WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Australia's largest phone company, Telstra Corp (TLS.AX), could face hefty regulation if the government goes through with a threat to bypass the company in building a $6.9 billion national broadband network.

Telstra has been shut out of the planning and, if the project is granted to a rival, it could see its network arm forcibly separated to provide a platform for the network.

Analysts say uncertainty over the ability of Telstra's rivals to build a network to span Australia's vast distances and inhospitable terrain to reach the government's target of 98 percent of the population, means Telstra must be involved.

"This requires parts of Telstra's network, and if they're not prepared to provide it willingly then it will have to be legislated," said Luke Sinclair, investment manager at Karara Capital.

Australia has slower and more expensive Internet than many developed countries, and the government has pledged A$4.7 billion to help build a national broadband network, with the successful bidder expected to roughly equal that amount.

But the project has been beset by political wrangling, descending into a face-off between the government and Telstra, which dominates the market and infrastructure.

The government panel reviewing proposals for the network on December 18 dumped Telstra's plan as it did not include smaller businesses, while accepting another five bids.

"This decision reveals fundamentally a growing level of frustration from the government with Telstra's very public demands and ultimatum for regulatory concessions," said JP Morgan analyst Laurent Horrut in a note to clients.

Telstra has sought assurances from the government it would not be forcibly broken up before submitting its bid. The government has responded by saying the network could be built without Telstra.

Telstra could still be selected, however, if Minister for Broadband Stephen Conroy, who will make the final decision, decides to ignore the panel's recommendation.

Of the five other bidders who registered interest, Telstra's main rival Optus, owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (STEL.SI) and backed by a consortium of smaller players known as Terria, is seen as the most likely candidate.

While doubts persist whether anybody other than Telstra can muster the estimated A$5 billion needed on top of the government's contribution, a joint venture could be the solution.

"Even if you have one leading tenderer, let's say Terria, it would be possible for them to work with other players to get it built," said Paul Budde, an independent telecoms analyst.

Or the government may address how much it is willing to contribute to the project to support a less capable bidder, Karara Capital's Sinclair said.

Besides the Optus-Terria consortium, the other bidders are Canada's Axia Netmedia (AXX.TO) and a local consortium, Acacia. TransACT and the Tasmanian government have only submitted plans for their state or territory, not a national plan.

Credit rating agencies Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch all maintained their Telstra ratings despite the government decision, with all three saying it was too soon to say what the impact would be on the company if it was left out. That is partly because the process could become mired in legal challenges, resulting in lengthy delays. Telstra has called the decision to exclude it from the bidding "legally questionable," and has reserved the right to challenge it.

Telstra shares, which fell almost a fifth to an 11-year low in the wake of the decision, have recovered some ground after the company said its earnings outlook would not be affected.

The shares are expected to survive relatively intact even if the government awards the contract to a rival firm, as it would take the winning bidder years to build the network, time in which Telstra could mount a competitive response.

Damage to Telstra's value would depend on whether it was forced to split -- a scenario that JP Morgan's Horrut said would remove A$1.32 from the stock's standalone valuation of A$4.73 a share. If Telstra is chosen to build the network, however, that valuation would increase by $0.41 a share, Horrut said.

Telstra is opposed to splitting off its network business from its retail arm, saying that would destroy shareholder value, citing similar regulation imposed on Britain's BT Group (BT.L) and Telecom Corp of New Zealand (TEL.NZ) as a precedent.

"One of the conclusions from the last week is that some of the good outcomes the market had been looking for are now a lot less likely," Karara Capital's Sinclair said.

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You’ve finally gone high speed with a cable modem or DSL and you love the speed. However, are you taking the right precautions to keep your computer safe? High speed broadband is a blessing. Remember the days when you could go make yourself a snack and go to the bathroom while you’re computer downloaded one page? That is no longer true when you have broadband service. Dial-up is limited by the bandwidth of phone lines and web content is getting larger and larger. The bandwidth for dial-up is not usually large enough to send large content file pages in a timely manner. There is new technology that allows you to speed up your dial-up connection. Both NetZero and EarthLink offer high-speed dial-up that are said to be five times faster than traditional service.

You will also see advertised on the Internet, special programs to boost speed. As always with any program that you download from the Internet, you need to know the site you are on is secure. You don’t want to add Spyware or adware while adding the program to speed up your connection.

I found as an early user of new cable Internet service that it was so much faster I was amazed at how fast my pages loaded. I was one of the first in the city to receive this new service. As more and more users jumped on the high-speed bandwagon, I noticed a slow down to my Internet service. The cable company has fixed that performance issue by adding new channels and splitting the users. This allows the speed, which we can easily get used to and like.

How secure is broadband service? Broadband does have its advantages but there are also some dangers involved as well. First, when you are using dial-up, you are more than likely shutting your computer down when you are done surfing or working on the Internet. With your computer shut down, it won’t allow hackers or Spyware to get into your system. With broadband, their boast is “you are always connected.” I know this to be true; because when I turn my computer on in the morning, it stays on until I shut it down for the night.

While this is convenient, it also poses a danger by leaving your computer exposed to the work of hackers and Spyware all that time. With your computer “always on”, an important fact to remember is the road to the Internet is a two-way road and Spyware and hackers can be having a field day with your computer.

One such attack is called “denial of service” and has hit prominent sites like Excite at Home, eBay, and Yahoo. The Undernet, which supports the IRC chat network, has also been hit with this attack. Many experts warn that a particular worm can potentially cripple the Internet and could already have the worms seeded into many computers. They are afraid that these worms will be activated all at once and cause a massive failure of many Internet sites.

Hackers can get into computers that are serviced by these high-speed DSL and cable modem connections and are able to get personal information like credit card and bank account details. Many companies provide the first step in stopping these intruders by disabling the file-sharing program that is on the Windows operating system of their customer’s computers. This help prevents other users from seeing inside your computer.

Installing a firewall is another simple and inexpensive precaution. A firewall is just what it says. It builds a wall around your computer to keep hackers and Spyware from getting your personal information. Experts say that once your computer is compromised, sometimes the only cure is to reformat the hard drive. This is something that is time-consuming and frustrating and should be done only as a last resort.

Security issues with broadband connection will continue to grow as many more households start connecting with high-speed connectors. According to Nielsen/Net Ratings, broadband users increased by 134 percent in the past year. They report that nearly 29 million users are connected to a broadband connection in the year 2004. It’s mind boggling to think how many more have been added since then.

Enjoy your broadband speed and convenience, but prepare to take the right precautions to keep your computer safe.

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These days there are a lot of people using a Broadband Internet connection to get online. As a consumer you can get Broadband through use of DSL, which is normally supplied by a phone company, or you can get a connection with a cable Internet Company, providing that there is one in your area. Generally speaking broadband will grant you a relatively fast connection which will be a must if you are thinking of downloading and viewing/listening to videos and music.

But as we all know technology isn’t perfect and sometimes you may experience a painfully slow connection even with Broadband. If you are or have experienced this you should know that there could be lots of reasons to why it is happening to you; your internet provider may be having some problems or your computer may have become victim to viruses and spyware. Your fist step towards sorting the problem should be to run a broadband speed test on your connection. Why, because this will help you determine whether the problem is on your end or your providers.

If you call your Internet provider, they will most likely be able to run a broadband speed test on your computer while you wait. It shouldn’t take a moment, and they can tell you rather quickly if the problem is on their end or yours. They may also have a website that you can go to, that is of cause if you can still get online, and it will run the broadband speed test for you. You will see your results displayed right there on your computer screen. If your internet provider doesn’t provide this service, then don’t worry there are plenty of web sites out there that will. Just do a google search for “speed test” and you’re find plenty of sites.

If you have run the speed test and found nothing wrong on their end, your connection might be off at your end. It may just be a simple case of you having to reset your modem or router; I have found this to work most of the time. The last time I found my service to be very slow; it was because the memory on my modem had been full. To be honest I don’t really know for sure what kind of data this collects or uses, but as soon as the memory had been emptied, my connection was back to normal.

If there is no problem what so ever on your end, no trouble on your providers end, and the broadband speed test came back fine, there is most likely something else wrong with your computer. In this case often one of the main culprits are spyware, malware or of cause viruses. Sometimes very bad spyware can make it easier for viruses to get in to your system and then they will use up so much of your computer memory that it will make your broadband Internet run like a dial-up or even worse.

If you have done all of this and still have no idea what is causing the problem, your last step would be to have your computer looked over by a professional for any hardware problems. Most of the problems you will encounter with your computer will be no doubt software related; hardware problems take up a very small proportion of computer problems.

Once your computer is up and running again, it’s always a good idea to run a broadband speed test every now and then so you can be certain that everything is running fine, and keep your computer protected from viruses, spyware and alike.

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To go Broadband or not? That is the question! Internet has become a fad striking each and every household’s computers. It’s a bandwagon where everyone gets the enjoyable ride. It has become a craze diligently patronized by small and large scale businesses with an online set up or even those who have decided to put up with the Internet. Customers compete in terms of connection that they have, proudly speaks of having a fast access and sincerely encourages their friends to make that decision. Why are then, some people, refusing to go broadband? It is but noteworthy to understand the basics of broadband, high speed or fast access.

There are so many terms attached to it. Many people call it different names but they all mean the same thing. According to Merriam-Webster, broadband “relates to or being a high speed communications network and especially one in which a frequency range is divided into multiple independent channels for simultaneous transmission signals.” Imagine an expressway, it has wide roads and numerous vehicles speeding their way on it. That is what broadband is like.

Broadband technology advances like no other. Telephone and cable companies have provided conduits for this connection to pass through. The highway described earlier approaches to one stop, the Internet. It is like a huge door that opens up every household’s computer to access the Internet and no longer prolong the agony of waiting from opening one website to another.

To start up with a broadband connection, it is then imperative to know if whether your telephone or cable providers support these connections. The area must have access to that type of connection in order to land on the faster service. There are several advantages to acquiring this connection. The first is the well obvious speedier connection or access. You can now use the telephone and the fax machine while using the Internet. You can make outgoing and receive incoming messages. The perennial problem of sluggish connection and telephone use interruption is finally put behind you. With broadband access, you can enjoy multitasking doing research for paperwork, listening to your favorite songs and your computer is downloading the attached pictures from an email while you get to enjoy a cup of latte on the other hand. Yes, these can all be done at the comfort of your own room. Some broadband service companies provide free technical support if you need help but the safety and security tools can now run smoothly with software that are auto updating and always online.

There are still several means to define how broadband can greatly affect the market’s use of internet nowadays, the business potential increases at the same time while more and more are switching to broadband. The basic savings however on this is time; doing more in such little time, your precious time. To the first question posted at the beginning of this article, it will rely on your call. But for anyone who values time and believes that time is gold, it should not be a question anymore.

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If you have grown tired of borrowing the home phone line to check your email, then you will appreciate the speed and “always on” aspect of broadband Internet. Even if you already have a dedicated line to an Internet Service Provider, a high speed connection will make a dramatic difference in how you use the Internet. Until recently, choices were very limited. However, there are a number of options now and it is worth considering the following before making the leap to the 21st century:

Speed
Even though the slowest broadband service will be faster than your pokey modem, there are different speeds (and of course prices) with broadband service. The minimum target should be in the 512k BPS, which would make the service approximately ten times faster than the best standard modem for downloads. Uploads are faster than modems but still lag well behind on upload (sending files) speed. Make sure that your provider has an upgrade plan when you want to turbo-charge your connection for movies and other bandwidth-hungry media.

Price
Those who say that money is no object have not opened a phone bill recently! The highest speeds (upwards of 3M BPS) are typically reserved for business users, who can afford the steep monthly charges. But most home and small office customers can find a provider with a 1M BPS plan that should only cost two times the price of their former dial-up ISP. This is a tremendous bargain when you consider the time and productivity advantages you will gain.


Commitment
Often the “same as dial-up” prices will only be valid for a few months, or require a lengthy contract commitment to maintain the bargain. You may have to maintain all products, and at least the same level of service. Check the fine print on the offer, and if it sounds too good to be true, well, you know the rest.

Phone
A consideration is whether you want to get rid of your home phone line when you ditch your old ISP. It is typically less expensive, although make sure all the features you liked from traditional phone service are in place. Since digital phone service is now possible, investigate a combined plan that bundles Internet, phone and perhaps even cable or satellite TV service.

Wireless
If you do not already have a wireless router, many providers will lease (or sell) you one to make your broadband connection truly a charm. Not only will you be surfing and downloading at lightning speed, but you will do it without a cable in sight.

Disappearing are the days of busy phone lines and creaky dial-up speeds. Consider these simple points before launching your speed skyward and putting your old modem out to pasture.

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After a long wait, the broadband service bundle has emerged into a welcoming, but hotly contested marketplace, with different solutions vying for the immediate attention of consumers and their money. These services are grouped into a package that includes both phone services and a high speed Internet connection, all for one low price. Offerings include the packaging of all TV, telephone and other services in a single bill. Usually this consumer service bundle is sold for a single price based on the customer’s selected bandwidth capacity and number of access lines.

If you choose to go with a service bundle offered by Time Warner Cable or AT & T, be sure to compare the VoIP (or Voice Over Internet Protocol) portion to that provided by the several major companies in the market. There are a few chosen ones that specifically stand out and are worth a look; one being Vonage. This company is well-known for being a market force and leading provider of telephone services in the world, and are particularly now known for their involvement with VoIP technology.

The award winning technology utilized by Vonage enables the general consumer around the world to be able to make and receive calls from almost anywhere that a high speed Internet connection is available. Vonage is known for offering feature-rich and cost-effective communication services that provide users an experience that highly rivals landline telephone services.
Another company offering VoIP is Verizon, a stiff competitor on the communications industry. Verizon offers the VoiceWing option which gives you the power to track your calls, check voicemail online and many more features.

VoIP providers can offer amazing international rates, unlimited nationwide calling packages, choice of area codes, various calling features, voicemail access via the Internet, and the ability to control just about any feature with the Personal Account Manager.

There are some disadvantages to the consumer of having broadband services being sold together. You cannot choose the digital TV service separately: the television, landline phone, and broadband bundle is compulsory and subject to a 12 month minimum term with stiff cancellation penalties.

These are some interesting notes on service providers:

Point Topic projects that in the medium term an IP telephony service will be expected by consumers from their broadband operators in the same way a TV and broadband bundle is expected from cable operators.

Roadrunner is growing well while the AOL bundle is no longer actively marketed, and is losing customers.

Covad, TalkSwitch Team on SMB Communications Package companies say the voice and high speed access bundle is affordable and easy for SMBs (Small to Medium Businesses) to install. Just the same way a TV and broadband bundle is expected from cable operators.

The No Limits-Broadband bundle is marketed to residential customers at a price that varies slightly by location.

Carphone’s cheap voice bundle is certainly a major step forward, comparable to the way in which Freeserve introduced the Internet to the masses.

A Toucan broadband bundle is one of the may be an excellent deal for you if you want to switch both Internet and home phone suppliers.

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What is broadband high speed Internet? First, let us find the basis for comparison for in-home broadband services, often called consumer class, which is basic dial-up. Dial-up access streams at 56 Kbps (Kilobits per second), and it requires the use of a phone line. One cannot surf and talk at the same time. The cost for dial-up is $10-$25 per month. Reading further, one finds that with broadband high speed Internet, there is no comparison to dial-up Internet.

Satellite broadband has a 400 Kbps speed downstream and upstream speed. A satellite connection can be used when DSL and Cable are not available. Unlike dial-up, satellite is an instant connection; multiple PC’s can share the connection, and there is no need for a second phone line. Home satellite broadband high speed connections run approximately $60-100/month.

In comparison, DSL has a speed of 128Kbps to 1.5 Mbps downstream speed. 64 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps upstream speed which is up to 50 times faster than dial up, but one still has to have a landline for DSL. Downloading and streaming music, videos, movies, and playing online gaming just became faster and easier. Home-based DSL costs about $40-$50 per month.

Cable modems have 200Kbps to 2 Mbps downstream & upstream speed. Cable modems are always on with instant access, and there is no hassle with having a second phone line. Cable modems have comparable cost to DSL.

Units of Measurement - Broadband Internet Access Speed

bit= smallest unit of digital information, i.e. ones & zeros
byte= a set of bits
bps= bits per second
Kbps= kilobits per second =1000 bits per second
Mbps = Million bits per second =1,000,000 bits per second
Gbps = Gigabits per second = 1,000,000,000 (one billion) bits per second
Tbps = Terabits per second = 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) bits per second

Consumer class broadband differs in costs and services offered from high speed Internet for businesses. For instance, DSL for business runs at 128Kbps to 1.5 Mbps downstream, and 64Kbps to 1.5 Mbps upstream for a cost of $90-$400 per month, depending upon the bandwith speed required.

Another variation of business broad band is Fractional T1. Provided at the speed of 128 Kbps to 1.0 Mbps, Fractional T1 speed has some of the 24-64 Kbps channels turned off. Prices are approximately $220-$500 per month depending on fractional bandwidth speed required, which includes local loop. Hardware and installation costs vary.

DSL and Fractional T1 can be combined for a broadband speed of 1.544 Mbps using a digital circuit. T1/DS1 is dedicated Internet access, point-to-point or integrated (voice & data). Prices are approximately $500-1000 per month which includes local loop. Hardware and installation costs vary.

Fractional T3, which is 3 Mbps to 44.736 Mbps basic T3 with some of the 67-264 Kbps channels turned off, comes at a hefty price of approximately $3000-$5000/month, depending on fractional bandwidth speed required.

T3/DS3 has a broadband speed of 44.736 Mbps digital circuit. It can be dedicated Internet access, point-to-point or integrated. Prices are approx. $5000-15,000 per month plus local loop. Set up costs will be additional.

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If you have been anywhere near a computer in the past five years, there is hardly any way that you could have gone without having at least heard something of DSL internet. There are many DSL internet providers out there, and there are many types of other internet providers as well. People have a tendency to lump all of the various types of high speed internet into the category of DSL and with good reason. Although they do not work the same, to the untrained eye cable internet and DSL internet appear to be just the same type of thing and they get the same benefits from using them.

DSL internet and dial up internet do have one thing in common; information is transmitted through the use of a copper telephone wire, just like the ones that allow you to make and receive calls from your landline phone every day. This is just about where the similarities between the two types of internet end, because DSL internet is multiple times faster than even the most hyped up dial up internet access could ever claim to be.

The only thing about DSL when it comes to its dominance over other internet types is that it is not available everywhere. The further away from the central office or internet hub a person goes, the weaker the internet signal is going to be. This means that any residences that are not in the vicinity of a DSL providers’ office are probably not going to be eligible for DSL service through that company.

As the information is transmitted through the telephone wire, it is also transmitted into the computer through the use of a DSL internet modem. Many times a DSL provider will give their customers the software and modem that they need to be able to use DSL internet, but some may charge leasing fees for use of the modem or require the customer to actually purchase the unit.

Many people choose to go with cable internet over DSL internet, but the fact is that DSL internet is just much harder to find. Cable internet is substantially more expensive than DSL internet, sometimes twice the price but it is also faster. Depending on what your internet needs are, it may be more affordable time wise to go with cable internet and easier to get such service as well.

Finding a DSL provider in your area is not the hard part, although finding one that actually has service at your home may be tougher. It is important to be able to tell whether or not a DSL provider will give you the type of internet you required for your needs. If so, take out the phone book and find a DSL provider in your area today.

Link-Connect are a long-established communications provider offering internet and telecoms services for businesses of all sizes. dsl provider provide everything relating to connectivity, telephony, websites, networks and security.

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Finding a DSL provider seems like something that should be easy enough to do. However, if you have ever had to go through the process that it takes to do this properly, then chances are that you are already well aware of the fact that finding a DSL provider is easier said than done. This is because you need to ensure that you find one that you can trust, can work with and be comfortable spending your money on.

There are numerous things to consider when you are choosing the right provider for your needs including the speed, the quality of customer service and of course the amount of money that it is going to cost you every month. When it comes to DSL there are a variety of different companies out there that offer the services that you are looking for. The important part is finding the right company that you can see yourself staying with.

It can seem like companies are offering identical services to one another but that isn’t always the truth. If you want to be on the right path to finding the perfect DSL provider to fit your needs, keep reading for some tips on how to do it the right way.

If you really want to save some money, find a DSL provider that will allow you to bundle your services if necessary. For those who are having services installed in the home, bundling cable services, DSL services, and telephone services is a great way to save some money on all of these services. Consider the amount of money that you spend paying each bill individually, and then consider the savings that you could have if you paid all of those bills to one company every month. You would save on taxes, you would save on fees, you would save on stamps, and you could probably save a bit of money on your services as well.

If you know someone who has had a bad experience with a DSL provider that you are looking into you might want to take that into consideration. There is no better guarantee than getting in touch with a company that you can trust because somebody you know referred you to their great service. At the same time, there is nothing worse than having a horrible experience with a company that somebody told you that you shouldn’t have dealt with in the first place. It is never easy to get out of a contract with a DSL provider, so make sure that you read the fine print in your contract and go over all of the terms with a fine toothed comb.

Finding a DSL provider that you can trust is an important part of your productivity. Whether you are working at home or just an avid internet surfer it is important to find one that works for you and one that you can afford.

Link-Connect are a long-established communications provider offering internet and telecoms services for businesses of all sizes. dsl provider provide everything relating to connectivity, telephony, websites, networks and security.

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Whether it’s for business use or personal use, the benefits of high speed internet access are many. Making the decision to go broad band can be tough though, especially when monthly package prices are considered. Once the initial sticker shock wears off, the benefits of high speed should be examined along with the actual costs.

The reliability of the connection is what appeals to businesses the most, but there are other business advantages to high speed. They include:

* Ability to be online all the time. By not requiring a telephone connection to go online, computers that are hooked up on high speed can stay online the entire time they’re on. This gives employees instant access to incoming e-mail and enables a lot of other functions quickly.

* Doesn’t require dedicated phone lines or use of the main phone line. This is a big one for business and comes into play when looking at actual costs. There’s no need to buy a second or third phone line when high speed access is used. For those who use their main telephone line for their Internet access as well, this expense can be justified simply by thinking of all the business calls that might be missed while the phone is in use.

* The speed factor. It’s a simple fact valuable time is wasted when dial up services are used. High speed connections can enable employees to download files, programs and more in a fraction of the time it takes with dial up. This means they’ll be working on something else quicker and more efficiently.

* Online meeting usage. While online meetings are possible on dial up, the connection might not always be great. If telecommuting to meetings at different company locations or with clients is a desired Internet use, high speed is the only way to go. Dropped connections can cost you business, which absolutely doesn’t compute for the bottom line.

And while businesses are going more and more with high speed access, private users are doing so for a number of reasons as well. The package may cost more in one lump sum, but if the factors are broken out, high speed is generally cheaper or at the least the same price. Think of it this way, high speed enables a private computer user to get rid of a second phone line and an access account. The access and the account are included in the price.

For home users, high speed offers the following benefits:

* Ability to download photographs and files faster. This is great for those who use the Internet to keep in contact with friends and family.

* More reliable connection for online chats. This also comes in handy for using the Internet to stay in touch with friends and family. The fear of dropped connections almost disappears with high speed.

* Doesn’t tie up the main phone line.

* Online gaming. There simply isn’t a connection better for those who like to game. Everything moves faster with high speed access.

Broad band Internet access isn’t a “fad,” it’s the way business gets done and it can help private computer owners better enjoy their online experiences as well. By speeding up the process and freeing up phone lines, broad band has proven itself more than useful.

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The U.S. needs to adopt a comprehensive broadband policy to bring connections to many areas of the country that don't yet have them, two Democratic politicians said Monday.

U.S. Representative Donna Edwards, who represents a district just outside Washington, D.C., said she does not have access to broadband service in her Fort Washington, Maryland, home.

Edwards hasn't used her home dial-up connection for months, she said during a OneWebDay event in Washington. "It's too much of a pain," she said. "It's too cumbersome. All of the data, all of the information that really I most want, you can't just handle on dial-up."

In addition, an elementary school near Edwards' house has limited access to the Internet, she said. The students "really should be engaged on the Internet for information, for resources, for research, but they can't be because they're in an old school with old wiring that's not really equipped to handle today's technology," she said.

Without broadband those students will be "left farther and farther behind," Edwards added. Many areas don't have broadband despite government reports saying about 99 percent of U.S. postal codes have broadband service, she said.

The goal of OneWebDay is to focus attention on key Internet values. First celebrated in 2006, OneWebDay has expanded since then, and events were held Monday in more than 30 cities across the globe.

Participants in the Washington event pushed for a comprehensive U.S. broadband policy that would bring broadband access to all U.S. residents, as well as net neutrality policies that would prohibit broadband providers from blocking or slowing some Web content.

Edwards and Jonathan Adelstein, a member of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, both called on the U.S. Congress to develop a far-reaching broadband policy that would accelerate the rollout of faster broadband across the U.S. Adelstein, like Edwards a Democrat, also called for the FCC and Congress to enforce net neutrality rules.

Broadband allows new forms of democratic participation, including citizen journalists, debates and fundraising, Adelstein said. Broadband is an essential part of the solutions for many of the problems facing the U.S., including a stagnant economy and health care costs, Adelstein said. Without net neutrality laws or regulations, some political debates could be stifled, he said.

Broadband providers and free-market think tanks have argued that U.S. broadband rollout is happening quickly, despite some reports that the U.S. lags behind many other industrialized nations. In addition, net neutrality rules could limit broadband providers' ability to manage congestion on their networks, providers have argued.

Fast broadband and nationwide coverage may be incompatible goals, some critics have suggested.

Broadband providers need incentives to invest in more broadband capacity while managing the use of their services, said Berin Szoka, a visiting fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation.

"Making more bandwidth available simply encourages the development of new services and content whose use and consumption requires more bandwidth," Szoka wrote last month on the foundation's blog. "The significant advances in bandwidth available to U.S. broadband consumers in recent years have made it possible for us all to share huge amounts of data through peer-to-peer file-sharing services, view essentially infinite amounts of video, back up hundreds of gigabytes on online storage services ... and even begin moving our most basic computing tools like email and word processing into the 'cloud.'"

In the past 29 years, Internet access speeds in the U.S. have increased from 300 bits per second to 20 megabits per second on fiber connections, wrote Link Hoewing, Verizon's assistant vice president of Internet and technology issues.

"Today [there are] 60 million U.S. households wired with broadband," Hoewing wrote on the Verizon public policy blog. "Broadband connectivity has grown more than 300 percent in four years. And what may amaze some is how broadband speeds have continuously advanced. If you do the math, speeds have nearly doubled every 20 months or so."

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The Selangor government is reviewing a RM400mil broadband network installation contract awarded to Kannaltec Bhd’s subsidiary Obnet Sdn Bhd and may reduce the number of installation jobs given to the company.

Kannaltec executive chairman Datuk Mohan Kandasamy said the company would ask for compensation if the contract was downsized.

“The original conditions (were) for (a) RM400mil contract involving the installation of broadband infrastructure network in 345 sites,” he said, adding that the company had completed the broadband installation work in 31 sites.

Kannaltec’s contract was awarded by the previous Barisan Nasional state government.

The present state government under Pakatan Rakyat has been reviewing contracts given under the previous administration.

Under the 20-year contract, Kannaltec was to build, operate and maintain a high-speed broadband infrastructure network that would link municipal councils, statutory bodies, government departments and government-linked companies in the state.

Meanwhile, Mohan said the company hoped to secure some outsourcing jobs from the United States and Britain in order to broaden its income base.

“We are in talks with several parties from the banking, financial and insurance industries and expect the negotiations to be concluded before year-end,” he said, adding that the expanding outsourcing business provided significant opportunities for Kannaltec.

The outsourcing business currently contributes some 45% of Kannaltec’s revenue.

Kannaltec’s Thailand operations had broke even and the company planned to venture into the Philippines market sometime this year, Mohan said.

While the company was aiming for organic growth, Mohan said Kannaltec might look for merger and acquisition opportunities locally and abroad in the next financial year ending March 31, 2010.

On Kannaltec’s public shareholding spread, Mohan said the company was confident of fulfilling the requirement in the next six months and might implement an employees share option scheme (ESOS).

“We have applied for an extension of six months to meet the required public shareholdings spread and are waiting for Bursa Malaysia’s response,” he said.

The company had earlier been given until Oct 1 to comply with Bursa’s listing requirement of having a minimum 1,000 public shareholders. It currently has about 800 public shareholders holding at least 100-share lots.

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Hanaro Telecom is now called SK Broadband, and the company’s president Cho Shin on Monday met reporters after announcing the launch of the new corporate image. "With the new company name beginning with 'SK,’ we're going to introduce packages combining Internet phone, super-speed Internet and IPTV as well as super-speed Internet service through a distribution network including SK Telecom agencies,” he said. While admitting that the firm surrendered the top position in IPTV to its rival KT by a narrow margin, he said this was “a temporary phenomenon.”

SK Broadband's new corporate logo features the SK "wings of happiness" plus the name in orange script. The Hanafos broadband Internet service will be called broad&, while the Hanafone fixed-line telephony service was renamed broad&fone. The HanaTV IPTV service will be called broad&tv.

"We've focused on letting consumers know of the relationship between our company and the parent company SK Telecom through our new corporate image,” Cho said.

To bring home that SK Broadband is now a subsidiary of SK Telecom, the company used SK's brand name, logo and corporate color to link itself with its parent company. SK Telecom became the largest shareholder in Hanaro Telecom by buying a 43.59 percent stake in March.

Asked how the company will compete with its rivals, Cho said he would charge "rational prices.” SK Broadband will sell a package including VoIP Internet phone, super-speed Internet and IPTV (broad&tv), for W33,000 (US$1=W1,143) a month from October.

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But 80 per centime of surfers solace without broadband

Statesman than 40 million individuals, businesses and families in Assemblage leave start using broadband net connections this assemblage, new forecasts guess.

The Asia-Pacific realm give hump 171 million broadband subscriptions by the end of 2008, an gain of 31.5 per cent from measure assemblage, according to Poet & Composer.

"The rise in duty for broadband is driven by the growing popularity of video-on-demand, multi-player online games, recording proportionality distribution and friendly networking services," said senior Poet & Host psychiatrist Yong Lih Khoo.

"There is also an enterprising actuation by operators to give progressive bundled triple-play and quadruple-play services."

Despite the fast maturation place, only 19.7 per coin of households in the region bang broadband.

The marketplace gift raise at a place of 7.1 per centime a assemblage to achieve a ideal of $42bn in 2013, compared to its 2007 duration of $28.7bn. By the end of 2013, one ordinal of Asia-Pacific households gift mortal broadband.

The most bugged land in Aggregation is South Peninsula where 90.8 per centime of households mortal broadband, followed by Hong Kong with 83.8 per coin and Island with 76.8 per cent.

"As fixed-line transposition and say migration to changeable continues, broadband value-added services prettify unfavorable drivers for fixed-line personnel providers," said Khoo.

"Operators are aggressively promoting mesmerizing bundled and discounted price plans, prosperous migration from narrowband, introducing localized proportionality and services specified as IPTV, and improving delivery levels and affordability."

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CALIFORNIA--Governor Schwarzenegger subscribed a invoice to helpfulness encompassing the digital calculate.

Nearly one and a half million Californians do not somebody make to broadband personnel. A age lives in agricultural areas.

The peak gift give grouping personnel districts to wage the added serving on top of an salmagundi of localized services they already support including wet, sewer and police extortion.

The government was a testimonial put forth by the Calif. Broadband Chore Strength created by the control. It evaluates California's broadband operation and makes recommendations to increase services statewide.

The task force's terminal study included maps of stream broadband availability and fastness, recommendations on how to accomplish coupling reach, multiplied use and a timeframe to meet those goals.

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The quick-serve industry, as its name suggests, is a business built on speed. Restaurants are constantly trying to shave seconds off everything from food preparation to drive-thru time. Analysts are always crunching the numbers to see where the process can get even a nanosecond faster, and managers train their employees to be as efficient as possible. But even with the fastest kitchen equipment and the speediest personnel, there could still be something keeping your restaurant in the slow lane.

“There are streets and then there’s the highway, and broadband is the highway,” says Sal Cinquegrani, a spokesperson for New Edge Networks, a broadband internet provider with 800 switches throughout the country.
The broadband to which he is referring is a high-speed internet connection that is quickly replacing traditional phone-line dial-up connections as the preferred way to access the web. Where dial-ups have to dial into a server every time a user gets online, broadband connections are always on and can relay more information at three times the speed.

“The speed difference is huge,” explains Cinquegrani. He says a quick-serve that uses a low-speed dial-up POS terminal to accept credit cards and check payments would typically need about 12 to 15 seconds for the transaction, which would involve dialing up an 800 number to send the information on the card to a payment processor and then on to a bank. By switching to broadband, however, that time can be cut down to two or three seconds.

“And two to three seconds versus twelve makes a big difference when you’ve got a line of customers waiting at the cash register,” he says.
The most basic application of broadband is communication between multiple locations. That’s why Sbarro CIO Rich Guariglia says his chain of Italian quick-serves decided to make the switch from dial-up.

“When you have 500 stores all across the U.S., you want to make sure you have good communication,” he says. “Each location needs to feel like it’s part of a corporation, not just an isolated store.”
Guariglia says with their old dial-up connection, Sbarro managers would often have to stay late after work to receive e-mail from other locations. Even through the day, he says, some of the larger files would clog up the line and take forever to download, wasting manager’s valuable time.

“They shouldn’t be sitting at the e-mail all day; they need to get in and get out,” he says. “Dial-up was so unreliable, so much work.
Broadband capabilities are also allowing quick-serves to use the internet in ways that were not possible with a dial-up connection. Used in conjunction with other software, this technology allows for things like real-time inventory, instant sales polling of multiple restaurant locations, automated time tracking of hourly workers, and much more.

One example is the AlohaEnterprise.com system from Radiant Hospitality Systems, which allows owners or managers to keep track of reporting at multiple locations from any web browser. It can even help identify and prevent employee theft.
“We can zero in on a specific cash register at a specific time of day,” says Jon Rice, vice president of marketing for Chuck E. Cheese’s, a chain of more than 400 restaurants that uses AlohaEnterprise.com with a broadband connection. “By pressing a key, we can track it down to an individual employee if need be. This is a reporting tool with tremendous functionality to accentuate the advantage of broadband.”
Broadband is also a surprisingly affordable technology, another incentive for quick-serves to make the switch from dial-up.

“It costs a lot less than people expect,” explains Cinquegrani. “People using dial-up probably have two or three phone lines—one for a fax, regular phone, and dedicated computer line. By converting to broadband, they can eliminate some of those lines. The cost proposition to a quick-serve is very simple: They can get three times the speed for about the same price as two dial-up lines.”
And broadband isn’t just for the huge chains with hundreds of locations. As the technology has grown, the price is going down to make it affordable for even the smallest chains.

“Broadband is essentially helping to level the competitive playing field for small chains,” Cinquegrani says. “As few as two or three locations can now link together and offer some of the same types of things as larger chains.”
One of those things is electronic gift cards. Previously, these valuable selling tools were impossible for chains with only a few locations to offer because the equipment needed to recognize them at multiple locations was out of a small chain’s price range. With broadband, however, that technology is within their reach.
“It can be the difference between being a viable competitor or losing out to the big guys,” Cinquegrani says.

Using the electronic gift cards also has the benefit of speeding up individual transactions, says Ken Pohl, senior product manager for Radiant Systems, Inc.
“Using [broadband] for credit cards is even faster than cash because you don’t have to worry about change,” he says.

In the end, an initial switch to broadband can bring two things to the quick-serve table: better, more detailed information and speed. But as the technology advances, the possibilities, too, will expand.
“What quick-serve restaurants are doing with broadband is limited only by the imagination,” Cinquegrani says.
“There are unlimited applications,” agrees Rice. “And as we get smarter, we’re going to find ways to utilize this technology to enhance the way we do business. As newer technology becomes available, restaurant companies like Chuck E. Cheese’s are going to use it to get a competitive advantage.”
So how long will it be before everybody is jumping on the broadband wagon? Cinquegrani says the rush has already begun.

“Quick-serves are clamoring for broadband connectivity more so than businesses in other industries,” he says. “But they’re still trying to adopt, and though it’s easy to migrate from dial-up to broadband, there’s still some uncertainty that delays the decision. People are soon going to realize that they want to do these things faster and more efficiently, though, and then take up is going to be very strong.”
Is it time to take your chain into the fast lane?

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NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Greg McKinniss lives on a farm in the rolling hills of Jackson County in Appalachian Ohio, hoping his daughters will soon be able to enlist high-speed Internet for help with school research projects.

In many rural areas, broadband services aren't available at all or come from a single provider. Verizon Communications Inc. provides coverage to Jackson County, but the service doesn't reach McKinniss' farm.

"I have called Verizon several times trying to get it," said McKinniss, a manager for Industrial Timber and Land Company. "They keep telling me to call back."

Calls to expand broadband service in the U.S. have been going out for years, but few states have succeeded in extending the technology to their remotest regions.

About 55 percent of Ohio residents have broadband service in their homes, with coverage higher in urban areas, according to Connect Ohio, a nonprofit group hired by the state to conduct the first comprehensive study of broadband service in Ohio. The group planned to release its results Friday.

Fewer than 36 percent of residents in Ohio's Appalachian counties, home to 1.5 million people scattered over the southern and eastern parts of the state, have broadband in their homes, the study said.

Technology has left behind rural Americans before. It took one of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs to extend electricity to rural areas in the 1930s.

The problems of broadband deployment in rural areas are much the same as the forces that delayed the arrival of electricity:

_Isolation and rugged topography impedes the technology's reach.

_Potential customers don't know what they're missing, so they aren't demanding the service.

_Rural poverty means customers can't pay to have service extended to their home.

_Providers avoid rural areas because they can't get enough customers to justify their investment.

The lag in Ohio remains despite the availability of a prominent type of broadband, Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL), going from virtually nonexistent in 14 Appalachian counties in 2002 to being in all but one country two years later.

During the same span, availability of cable broadband, the type provided by cable television companies, increased significantly as well.

"We're trying to move out of the ice age," said Jackson County Commissioner Ed Armstrong. "It's gaining in importance. They (businesses) know that they are dependent on being able to communicate with the globe."

Among the personal benefits, rural residents could have their children examined by a top-notch urban physician through a broadband connection. Students could take classes online and others could work from home in an era of ever higher fuel costs.

"These things are all quality of life related," said U.S. Rep. Zack Space, who represents an Appalachian district and formed a separate task force to study the issue. "This is every bit as important as was access to electricity several decades ago."

The telephone survey by Connect Ohio provides broadband companies with customer information they couldn't _ or wouldn't _ have been able to get on their own. The group hopes it will provide all interested parties with the knowledge of exactly where broadband coverage lags.

"I see this as very much like the rural electricity projects in the 1930s and 40s," said state Rep. Clyde Evans, who represents several Appalachian counties, including Jackson. "If government had not gotten involved we would have never had it out there. I think government has to get involved with the businesses that do this."

Roosevelt's Rural Electrification Administration, created in 1935, gave loans to communities and businesses that formed rural cooperatives that would build the necessary infrastructure.

The public-private cooperation overcame the same problem that private industry says it has encountered today in trying to spread broadband into rural areas _ there is no profit to be made.

"There are economic and technological challenges that all providers face when they are looking at expanding broadband service to more rural areas," said Verizon spokesman Lee Gierczynski. "In most places the market is working, but in places where broadband is not available and where it's not economically feasible for the private sector to serve, it helps to enter into partnerships."

DSL connections require customers to be no farther than 18,000 feet from a "switching" station. Fiber-optic cables involve laying thousands of miles of cable underground through rolling topography. And wireless signals are often relayed from mountain tops so they don't reach down into the valleys below.

Getting broadband through a satellite is an option, but is considerably more expensive.

Beyond the large-scale technological challenges, research by Connect Ohio has shed light on other obstacles.

In the survey, the lack of a computer was cited nine times more often than the cost of broadband service as the main barrier to Internet adoption. And of the 45 percent of individuals with no broadband service, half believe they do not need it.

Connect Ohio is just as much of a marketing strategy to promote broadband as it is a project to gather information from individual providers and present it as a business case to the industry as a whole.

"Sometimes the biggest barrier to broadband adoption is sort of the awareness of the value of broadband," said Brian Mefford, chief executive of Connected Nation, of which Connect Ohio is a subsidiary. "The onus is on us to make the case that it makes good sense to have broadband at home."

To address computer ownership, Connect Ohio is collecting donations from private industry to help with its No Child Left Offline initiative, which will provide computers to low-income children.

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TELSTRA has momentarily suspended its attack on the Labor Government over speculation the telco might be structurally separated, and refocused its ire on the federal Opposition, which it accuses of "fiddling" on broadband.
The riposte came yesterday after Coalition senators used their numbers to set up a select committee to probe the tender process for the federal Government's $4.7 billion broadband contract.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has slammed the establishment of the inquiry as "economic vandalism" and warned it could jeopardise the entire broadband project. Telstra joined Senator Conroy in his critique yesterday, comparing the Coalition senators to the Roman emperor Nero.

"We've been wanting to build a National Broadband Network since 2005," Telstra spokesman Jeremy Mitchell said yesterday.

"Now it could be sent to yet another committee - Australians don't want more processes, they want high-speed broadband, they are getting sick and tired of waiting.

"As (Telstra spokesman) Phil Burgess said earlier this week, 'Nero fiddled while Rome burned'. This looks more like fiddling, but the problem remains - it's investment, not fiddling that will build a high-speed broadband network for Australia." But Telstra's rivals and critics said they welcomed the Senate's investigation of the matter. Optus head of government and corporate affairs Maha Krishnapillai said delays in the bid process so far had been caused by Telstra, not the Government or Opposition.

"It's a bit rich that Telstra always claims delays and obstruction are due to everyone bar themselves," Mr Krishnapillai said.

"The reality is that the short-term delays are firstly due to Telstra's continued slowness in providing the network information to the government, and therefore to bid proponents like ourselves, so that we can actually finalise our bid. If you have nothing to hide then a Senate inquiry should pose no threat to Telstra."

David Forman from the Competitive Carriers Coalition said he supported the establishment of the inquiry "as long as it doesn't descend into party politics".

"Provided it doesn't interfere with the other processes that are going on, as a general principle, I don't have any objection to policy issues being discussed by the Senate," Mr Forman said. "Most of the time in recent years where the Senate has looked at these issue, it has made a positive, sensible contribution and it hasn't been overly political - the thing we don't want is for this to become any more party political, we don't need any more of that."

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Energy supplier Vector and three new partners are making an aggressive play for the small business broadband market in Auckland's central business district.

WorldxChange, MaxNet and BizOnline have signed up to use Vector's fibre-optic network in Auckland and are launching competitive broadband and phone offers.

The move is being promoted as an opportunity for small to medium-sized businesses to "cut the cord" with Telecom.

Vector Communications spokesman Chris Green said packages start from about $550 a month and include voice-via-the internet service, free local calls, cheap toll calls, high-speed uncapped broadband of up to one gigabits a second, and 100 gigabytes of free online backup.

A typical business with five separate phone lines would each month spend about $150 on internet and $500 to $600 on voice, including local calls.

"If small businesses come across to us now they can come and be on a far better internet service. They will be getting a complete enterprise voice service from the companies, free local calls, cheaper tolls, and all for the same money," said Green.

There is a perception among small business that only large corporates can connect up to broadband fibre networks, but it's not true, he said.

"A lot of businesses in New Zealand haven't figured out what that fibre is worth to them. They just think all they need to do is see a few emails and browse a few internet sites. Small business should think about how broadband of this quality could transform their business."

Vector's fibre network covers 500km around Auckland, predominantly around the CBD, North Shore and Manukau. The network is connected to most buildings in the CBD.

Unlike Telecom, there are no copper lines going from the exchange to the premises or from the road-side cabinet to the premises.

"For anybody in the CBD, your fibre is pretty much going into your building. It's right outside your door."

Vector is extending the network by 300km and Vodafone will be the first commercial customer to access the extension.

Green said the offers were a real opportunity for small businesses to cut the cord with Telecom.

Vector Communications general manager Maxine Elliot said it started to build the network in the central business district in 2000.

Vector already had ducting in the ground for electricity networks.

"It was just about leveraging that opportunity. When Vector purchased United Networks, it had a network on the North Shore, and joining them together it became Vector Communications."

"We have the ability to leverage the assets we have, and our electricity network needs fibre to manage it, so that's an added benefit for ourselves, and that's enabled us to keep growing the network."

Elliot said Vector has no plans for the residential broadband market, but would continue to explore options. Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Ernie Newman said the Vector move was yet more evidence of the excitement in the market as a result of the policy changes.

"We are seeing serious attractive offers coming into the market daily, and the fundamentals of the market have been absolutely changed and it's very good news for everyone."

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NEW YORK -- Goodbye, broadband over power lines. We hardly knew you.

Once touted as a possible third option for home broadband that could compete with phone and cable companies, the idea of providing Internet service over power lines now looks like it has died in infancy.

A Texas utility company said last week that it is taking control of the equipment that was to be used in the largest planned U.S. deployment of broadband over power lines, or BPL _ and won't be using it to provide Internet service.

Oncor Electric Delivery Co., the Dallas-based distribution arm of former TXU Corp., said it will buy the network from BPL technology provider Current Group LLC of Germantown, Md.

The network was to offer Internet service to 2 million electricity customers through their wall outlets. Instead, Oncor will use the data capabilities of the network to monitor the electric grid.

"Our business is delivering electricity, not being an Internet provider or a television provider," said Oncor spokesman Chris Schein.

Other BPL trials have met with similar fates, though a few are still in operation. Compared to coaxial cables and copper phone lines, power lines are poor conduits for data. Some deployments also met fierce legal resistance from ham radio operators, who found that BPL created radio interference.

The Federal Communications Commission was a booster of BPL. FCC commissioner _ now chairman _ Kevin Martin said in 2004 that the technology had the potential to become an Internet solution "throughout the United States."

Yet the FCC found only 4,776 BPL subscribers in the country at the end of 2006, the latest figures it has published.

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The promise of a national network delivering high-speed broadband services to 98 per cent of Australians is a key element of next week's federal budget.

The Rudd government has signalled a tough anti-inflation budget that will also honour Labor's election promises.

One such promise was to build a $4.7 billion high-speed national broadband network (NBN) - one of the budget's biggest funding allocations for a single project.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says the widespread availability and affordability of first-class broadband services is a first-order priority.

"Australians should have access to the best infrastructure and services possible in order to maximise the potential benefits from the transition to the digital economy," he told the Sydney Institute this week.

"Connectivity should be available to all Australians irrespective of where they choose to live or work.

"And the affordability of services, including for disadvantaged members of our society, is a critical element of the equation, and an important policy focus for government."

Senator Conroy says the NBN will rival the Snowy Mountains hydro scheme in terms of scale and significance.

But the federal opposition has been highly critical of the NBN project, arguing it's years from completion and ignores the broadband needs of rural, regional and remote Australia.

Meanwhile, five days out from his government's first budget, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd unveiled a $100 million investment in training Queensland doctors.

It is just the tip of the federal health spending to be revealed next Tuesday night.

Former coalition treasurer Peter Costello allocated $51.8 billion to health and aged care in his twelfth and final budget last year.

Labor successor, Wayne Swan, has warned his inaugural budget will be peppered with spending cuts to curb inflation.

But peak doctors' group the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has called for health to be spared.

Some 3,750 extra public hospital beds, incentives for doctors to go bush and more funding to train nurses are just a few items on the wish lists of medical lobby groups.

The government has already promised $360 million over three years to reimburse families receiving Tax Benefit A to cover half the cost of annual dental checkups for teenagers.

Following the release of an audit into the "dire" state of rural health, the government announced $6.3 million for extra clinical schools in the bush, as well a new rural health office.

Some $87 million to fund $6,000 bonuses to encourage nurses back into the workforce will form part of the budget, as well as $92 million for indigenous child and maternal health services.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon has promised a big chunk of the estimated $2 billion of extra revenue will be spent on a national preventative health strategy.

AMA president Rosanna Capolingua told AAP the Rudd government had made the right signals, especially on preventative and indigenous health.

But now is the time for US dollars, she said.

"The commitments are there. We now need to see the translation into the doing. There is no doubt about that," Dr Capolingua said.

"We are ready for the action now."

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• Do you look embarrassed when folk take internet related jokes and you can’t laughter along?
• Do you look threatened when your parents, children, make colleagues and friends talk of terms like megabyte and bandwidth?
• Do you seek to don the knickers in your broadband link?

Here are a pair of tips to assist you have an informed broadband selection.
For all intents and purposes, broadband is a fast and simple manner to link your house PC or laptop to the internet. Broadband is all about velocity, dependability and cost, then when folk are discussing their broadband, it’s normally these things that go upward.

The velocity of your link to the internet determines how tight your pages burden, how rapidly you can download music or watch videos online.

The velocity of your link depends on two important factors:

• Where you live- urban areas mostly have faster broadband speeds. Additionally, the length of your home from the phone change has a bearing on the velocity that you can require. Use our postcode checker to discover the fastest broadband in your region.
• Which ISP you select. See which ISPs provide the fastest broadband.
• Test the velocity of your new link on our broadband velocity examination. This will offer you a base-line against which to liken new broadband packages.

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• Cost per month. Click here to discover the cheapest broadband.
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As far as advice goes from Top 10 Broadband, we seek and offer a stable overview of the broadband marketplace quite than pushing folk down a specific road. However, on our broadband party pages (snap on the pertinent logos on our homepage), you can learn client feedback in our inspection areas and we too exhibit new awards for each pertinent broadband supplier.

Overall we think that all of the leading broadband providers now offer a better broadband service, there are no apparent providers to avert in our view. Your selection will go downward to what you can give, the character of broadband you seek and the suitability of the trade accessible.

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TDS Telecom (see our user DSL reviews) today announced that they've launched WiMax wireless broadband service in Madison, Wisconsin. The party, which has been testing the engineering in employee homes, says the service will be accessible to some 65,000 customers in the Madison region. Click for complete size TDS is offering three residential tiers: 2Mbps/1Mbps for $45, 4Mbps/2Mbps for $50, and 6Mbps/3Mbps for $55.

Customers can make VoIP service with 30 minutes of lengthy length per month and limitless local calls for another $5. VoIP with 300 minutes of lengthy length is another $10 on side of the cost of just Internet, and VoIP with limitless lengthy length is another $15 on side of the cost of Internet.

TDS is too offering symmetrical job tiers ranging from 2-4Mbps that begin at $129 per month. The party notes that 3Mbps is now the fastest upstream velocity accessible in Madison. According to the party, the service is accessible to anyone within two miles from the towers on the southwestern and eastern sides of the metropolis.

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Indicating that richer countries have almost reached saturation point with the present generation of the technology, while China and India have yet to see a comparable explosion in always-on users

Data from the broadband analysis group Point Topic, based in London, shows that in the third fourth of last year the amount of international broadband connections grew by 4. 72%, to 328.8m, compared to a 5.16% growth in the past fourth.

"The wealthy countries have got broadband - there are none of them left behind any much, explains Tim Johnson, the party's father and publisher. "But new sources of increase such as China and India have gone through a speedy stage and penetrated the intermediate course, but aren't almost saturated in terms of the amount of users.

That may be down in those cases to geography more than demography, for both countries have potentially enormous middle classes, who are paid well enough to afford a broadband connection but might be too far from an equipped exchange to be able to get it. "India has perhaps 200 million middle-class people, but quality of service is very variable," says Johnson. "It's arguable how many of them can get broadband at all. And it's similar in China."

However, another analysis company, Strategy Analytics of Boston, forecast that there will be more than 1 billion "discrete users" worldwide by the end of this year, assuming that the number of broadband connections grows to 391.4m by the fourth quarter, with an average of 2.58 people using each one.

"The upcoming year will commemorate a significant milestone in broadband acceptance," says Ben Piper, manager of its broadband networks strategies service. He forecasts that the Asia-Pacific area will head the reality in terms of overall users, with subscription increase of 27% his year, and emerging markets accounting for much than 60% overall broadband use.

Point Topic's figures for last autumn display that North America was the alone area to rise more rapidly than previously, adding 3. 29Successuch broadband connections (upward from 3. 14 134521488n the second fourth. Eastern Europe yet leads the reality in percent increase, with its subscriber home growing by 11%, with Russia, Romania and Poland leading the manner.

The figures do not distinguish between copper-based ADSL broadband, whose velocity is limited to between 8 and 24 megabits per second, and fibre-based broadband where speeds can hit 100Mb/s. "What's happening less quick than we would need is the rollout of fiber," Johnson says. "It isn't doing what ADSL did, where there was big increase a few years ago. In terms of fiber, it's in about the same spot as ADSL was in 1998; it's not getting place in because of the price. The need initially for ADSL was because it made a big disagreement to what you could make on the internet. Fibre doesn't still make that.

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Canadian wireless operator Craig Wireless is promising to bring a broadband alternative to New Zealand following the purchase of spectrum rights last month.

Craig Wireless chief executive Boyd Craig said for competitive reasons he could not disclose specific details of the company's plans, but the intention was to build a wireless broadband network using WiMAX technology throughout New Zealand.

At the Government auction of spectrum in the 2.3 and 2.5 GHz bands last month Craig Wireless paid $1.05 million for 40MHz of spectrum in two separate lots.

The spectrum becomes available from 2009 and has "use it or lose it" rules. Companies do have the option of trading the spectrum when the 40MHz acquisition limit expires in 2012.

"We can't do anything immediately," said Craig. "But once we do we'll have great spectrum. We're going to have a bunch of deployments behind us in terms of that technology."

"I think we're going to kick arse in New Zealand actually," said Craig.

Originally a family-owned broadcasting business, brothers Drew and Boyd sold out in 2004 for C$264 million ($332.7 million) after a disastrous expansion into the Toronto television market, retaining a small telecommunications business.

Craig Wireless listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange last September via a reverse takeover having raised C$40 million from a private placement.

It's not the first time Craig Wireless has been in the New Zealand market.

Boyd Craig was a director and shareholder of wireless operator Woosh up until five years ago.

In 2000, Woosh - then Walker Wireless - paid $6.5 million for spectrum in the 2.3GHz band from Craig Communications. Craig had purchased the spectrum several years earlier for $1 million.

Craig said he was still in regular contact with Woosh chairman Rod Inglis and let Inglis know he was bidding on spectrum in opposition to him.

He described being back in the New Zealand market as "a dream come true".

Woosh also bid in the auction, securing 35MHz of spectrum for $650,000 which it will use for WiMAX deployment, beginning in Hamilton.

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The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, wants to choose a contractor for a domestic fibre-optic web, offering nominal speeds of 12 megabits a second - by June, allowing for building to start by the conclusion of this year.

The Government has proposed outlay $4. 7 billion as region of a public-private partnership but Telstra has opposed taking region in a multilateral venture. Pressure is building on the Government to issue the details of a framework for a web so that companies can present bids by June.

An ABN Amro telecom analyst, Ian Martin, said that although the Government might discover a manner to make without a multilateral venture, it would baulk at the cost of $80 to $90 per month per cable that Telstra would need to accuse its competitors for approach to the web. "We wear't view sufficient popular soil between the Government and Telstra on approach prices for this matter to be resolved this year," Mr Martin said in a study.

"We don't see enough common ground between the Government and Telstra on access prices for this issue to be resolved this year," Mr Martin said in a report.

"Unless the Government baulks on … broadband access price (which seems to us unlikely) we are likely to be in the same place with respect to a high-speed broadband roll out in 12 months as we are now, and maybe for the next two to three years," he said.

ABN Amro said the status quo suited Telstra because of the cash flow it generated from existing fixed-line and broadband services.

Merrill Lynch also believes a start date will be delayed until mid-2009 because "disagreement with Telstra over pricing makes the current timeline impractical".

The agent believes the fibre-optic web, an important matter in the original Government's schedule, will go five years to construct. Some analysts think Senator Conroy will permit Telstra to end its territorial CDMA mobile telephone web on January 28. The shutdown has caused dismay among nation customers who are concerned the successor NextG web is substandard.

We wear't think this is such a leading matter for the Government that it would receive a showdown with Telstra, Mr Martin said. Senator Conroy has said the Government will not permit Telstra to shift away the CDMA web until the reporting on NextG is at least as better. He is payable to have a resolution on Monday.

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