Australian broadband network to resemble New Zealand's

Australia follows NZ fibre-to-the-home model

Australia's federal government is to spend A$3.5 billion upgrading the National Broadband Network. In places NBN will be able to offer UFB-like fibre-to-home services.

Australia's communications minister Paul Fletcher says there will be a new model based on the New Zealand approach to fibre network building.

In his speech announcing the move he said: "This on-demand model is used with great success by Chorus in New Zealand and Openreach in the UK - and we’re very happy to copy it.”

Gigabit fibre by 2023

The upgrade will mean 2 million Australian households can, at least in theory, have access to gigabit fibre by 2023. Another 2.5 million households will have improved access on a Hybrid Fibre Coaxial network and a further 1.5 million will have improved fibre-to-the-curb.

After the upgrade customers in the areas with fibre-to-the-home will be able to connect with no upfront charge when they order a high-speed broadband plan. Previously the NBN would connect to all homes whether or not they requested a fast broadband plan.

The NBN network is almost complete. About 18 percent of premises in Australia are already able to access ultrafast broadband speeds either through fibre or HFC.

Until now the government requirement is for NBN to offer 25Mbps peak speed to all premises and 50Mbps to 90 percent of fixed line connections.
Yet, like New Zealanders, Australian consumers have an appetite for faster broadband.

Vodafone looks beyond ARPU in sustainability report

Improving customer service, promoting staff diversity and providing environmental IoT applications are spotlighted in Vodafone's Sustainable Business Report 2020.

The company says it has set goals which align with those of the United Nations. While the United Nations lists 17 areas, Vodafone has chosen to focus on four. These are to promote decent work and economic growth; to build resilient infrastructure; to create sustainable cities and communities and to work with partners to benefit all New Zealand.

InternetNZ seeks political support for digital inclusion

Jordan Carter, InternetNZ CEO says his organisation's plan for digital inclusion needs concrete action. He has called for the political parties to sign for the InternetNZ five point plan ahead of the election.

The plan aims to find the investment needed to connect New Zealanders who are not yet online to the digital world. So far only the Green Party has committed to implement the plan.

Microsoft gets OIO nod for NZ cloud datacenter

The Overseas Investment Office says it has granted Microsoft the consent needed to go ahead with a $100 million plus datacenter in Auckland. Microsoft has previously said the new datacenter will bring its cloud services closer to New Zealand customers. These include Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365.

Spark Sport adds Premier League Matchday Live

Spark Sport has added Premier League Matchday Live to its schedule. It's a studio based show when pundits preview games, add half-time analysis, then discuss the action after it finishes. Jeff Latch, who heads Spark Sport says; "...we’re very pleased to be able to expand our offering in this way.”