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Key points A 30-year-old telco employee has been charged over allegedly accessing customer data and selling it to "criminal groups". NSW Police made the arrest at a station in Sydney's west after a referral from Queensland Police. The sold information was allegedly used to commit fraud offences against multiple victims, with charges including 12 counts of dealing with identity info to commit an indictable offence.

NBN Co and Amazon’s planned low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite-powered internet service is still a while away, with the latest update indicating a 2027 launch. It comes a year after the initial announcement confirming NBN Co’s partnership with Amazon. At the time, mid-2026 was the estimated start of the Amazon Leo (then known as Project Kuiper) satellite rollout.

Key points The Internet Architecture Board warns that age assurance relying on service provider checks will fail and leave youth less safe online. IAB says device-based mechanisms, such as those already shipped by Apple and Google, are currently the most promising approach to age checks. The board's concerns echo Australia's social media ban for under-16s, where a study found children using social media as frequently as before.

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Eligible Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) customers can now upgrade to Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) without signing up to a high-speed broadband plan, following a change introduced by nbn in July. The change applies to more than 1,200 homes and businesses in the Tenterfield area, allowing eligible customers to request a full fibre upgrade regardless of the nbn speed tier they choose.

Aussie Broadband is actively exploring AI as a handoff technology for routine and repetitive customer support requests. The telco has traditionally championed a human-centred ethos when it comes to customer service, but it appears that it has started looking over the fence at what its rivals are doing with AI and considering the technology's potential for its support operations.

Optus and Nokia have completed a 6G research trial in Australia, reaching download speeds of 3.5Gbps on upper 6GHz spectrum. The companies conducted the trial on an existing Optus mobile site alongside a live 5G network, using a MediaTek-powered smartphone test device and a Nokia upper 6GHz massive MIMO antenna. The work was designed to examine how future mobile networks could use the upper 6GHz band while relying on much of today's infrastructure.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission may soon force mobile network operators to share each other’s infrastructure, particularly in regional areas. As part of a new inquiry into mobile coverage in regional areas, the competition regulator will explore the merits of introducing new rules that could ultimately let consumers in the bush roam between networks.

A "Tasman Ring" submarine cable network connecting Australia and New Zealand has reached a milestone, with Datagrid New Zealand signing a pair of delivery contracts with Malaysia's OMS Group, and Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN). OMS will do the marine survey for the Tasman Ring cable, which will then be supplied by ASN under the contracts with Datagrid NZ as the first international data link to NZ's South Island.

The ACMA has published its latest Telecommunications Consumer Complaints report for the January to March 2026 quarter, ranking the complaint-handling performance of 33 telcos. More than 184,000 complaints were reported for the quarter, with the telcos taking an average of 5.3 days to resolve complaints and 7.2 per cent of those complaints being referred to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO).