This week, the ACCC signed off on Telstra’s copper pull-through warnings for NBN fibre, and Telstra revealed its plans for a nationwide Wi-Fi network. The first big copper switch-off in NBN-enabled areas was planned for today — no news on that just yet — but it’s a promising signal that the NBN roll-out continues across the country.
Telstra’s Wi-Fi Nation project, with a $100 million bankroll behind it, wants to use customers’ home Wi-Fi routers to build a huge national wireless network, asking home owners to share their broadband connections with strangers to become eligble themselves to access the service whenever they’re out and about. The ‘net-sharing service will also let Telstra customers access similar Wi-Fi networks internationally.
Telstra has to notify ISPs and other service providers within two hours of it being told by NBN Co about service disruptions from NBN fibre pull-through. Because pull-through means customers are cut off from any phone or internet access during the fibre pull-through period, ISPs want to advise them about impending disruptions as soon as possible; Telstra previously said it could take up to two days for them to pass the message along, but they’ve revised that figure down to two hours instead.
NBN Co planned to switch off copper to 19,000 premises today. As the first big cut-off, today’s date was chosen specifically by the broadband rollout bosses, but future rollout sites will automatically be cut off 18 months after fibre becomes available and is up and running in that area.
And, finally, Malcolm Turnbull is hitting out at claims that the multi-technology mix design of the revamped NBN is old technology, despite parts of the network including copper and hybrid fibre-coaxial cable being decades old in some cases.