Labor jumps on broadband report

The Federal Opposition has seized on a report arguing the Coalition's broadband plan offers sparse coverage and in some cases is less than half as good as the Government claims.

The Institute of Public Affairs says the Government's plan for rural Australia is likely to cover ten kilometres from a transmitter rather than their target of up to 20 kilometres.

The report states there is a need for a fibre-optic network as Labor proposes, but it criticises both parties for failing to adequately plan for the future.

Labor's communications spokesman Stephen Conroy says the Coalition's plan is a scandal.

"No matter how hard John Howard and Helen Coonan try to rewrite the laws of physics they just can't," he said.

"This is the second independent report that has stated that you can not transmit broadband to nearly half the places using the Government's wireless broadband that John Howard claims."

Mr Conroy says the objectivity of the report further proves the Coalition is promoting something it cannot deliver.

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See cartoon at the head of these articles... 

Telstra has submitted a proposal to build the national broadband network, saying it is prepared to commit up to $5 billion to the project, but says it is not a fully-detailed bid.

The telco had threatened to withdraw entirely from the bidding process, but after a board meeting this morning it decided to submit a proposal.

It says if the Government contributes a $4.7 billion loan it could build the network to reach 80 to 90 per cent of the population.

But the telco says it is not submitting a fully detailed bid by today's deadline.

It says issues including the separation of the company's retail and wholesale businesses have not yet been sufficiently addressed.

Telstra's rivals want the company split up because they fear they will be squeezed out of the broadband market.

So Malcom and his merry men are not happy with the capers...:

The Federal Opposition says Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has misled Parliament by saying that Telstra has lodged a bid to build the national broadband network.

The Federal Government says its plan to create a fast national broadband network has been vindicated, but the Opposition says the process has collapsed.

Companies including Axia and the consortium TERRiA have lodged bids to build the proposed high-speed national network.

But Telstra's chairman Donald McGauchie says it could not submit a fully-detailed bid because the Government has not addressed some of its concerns.

"Those fundamental risks that we see to the business have to be resolved before we can go any further," he said.

Senator Conroy says he considers that to be a bid.

"[It's] pretty simple; Telstra think they've put in a proposal," he told the Senate today.

Senator Minchin says that is wrong.

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see toon on top... It relates to the time when the Australian Conservative government was still the major shareholder of Telstra, but wanted to go on the cheaper with Optus for broadband... Now that the conservative are in the wilderness, they still complain about a Telstra's bid — a bid that is a bid, even if incomplete due to the halfway clumsy house the previous government (conservative) built for Telstra's shareholding and structure — for the gig...

See what the others have to provide anyway... and make sure the assessing body is not fooled if there are undervalued costs... Who knows, other bidders may get the gig...

Telstra's high-profile chief executive Sol Trujillo is stepping down and returning to the United States.

In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, Telstra says Mr Trujillo will leave the company at the end of June.

The announcement came ahead of the company's half year profit results, which are slightly lower than the previous first half.

Telstra's net profit for the six months to December last year came in at $1.92 billion

Telstra Chairman Donald McGauchie says Mr Trujillo will leave the company on June 30 to return home to the United States.

The Federal Government has scrapped the controversial broadband tender process and will instead form a new public/private company to build a national network, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced.

Mr Rudd said the new fibre-to-the-home network would take eight years to build, cost $43 billion, and give 90 per cent of Australian households download speeds 100 times faster than they currently experience.

Unveiling the surprise plan today, Mr Rudd described the scheme as the single largest infrastructure project in the country's history and said it would create 25,000 jobs a year during construction, with 37,000 in the busiest year, over eight years.

Mr Rudd said the scheme was essential to boost long-term economic growth and set a path for the country's economic recovery from the global financial crisis.

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see cartoon at top.

There is concern about a decision to award a dangerous mobile blackspot in one of the country’s most remote areas to Optus.

The Archer River Roadhouse, in the middle of far-north Queensland’s Cape York, does not have mobile reception and an often unreliable landline service, which can leave the business cut off from the world for weeks at a time.

Owner Brad Allan was considering installing his own mobile phone tower — at a cost of about $30,000 — until the area was selected in the fourth round of the Federal Government’s $380-million Mobile Black Spot Program.

But Mr Allan said the relief had been short-lived, with the news that Optus had been awarded the contract to install a satellite small cell service on the roof of his roadhouse.

The Telstra network covers the bulk of Cape York and the Torres Strait — other networks are almost non-existent.

“To go and put Optus services in the middle of a Telstra-dominated area, it’s just ludicrous,” Mr Allan said.

“We’re all Telstra customers up here. We might as well have nothing because we haven’t got anything now.

What is everyone going to do? Buy an Optus handset so they can travel through here?

Optus has also been given the contract to install a satellite small cell service at the equally remote Musgrave Station, in Cape York.

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/09/16/optus-mobile-black-s...

 

 

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Optus mobile services are down across the country, affecting millions of Australian customers and businesses.

Key points:

• Over 10 million customers and 400,000 businesses are affected by the outage
• Train services in Melbourne went down briefly and further delays are expected
• Optus says it is working to resolve the issue

 

The outage was first reported at around 4am AEDT, with Optus customers across the country taking to social media to find out what was happening.

Mobile phones are unable to make and receive calls and mobile internet services are also down.

"Optus is aware of an issue that may be impacting some of our mobile and internet customers," the company wrote in a statement.

"We are currently working to identify the cause and apologise for any inconvenience.

"In case of an emergency customers can still call triple zero."

Federal authorities are checking whether the outage is the result of a cyber attack, although, at this stage, they do not believe it is a hack.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-08/optus-phone-internet-service-down-across-australia/103076700

 

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