Render CEO Sam Pratt
People

Construction tech Render adds to C-suite with former Google and Calix execs after doubling global headcount

- February 14, 2023 2 MIN READ

Render Networks has made two key executive appointments after doubling its workforce over the past year. The construction tech platform’s growth comes after IFM Investor took a $40 million majority stake in the business in mid-2022. Omar Ramadan, former Calix and Advanced Fibre Communications executive, has joined Render as the Vice President of Customer Operations.… Read more »

Business

Telstra, Optus and TPG pay a combined $33.5 million in fines for misleading speed claims on NBN plans

- November 11, 2022 2 MIN READ

Australia’s three largest internet service providers, Telstra, Optus and TPG have copped Federal Court penalties totalling $33.5 million after they all admitted to making false or misleading claims about their NBN plans. Telstra was ordered to pay $15 million, Optus $13.5 million, and TPG $5 million for breaching the Australian Consumer Law (ACL)  in relation… Read more »

computer, standing desk
Other tech

Why your internet feels slow and jumpy, even when you’ve paid for high-speed NBN

- September 20, 2021 3 MIN READ

Of the 8.2 million homes and businesses active on Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) in July 2021, 77% are now reported to be on a broadband plan that delivers speeds of at least 50 megabits per second (Mbps). This is plenty to accommodate a typical household’s needs for video streaming (Netflix high-definition resolution, for instance,… Read more »

Tortoise
Other tech

Telstra is refunding $25 million to 49,000 NBN customers who couldn’t get the broadband speeds they were promised

- July 7, 2021 2 MIN READ

Telstra will refund more than 49,000 customers around $50 million after Australia’s largest telco failed to tell them they had internet plans that physically could not deliver the NBN internet speeds they were paying for in another embarrassing failure of the NBN. But the refunds are only occurring following intervention by the Australian Communications and Media… Read more »

Politics

NBN borrows $2.6 billion via US bonds

- April 28, 2021 < 1 MIN READ

The government-owned NBN Co has taken on a fresh $US2 billion (~$A2.6bn) in debt via a bond issue in the US as it seeks to wean itself off federal government funding. The issue was made up of a five-year bond of $US750m and a 10-year bond of $US1.25 billion. The five-year bond will mature in… Read more »

Advice

Futurist Steve Sammartino on the 5 tech trends shaping the future of work

- March 23, 2021 4 MIN READ

This past year forced incredible change on businesses in a short time, with organisations needing to adapt and pivot quickly to keep pace. This forced adaptation accelerated many current trends – some by three to five years, according to a global McKinsey executive study – while simultaneously causing new ones to emerge. In a recent nbn webinar ‘Digital Transformation in a… Read more »

Politics

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has compared the ALP’s original NBN plan to Soviet-era tractor production

- October 28, 2020 3 MIN READ

Paul Fletcher, the federal communications minister in charge of the $55.5 billion national broadband rollout, has evoked tractor production under the Soviets to defend the Coalition government’s seven-year handling of the NBN roll-out. In a speech to the CommsDay Summit yesterday, Fletcher evoked the spectre of “those apocryphal Japanese soldiers found in remote jungles in… Read more »

Topics

Just as the NBN roll-out ends, it’s borrowing another $3.5bn to upgrade the network with fibre to the home

- September 23, 2020 3 MIN READ

NBN Co. will borrow $3.5 billion in additional debt from the private sector in order to upgrade the broadband network to more than six million homes over the next three years. Just as NBN Co. is “finishing” the national broadband roll-out, federal communications minister, Paul Fletcher will outline the latest investment at the National Press… Read more »

Topics

The Coalition government’s signature NBN strategy is causing the biggest problems for users, the ACCC finds

- February 12, 2020 2 MIN READ

Fibre-to-the-node (FTTN), the key broadband delivery method instigated by former communications minister Malcolm Turnbull in the Coalition government’s NBN policy, is failing to deliver for around a quarter of users, the latest review of broadband speeds by consumer watchdog the ACCC has found. The latest Measuring Broadband Australia report – the eight by the Australian… Read more »