Australia’s march towards an all-fiber future took an important step last week when the government announced a wide-ranging agreement with Telstra, the country’s largest phone company, to use Telstra’s existing infrastructure to help construct a national fiber network.

After two years of negotiations, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Thursday announced an $11 billion deal between Telstra and NBN Co to allow NBN to use Telstra’s existing conduits, poles, and network facilities to provide a foundation for the construction of the all-fiber network and the removal of existing copper wiring.

The deal is expected to save the government millions by not having to construct redundant facilities.

The network is expected to take a decade to complete, and will provide optical fiber broadband to at least nine out of ten Australian households.  The project will make Australia a global broadband leader, far ahead of the United States and Canada and most of western Europe.

As part of the deal, Telstra agreed to pay $2 billion for upgrades to its own infrastructure in preparation of migrating customers to the NBN.  Telstra’s CEO, David Thodey, said the agreement ended the uncertainty surrounding Telstra’s possible association with NBN and will allow his company to focus on customer service.

Gillard and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy turned on Australia’s first connection to the NBN in May at the Presbyterian Ladies College in Armidale in the east Australian state of New South Wales.

The town is one of five test markets where the NBN will first operate.  Areas in Melbourne, Townsville, coastal New South Wales and South Australia will also be switched on in coming months.

[flv width=”512″ height=”308″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Nine Network NBN Switched On 5-11.flv[/flv]

Nine Network in Australia covered the opening of the country’s National Broadband Network in Armidale earlier this year, and what it means for Australians as fiber broadband replaces older technology.  The opposition gripes the government is spending too much on the network.  (7 minutes)

Liberal opposition to the NBN has been fierce in some quarters, with Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull claiming the government is overspending on a network that delivers fiber straight to the home.  Gillard accused the conservative opposition of seeking to rip installed fiber straight out of the ground if they were to come to power, a charge Turnbull rejects as ridiculous.

 

He prefers a “fiber to the neighborhood” approach, similar to AT&T U-verse, which he says will bring good enough speeds to Australians faster and cheaper than an entirely fiber based network would.  But fiber proponents claim the costs will come down as the network construction ramps up, delivering economy of scale.  The government also believes fiber to the home is more upgradable and more reliable than a hybrid fiber-copper network.

Most of all, Australians are celebrating the imminent end of usage-based pricing, fair access policies that reduce speeds of heavy users to near-dial-up, and the fact they are likely to be among the top-five ranked broadband nations globally when the network is complete.

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Sky News ABC NBN and Telstra Achieve Deal 6-23-11.flv[/flv]

Sky News and ABC report on the government’s deal with Telstra to retire the nation’s copper wire network and work together to build fiber to the home to virtually every Australian. (7 minutes)

A Bradford, Maine couple blames FairPoint Communications for setting the stage for a recent fire in their home caused when a poorly repaired utility pole exposed low hanging wires eventually making contact with a passing truck, which created an energy surge igniting an electrical fire in their home.

“I thought we got hit by lightning. Everything started popping in the house,” Joseph Nunez told WABI-TV. “So, then I go upstairs, we have a ton of books upstairs, everything is in flames. We had perfect kindling for a fire. We have clothes and a library up there.”

The State Fire Marshal blamed an electrical malfunction, most likely caused by the fallen power lines formerly attached to FairPoint’s pole.

The utility has since replaced the pole, but Nunez believes the root cause of the fire was insufficient repairs done to the pole after an earlier storm.

“Three months ago after a wind storm they never put it up right,” Nunez said. “They put that band-aid of a little pole over there with some straps.”

A FairPoint spokesman said they can’t confirm if the pole in question had ever been damaged or repaired, but they’re looking into it.

The local fire department arrived early enough to prevent the fire from causing extensive damage to the Nunez home, built in 1850.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WABI Bangor Couple Blames FairPoint for Fire 6-16-11.flv[/flv]

WABI-TV in Bangor reports on the domino effect: a poorly maintained utility pole provides for low hanging wires, a truck makes contact with those wires, the resulting voltage spike ignites a fire in a couple’s home.  (1 minute)

[flv width=”512″ height=”298″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WSJ Studios disarming cable in battle with Netflix Media Report 6-20-11.flv[/flv]

Wall Street Journal: Top execs of some media behemoths are shifting their public stances toward Netflix Inc. of late. They’re now trying to persuade investors that the video streaming service will expand their business rather than destroy it. (4 minutes)

You are forgiven if you are confused about the love-hate relationship the cable industry has with online video streamers like Netflix — one that the Wall Street Journal likens to manic bipolar episodes.  Weeks after blaming Netflix for getting video programming too cheaply and threatening cable subscriptions, cable industry executives were hugs and kisses about online video at the recent Cable Show in Chicago.

“The reason why there’s interest in these Internet video providers that is that they’re deploying technology that’s making the experience better for consumers,” Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt said in an interview with MarketWatch during the National Cable & Telecommunications Association’s annual Cable Show last week.

“There’s nothing about [cable companies] that stops us from doing that. So I would say … we as an industry just need to pay attention and give consumers what they want. Then there’s no room for these other guys. I don’t mean to say that in a negative way, but it’s true.”

Of course, this is the same man that has earplugs firmly implanted to help resist another rejection of his Internet pricing schemes that Time Warner Cable customers loathed in 2009.  Britt’s desire to give “consumers what they want” just doesn’t play in this part of town while the cable company is installing software to measure and potentially meter broadband usage.

What is different in the online video spectrum is consumers have choices.  They can adopt Time Warner Cable’s glacially-slow rollout of its TV Everywhere concept, watch Hulu, use Netflix, or simply steal content providers don’t want them to watch.  For customers of Time Warner Cable facing competition from AT&T, there is potentially nowhere to run to avoid an Internet Overcharging scheme which could bring the online viewing party to a rapid conclusion when your viewing allowance is used up.

Britt says he is struggling with rights holders to provide more accessibility to online video streaming of popular shows.  He’s also thinking about how many restrictions to slap on subscribers.

MarketWatch talked with Britt and found him dealing with nagging questions about how many devices each user account should be authorized to use for viewing. “Should it be three, should it be 10? If I make [that number] too small, you’re not going to be happy as a customer,” Britt philosophized. “If I make it too big, you’re going to give the password to all of your friends, and they won’t have to buy a subscription to begin with.”

Hulu has received an unsolicited, and still private offer to buy the company lock, stock, and barrel — disengaging some of America’s largest television networks from the online streaming business Hulu represents.

With an offer in hand, Hulu’s owners News Corp., Walt Disney, and Comcast/NBC have decided to hire investment bankers to solicit any competing offers for the service.  Yahoo! may be one of the companies interested.

Hulu has always represented an irritation for program buyers — notably cable networks and television stations — that purchase programming to rerun on cable networks and television stations.  Because Hulu gives away most of its content for free, these buyers argue it devalues the programming they are buying.

In short, if everyone has already been able to watch 30 Rock several times online, for free, why pay top dollar to buy the series to show on a local television station?

The problem is even worse from the perspective of cable, phone, and satellite companies in the business of selling video packages to customers.  As soon as viewers discover they can watch all of their favorite shows online, again for free, why buy the cable TV or satellite package?

The Los Angeles Times reports Hulu may have some bad news in store for cord cutters: it may implement its own “authentication” system that would only allow instant access to those with a verified subscription to a pay television package.  All others would need to wait just over a week before they can watch popular shows during a limited viewing window.

For many analysts, that will slash the service’s net worth to a would-be buyer.  So would the inability of the new owners to win long-term contracts for the rights to keep popular series and shows on Hulu for the indefinite future.  In the case of Comcast/NBC, it’s a classic case of being torn between bringing your programming to more viewers and eroding away your company’s own cable subscriber base.

[flv width=”360″ height=”290″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Bloomberg Olson Says Yahoo Google Amazon Potential Hulu Buyers 6-22-11.mp4[/flv]

Bloomberg News reports on rumors Yahoo!, Google, and Amazon may be interested in acquiring Hulu.  (5 minutes)

Apple’s wildly popular iPhone series gets an upgrade in September as the Cupertino, Calif., company prepares to unveil iPhone 5.  Although the new model is not expected to support 4G/LTE networks, significant upgrades are in the works for the next series of phones:

• iPhone 5 will use Apple’s new iOS 5, which means improved messaging and photo sharing;
• An improved 8-megapixel camera, up from the current 5-megapixel one that got mixed reviews on iPhone 4;
• The introduction of the A5 processor, currently used in iPad 2, to provide more power for apps and features;
• An edge-to-edge screen and rounded glass.

The iPhone currently accounts for half of Apple’s revenue and has almost an 18% share of the smartphone market and dropping.

To counter Google’s increasing share of the smartphone market with its Android operating system, Apple also promises to deliver a stripped-down, less powerful budget-priced iPhone series for the developing world.  While prices have not been announced, the new budget phone is likely to be priced at least $100-200 less than western models.

With iPhone 5 also expected to include built-in support for either GSM or CDMA networks, Apple’s newest phone could be released simultaneously by both AT&T and Verizon.

Whether customers will be able to take their phones activated on one carrier to another is another matter, as is whether Sprint, T-Mobile, and smaller carriers will be allowed to sell it.

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Apple Introduces iPhone 5 6-22-11.flv[/flv]

Even without support for 4G/LTE, iPhone 5 is still likely to generate considerable enthusiasm, especially among would-be Verizon customers waiting for the next version of the phone.  But by then, unlimited data plans will be a dream.  Bloomberg News and WFXT-TV in Boston discuss iPhone 5’s release, and a clip from CNBC’s ‘The Titans’ explains the marketing genius of Apple and its iPhone product line.  (2 minutes)