Yesterday on Capitol Hill, two Democratic representatives introduced a House bill that would require broadband ISPs to "interconnect with the facilities of other network providers on a reasonable and nondiscriminatory basis." It also requires them to treat all content,... Read More »

To the surprise of precisely nobody, the implementation of a new fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) broadband network in Australia is already being delayed. The Australian reported today that the project is being hit with a four month delay because of the need to confirm an expert panel and to appease telecoms providers who say they need more time.

So, as it stands, the telecoms have until the end of July to submit their bids. After that there will be a three to four month decision-making process before the winner is chosen. Then it will take up to five years to build the network, although we'd expect to see a progressive rollout over that period, so if you live in the city you'll probably get access well before rural Australians do.

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Yes, you read that right. In Borat's beloved homeland of Kazakhstan, the national internet service provider is charging $3,350 per month for DSL service. If you're ever in Kazakhstan and that seems a little pricey, dial-up is availible for $111 per month. If you need more speed, you can go all out and pay $22,032 for a 6Mbps cable connection. Rest assured that Borat has the 6Mbps connection while Nursultan Tulyakbay only has the dial-up...because he's still asshole. [Ars Technica]