NBN Co announced its first satellite gateway, Telstra’s taking an even split bet on Coalition or Labor policy, and out in Broken Hill they’re dusty and disheartened.
• NBN Co announced that the tiny NSW town of Merimbula has been selected as the site of its first satellite gateway; construction will begin next year. [Gizmodo]
• The Coalition’s call for the NBN (excluding Tony Abbott’s calls for all the money to be shifted to roads anyway) has been for a Fibre To The Node solution, but the Labor spin on that has been that Telstra would be a significant roadblock to that. Not so, according to Telstra CEO David Thodey, who was reassuring shareholders that a change of government wouldn’t disadvantage Telstra, because the contracts were locked in anyway. FttH would be better, Thodey statted, but FttN could be achieved more quickly and cheaply. [ITWire]
• With reference to FttN, over at Delimiter, they’ve started collecting pictures of what the existing copper exchanges actually look like. They’re… not pretty. [Delimiter]
• Malcolm Turnbull was on the warpath over whether or not NBN Co had secured the orbital positions for its planned satellite launches. NBN Co naturally disagrees with Turnbull’s outlook, and it’s backed up by the ITU, the governing body that decides such things. [Delimiter]
• Liberal MP for Broken Hill, Sussan Ley isn’t satisfied with NBN Co’s explanation for why Broken Hill isn’t on the three year plan; while she’s ostensibly behind Coalition policy regarding the NBN, she’s also quoted as stating that “The prospect of us waiting until after 2015 to even be considered for another phase of rollout is outrageous.” [ABC Online]
• NBN Co will face review over its use of commercial confidentiality clauses with regards to requests under the freedom of information act. [ITNews]