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Tag: Australia

  • Australia’s Megaport expands to Europe

    Australia’s Megaport expands to Europe

    Australian interconnection upstart Megaport has long been planning to invade Europe this year.  Today they not only formally launched their elastic interconnection platform on the continent, but they revealed two acquisitions that let them hit the ground running in a big way.

    Megaport has signed an agreement to buy Berlin-based Peering GmbH, Germany’s second largest IX provider. ECIX serves some 180 customers across 30 PoPs in Germany, giving Megaport immediate depth in the continent’s biggest market. The deal is expected to close in early August.

    Megaport’s other M&A move gives them an immediate presence in eastern Europe via the acquisition of Bulgarian-based OM-NIX Group AD.

    As one might infer from the IX part of their name, OM-NIX also specializes in interconnection, with extensive reach in Eastern Europe and especially the Balkans. Beyond the ECIX footprint, the deal adds another 18 locations to Megaport’s reach in Europe.

    Put those together with 9 other locations they have been developing organically, and Megaport’s European launch will span 57 locations in 19 cities in 13 countries. The acquisitions cost them some A$3.1 million ($2.3 million) and bring in annualized revenue of A$4.5 million.

    Over the past year, Megaport has expanded its interconnection footprint in markets throughout North America. The buildout has been quite rapid, and the move into Europe accelerates it even further.

    While the next phase is likely more adding revenue on top of the infrastructure they have built out, I have to wonder if they won’t keep going east. It wouldn’t take much to add a PoP or two in the Middle East and India on their way back around the globe to Singapore and Australia.

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  • Australia’s ACCC tackles broadband advertising

    Australia’s ACCC tackles broadband advertising

    Australian competition regulator ACCC has hinted it could introduce rules requiring ISPs to provide accurate information to customers about broadband speeds.

    The regulator has published a discussion paper seeking views on how consumer information about the speed and performance of broadband plans can be improved.

    ACCC chairman Rod Sims said the agency is concerned about the lack of clear information about performance of broadband services provided in advertising and related material.

    “At the moment, it is difficult for consumers to access accurate information as broadband advertising is not focusing upon speed and performance,” he said.

    “Consumers are being presented with little information or vague claims like ‘boost’ and ‘fast’, or just pictures in advertising of athletes or animals. Consumers need accurate information about broadband speed and performance so that they can understand if what they are being offered will actually meet their needs.”

    He noted that complaints about slow data speeds were the top internet-related complaint issue among reports to Australia’s Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) in the first quarter of 2016, accounting for 2,159 reported issues.

    Given changes in the market and consumer expectations related to broadband performance, “the ACCC believes that it is timely to consider what further steps need to be taken in Australia,” Sims said.

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  • Indonesia the most favorite destination for Australian tourists

    Indonesia the most favorite destination for Australian tourists

    Indonesia has so far proven to be the most favorite destination for Australian tourists, overtaking New Zealand, Indonesian Ambassador to Australia Nadjib Riphat Kesoema said.

    “The variety of natural wealth and beauty, culture and world-class tourist facilities that the Indonesian government offers to tourists have become special attractions for Australian tourists,” he stated in a press statement released on Saturday.

    His remarks came when the Indonesian Tourism Ministry and the Indonesian Embassy in Australia were conducting a promotional activity at Hotel Hyatt in Canberra recently.

    Besides helping promote mutual understanding between the peoples of the two countries, the tourism sector can also create jobs in Indonesia, he added.

    He underlined that he supported the program to conduct tourism promotion in several Australian cities such as Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

    The program will serve as a venue for a meeting between Australian travel agents and their Indonesian counterparts directly, he said.

    The ambassador has called on Australian tourism companies to encourage Australian citizens to visit other Indonesian tourist destinations than Bali.

    Data from the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra showed that almost 85 percent of 1.2 million Australian tourists visited Bali in 2015.

    Nadjib offered potential visitors from Australia other tourist destinations such Toraja, Lake Toba, Raja Ampat, Labuhan Bajo, Tanjung Kalayang, Seribu Islands, Borobudur Temple, Mount Bromo, Wakatobi and Morotai Island.

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  • Aussie ISP takes on NBN with microwave broadband

    Aussie ISP takes on NBN with microwave broadband

    Lightning Broadband is offering fiber connectivity in parts of Melbourne and plans to guide its roll out plans based on demand. Potential customers are able to register for interest on the website.

    The ISP is offering 100Mbps symmetrical plans with unlimited data for A$120 ($90) per month on a 24-month contract. The NBN’s 100Mbps downlink plans offer only 25Mbps uplink.

    Lightning Broadband is also offering 25Mbps, 50Mbps and 75Mbps plans, starting from A$75.

    For business customers, Lighting Broadband will offer dedicated 1000Mbps symmetrical microwave links that will not share equipment with other users.

    Founder Jeremy Rich told that the company believes that many Australians are sick of waiting for the NBN to arrive in their area, and are interested in adopting high-speed broadband today.

    The NBN’s ambitious rollout plans have been delayed repeatedly since the project was announced.

    The project has also been scaled back under the recently re-elected government – the NBN was originally intended to deliver FTTH providing wholesale speeds of up to 100Mbps to 93% of the population, but has since been redesigned to use a mix of access technologies, including FTTN, HFC and fixed wireless.

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  • Telstra acquires MSC Mobility

    Telstra acquires MSC Mobility

    Telstra has acquired local enterprise mobility solutions provider and decade-long channel partner MSC Mobility (MSC), in a move to bolster its enterprise mobility offerings.

    MSC provides mobile device management and provisioning services for large organizations, including providing devices and support to end users, and professional services, including strategy consulting and mobility solutions design.

    The company’s core capability is its enterprise mobility management platform, which incorporates mobile device management software such as Airwatch and MobileIron.

    The platform has already been rolled out and delivered device management services for “a large number of the telco’s enterprise customers”, Telstra said in a statement.

    Telstra did not disclose the value of the deal. The acquisition, which will be completed within coming weeks, will enable Telstra to manage the end-to-end enterprise mobility lifecycle, including valuable reporting and analytics that help customers drive better business outcomes, the telco noted.

    Telstra executive director of global products Michelle Bendschneider said that the deal is a key step in the incumbent’s focus on enterprise mobility, which has been prioritized as a fundamental part of Telstra’s growth strategy.

    “This acquisition is an investment capturing the fastest growing segment of the enterprise mobility market: managing the supply of apps, content and mobile services to enterprises,” the executive said.

    “To achieve our growth aspirations in enterprise mobility, we need to develop our customer relationships from a holistic mobility view, rather than just what sits on their device or tablet.”

    Bendschneider added that MSC’s established processes and platform can be expanded to host and support the service in Asia, Europe and the US.

    The acquisition of MSC is Telstra’s latest buy in weeks, after it acquired Microsoft partner Readify earlier this month to boost its cloud offerings for enterprises.

    In February, Telstra also made a strategic investment in Chinese cloud storage service provider, Qiniu, through its investment arm, Telstra Ventures, a month after it acquired another Microsoft partner, Kloud.

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  • Optus to compensate customers after regulatory probe

    Optus to compensate customers after regulatory probe

    Australia’s Optus has been ordered to pay around A$2.4 million ($1.8 million) in compensation to mobile customers after an investigation found that some users were overcharged or mislead while signing up for mobile phone insurance.

    Regulator Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has instructed Optus to refund around 175,000 Optus mobile customers and write to around 500,000 customers who may have been affected.

    Optus self-reported breaches including a failure to provide some mobile insurance customers with a required product disclosure statement and financial services guide, which may have prevented many customers from being aware of key features and limitations of the insurance they purchase.

    The operator also disclosed that some customers did not receive the one month free insurance they were entitled to under a promotional offer, were incorrectly charged a premium during a rain-check period and in some cases were issued the wrong cover.

    Inadequate training, monitoring and supervision of staff were some of the factors to blame for the oversights, the investigation showed.

    Optus will pay compensation including interest in the form of direct credit to customers’ accounts. The operator is also proposing to donate the compensation owing to former customers who cannot be located to a charity aiding with financial literacy.

    Optus has also taken steps to address the cause of the issue, including providing additional training for sales staff and appointing an independent company to conduct a thorough review of its regulatory compliance functions.

  • Vocus Acquires Netgen

    Vocus Acquires Netgen

    A substantial chunk of fiber is changing hands down under. Vocus Communications has announced plans to acquire Netgen Networks in a deal worth about $500 million.

    Nextgen had built a 17,000km fiber backbone across Australia with fiber into 1,100 buildings including 70 data centers.

    They were also a 50% owner with Vocus on the ACS project building a subsea cable between Perth, Singapore, and Indonesia, which Vocus will take 100% possession of. And they were building the North West Cable system between Darwin and Port Hedland to the oil, gas, and mining industries as well, which will also be bought by Vocus.

    The deal, which follows their recent purchase of M2, will see Vocus add substantial infrastructure muscle in an effort to better compete with Telstra, Optus, and TPG.

    Vocus already has some 700km of fiber hooking up 1,300 buildings in Australia, as well as a more extensive 4,200km of fiber over in New Zealand.

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  • Australian NBN launches first HFC services

    Australian NBN launches first HFC services

    Australia’s nbn has announced the launch of the National Broadband Network’s first HFC services under the multi-technology mix model.

    The company in charge of overseeing the rollout and wholesale operation of the national network revealed that around 18,800 premises in Redcliffe in Queensland are now ready for service.

    Service providers in the area will be given access to peak wholesale speeds of up to 100Mbps uplink and 40Mbps downlink.

    The current NBN rollout plan calls for 875,000 HFC premises to be ready for service nationwide by June 2017, with 200,000 of these end-user premises activated on the network.

    The NBN was originally intended to use FTTP for more than 90% of Australia’s population, but on taking power three years ago the current government abandoned this model  in favor of a rollout using a mix of using a mix of FTTH, HFC and FTTN.

    At the time it was claimed this would allow the rollout to be completed faster and more cheaply than using FTTH, but the projected cost and timeframe of the multi-technology rollout has ballooned to be potentially nearly as expensive as the initial rollout plan.

    The in-opposition Labor party has pledged to use FTTP for an additional 2 million premises if it wins power. An election was held over the weekend and while it’s a close race and the votes are still being counted, experts expect the current government to win by a slim margin and form a minority government.

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  • Vocus to buy Australia’s Nextgen Networks

    Vocus to buy Australia’s Nextgen Networks

    A substantial chunk of fiber is changing hands down under. Vocus Communications has announced plans to acquire Netgen Networks in a deal worth about $500 million.

    Nextgen had built a 17,000km fiber backbone across Australia with fiber into 1,100 buildings including 70 data centers.

    They were also a 50% owner with Vocus on the ACS project building a subsea cable between Perth, Singapore, and Indonesia, which Vocus will take 100% possession of. And they were building the North West Cable system between Darwin and Port Hedland to the oil, gas, and mining industries as well, which will also be bought by Vocus.

    The deal, which follows their recent purchase of M2, will see Vocus add substantial infrastructure muscle in an effort to better compete with Telstra, Optus, and TPG.

    Vocus already has some 700km of fiber hooking up 1,300 buildings in Australia, as well as a more extensive 4,200km of fiber over in New Zealand.

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  • Telstra sells most of its stake in China’s Autohome

    Telstra sells most of its stake in China’s Autohome

    Australian operator Telstra has sold the most of its majority stake in Chinese online car sales business Autohome to Ping An Insurance Group for $1.6 billion.

    Andrew Penn, Telstra CEO, said proceeds from the sale of a 47.4% stake in Autohome will be used to fund a capital management program that will start in the first half of the 2017 financial year.

    After the sale is completed, Telstra will retain a 6.5% interest in the company and will have one nominee director on the board.

    “Ping An will be an important strategic partner for Autohome. Its nationwide footprint in China and experience and expertise in auto financing, insurance and e-commerce mean Ping An is well placed to help Autohome develop outside of its traditional focus on online advertising,” Penn said in a statement.

    Autohome is an online destination for automobile consumers in China. It has a comprehensive automobile library and automobile listing information, as well as an advertising platform for automakers and dealers.

    In the first quarter 2016, the company reported a significant expansion of its transaction platform with a total of 4,957 new vehicles sold through its B2C transaction platform.

    Average daily unique visitors who accessed its mobile websites and mobile applications has also grown to 8.8 million and 7.2 million, respectively.

    Leng Peidong, President of Ping An Trust, said that with Ping An’s nearly 300 million online users, 150 million financial customers, longstanding relationships with car manufacturers and distributors, and a nationwide offline service network, it will be in a better position to transform Autohome into a full auto transaction service platform.

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  • Australia’s Cold Store Operator Seeks Partner for Asian Expansion

    Australia’s Cold Store Operator Seeks Partner for Asian Expansion

    Australia’s largest privately-ˇowned cold storage operator, Oxford Cold Storage is seeking an operational and financial partner to expand its world-ˇclass cold storage services across Asia.

    In a global first, Oxford is piloting a system of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) in a third party temperature controlled environment to ensure accuracy, improve safety standards and allow for 24-ˇhour operation, delivering significant competitive advantage in the industry leader’s push for international expansion.

    Founded by the Fleiszig and Stern families over four decades ago, Oxford is a third-ˇgeneration business, now operated by brothers, Paul and Mark Fleiszig, alongside their cousin, Rodney Fleiszig. At the helm are brothers Stephen, Gabor and Luis Fleiszig. “Oxford is extremely well positioned to take advantage of the thriving Asian middle-ˇclass’ skyrocketing demands for produce. As this demographic develops, there is less time for people to wait for fresh food in a traditional market sense, so cold storage is becoming a vital component of the food chain,” said Oxford Director, Paul Fleiszig.

    Paul Profile Pic copy[3IxI]

    “We are at the forefront of logistics technology, designing our own systems with growth in mind to ensure scalability for the next phase, supported by our expertise in data mining and high-ˇdensity operation.” Delivering an annual turnover of $80 million within a robust growth industry (5% p.a. in Australia), Oxford was the first company to introduce a real-ˇtime radio frequency track and trace warehouse management system in 1995.

    “A key priority for us is staying ahead of the logistics technology curve through continuous improvement across warehouse operations. Our R&D team is responsible for ensuring we exceed national and international regulations, meeting the increased need for “paddock to plate” tracing while delivering the best possible service for our customers,” Paul explained.

    As the operator of the largest third-ˇparty temperature controlled warehouse in the country and 20th largest operator globally, Oxford offers racked storage for over 175,000 pallets, with the capacity to freeze 12,000 cartons and carcasses daily. Mike Robbins, Oceania Head of Physical Logistics at Nestlé Australia Ltd said: “Oxford Cold Storage is the most innovative operator in the Australian temperature controlled supply chain. The business invests heavily in technology, offering benefits within and beyond the warehouse.”

    “Oxford is extremely agile and are able to react quickly to changing customer requirements. Through the application of flexible IT solutions applied to operations optimisation Oxford have been able to deliver end to end supply chain efficiencies in warehousing, transport and inventory management.”

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  • Telstra to address rural 4G black spots

    Telstra to address rural 4G black spots

    Australia’s Telstra has revealed plans to roll out 135 small cell 4G base stations in remote communities across the nation as part of the government’s Mobile Black Spot program.

    The operator is also making the investment as part its efforts to expand its 4G footprint to 99% of the Australian population by June next year.

    Telstra has made an A$165 million ($123.1 million) commitment to improve coverage in regional Australia, and will already expand 3G and 4G coverage to 429 other remote communities as part of round one of the black spot program. But the latest small cell roll out will be solely funded by Telstra.

    “When we made our bid under Round One, our core objective was to maximise new coverage to regional communities, which is why we made this additional pledge to further expand mobile data services at our own expense,” Telstra group managing director for networks Mike Wright said.

    “We worked closely with the Federal Government to identify the communities who were eligible for this small cell technology and we are proud to be part of this important initiative which will connect so many more regional communities.”

    While the small cell technology can currently only provide data services, Telstra said it is working on implementing VoLTE technology over the base stations.

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  • New Toys’R’Us Asia-Pacific president named

    New Toys’R’Us Asia-Pacific president named

    The new Toys’R’Us Asia-Pacific president is Andre Javes.

    Taking up the role on May 27, Javes will oversee all operations and business activities for the company’s growing number of stores in Japan, Southeast Asia, Greater China and Australia, and he will be responsible for the profitability and success of the company in these markets. He will report directly to chairman and CEO Dave Brandon.

    A seasoned retail executive with more than 30 years of merchandising and management experience, Javes most recently served as MD of Toys’R’Us, Southeast Asia and Greater China, where he oversaw all operations and business activities for the company’s more than 170 wholly-owned stores and some 2500 employees in Brunei, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

    “Since joining Toys’R’Us, Andre has made significant contributions to the continued growth and success of our business throughout Asia and Australia,” said Brandon. “With his extensive retail background, drive for results, commitment to building and leading high-performing teams and proven track record, we expect to further grow and strengthen our brands’ position in the global marketplace.”

    Javes first joined the company in Australia in 2008 as GM merchandising with responsibility for toy and baby products. After a brief hiatus, he returned to the company in April 2013 as MD, overseeing all operations and business activities for the company’s more than 30 stores, eCommerce site, corporate office and more than 1700 employees.

    Prior to joining Toys’R’Us, Javes served as CEO at Anaconda Group from 2009 to 2012, a retail chain of camping, outdoor and adventure gear stores across Australia. Earlier in his career, he spent three years at Kmart as divisional merchandising manager first for seasonal and consumable items and later for the company’s toy and outdoor product categories throughout Australia and New Zealand. He also served as group merchandise manager, grocery at Coles Supermarkets Australia.

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  • Telstra invests in security company vArmour

    Telstra invests in security company vArmour

    Australian operator Telstra has formed a partnership with – and made an investment in – data center and cloud security company vArmour.

    Under the agreement, investment arm Telstra Ventures has participated in vArmour’s recent $41 million Series D funding round.

    Telstra will also add vArmour’s security offerings to its portfolio of enterprise services. In the long term, the operator said it will also be able to develop security consulting and managed services for its customers.

    The vArmour platform is designed to give organizations application-layer control over their networks to help stave off, detect and respond to cyber threats.

    Jeremy Howe, Telstra’s director of IP Data and Security Solutions, commented that the acquisition is aimed at addressing its enterprise customers’ evolving security demands.

    “We see a growing demand among enterprise customers for solutions that help them secure their data in a private, public and hybrid cloud mix. One of the main concerns companies have in embracing cloud services is data control and security,” he said.

    “vArmour’s distributed security software addresses the problem of traffic blindspots inside data centers. This helps businesses protect themselves from one of the critical emerging threats in the security environment, in addition to the benefits of having greater visibility of what is going on with your data.”

  • Telstra hit with two more outages

    Telstra hit with two more outages

    Australian operator Telstra has been hit with two more network outages in the span of three days, weeks after committing to invest to improve its network resilience.

    On Friday, Telstra confirmed it was aware of an unplanned service disruption affecting NBN voice and data as well as ADSL customers.

    Telstra said the issue its engineers have identified is “extremely complex, but in simple terms there was a fault with the device that manages the interaction between our network and all of the different types of customer modems.”

    While the bulk of restoration efforts occurred two and a half hours after the company announced the incident, it took until late Sunday afternoon to resolve residual issues and fully restore services.

    But on Sunday customers were reporting another outage affecting Telstra’s mobile and broadband networks in Sydney, Melbourne,Brisbane and Perth.

    Some customers reporting issues may still have been affected by the residual problems from the Friday outage, the report states. But the mobile outage, which affected data services for some customers, appears unrelated.

    Telstra has been struggling with a spate of network outages over the past few months. The operator recently committed A$50 million ($36.2 million) towards addressing the issue by installing new monitoring equipment and improving its capacity to handle numerous simultaneous re-registrations.

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