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Broadband boost moves closer
The program manager for the regional black spots program, Michael Ackland, says it will result in cheaper internet and faster speeds. (Getty Images: Thinkstock)
The National Broadband Network (NBN) is a step closer to reality for South Australia’s Riverland, with construction of the backbone cable from Mildura to Adelaide beginning today.
The cable links mobile phone towers and telecommunications exchanges to create a pathway for the NBN.
The program manager for the regional black spots program, Michael Ackland, says it will result in cheaper internet and faster speeds.
“The backbone allows for companies to deploy alternative ADSL2 services. That is by using their own infrastructure and what that will allow for is very different types of services delivered over ADSL2,” he said.
Mr Ackland says once installation is complete, consumers will see major benefits.
“In all capital cities and a number of regional markets where competitive backbone exists, you’ve got very large download caps, they are moving very quickly to unlimited plans and this will give regional consumers the ability to access those plans,” he said.
Aerospace centres to be built in Australia
Melbourne aerospace researchers are working with leaders of the Russian space industry to build two space centres in Australia.
Representatives of Russian Federation space agency are meeting with RMIT University researchers to discuss the development of two space tracking centres.
The proposed joint Russian-Australian venture would involve a space mission control centre and a near earth object space observation centre to track asteroids in the southern hemisphere.
RMIT University’s Associate Professor in Aerospace Engineering, Lachlan Thompson, hopes the centres can be built in Victoria.
“The Russians have all the equipment. They’ve got an equivalent facility already in Russia that works very well,” he said.
“It’s similar to what the Americans use in the United States and the European Space Agency uses in Spain. So the technology is there ready to go off the shelf.”
Future Fund pares its $350m stake in Telstra
THE Future Fund has accelerated its departure from the Telstra share registry, selling another $350 million worth of the stock this month.
The fund offloaded 1 per cent of the stock from February 7 to February 24, to bring its stake in Telstra down from 6.8 per cent to 5.6 per cent. In the past year alone, it has sold more than $2 billion worth of Telstra shares.
Once the Future Fund’s holding in Telstra goes below the 5 per cent mark, it will cease to be a substantial shareholder and will no longer have to publicly declare its stake.
In the past, the fund has used its substantial holding in Telstra to voice its concerns on the company’s performance and effect changes within the telco’s board room. Future Fund chair David Murray’s public criticisms of Telstra peaked last November, when the fund voted against all resolutions at the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
Mr Murray has also used the fund’s stake in Telstra to complain about the lack of publicly available detail on the telco’s $13.8bn deal to participate in the government’s National Broadband Network.
NASA officials say they are not concerned about space shuttle Discovery, despite it being hit by debris at launch
NASA officials maintain they are not concerned about space shuttle Discovery, despite video showing it being hit by chunks of debris this morning.
Discovery launched this morning at around 7.30am (Queensland time) on an 11-day mission to the International Space Station, delivering parts, equipment and the first humanoid robot to be taken to the station, which will act as its first permanent resident.
The last few moments before launch were fraught with anxiety as NASA engineers raced to fix a glitch that temporarily paralysed some ground computers, but it wasn’t enough to delay the mission further.