Digital Technology for Digital Living.
August 02, 2004
Brookwater Gets Fibre To The Premises.
If you’re thinking of building your next house in Queensland, and you can’t get enough bandwidth, you may want to swing on over to the Brookwater sales office in Greater Springfield (no-where near the Tyre Yard we’re told). Telstra have announced that they now have deployed a FTTP (Fibre-to-the-Premises) connection for digital video demonstration purposes. FTTP uses a Telstra developed technology that provides “telephony, broadband data and digital subscription television services to customer premises on an optical fibre platform”. If you live their already they are ready to connect you.
God only knows why you’d want a Greg Norman designed golf course on your door step though.
Gadgets boy | Comments (0) | Broadbandgadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
July 29, 2004
Australia Has The Highest Internet Charges In The World.
An American has told us what we all know. Internet access in Australia is expensive. Not that I mind it being pointed out, especially when it makes the press. news.com.au reports that the “latest criticism of Australia’s internet traffic environment comes from Bill Norton, co-founder of US-based peering company Equinix and former chair of the North American Network Group, who is carrying out a study of peering in the Asia-Pacific region”. Here in Australia of course, we know the actual reason.
Gadgets boy | Comments (5) | Broadbandgadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
July 28, 2004
Skype Launches 1.0 For Windows.
Skype 1.0 for Windows has just been released. For those who aren’t aware, Skype is the same group of people that released KaZaA, and they have a peer-to-peer client that makes calls to other clients via Voice over IP (VoIP), and recently has added the ability to call to mobile phones and land lines through the same network, known as SkypeOut. This is where the service starts to get interesting.
Last night my wife wanted to call a friend in Dubai. Through Telstra this call would cost $AU1.14 per minute on their best plan. We use Encircle to make international calls, which offers VoIP from any phone in Australia. They charge 71 cents per minute. On todays exchange rate, Skype would charge 37 cents per minute (see their rates). So there are savings to be made. For 22 countries, of which Australia is included, they offer a rate of 3 cents per minute.
Worth a look for Windows, Linux and Pocket PC users.
Gadgets boy | Comments (0) | Broadband, Softwaregadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
July 26, 2004
Telstra Adds ADSL To Rural Exchanges.
Telstra has taken advantage of the Federal Government’s Higher Bandwidth Incentive Scheme (HiBIS) to lower the threshold for certain rural exchanges for ADSL.
Internet Service Providers, like Telstra Bigpond, require a certain number of people to connect to ADSL on a given exchange for it to be financially viable (and you thought economics was the same as home economics). So, in rural areas, Telstra have used the incentive payments to pump up the funds and so reduce the lower limit. In built up areas, like major suburbs, this isn’t as much of a factor, but for rural areas it can hamstring geeks who need their bandwidth.
So Telstra is using the financial incentive to lower the limit for a bunch of exchanges. With enough interest, to as little as 35 connections. 99 towns have now exceeded their new number, while another 150 are within reach. If you’re in one of the towns not on the list, get 30 people to register and they’ll set the “required interest” and get you on it.
If you’re rural, check the ADSL Demand Register because your exchange may be one of the 99, or even the other 150.
Telstra’s media release, which includes how you register interest is available here.
Gadgets boy | Comments (0) | Broadbandgadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
Australian Telecom Magazine Awards 2004.
Australian Telecom Magazine has announced the finalists for the
5th Annual Australian Telecom Magazine Awards 2004 that will be held in Sydney on September 22. This year they’ve made voting available on the web by way of a form, so we guess that means anyone can vote, as long as you don’t mind the spam that will follow. Required fields include name, address and email. It’s an interesting mix, given that there is a “Best Network Hardware Supplier” in with a “Best ISP” and “Best Mobile Phone Retailer”. It is an industry magazine of course, so it’s not aimed at the home user. There are some obvious omissions, but a shorlist’ll do that every-time. We’ll keep you posted when results are announced in September.
Gadgets boy | Comments (0) | Broadband, Mobile Phonegadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
July 18, 2004
Sensis Searches Australia.
A few weeks ago a new advert appeared on Australian TV. It didn’t make much sense, which is ironical given the name of the company it was advertising, Sensis. As it turns out Sensis is a “leading advertising, directories and information provider; on the web, in print, and over wireless, mobile and voice platforms. Sensis manages the iconic Australian brands Yellow Pages, White Pages, CitySearch, Whereis and The Trading Post”. Which when you consider its next move does make a lot of sense. The advert was a precursor to their latest adverts which point us to www.sensis.com.au. They’ve created an Australian search portal which also taps into the Yellow Pages, White Pages and maps. It all sounds good, but the limited searches I’ve done with it doesn’t provide the results I was after. It does look like a quicker way to find places and companies in Australia, simply because the Whitepages and Yellowpages sites suck are slow.
Richard | Comments (0) | Broadbandgadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
July 09, 2004
Australia’s Fastest Broadband.
“Sanctuary Cove is installing what is claimed to be the fastest residential broadband in the country, at 500Mbps”, as reported in the article ‘Fastest’ 500Mbps broadband. The developers used fibre instead of the more common ADSL technology that currently only supports a maximum of 1.5Mbps.
Richard | Comments (0) | Broadbandgadgets,gadget,gadgets shop, latest gadgets, new gadgets
