The NBN roll-out continues as the network speeds up and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy goes sledge for sledge with the head of Vodafone and the Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Here’s what happened with the National Broadband Network this week.
NBN Co started the week by announcing that fixed wireless and satellite customers were in line for a doubling of their speeds. Instead of 12Mbps/1Mbps, customers would soon get 25Mbps/5Mbps, dramatically increasing the quality of fixed wireless.
The NBN was switched on in Hobart to give Tasmanians more access to the network they had before it was cool (yes, I am accusing them of being fibre hipsters).
Meanwhile, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission demanded Telstra provide it with more clarity over the telco’s plans to migrate customers from the fixed copper network onto the new, high-speed fibre network.
In more Telstra news, the company revealed just how much money it made from the National Broadband Network in the last six months of 2012 (read: lots).
Finally, in this week’s collection of talking heads, Vodafone CEO Bill Morrow thought it would be a good idea to use the company’s results announcement to slag the government and its ongoing subsidisation of Telstra’s copper network as it is transferred to the NBN. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was none too happy, slamming Morrow and reportedly likening him to ex-Telstra CEO and Lifetime Achievement Award Nominee for Services to Giving the Finger to the Government, Sol Trujillo.
Malcolm Turnbull weighed into the debate, shielding Morrow by accusing Conroy of intimidating companies that didn’t share his views.