While we were gallivanting up and down the east coast this week eating and drinking with our awesome readers, the NBN continued its path to creation. Here’s what happened:
• The Federal Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Population and Communities, Tony Burke, reckons that the NBN is going to be great for allowing businesses to thrive outside of the cities, thanks to regional hubs being just as connected. It sounds great – living in the country with the connectivity of the city. [ABC]
• It looks like the Telstra shareholder vote on the NBN deal is now expected to happen in November. That’s a pretty long delay. [AusIT]
• Samsung have come out this week and said that the NBN will provide greater media convergence… Through its shiny new Smart TVs, of course! IPTV, anyone? [ARN]
• While there’s no definitive decision as to what percentage of the NBN’s fibre cabling is going to run suspended from telephone polls, experts are already claiming that doing so will put communities at risk during emergencies like bushfires or floods. But it’s cheaper, and we all know that cost is more important than anything, right anti NBN crusaders? [AusIT]
• Energy companies want to install smart meters in homes, and they want to do it with the NBN rollout. Fast broadband FTW? [CIO]
• Vodafone’s offering trial NBN services now. Who’s going to sign up to them? [Giz]
• The NBN’s planned points of interconnect have been updated following some kerfuffle involving the ACCC. The new points will probably end up in Telstra’s exchange buildings. [ITWire]
• Abbott wants the Labor government to detail the NBN in next week’s budget. He also described it as the worst government Australia has ever had. But hey, at least we know that things could be worse, right? [SMH]
• Apparently Telstra’s deal with NBN Co wasn’t going to go through unless it knew it would keep its monopoly on the copper infrastructure while the NBN was being built. How rude. [SMH]
• NBNCo boss Mike Quigley told 7:30 that he wanted to try and fix the price of labour for the build of the network to prevent them from spending too much money. No pay rise for you then, labourers! [ABC]
• NBNCo has signed a deal with Optus worth $200 million and another with IPstar worth $100 million, to offer an interim broadband solution for remote customers to get a broadband connection, although it’s a stop gap measure before the full NBN rollout. [ZDNet]