Shorter contracts, satellites on tender, e-health and e-ducation, plus an opportunity to put your NBN questions to Malcolm Turnbull are all part of this week’s NBN news.
• The big news of the week (which technically broke late last week) was that NBN Co’s reduced its ISP contracts to a single year, down from five, after the ACCC criticised the overly lengthy contract terms it previously imposed [ZDNet]
• The NBN will put out to tender the satellite parts of its service, with costing estimated in the range of $250-$300 million per satellite. They’re meant to be in the air by 2015. [The Australian]
• While we’re on the subject of money, new Government funding initiatives will see researchers in Western Australia received $30,000 to study the design of atenna arrays for the delivery of wireless services, with the aim being to improve NBN delivery in remote rural areas [Electronics News]
• The member for Farrer, Sussan Ley isn’t happy with the NBN rollout. No real shock there; she’s a Liberal party member, and she’s spruiking the party line. That being said, specifically, she’d like a website set up to show people when the NBN will be coming to their town. [ABC Online]
• The Victorian Government announced initiatives to use the NBN to deliver e-health services to the elderly in regional areas [ITWire]
• Not be outdone, the NSW Department of Education announced a partnership with AARNet to use the NBN for high speed educational videoconferencing purposes [ITWire]
• Optus is yet to announce its NBN pricing, and this week, the head of its government and corporate affairs (which includes the NBN) Maha Krishnapillai stepped down for personal reasons. [CIO]
• Finally, Channel Seven’s Weekend Sunrise is touting the fact that they’ll have Malcolm Turnbull on as a guest tomorrow purely to take viewer questions. If you wanted to chance your luck at getting a question through on the NBN, the contact form is here.