous Great Financial Crisis as well as an increase in more severe climatological events such as bushfires and floods, are all clear indications that we cannot just continue managing our society and our economy as usual. If one thing is becoming clear, we cannot go back to “normal” as …
The digital transformation of the Australian economy Read More »
March 20 – Sam Varghese – ITWire
Budde applauds Telstra changes, but questions whether it is too little, too late
March 21 – David Braue – ACS
ACT-area town writes smart city blueprint
Australian fixed broadband in the international context.
During the past two decade, there have been considerable efforts undertaken by governments and national telecom regulators to ensure that their countries’ economic growth is underpinned by capable broadband infrastructure. The success of national policies has been variable, but the scale of investment and the way the development of fibre infrastructure has been encouraged has …
Australian fixed broadband in the international context. Read More »
Technology – a tool to increase our processes of thought and cognition
It is astonishing to look at the technological developments over the last 50 years, but even more so in the last ten years. Humans have always evolved with the assistance of tools, but in the past some of these developments took millennia or centuries to develop. For most people, let us say until the Middle …
Technology – a tool to increase our processes of thought and cognition Read More »
NBN too expensive, TPG wants to move customers.
Recently TPG announced its full-year results. Like many others in the industry, the company saw a decline in profits and like others, TPG also claimed that on COVID-19. But under the motto “never waste a good crisis”, TPG has come up with a plan to save costs. As I have mentioned time and time again, …
Feb 21 – Anna Henderson – ABC Radio
What’s happened to millions of dollars to improve telecommunications after bushfires?
NBN wants us to pay more for their broadband service.
Over the last few weeks, we have seen several new announcements from NBN Co. The key announcements include: A payment of $3 billion to the Government as a repayment of their $19.5 billion investment; An extra 100,000 fibre-to-the-node (FttN) premises will be upgraded to fibre-to-the-premise (FttP) infrastructure; and A complex review of their already complex …
NBN wants us to pay more for their broadband service. Read More »
Feb 21 – Developpez.com (France)
Facebook conclut un accord de dernière minute avec l’Australie sur le contenu des nouvelles,
Feb 21 – DR (Denmark)
Facebook og Australien er venner igen: Techgigant har tvunget en bedre deal igennem
Feb 21 – Világgazdaság (Hungary)
A Facebook fizethet a hírekért
Feb 21 – České noviny (Czech)
Facebook v Austrálii po dohodě s vládou odblokuje zpravodajství
Feb 21 – USNews & World Report
Reaction to Facebook Agreeing a Concession Deal With Australia on Media Bill
Feb 21 – Sam Varghese – ITWire
Facebook has triumphed in govt stoush and nothing has changed.
Feb 21 – ChannelNews
Figures Reveal Full-Fibre NBN Could Be $10bn Cheaper
Facebook stays, everybody is happy but nothing has changed
After some turmoil, Facebook won the war with the Australian Government as the necessary changes were made to the legislation that avoids them needing to make changes to their business model. Those subtleties are lost in the general press. What counts for the popular media is that they were able to spin some great stories …
Facebook stays, everybody is happy but nothing has changed Read More »
Feb 21 – SMH – Rob Harris Jennifer Duke
Secret figures show full fibre NBN may have cost $10 billion less than claimed
Feb 21 – Vision Times (China)
澳洲施壓科技巨頭谷歌願付費臉書出對策(圖)
Feb 21 – InnovationAus
Facebook is right to call the government’s bluff
Feb 21 – Liberty Times (China)
澳洲政府鐵腕立法！谷歌讓步付費給澳媒
Feb 21 – Bảo (Vietnam)
Đối tác báo chí lớn đầu tiên của Australia gia nhập hệ thống trả phí của Google
Feb 21 – Yahoo Noticias
Empresas de medios australianos obtienen más de Google a las puertas de una nueva ley
Feb 21 – Nasdaq
GLOBAL MARKETS-Rising US yields takes edge off stocks rally
Feb 21 – Byron Kaye – Reuters
Australian media firms squeeze more from Google as new law looms
Macquarie Group is set to shake up the digital infrastructure market.
A few months ago, I reported on the broader market of which telecommunications infrastructure is a part. I mentioned data centres, cloud computing and data analytics (big data). All together we can perhaps best call this digital infrastructure. While the importance of this merged set of infrastructures will benefit all economies and societies, I recently …
Macquarie Group is set to shake up the digital infrastructure market. Read More »
Feb 21 – News 24 France
Google conclut un accord de licence avec Seven West Media australien au milieu de la ligne de paiement de contenu
Feb 21 – Metro
[해외증시] 호주 세븐웨스트미디어, 구글과 뉴스 콘텐츠 계약
Feb 21 – Sam Verghese – ITwire
NBN Co pricing review will lead to $2 per customer price rise
Feb 21 – Serendeputy
Google set to survive in Oz, but far bigger threats are on the way
Feb 21 – U.S. News & World Report
Australia’s Seven West Media Strikes Deal With Google for News
Feb 21 – Byron Kay – Reuters
Australia’s Seven West Media strikes deal with Google for news
Google set to survive in Oz, but far bigger threats are on the way.
The signs are that the Australian Government and Google are close to a compromise. The main demands made by the Government stay in place, but some of the details will be changed. This allows the Government to claim victory, while the damage to Google will be limited. See also my earlier blog on this topic: …
Google set to survive in Oz, but far bigger threats are on the way. Read More »
Feb 21 – InnovationAus
On platforms and services: The great unwinding
Technology: doomsday or godsend – the choice is ours.
Following the American insurrection and the role the media played – social media, in particular – “doomsday scenario” started to appear again in relation to technological developments. Only a few years ago, a group of hi-tech companies including Tesla warned against the negative aspects of artificial intelligence (AI). Other technologies that could have a serious …
Technology: doomsday or godsend – the choice is ours. Read More »
Google vs. Australia – the war is on.
We have seen that Mel Silva, Google Australia’s Managing Director, threatening to shut down its search engine in Australia if a proposed law requiring tech giants to pay publishers for news isn’t changed. The most controversial issue is that it would have to pay publishers for links to news articles that appear in search results. …
Jan 21 – Robert Clark – Lightreading
Telstra weaponizes 5G against NBN
What will 2021 have install for the ICT industry?
While 2021 will remain a year with lots of uncertainties, at the same we can say that the pandemic has not affected the information and communications technology (ICT) industry in any significant way. Yes, there has been a slowdown, for example, in the sale of smartphones. Shortages in both materials and expertise are slowing the …
What will 2021 have install for the ICT industry? Read More »
What is next for America – and the rest of the democratic world.
With Trump gone, will the USA (and for that matter any other western nation facing political polarisation) be able to make structural changes to address the underlaying problems. Will Covid-19 be a catalyst in this process or perhaps the American insurrection? If we look at the western democracies than America is facing much deeper problems …
What is next for America – and the rest of the democratic world. Read More »
Can we control the digital platforms?
The digital market has matured over the last 20 years and it is no longer an excuse for governments to do nothing with the aim to let new markets and innovations emerge without immediate regulatory oversight. It has become clear this period is now well and truly over. The European Commission has already launched several …
Jan 21 – EnergyCentral
Massive renewable energy projects underpinned by ICT technologies
Jan 21 – Allan Burkitt-Gray – Capacity
Australia starts debate on future of wholesale-only NBN
Jan 21 – Independent Australia
#2 TOP IA STORY OF 2020: Telstra is going on to take the NBN monopoly
Jan 21 – Independent Australia
#3 TOP IA STORY OF 2020: Foxtel pay-TV faces slow death
Dec 20 – Steven Dear – AAP
NT residents top list in download rankings
Rhineland economic model is closest to smart city developments
It’s interesting to compare the major economic models in the Western world: the Anglo-Saxon model, the Rhineland model and the Scandinavian model. The Anglo-Saxon model is very much driven by small government, market-driven economic and social policies, and in general, has a large focus on shareholders’ value. By contrast, the other two models operate more …
Rhineland economic model is closest to smart city developments Read More »
Dec 20 – MacroBusiness
How Australia can learn from Scandinavian countries
Nov 20 – Scott Haywood 2GB
The Telstra Transformation (radio)
Another brochure to cover up NBN failings
It was astonishing to hear the news the Federal Government has set up the Regional Digital Tech Hub as part of their $220 million Stronger Digital Connect Package. It seemed like it would be great an infrastructure hub. But no it is just another website and a set of new brochures. Over the last 15 …
Massive renewable energy projects underpinned by ICT technologies
In the mid to late 2000s, I set up the industry association Smart Grid Australia (SGA). The reason why I became involved in the smart energy sector was that earlier that decade I had established the industry group UtiliTel. At that time, Telstra was reluctant to go even beyond the integrated services digital network (ISDN) …
Massive renewable energy projects underpinned by ICT technologies Read More »
Will it be third time lucky for Telstra?
Over the last few weeks I have reported on the restructuring of Telstra. The proposed restructuring is exciting new challenge for the company. It will now all depend on the direction the execution will take. This is the third significant opportunity for Telstra to reinvent itself. The first time was in the late 1990s when …
What will 6G look like in a geopolitical divided world
A recent session of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and the Australian Smart Communities Association (ASCA) masterclass on 5G, featured Dr Ian Oppermann, the NSW Government’s Chief Data Scientist and one of the country’s most respected experts in radio technology. Ian is also the Chair of the scientific advisory board of the 6G Flagship organisation, …
What will 6G look like in a geopolitical divided world Read More »
The break-up of Telstra: Interesting potential new telecoms scenarios.
For decades, we have basically been conditioned to look at the telecoms market based on the regulatory arrangements that exist around it. The Postmaster-General’s Department (PMG) which became Telecom Australia was a state-owned business that had the monopoly on all telecoms services and was mainly paid for by taxpayers. The market was opened in the …
The break-up of Telstra: Interesting potential new telecoms scenarios. Read More »
Nov 20 – Scott Haywood 2GB Podcast
The Telstra Transformation
Disinformation and our technology industries
It was interesting to see that, albeit belatedly, the American media started to stop giving Trump opportunities to spew out his lies across the country and beyond. It obviously had now reached a point where the media realised that if they would continue to provide Trump with their avenues that this would make them accomplices …
Nov 20 – Sam Varghese – ITWire
Success of Telstra move will depend on freedom for units: Budde
Will Infra Co be gamechanger in the telecoms market?
It has taken a long time but it is good to see that Telstra has finally recognised that a significant part of its business is infrastructure. The business model of infrastructure is rather different from that of services. Infrastructure will not necessarily achieve high short-term returns but it will deliver long term very steady returns …
Will Infra Co be gamechanger in the telecoms market? Read More »
Nov 20- Sam Varghese – ITWire
No full 1Q financial figures for you, NBN Co tells journalists
Smart Regional Towns – Game changers for reginal and rural Australia
Developments in telecommunications and technology are key to creating more liveable regional centres. At the recent CommsDay Summit, two interesting Low Earth Orbiting Satellites (LEOsat) services were mentioned. . A few months ago I wrote an extensive article on this subject., which provides some global background information on these satellite development. At the conference, Michael …
Smart Regional Towns – Game changers for reginal and rural Australia Read More »
Nov 20 – Leading Edge
‘Smart regional towns’: Game-changers for rural Australia
Nov 20 – Queensland Times
Broadband cut-off: Will your home be cut-off?
Nov 20 – Stan Beer – ITWire
NBN Co a monopoly? Maybe, but not like Telstra was because of 5G
Nov 20 – Sam Varghese – ITWire
NBN Co behaving much as Telstra did during its monopoly days: Budde
Oct 20 – ABC
NSW urges climate action as bushfire royal commission’s recommendations tabled
Government backed NBN monopoly is flexing its muscles
Over the last year, we have discussed the unsustainably high wholesale charges that NBN Co is raking in. They need this just to recoup the blowout of the investments in their second-rate multi-technology mix (MtM) infrastructure. The Government, following its election win in 2013, handpicked a new NBN team. They were favourable to their policies, …
Government backed NBN monopoly is flexing its muscles Read More »
Oct 20 – CircleId
ICT in Agriculture: A Travel to Australia’s Outback Queensland
Oct 20 – Tech Exec Blog
How technology can help Australia’s agricultural sector thrive
NBN battle between the ACCC and the Government
It came as a surprise to many in the telecoms industry as well as in the legal profession that the Government issued a Statement of Expectation (SoE) to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). In my opinion, what this means is that the Government would like the ACCC to facilitate NBN Co to increase …
Oct 20 – Energy Central
Newcastle: Australia’s leading smart city
Agriculture ICT and travelling in Outback Queensland
In October 2020, I went on a two-week tour into Queensland’s Outback, travelling through various landscapes from pastoral and agricultural lands to savanna and the desert. Leaving Brisbane, past Toowoomba you enter the Darling Downs. This is one of the richest agricultural areas in Australia. It was first explored by British Botanist Alan Cunningham in …
Agriculture ICT and travelling in Outback Queensland Read More »
Vale Brian Perkins
Former AAP Telecommunications executive Brian Perkins has died in Sydney, aged 88. Brian was my mentor in the telecoms industry during the 1990s. I have very fond memories of him, most importantly as a person. He generously shared his understanding of the industry and the many contacts he was able to build up during that …
The existential dangers of social media
There has been an enormous amount of discussion on the damage that social media is causing on a global scale. While there is no indication that the companies who started these services had any evil act in mind – quite to the contrary – the social media have opened Pandora’s box. The technology itself is …
Smart cities want to co-design change with Telcos
With 5G earmarked as a game-changer for cities, wireless technologies are already widely deployed by Australia’s leading smart cities. However, cities do not want to be locked into proprietary technology solutions, rather seeing themselves as a platform on which many organisations can build infrastructure, applications and services for the benefit of all citizens and all …
Smart cities want to co-design change with Telcos Read More »
Oct 20 – Paul Karp – The Guardian
Australian budget preview: what we already know, and what the experts think
Is laser going to be the next telecoms frontier?
When I became involved in the telecoms industry back in the late 1970s, we were just seeing fibre optic cables being commercially developed by Corning. Over the following decades, I have been asked many, many times — do we need fibre cables or wireless technologies and what is next? During all that time, my answer …
Is laser going to be the next telecoms frontier? Read More »
Sep 20 – David Braue – ACS
A government 5G network?
Sep 20 – Architecture and Design
Newcastle: Leading the way for Australian smart cities
Reversal of broadband fibre policies
It is great to see that the Government is finally backflipping on its denial on fibre optic networks. It has announced a $3.5 billion plan to bring fibre deeper into the neighbourhoods. The overall costs of a full upgrade have been estimated at around $16 billion. What the Government plans to do is to bring …
Newcastle: Australia’s leading smart city
Over the last five years, I have seen from close the city of Newcastle moving towards becoming a smart city. Most certainly, the phrase “smart city” is a rather nebulous one, but it basically means utilising new technologies to enable communities to build a city that delivers more and better social and economic outcomes for …
Sep 20 – Sam Varghese – ITWire
Fibre is most welcome, but affordability is important too: Budde
The importance of the emerging Data Trusts
I recently followed a webinar session organised by the University of Queensland on the factory of the future. Smart or not, the future will still need factories to make the stuff we humans use every day. One of the questions that were discussed included: “how will existing production models cope with the staggering and ongoing …
Sep 20 – Chetan Woodun – Seeking Alpha
Revolutionizing The Mobile Operator World
5G will not be the panacea for all our communication needs
As I mentioned in a previous article, I chaired three masterclasses on 5G. It is always great to listen to experts who I trust as they provide important input in the knowledge I need to obtain for that higher level of insight I need to put a range of technical and business issues together in …
5G will not be the panacea for all our communication needs Read More »
The incredible telehealth transformation
There are many healthcare needs that can only be successfully addressed in face-to-face visits with health practitioners. It is necessary to see a medical practitioner when we need to discuss private health issues in detail, to canvass different health or treatment options and to assess our health. Having said this, there are many other situations …
Telstra is going on to take the NBN monopoly
In a reversal of events, Telstra, being the former telecoms monopoly, is trying to take on NBN Co, the monopoly that displaced it. I am sure that many of you still remember the enormous battles that took place in the 1990s and early 2000s between Telstra on one side and the rest of the industry, …
Aug 20 -Dawn Pakistan
Huawei, long resilient, suffers under tougher US pressure
Aug 20 – Federal News Network
Huawei, long resilient, suffers under tougher US pressure
Aug 20 – The Economic Times
US trade panel launches patent infringement probe into Apple devices
Aug 20 – El Economista (Spanish)
Huawei, resistente durante mucho tiempo, sufre bajo una presión más dura de EUA
Smart Cities moving into 5G
Later this month, I will be sharing three masterclasses organised by the Australian Smart Communities Association (ASCA) and the Australian Computer Society (ASC) on the potential of using 5G as an infrastructure solution for smart cities. Just to make sure, I am doing this pro bono so no financial gain or otherwise for me. What …
Aug 20 – TNTIC (French)
Les villes intelligentes se lancent dans le réseau 5G
Aug 20 – IoT Council
Paul Budde: Smart cities moving into the 5G network
Aug 20 – Isabelle Lane – New Daily
Experts back plan to upgrade NBN with fibre in response to 5G threat
Aug 20 – John Davidson – AFR
High prices must stay if the NBN is to keep evolving, says CEO
Aug 20 – Brinkwire
The Australian suburbs STILL living without NBN despite the project being declared ‘complete’
Call for an NBN user revolt
Early at the start of the pandemic, the Government allowed NBN Co to make 40 per cent more capacity available without an extra charge for this. This, of course, was widely welcomed by both the industry and the users. The core of the problem, however, is that this capacity is not available in a “normal …
The government dug its own NBN hole, how to get out of it?
As with any large-scale project, you need a long-term vision on the investment that you are going to make. Once that vision is agreed upon, solid strategies need to be developed. Next is a careful design to ensure that what you have designed will work in practice. Only then are you going to start with …
The government dug its own NBN hole, how to get out of it? Read More »
June 20 – Energy Central
New push for cheaper energy costs and a much more efficient energy industry
The digital economy is spreading out more broadly.
The pandemic has shown us that some of the early models in the so-called sharing economy have become more mainstream. The early pioneers were companies such as Uber, Airbnb, eBay and Gumtree. But others have been making a name for themselves in transport, for example, Shebah (all-female drivers) and Camplify (caravan sharing and RCs). Spacer, …
The digital economy is spreading out more broadly. Read More »
Are we building a mediocre NBN for the ‘average user’?
Are we building a mediocre NBN for the average user? Interesting new research conducted by the Bureau of Communications and Arts Research predicts that average Australian data consumption is set to quadruple by 2028, based on figures from 2018. But they also predict that peak bandwidth will grow less rapidly. In their words: ‘Bandwidth requirements …
Are we building a mediocre NBN for the ‘average user’? Read More »
Jul 20 – Leith van Onselen – MicroBusiness
Coalition readies for massive NBN write down
Jul 20 – Fergus Hunter -Brisbane Times
NBN valuation under review as $51 billion network enters new era
City-as-a-service – new business and investment model
While there are plenty of opportunities for local councils to create cost savings – especially by cutting through their internal silos and using ICT and infrastructure technologies on a sharing basis across the various city systems – the problem remains that before these cost savings can be made, significant ICT investments are needed. The reality …
City-as-a-service – new business and investment model Read More »
Jul 20 – IoT Council
Internet of Things Requires a Rethink of Business Models
Internet of Things requires a rethink of business models.
There certainly is a lot of interest in machine-to-machine communication (M2M) and the internet of things (IoT). But what we are seeing is only what is happening on the surface. Most of the M2M activities are taking place unnoticed. For example, most newly produced electronic devices are now all M2M enabled. Over 100 million smart …
Internet of Things requires a rethink of business models. Read More »
Nano networks set to revolutionise edge computing
I recently followed a “lunch box lecture”, organised by the University of Sydney. In the talk, Professor Zdenka Kuncic explored the very topical issue of artificial intelligence. The world is infatuated with artificial intelligence (AI), and understandably so, given its super-human ability to find patterns in big data as we all notice when using Google, …
Nano networks set to revolutionise edge computing Read More »
Jul 20 Sam Varghese – ITWire
TransACT builder says best option for NBN is to remain in government hands
July 20 – Sam Varghese – ITWire
Who will bell the cat? Sorry, make that who will upgrade the NBN?
July 20 – Isabelle Lane – NewDaily
Australia’s NBN should be finished by now, but thousands are still waiting
The NBN is finished so what’s next?
When the Coalition Government scrapped the fibre to the home (FTTH) project, the then-Minister for Communication, Malcolm Turnbull, proclaimed that we would build his newly concocted multi-technology mix version of the NBN for $25 million and that it would be ready by 2016. Since then, the roll-out target was changed several times to finally fit …
July 20 – Sam Varghese iTWire
Telco analyst Budde calls on govt to issue plan for next stage of NBN
New push for cheaper energy costs and a much more efficient energy industry.
As the initiator of Smart Energy Australia in 2007, I looked with the experts of this industry association at how we could use technologies to make our energy system more efficient, cheaper, and less polluting. Of course, this included the arrival of renewable energy and technology developments in areas such as microgrids, distributed energy and …
New push for cheaper energy costs and a much more efficient energy industry. Read More »
Innovative entertainment industry will bounce forwards after Covid
My brother Rob lives in Rimini, Italy and he has his own company Màgina, involved in “tailor-made” events for large organisations throughout Europe. Their activities include team building, product launches, client shows and so on. Of course, with COVID-19 his business totally collapsed overnight. A few clients have indicated that they will review the situation …
Innovative entertainment industry will bounce forwards after Covid Read More »
June 20 – Dave Abrahams -Central Coast Community News
Gigabit speed internet on the way
Jun 20 – Michael Weaver – RiotACT
Canberra consumers misled about needing to move to the NBN
June 20 – Dave Abrahams Central Coast Video News
NBN behavioural change after the Covid-19 crisis ends
Hassle over LEOs
The following article is based on a blog written by my Dutch colleague Fred Kappetijn. We have worked together to present this to you. Every second, 4.5 billion people using computers and other electronic devices send 100,000 gigabytes of information to each other. Around 60% of the world’s population has an internet connection. North America …
June 20 – David Braue – ACS
‘Move to NBN or lose your internet’
Jun 20 – Leith van Onselen – Microbusiness
NBN goes ‘back to the future’ with copper rollout
Jun 20 – Jack Gramenz – Herald Sun
NBN’s 50000km copper cable purchases ‘a waste of money’
June 20 – Isabelle Lane – New Daily
‘A waste of money’: NBN Co rolls out more copper instead of ‘future proof’ fibre
May 20 – ABC Radio World Today
More than two-thirds of Australians think they’ll be working from home.
Digital economy essential for regional Australia
Back in the early 1990s, I was a founding board member of Service Providers Action Network (SPAN), which later became part of Communications Alliance. The key aim of this organisation was the promotion of new value-added services that could be provided over the telecommunications network. At this time there was no public internet and we …
Digital economy essential for regional Australia Read More »
Smart City Moreton Bay
Moreton Bay Regional Council in South-East Queensland is one of the smart cities that is part of the Global Smart Community and City Alliance (GSC3). In all, some 25 cities formed part of this Alliance, which is no longer active. It is amazing to see the progress that Moreton Bay has made over the last …
May 20 – Big News Network
The rise of the Australian smart city
May 20 – Robert Clark – Light Reading
Australian cities, states start rolling out fiber alternatives to NBN
May 20 – News 24
Comment le déploiement de la 5G en Australie transformera notre monde en ligne
We need professionals to design the digital infrastructure in the post corona era
During this coronavirus crisis, it is great to see that our politicians are now respecting the medical scientists and professionals and are working very closely with them. Will our politicians now also listen to the experts in the other major problems that are facing us such as climate change, renewable energy, water management and so …
We need professionals to design the digital infrastructure in the post corona era Read More »
May 20 – Cait Kelly The New Daily
NBN coping with its biggest test. But it needs help, and soon
May 20 – Isabelle Lane – New Daily
‘Gig State’ to rival NBN: NSW plans fibre rollout as federal government tables regional broadband tax
May 20 – Post-Courier PNG
Coronavirus losses may force Newscorp and Murdoch to rethink Foxtel business model
May 20 – Rod Meyer – The New Daily
Coronavirus hits News Corp bosses’ pay, but they’ll still rake in millions
The problem is not technology but politicians and their ideology
The world we live in has reached a critical juncture. We are faced with many challenges and the decisions we will now make will define our future. The recent bushfires in Australia and the global coronavirus pandemic are bringing the message very close to home. These developments should be enough to seriously start looking at …
The problem is not technology but politicians and their ideology Read More »
May 20 – ABC TV (video clip)
Foxtel’s uncertain future
May 20 – Leith Van Onselen MacroBusiness
Foxtel “threatened with extinction”
May 20 – Samira Sarraf Computerworld
How the Australian internet has kept running during the pandemic.
May 20 – Andrew Robertson – ABC
Foxtel was struggling to survive before COVID-19 but the lack of sport is speeding up its demise
May 20 – Jopie Witzand – SBSNederlands Radio
COVIDSafe: “Ik zit er nog tegenaan te hikken”
Apr 20 -Leith van Onselen – MacroBusiness
NBN faces new competitive threat
Building independent Gig Cities: this happens when you have a 2nd rate NBN
Adelaide was one of the first cities to build a gigabit fibre optic network but soon others followed. Newcastle, Wollongong, Launceston and the NSW Central Coast Council are now all developing their own gigabit infrastructure. Now, the NSW Government is putting $100 million dollars aside for the provision of “innovative systems” to improve the price, …
Building independent Gig Cities: this happens when you have a 2nd rate NBN Read More »
COVIDSafe risk assessment personal data vs your risk regarding the virus
For me, the reason to download the COVIDSafe app is that my personal risk of not using it is greater than the risk of the possible misuse of my data. From a technical and legal point, I am satisfied that the app is as safe as you can expect from any technology. If you are …
COVIDSafe risk assessment personal data vs your risk regarding the virus Read More »
April 20 – Sebastian Moss – DatacenterDynamics
Are data centers prepared for climate change?
Technologies for the post-humans
Philosophers involved in the theories of post-humanism and trans-humanism are captivated by the possibilities, or dangers, that the future poses to our understanding of human life. According to Wikipedia,, the idea of the post-human originates in the fields of science fiction, futurology, contemporary art and philosophy that literally refers to a person or entity that …
Will technology destroy our democracy?
The results a study conducted by the Pew Research Centre stated: About half of those surveyed predict that humans’ use of technology will weaken democracy between now and 2030 due to the speed and scope of reality distortion, the decline of journalism and the impact of surveillance capitalism. A third expect technology to strengthen democracy …
April 2 – Rhett Burnie – ABC
NBN drops some access fees for now but bills will rise again
April 20 – Peter Judge – DCD
Australian tax authority to leave Global Switch over Chinese ownership
Encouraging online lessons from the corona crisis
The players in the telecommunications industry have decisively reacted to the COVID-19 crisis. The NBN is holding up and the company is effectively implementing a range of measures for those who rely on it. Equally, the support from the major telcos and the digital players has been first-class and, where needed, the industry is working …
Encouraging online lessons from the corona crisis Read More »
April 2- – CorCom (Italian)
Boom di traffico sulle reti delle telco. Ma a guadagnare sono gli Ott
April 20 – Tom Westbrook Reuters (French)
Les actions de Telco sont des perdants surpris alors que le verrouillage entraîne le boom d’Internet
April 20 – Tom Westbrook – Thomson Reuters
Telco shares are surprise losers as lockdown drives internet boom
The enormous economic costs of the pandemic – How did we end up in this mess?
Over the last 20 years most of the western world moved into what has become known as a neoliberal political system. Basically, get the government as much as possible out of the market and let the economy be run by the market. This has resulted in large scale privatisations, ongoing budget cuts basically across all …
The enormous economic costs of the pandemic – How did we end up in this mess? Read More »
Climate change, pandemic, terrorism and cybersecurity
Over the last few years, cybersecurity has been a hotly debated issue in Australia. There have been serious clashes over the heavy-handedness of the Australian Government and the industry and community fighting against the attacks on press freedom, demanding protection of journalists, protecting civil liberties and the openness and transparency of our democratic institutions. Let’s …
Climate change, pandemic, terrorism and cybersecurity Read More »
Sustaining social and economic transformation beyond the crisis.
For those people who have been advocating social and economic changes for the last few decades, to a certain extent it looks like all our Christmases are arriving at once. Issues we have been lobbying for, for decades are now suddenly being addressed within days and weeks. Obviously, I don’t want to ignore the severity …
Sustaining social and economic transformation beyond the crisis. Read More »
Corona crisis – Update from Australia – April 1
I started writing this on the 29th of March 2020. Roughly two months after the outbreak started in all seriousness in Wuhan, China. Obviously from the start it was hot news. The initial information was confusing, especially as the infamous Chinese bureaucracy – on automatic pilot – immediately started to suppress any information on the …
The COVID-19 Commission and the NBN
Is this the crisis we need to have to face the reality that, over the last 30 years or so, we might have taken a wrong turn in our society and our economy? Under neoliberal policies, the trend has been to leave as much as possible to the market to solve our problems and reduce …
March 20 – Isabelle Lane – New Daily
Coronavirus pandemic shows government must fix Australia’s NBN
Will the NBN stand up in the Covid-19 pandemic?
In a previous blog I addressed the issue of teleworking and e-health application in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. I also mentioned the impact that this will have on our telecommunications networks. This time I would like to go a little bit deeper into this. It is a no-brainer to predict that when schools …
March 20 – Jennifer Dudley – Daily Telegraph
Telstra, Optus offer free internet access during coronavirus pandemic, calls for NBN to follow
March 20 – James Fernyhough – AFR
Telstra closes call centres as telcos form crisis group
March 20 – Xinhua – China
China reopens roads as Australia announces new virus measures
Telecommuting and Covid-19
This is a bit of deja vu for me. In the 1990s, I received a lot of media attention because of the arrival of broadband networks in the promotion of telecommuting. After very little or no interest in teleworking over the last decade, I am suddenly asked again to comment on teleworking as it gets …
March 20 – Yeu Ming Epoch Times (Manderin)
Australian sensitive government agencies are evacuating from a Chinese data storage centre
March 20 – James Fernyhough – AFR
Huawei insists it hasn’t given up on 5G
March 20 – Angus Grigg – AFR
Federal bodies struggle to exit Chinese-owned data centre
The end of Foxtel’s pay TV service?
Back in the early 2000s when the apartment complex where we are currently living was built, Telstra installed a coax cable in the complex together with the ordinary copper cable. The Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) cable allowed Telstra to offer better broadband services and Foxtel to deliver its proprietary pay-TV service. There is now turmoil …
Feb 2020 – Leith van Onselen – Australian Economy
5G to cut NBN’s subscription lunch
Feb 2020 – David Braue – ACS
Should Telstra be stopped from dominating superfast 5G?
Feb 20 – Leith van Onselen- Microbusiness
Foxtel’s outlook is terminal
Feb 20 – ITU Interview Podcast – Maximillian Jacobson – Gonzalez
Paul talks about how telecommunications were affected by the recent bushfires
Feb 20 – Rod McGuirk Associated Press
Australia’s TPG abandons mobile network plan over Huawei ban
Feb 20 – Stephanie Chalmers – ABC
TPG stops rollout of what would’ve been Australia’s fourth mobile network
Feb 20 – Euan Black – NewDaily
Consumers to benefit from TPG-Vodafone merger as competition heats up
Feb 20 – Sam Varghese – ITWire
Telcos have to be big to survive: Budde on TPG-Vodafone outcome
Cracks appearing in Trump’s Huawei boycott
It must have been a galling experience for President Trump when his good mate British Prime Minister Boris Johnson failed to step in line with Trump’s demand that the UK should also boycott the Chinese firm Huawei by not allowing them to be involved in the roll out of 5G in Britain. However, the involvement …
Feb 2020 – Michael Bleby – AFR
Lendlease takes mobile phone mast play to Japan
NBN Co is giving in to pressure to stop competing with its own retail customers.
The original plans for the NBN were to build a high-speed residential broadband network that would be made available to the other telcos on a wholesale basis. Corporate infrastructure was basically left out of the plan as these organisations were in general well serviced by competing networks. But wait there was a loophole. What exactly …
NBN Co is giving in to pressure to stop competing with its own retail customers. Read More »
Jan 20 – Samantha Dick New Daily
Huawei in the UK: What it means for Australia and the western alliance
NBN troubles continues
I had an interesting discussion on the NBN with several long-term colleagues. What triggered this discussion – we have had many more of them in the past – was the latest results from the Ookla fixed broadband speed rankings. The downward trend that we have seen now for the last decade continues. Australia is now …
Jan 20 – ITU Podcast
Technology for Good
Jan 20 – ITU News – Geneva
Building resilience for climate emergencies
Jan 20 – Energy Central
Broadband driven Smart Energy Developments
Jan 20 – Leith van Onselen – Macrobusiness
NBN’s viability threatened by 5G roll-out
The role of FttH in the development of 5G
As the rollout of fibre to the home project (FttH) remains a slow process it is no wonder that more and more people are looking towards mobile as a potential alternative. Obviously, mobile communication has improved over recent years in providing excellent access to broadband. It has also become more affordable. At the same time, …
Follow up news – National Telecommunications Emergency Plan
21 January Communications minister Paul Fletcher has convened an industry roundtable on telecommunications resilience and repair following the national bushfires. It is good to see that most of the issues that we discussed here have been addressed. This includes: Access to power to achieve better infrastructure resilience. This includes site access and access to emergency …
Follow up news – National Telecommunications Emergency Plan Read More »
Jan 20 – Leo Clifford – Ramp Up Talent
Telecommunications Industry Leaders Provide Predictions for 2020.
Jan 20 – Robert Clark – LightReading
After 10 Years and $34B, Australia’s NBN Falls Short
Jan 20 – Robert Clark Light Reading
Australia Ponders Fire-Proof Networks
Broadband driven Smart Energy Developments
There is no doubt that we are in the midst of an energy revolution. Not only is the nature of energy changing from fossil-generated energy to renewable – there is a total change in the distribution structure occurring with less focus on centralisation and more on distributed energy. Concerns about issues such as energy security, …
Jan 20 – Natalie Bannerman – Capacity Media
Australia’s bushfires leave operators struggling to get back online
Jan 20 – Jess Davis – ABC
Telco, NBN failures during bushfire crisis reveals cracks in regional, rural crisis coverage
Jan 20 – ABC Radio (interview)
Are Australia’s telecommunication networks resilient enough in the face of bushfires?
Jan 20 – SBS Radio – Jopie Witzand
Bosbranden en telecommunicatie: het kan veel beter
Suggestions for a national telecoms emergency plan
For follow up information since the start of this discussion see: https://paulbudde.com/blog/economic-social-and-political-issues-ict/follow-up-news-national-telecommunications-emergency-plan/ In October, the bushfires started around Bucketty. While Bucketty has so far been safe (fires are hovering at around 10 to 15 kilometres from this community now for several months), the people here are totally exhausted. On several occasions, families had to be …
Suggestions for a national telecoms emergency plan Read More »
Analyses of the Australian bushfires
Some of you might recall that I lived in Bucketty in the Australian bush for more than 30 years. In August we sold our place and moved to Brisbane where two of our kids live. In October the bush fires started around Bucketty. Therefore, the new owners didn’t move in till last week. When we …
The power of data in smart city developments
A few weeks, I attended a one-day conference at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) at the occasion of the launch of their new $7.5 million Centre for Data Science. This laboratory is also the lead node of a new Australian Data Science Network, bringing together data science organisations from across the country. The new …
Dec 2019 – Independent Australia
#10 TOP STORY OF 2019: The 5G answer to the second-rate NBN
Full fibre NBN back on the agenda
Britain’s Labour Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn has promised a national fibre-to-home network for nine million homes in the UK to be completed by 2030 at a cost of £20 billion (AU$38 billion). In the same week, Australia’s Labor Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese made a similar promise regarding updating the current multi-mix technology national broadband network …
Dec 2019 – Fergus Hunter – SMH
‘Unreasonable’: China claims Australia has expanded 5G restrictions
Dec 2019 – Leith van Onselen – Microbusiness
Coalition entrenches NBN Monopoly
Dec 2019- Samira Sarraf – CIO Australia
Government’s cyber security strategy panel ‘missing a bit of diversity’
Dec 2019 – Jennifer Dudley – Daily Telegraph
NBN delays: Congestion is getting worse on the NBN, new figures show, but firm blames providers
Power, Hope and Social Change: The Rise of the City?
A recent event addressed the fact that the world’s liberal democracies are faltering. Many of the problems that result from this are acutely felt in cities. And if we look at some of the more dramatic fallouts of the crises, we see that there are the people using their combined “people-power” to try and demand …
Power, Hope and Social Change: The Rise of the City? Read More »
Smart devices ready to flood the energy market to force prices down.
Over the last decade there have been excellent reports from the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) as well as from various industry bodies on reforming the energy market. The reports state this should be done through opening the market up to modernisation, more competition, better interoperability arrangements and better levels of transparency, all based on …
Smart devices ready to flood the energy market to force prices down. Read More »
Successful smart cities require significant ICT infrastructure
Telecommunications infrastructure plays an important role in providing the backbone for building the Smart Cities and Smart Homes which are emerging around the world. It is encouraging to see that so many governments and telecoms operators are working hard and investing heavily to deploy this underlying infrastructure which we will need for the future. Fixed-broadband …
Successful smart cities require significant ICT infrastructure Read More »
Australia leads the South East Asian data centre market
Australia has progressed to now be one of the four major sub-markets for data centres in Asia alongside Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. As data centres become larger and more efficient, new data centres are generally being built in centralised areas, mainly in the larger cities of Sydney and Melbourne, in order to achieve the …
Australia leads the South East Asian data centre market Read More »
Power, Hope and Social Change: The Rise of the City?
A recent event addressed the fact that the world’s liberal democracies are faltering. Many of the problems that result from this are acutely felt in cities. And if we look at some of the more dramatic fallouts of the crises, we see that there are the people using their combined “people-power” to try and demand …
Power, Hope and Social Change: The Rise of the City? Read More »
Nov 2019 – David Braue – ACS
Consumers’ 5G verdict: meh
Nov 2019 Jennifer Dudley – The Advertiser
NBN reveals two in five Aussies are resisting an NBN connection as analysts call for price drops The Advertiser Bu
Australia’s NBN makes slow progress
While fixed-line telephony traffic and revenue are declining, the mobile broadband market is growing steadily. Fixed-line broadband on the copper network is also declining as fibre and fixed-wireless broadband services become more widely available, through the NBN’s multi-technology architecture, with its emphasis on VDSL with Fibre-to-the Node (FttN). In time, much of the voice traffic …
Be aware of the surveillance state Australia
recently reported on the new developments in China regarding its social code citizens’ surveillance system. This has since been extended to businesses as well. By now, thousands of Australian citizens will also have been included in this system, especially people travelling to China for business or tourism. Chinese students in Australia and Chinese visitors to …
Successful smart cities require significant ICT infrastructure
Telecommunications infrastructure plays an important role in providing the backbone for building the Smart Cities and Smart Homes which are emerging around the world. It is encouraging to see that so many governments and telecoms operators are working hard and investing heavily to deploy this underlying infrastructure which we will need for the future. Fixed-broadband …
Successful smart cities require significant ICT infrastructure Read More »
Nov 2019 – ChannelNews
Streaming Threatens Oz TV
July 2019 – Peter Ryan – ABC
Huawei not a ‘real risk’ to 5G security, company protests I
Nov 2019 – John Power – South China Morning Post
Huawei warns Australia it is being ‘left behind’ on 5G as tech giant challenges ban
Monetising solutions for the telcos
Developments in the telecommunications industry and the broader digital economy have opened up many new markets over the last few decades. Telecoms has changed from a more or less standalone, horizontally-organised industry to one that has become a key facilitator in a range of vertical markets. The keyword that is used to indicate that change …
Oct 2019 – Jopie Witzand – SBS Dutch Radio
NBN: het Australische Broddellapje
The NBN now attacked from all directions
The gloves are off now that Telstra has stopped using diplomatic language to savage the NBN. Its chairman stated that Telstra and its competitors could have built a better NBN at lower costs. It is, however, important to first go back to the original NBN — a fibre to the home network to 96 per …
Jumping on the Australian streaming boom
Large scale video streaming arrived rather late in Australia. But when Netflix finally made its entry in Australia – five years after its launch in North America – it had very easy pickings Down Under. By that time, the country had been suffering for over two decades from a de facto Foxtel pay-TV monopoly, with …
Oct 2019 – Isabelle Lane – New Daily
Telstra will switch off Australia’s 3G mobile network in 2024. Here’s what that means
Message from the coalface – NBN pricing
This is a message I received following my article in which I argue that the NBN pricing is widening the equality gap in relation to access to the NBN and thus also to the digital economy and digital society. When going back to the start of the NBN, now close to 15 years ago, the …
NBN pricing is widening the inequality gap in Australia
The ACCC has slapped a new range of fines and rebate obligations on the providers of NBN services. This shows the deplorable situation the NBN is in. However, it fails to address the far more serious underlying problems with the NBN. This Government-owned monopoly requires far more serious interventions. A typical feature of monopolies is …
NBN pricing is widening the inequality gap in Australia Read More »
Oct 2019 – Robert Clark-Light Reading
NBN Faces Penalties but Deeper Issues Can’t Be Fixed
The positive role of technology in democracy
There are plenty of doom and gloom stories regarding the future of our democracy. Technology is certainly playing a key role in this. However, technology could equally be an important part of solving the problem. Let’s, for example, look at often-maligned social media. While trust is at an all-time low in relation to politicians, corporations …
Sep 2019 – Jennifer Dudley – The Advertiser
NBN Co faces new ACCC penalties for missed appointments, late connections, and delayed fixes
Truly terrible broadband is depriving people from work opportunities
The my recent article on Fibre to the Farm, ‘A community fix for Australia’s second-rate rural broadband’, received interesting reactions — two especially so. The first one, from regional Queensland, complained about poor broadband and said they had only just got 3G connected — so much for digital progress. However, the discussion went further. There …
Truly terrible broadband is depriving people from work opportunities Read More »
Sept 2019 – Sunshine Coast Daily
NBN ditches ‘Netflix tax’ proposal
Sept 2019 – Stan Adkins – Developpez.com
Tandis qu’aux Etats-Unis, la vitesse maximale de la 5G est environ trois fois plus rapide que la …
Fibre to the farm provides opportunities for rural Australia
Over the last decade, Australia has spent $5.5 billion on satellite and fixed wireless broadband services and another $650 million on mobile blackspots. After last year’s Regional Telecommunications Review, the Government earlier this year indicated another $220 million for mobile blackspots, money for digital inclusions projects and $60 million for a regional connectivity program. It …
Fibre to the farm provides opportunities for rural Australia Read More »
Changing the goalposts and voila here is the new NBN corporate plan
Since the Coalition Government has taken over the NBN back in 2013, we have seen the goalposts being changed nearly on an annual basis. It started soon after Malcolm Turnbull’s infamous announcement: “we will bring you the NBN for around $25 billion and deliver it in 2016”. The reality, of course, is that now in …
Changing the goalposts and voila here is the new NBN corporate plan Read More »
Do we need 5G to compete with the NBN
For as long the NBN has been under development we have heard comments that the NBN is not needed as the world will go wireless. In the early days, this was an argument from, among others, Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. However, while he didn’t often repeat this argument of fear, uncertainty and doubt, the …
August 2019 – Robert Clark – Light Reading
Australian Telcos Demand Cuts in ‘Unsustainable’ NBN Prices
The privatisation of the NBN
Last week, TelSoc organised a panel discussion about the privatisation of the NBN, as is foreshadowed in the NBN legislation of 2009. The presenters were Professor Peter Gerrand, consultant and ex-Telstra executive Dr Jim Holmes, former chairman of the ACCC Graeme Samuel and executive general manager of the ACCC Infrastructure Regulation division Michael Cosgrave. The …
August 2019 – Steve Price -2GB (radio)
Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde on NBN
August 2019 – Paul Smith – AFR
NBN has destroyed huge value with tech changes: Quigley
August 2019 – Robert Clark – LightReading
Australian Telcos Demand Cuts in ‘Unsustainable’ NBN Prices
NBN Co’s gain is the retailer’s loss
However, as we have heard now for over a year, this has been at the costs of the margins of the retail service providers. NBN Co’s high wholesale prices have squeezed margins for some of them to close to 10%. Companies such as Telstra were used to margins of 30-40%. Without any wholesale infrastructure competition, …
August 2019 – Killian Plastow – New Daily
Major telcos facing collapse or sale as NBN monopoly takes its toll