The long-running copyright case between ISP iiNet and the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) looks to have come full circle, with one Federal Court judge musing out loud that there is a commercial solution to the issue, regardless of what is decided by the bench.

As election nervousness creeps into the telecommunications sector, the industry's peak lobby has called for all parties to commit to fundamental regulatory reforms to improve market competition and consumer outcomes.

All the momentum in this so far tedious federal election campaign has been Tony Abbott's, delivering opinion polls suggesting for the first time that he is a real chance of becoming Australia's next Prime Minister - and that the Coalition can make good its promise to scrap the national broadband network.

There was a very good reason, in case anyone missed it, why the Prime Minister unveiled the National Broadband Network fibre footprint in the West Australian seat of Hasluck, rather than in a population centre.

The Gillard Government will take the advice of its KPMG-McKinsey implementation study and roll-out optical fibre in its national broadband network to 93 per cent of Australians - instead of the 90 per cent originally planned.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has delivered the broadest hint yet that a Gillard Government will if re-elected consolidate Government information technology-related activities within a single portfolio.

The Gillard Government will conduct a top-to-bottom review of the media sector in the context of "converged communication" if re-elected, including a look at regulations for media ownership, free to air television, local content, and anti-siphoning provisions across the full range of digital platforms.

The Prime Minister Julia Gillard will unveil the National Broadband Network fibre "footprint" in Perth tomorrow, detailing which Australians will be connected to superfast optical-fibre and which will be serviced by slower wireless or satellite technologies.

The Coalition faces a significant business community backlash if it fails to deliver a broadband plan for Australia that at least matches the Government's existing National Broadband Network initiative, according to the internet sector's peak industry body.

Average Australian internet connection speeds are ranked 50th in the world - below New Zealand at 42nd - and just one-fifth the speed of top-ranked nation South Korea, according to the latest 'State of the Internet' report from Akamai Technologies.