Networking

Optus announced on Thursday it has chosen to go with Nokia’s management platform for its narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) segment.
The sorts of industries targeted by the deal will be mining, utilities, and transportation.
“Anticipated industry applications include cost-effective waste management, supply chain optimisation, logistics management, and scene analytics for improved safety and security,” the pair said in a statement.
Nokia and Optus previously teamed up to create the latter’s 5G network, although Ericsson is also used by the telco as well.
Optus currently has over 900 5G sites around Australia, and over 420,000 households on its 5G fixed-wireless service.
Also on Thursday, Telstra and Ericsson announced they successfully reached a peak download speed of 4.2Gbps using 800Mhz of 5G millimetre wave spectrum.
“This result was achieved on our commercial network at the Telstra 5G Innovation Centre in Queensland using a mobile test platform, an Ericsson radio system base-station, Ericsson’s network software, and Ericsson’s core network,” Telstra group executive of networks and IT Nikos Katinakis said.
“The tests combined eight 100MHz channels using 2×2 MIMO and 64QAM technologies.”
Meanwhile, Vodafone announced on Thursday that it is has a new set of unlimited data plans, where users pay for the speed they will have once they eat up their data allowance.
The telco currently has five plans using this structure, starting out with a 10GB quota and 2Mbps speeds thereafter that costs AU$40 a month; while 30GB and 2Mbps speeds thereafter will set consumers back AU$45 a month; to have a 60GB quota with 10Mbps speeds thereafter will cost AU$55; and for an extra AU$10 each month, the quota is increased to 100GB; while the AU$120 ultra plan is a 150GB quota with 25Mbps speeds thereafter.
Data used within the quota is not limited by speeds.
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Credit: Microsoft

Windows 10

Microsoft has released another new Windows 10 test build to Insiders in the Dev Channel. Windows 10 Build 20221, released Sept. 23, has a Skype Meet Now button available in the taskbar in Windows 10.Microsoft already announced the MeetNow in Skype feature earlier this year. But by bringing the icon for this into the notification area (system tray) of the taskbar in Windows 10, Microsoft is trying to make it easier for users to quickly set up video calls without requiring sign-ups or downloads. Yes, if it’s not obvious, this is meant to help Microsoft combat the growing popularity of Zoom.Microsoft officials said this feature will roll out to only a subset of Windows Insiders today who are in the Dev Channel but will be gradually rolled out to everyone in the Dev Channel.Microsoft has made a number of fixes to the Dev Channel Windows 10 feature update with build 20221, which it lists in its blog post about the new build. There’s also a list of known issues.In related news, Microsoft is adding a new feature to its Your Phone app which allows users to pin important notifications to the top of the notifications feed. Officials said this feature will be gradually rolled out over a few days for Your Phone app users.

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Whether you are in a remote setting or living in a densely-populated city, the sudden disappearance of your internet connection can be incredibly frustrating. 

For the 400 residents of Aberhosan, a small rural village near Machynlleth, Wales, the loss of broadband and problems with their BT lines have occurred for 18 months, with signals simply vanishing on a daily basis — and a single television set was to blame. 
You may expect more issues with internet connections if you live in a remote area in the United Kingdom, as they are rarely first in line for cable upgrades. Indeed, a retired lawyer who lives in the Lake District was recently quoted £500,000 by BT to install high-speed broadband in his home. 
See also: What is the quantum internet? Everything you need to know about the weird future of quantum networks
However, in Aberhosan, the perplexing issue was that broadband connections disappeared at 7am, every day, like clockwork. 
Scores of engineers came and went over 18 months, answering the residents’ frequent complaints, including those made by 79-year-old retiree Bill Childs. 
As reported by the Guardian, Childs said that he had broadband problems for “as long as I can remember,” with between 30 and 40 engineer visits made to his house alone over the past few years.  
BT’s Openreach engineers were left stumped. Eventually, Openreach sent a squad of engineers from the firm’s chief engineers office, who descended upon the village to check and test every line, replacing cables as they went. 
Openreach called the crack team the “telecoms equivalent of ‘SAS’.”
Determined to get to the root of the issue, Openreach engineer Michael Jones said the engineers wanted to see if the fault was caused by Single High-level Impulse Noise (Shine), in which “electrical noise” coming from an appliance — including television sets and microwaves — was causing connections to fail. 
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Standing in the pouring rain from 6am, the engineers waited for the next hour with a Spectrum Analyser in hand, ready to trace back any electrical interference. 
At 7am, a burst of electrical noise was detected, leading the team to a house belonging to an unnamed resident — and their old, secondhand television set. 
The resident turned on their television every day at 7am, and by doing so, wiped out the entire village’s internet connection. 
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Jones said the individual was “mortified” that they were the cause, and happily, agreed to turn it off and not use the set again. 
There have been no further reported issues with the village’s broadband. 
“We’d just advise the public to make sure that their electric appliances are properly certified and meet current British Standards and if you have a fault, report it to your service provider in the first instance so that we can investigate,” Suzanne Rutherford, Openreach Chief Engineer’s Lead for Wales, commented.
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Two charismatic gentlemen: Minister Paul Fletcher and NBN CEO Stephen Rue
Image: Chris Duckett/ZDNet
Users of the National Broadband Network (NBN) that live or work within multi-dwelling units can stop being excited about an upgrade path for the near future, as the company’s upgrade plans announced on Wednesday morning do not take that technology into account.
“Fibre to the basement is not addressed in this plan, but I assure you regardless of that, the company … continues to look at ways that all our networks can have greater capability in the future,” NBN CEO Stephen Rue told ZDNet.
Speaking to journalists while launching the NBN 2021 corporate plan, Rue said the on-demand upgrade plans were previously planned to begin when NBN became cashflow positive on the other side of 2023, but he would not be drawn on whether it would be to the same scale as its new plan.
“I can’t tell you what we would have put forward as our corporate plan if COVID hadn’t existed. But I can tell you that with the onset of COVID, there’s absolutely no doubt that more people are working from home, and educating, and going to doctors, and have the opportunity to live in different locations around Australia,” he told ZDNet.
“We are still looking to, obviously, invest further in the network out of cash flow positive outcomes in the future, but what we are simply doing is bringing forward some of that by borrowing against those future cashflows.”
It is expected that the first fibre-to-the-node (FttN) users will be able to order upgrades in the second half of next year.
The corporate plan projects brownfields fibre-to-the-premises (FttP) connections to increase from 900,000 currently to 1.3 million at the end of fiscal year 2024, while FttN will increase to 3.2 million next year from the current 3.1 million, before dropping in FY2024 to 3 million.
Before that time, there will remain 100,000 premises that need “bespoke” connections — these are premises that require a complex installation, are located within culturally significant areas, or are heritage sites — with the 2021 corporate plan saying it was “delivering as quickly as possible” the remaining complex connection, but “within relevant constraints”, and that the company should have 80% completed by the end of 2020. 
Seven years too late: The missing piece from the Coalition’s NBN plan  
The plan also stated that the FttN network would soon be paid for by itself through generating more revenue than it had cost to be built and run.
“It is important to note that NBN Co is not proposing a full-scale overbuild and forced migration of FTTN areas to FTTP,” the plan states.
“This on-demand model makes FTTP a cost-effective solution; however, NBN Co will continue its strategy of utilising other suitable technologies where it makes sense to do so.”
For the company’s much-criticised technology choice program where users pay for upgrades, the company said it will make a number of changes, including instant quotes and bringing an end to charging for a quote.
“The improvements to the program will focus on making it more cost effective including improved pricing by completing builds at lower cost, especially for ‘group switches’,” it said.
“Customer accessibility will also be improved with a simplified website, instant online quotes, and application fee removal.”

Image: NBN
NBN also said in its plan that it would improve the resilience of the network by looking at the use of hybrid generators for fixed-wireless sites, which would help in bushfire situations and reduce carbon emissions. It will also invest in battery backups for hybrid fibre-coaxial areas that are prone to outages due to a loss of mains power, look at redundant links and backup sites for NBN points of interconnect to ensure failover, and have more redundant transit fibre spurs.
Speaking at the National Press Club earlier on Wednesday, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said the upgrades would increase NBN’s internal rate of return from 3.2% to 3.7%.
The minister was also asked to respond on whether a decade of useless and wasteful argument had taken place.
“My response is firstly to make the point that what we’re focused on is delivering this project, delivering performance, and we’ve got the rollout to 99% of the premises in Australia — we’re now at a point where we can move to the next stage,” he said.
“So I certainly agree that we’ve had lots of pretty sterile political arguments.
“What our government is much more interested in is delivering a network that meets the needs of Australians today. We’re announcing a step change in that and so, building on, of course, the way the network succeeded, and meeting the needs of Australians particularly through the COVID period.
“I think we’ll let the performance of the network and the project do the talking.”
Shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the corporate plan was “nothing short of a disgrace” and failed to provide a new estimate of peak funding, nor provided its debt profile, capital expenditure breakout by technology, nor operating expenditure profile.
“The lack of transparency in this document is nothing short of a cover up designed to conceal unfunded announcements made by Minister Fletcher today,” she said.
“The lack of transparency also conceals the new cost blowouts which occurred before these upgrade plans were even announced.
“Labor calls on the Morrison government and NBN Co to release an updated document that does not treat Australian taxpayers as fools.”  
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Image: Chris Duckett/ZDNet
What a decade of useless and wasteful argument that was.
After years and years of ridiculous claims — such as those made by then-Shadow Communications Minister cum Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2011 that there was no evidence end users would receive any benefit from getting access to broadband speeds higher than those available under ADSL2+ technology, or that 1Gbps was a marketing gimmick — NBN will now embark on upgrading its network.
The end goal of the upgrade will be to ensure that for a cost of AU$4.5 billion, 75% of NBN’s fixed-line network will be able to access 1Gbps speeds by the end of 2023. The money for the project will be sourced from private debt markets.
Seven years too late: The missing piece from the Coalition’s NBN plan 
Part of the money, up to AU$700 million, will be used to take fibre to businesses and create fibre zones around Australia, with another AU$300 already allocated to fibre upgrades alongside state governments and local councils.
That leaves AU$3.5 billion for residential upgrades under today’s announcement.
“Under this investment program, in areas currently served by FttN, all existing fibre infrastructure already built to nodes will be incorporated,” shareholder NBN ministers Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said in a statement.
“There will then be a further investment to take fibre deeper into neighbourhoods, through building local fibre networks that run along street frontages.”
Speaking later at a press conference, Fletcher said two million homes serviced by fibre-to-the-node (FttN) would be upgraded to a full-fibre connection.
Similar to the business fibre program, the upgrades will be on-demand, with hybrid-fibre coaxial (HFC), and fibre-to-the-curb (FttC) connections to also get upgrades of existing infrastructure to hit the 1Gbps target. 
“From the outset, the plan set out in our 2013 Strategic Review was to get the network rolled out as quickly as possible — and then deliver upgrades when there was demand for them. We’ve steadily delivered on our plan for seven years; the further investment announced today is exactly what our plan envisaged,” Minister Fletcher said in a statement, presumably forgetting the prior decade’s politicking.
“This is the right time for this network upgrade. There is a long term trend of broadband demand growth — with a very significant spike this year as COVID-19 has changed the way we use the internet.”
The ministers said the upgrade program would create 25,000 jobs across the country over two years.
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Microsoft is introducing on Sept. 22 what it’s calling an Azure-hosted “fully managed communications platform” in public preview form. These Azure Communication Services (ACS) are the same video calling, chat, and SMS text messaging services that Microsoft uses to power its own Teams service. 
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Microsoft’s contention is its own customers and partners want an easy way to add these kinds of communications services to their own applications in an easy way. Company officials say these kinds of services are even more important because of the need for remote connectivity as a result of the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Using ACS, customers, and partners can add these communication services to their mobile apps, desktop apps, and web sites “with just a few lines of code,” officials said as part of the announcement timed with the first day of the company’s virtual Ignite 2020 IT Pro conference. (There are application programming interfaces and software development kits involved from a development standpoint.) The services are designed to work on any platform/any device. 
Credit: Microsoft
Microsoft officials stressed that ACS is already a proven, globally available solution, as evidenced by its use in Teams.Microsoft’s own Dynamics ERP/CRM team is going to be using ACS to add communications services as an option for its Dynamics 365 Customer Service service. Microsoft is planning to make available a private preview of the ACS capabilities for that app starting sometime in October. Microsoft’s pitch is the combination of ACS and Dynamics 365 Customer Service will enable users to bring capabilities like voice to Dynamics in five steps, compared to the many steps it takes to combine AWS Connect and Salesforce CRM. 
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The first services available to customers are voice and video calling and chat. SMS/texting integration is coming sometime in October. And “Phone Numbers” — meaning communications scenarios with telephony capabilities for inbound/outbound calling — is on the docket for October, as well. Officials said that the Phone Numbers service will “soon” integrate with existing on-premises equipment and carrier networks with SIP.

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Image: NBN
The company responsible for the National Broadband Network (NBN) announced on Tuesday it was spending AU$700 million to create 240 “business fibre zones” that will cover 700,000 business premises.
Being part of a zone will allow businesses to get a full fibre Enterprise Ethernet connection, as well as reduced rates and connection fees.
NBN added that when it connects a business within a zone to fibre, it will not charge the business for the act, and if the business signs a 3-year deal, NBN will not charge the internet service provider.  
“Enterprise Ethernet is NBN Co’s fastest symmetrical wholesale product and premium-grade business offering. It has options for prioritised traffic, high capacity, and symmetrical upload and download wholesale speeds from 10Mbps to close to 1Gbps, as well as enhanced 24/7 support through the business NBN operations centre with a dedicated team located in Australia,” the company said in a statement.
Of the 240 zones to be created, 85 will be regional centres, while another 14 will be allocated “specifically to underpin existing health precincts”.
An initial 130 zones were released on Tuesday, with 61 in the regional centres and 11 in health precincts.
“Having helped level the playing field for residential internet services with the rollout of the NBN network, we are now turning our attention to accessibility for our premium-grade business services, helping businesses in regional areas access the benefits of competition, enhanced broadband support services, and better wholesale NBN prices for the digital services they need to succeed,” NBN CEO Stephen Rue said.
“For the first time, any business in an NBN business fibre zone can get the same premium-grade services and the same wholesale prices as those in the centre of our biggest cities.”
The company has also set aside AU$50 million to “work with local councils and state and territory governments” across three years to extend its business-service footprint outside the designated zones.
Within NSW metro, the initial fibre zones will be in Botany, Gosford, Lake Haven — Wyong, Lane Cove, Mosman, Neutral Bay, Parramatta, Randwick, Marrickville, Double Bay — Rose Bay, and an amorphous Central Coast zone.
In regional NSW, the zones will be created in Albury / Lavington, Armidale, Ballina, Batemans Bay, Bathurst, Charlestown, Coffs Harbour, Corrimal — Austinmer, Dubbo, Goulburn, Lismore, Maitland, Mudgee, Newcastle CBD, Nowra, Orange, Port Kembla — Warrawong, Port Macquarie, Tamworth, Taree, Wagga Wagga, Wollongong, and Shoalhaven.
For Victorian metro, the zones are Berwick South, Box Hill, Clayton, Collingwood, Dandenong, Mornington, Springvale — Noble Park, Burwood, Chadstone — Oakleigh, Caulfield — Carnegie, St Kilda — Elsternwick, Blackburn — Mitcham, and Richmond — Hawthorn.
Elsewhere in Victoria, the zones are Ararat, Ballarat, Bendigo, Echuca, Geelong, Horsham, Mildura, Shepparton, Wangaratta, Warrnambool, Wodonga, and Morwell — Traralgon.
Around Brisbane, the zones are in Annerley, Archerfield, Coorparoo, Darra – Richlands, Eagle Farm, Mount Gravatt, Stafford — Alderley, Tingalpa, Morningside — Lytton, and Indooroopilly — Toowong.
For the rest of Queensland, Bundaberg, Caloundra, Gladstone, Gympie, Mackay, Maroochydore, Maryborough, Rockhampton, Southport, Toowoomba, Townsville area, Wurtulla — Birtinya, and Cairns — Port Douglas will have fibre zones.
Tasmania will have zones in Burnie, Devonport, Hobart, and Launceston.
Over in Perth, the zones are Balcatta, Bassendean, Canning Vale — Riverton, Fremantle, Henderson, Malaga, Mandurah, Midland — Guildford, O’Connor — Murdoch, Osborne Park Industrial, Rockingham, Subiaco — Nedlands — Shenton Park, Wangara, South Perth, Bibra Lake — Coogee, Applecross — Melville, and Belmont — Cannington.
For the rest of WA, there will be four zones across Albany, Bunbury, Busselton, and Geraldton.
While in Adelaide, the zones will be Edinburgh, Hawthorn — Malvern, Hindmarsh, Lonsdale, Melrose Park, Mount Barker, Norwood, Port Adelaide — Gepps Cross, Prospect area, Richmond, Toorak Gardens, Unley — Parkside, Woodville Park, and Willunga.
Outside of South Australian metro area, Mount Gambier is the sole business fibre zone.
Canberra gets zones in Belconnen, Canberra CBD, Deakin, and Phillip, while NBN has allocated a zone called Queanbeyan – Hume to an area dubbed “ACT regional”.
The Northern Territory gets three zones in Darwin, Palmerston, and Casuarina.
When the zones scheme is completed, it is expected 90% of businesses within the NBN footprint will be able to have a fibre connection.
“This initiative will create more jobs as we combat the impact of COVID-19 on our economy and employment across our country. The construction of the business fibre zones will deliver up to 6,000 new jobs by 2021-22, including more engineers, project managers, and construction crew,” Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said.
“It will also boost the productivity of businesses within each of the 240 business fibre zones.”
As for Labor, Shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland criticised the decision.
“After spending AU$51 billion on a second-rate network, and a decade critising Labor, it turns out fibre was better all along,” Rowland said.
“Today confirms the Liberals don’t have a clue when it comes to technology or economics. Their only motivation is the politics of the moment and Australians have lost out.”
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Back in my childhood hometown in Calhoun County, West Virginia, my high school friend Bill Bailey says his DSL connection gives him an “average speed of 27Kbps.” That’s Kilobits per second. He might do better with a modem. It’s not just him. Tens of millions of Americans who live in the country can only dream of having broadband. The answer to their internet dreams may lie in the skies above them, with SpaceX Starlink satellites.

SpaceX has applied for the Federal Communication Commission’s up-to $16 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). This is a plan to bring broadband — with download speeds of at least 25Mbps — to six million homes and businesses, which currently have no broadband. As part of its presentation, Starlink showed internet performance tests with download speeds of between 102Mbps to 103Mbps, upload speeds of 40.5Mbps to not quite 42Mbps, and a latency of 18 milliseconds to 19 milliseconds. That’s much better than conventional satellite internet, comparable to low-end cable internet, and far beyond what most rural internet users can get.
Other independent third-party tests are showing lower performance numbers. Users posting to TestMy.Net are showing an average download speed of 37.04Mbps, with a top speed of 91.04Mbps. Other tests show a top download number of 103Mbps, an upload speed of 41.99Mbps, and a latency of 18 milliseconds. That’s still much better broadband than many rural users have been seeing.
Of course, the Linux-powered Starlink satellites are still in beta. And, with about 775 Starlink satellites now in orbit, the service is far short of its initial goal of 12,000 satellites. SpaceX has applied to the FCC to launch 30,000 Starlink satellites. According to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX needs about 400 Starlink satellites to provide “minor” coverage and 800 for “moderate” coverage.
Pent-up demand for Starlink’s fast Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) internet is also increasing. SpaceX recently applied for an FCC license to roll out five million ‘UFO on a stick’ end-user terminals over its original request for a million terminals. This came after 700,000 US residents signed up to be updated about the service’s availability. 
It’s not just broadband-hungry individuals who want Starlink services. Rural governments, such as the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM), are also looking to the sky for broadband. “We know today our citizens require greater connectivity than 50/10 megabits per second,” said FONOM president Danny Whalen in a recent press release. And, “FONOM believes that the Starlink program is our best option.”
So, why aren’t we seeing more beta testers or even an early release program? The answer is there aren’t enough terminals in the production pipeline. A close reading of the SpaceX FCC request to modify the Starlink satellite constellation orbits reveals SpaceX is “on track to produce thousands of consumer user terminals per month, heading toward high-rate production.” If they’re on track to produce thousands, that implies they’re now only producing hundreds of terminals per month. 
This theory is further supported by a search for SpaceX Starlink job openings. This LinkedIn search revealed that the company is actively looking for “talented production associates to help establish a new manufacturing and test processes and eventually ramp to full-scale production for the user terminal.” The company is also looking “for skilled and well-rounded maintenance technicians to help ensure high productivity and reliability of our high volume Starlink User Terminal manufacturing facility.” SpaceX is also seeking “manufacturing engineers to spearhead the development of millions of consumer-facing devices that will sit in our customers’ homes.”
Put it all together and what I see is that, while Starlink satellites are capable of delivering the broadband goods, it will still be months more before enough SpaceX’s CA-based factory can meet the demand for first hundreds of thousands and eventually millions of terminals. 
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