Next G gets an international gong

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 10 October 2007 14:22

Business IT - Networking

Telstra has won The International Engineering Consortium's (IEC)  2007 InfoVision Award for its BigPond Wireless Broadband service, in the Wireless Broadband category, one of nine in the awards.

Ericsson also won an award in the Broadband Appliances, Devices, and Home Networking  category for its W25 wireless gateway which supports Telstra's Next G Wireless Link service, This, according to Telstra provides voice and wireless broadband services to customers in locations where traditional fixed services do not commercially reach, including residential services in remote Australia and mobile and temporary sites for the mining and tourism industries. However there have been suggestions Telstra is using it as a fixed line alternative simply because, unlike the copper pairs, access to Next G is not subject to regulation.

Both were one of two winners in their respective categories. The awards were presented at the Broadband World Forum Europe 2007 in Berlin.  The IEC gave no winner-specific citations but said the entries had been judged by a panel of industry experts according to the following criteria:
- Value of service or technology in solving recognised technology problems, meeting network requirements, optimising service and performance, and/or enhancing customer service;
- Overall quality of innovation and contribution to technology advancement;
-  Originality and vision;
- Potential contribution towards positive industry growth and service;
- Market success/acceptance;
- Contribution to end-user quality-of-experience and service efficiency.