The weekday briefing on Australian telecommunications, data centres and AI infrastructure.
Today's briefing
Wednesday 28 October 2026
Triple Zero dominates the Australian agenda.
The Triple Zero Custodian is testing whether direct SMS could reach emergency services, and an interim review of the regulations was released on 27 October 2026.
Optus and SA Police disagree over whether an Angaston base station fault blocked emergency calls.
On data centres, Commonwealth Bank economists lifted their feasible pipeline to 7GW, about $260 billion of spending, and flagged power supply as the nearest hurdle.
The Triple Zero Custodian is testing whether direct SMS could work as a way to reach emergency services, with Accenture Australia running a closed simulation. An interim review report on Triple Zero regulations was released on Tuesday 27 October 2026.
Commonwealth Bank economists now see 7GW of feasible new Australian data centre capacity, up from 6GW, and about $260 billion of spending over the next decade. They say the 23GW of announced projects overstates what will be built, and that power supply is the nearest hurdle.
ASIC has put out draft Regulatory Guide 267, its first substantive revision of how it oversees AFCA, before telcos and digital platforms come into the scheme on 31 March 2027. Submissions close at 5pm AEDT on 24 November.
An environmental group has taken George Town Council's approval of Firmus's 288MW AI data centre at Long Reach to the Tasmanian tribunal on 12 grounds, and Firmus has launched its own appeal over limits on its diesel generators.
CDC Data Centres told a federal parliamentary inquiry it reached its 2030 net-zero goal four years ahead of plan and reported a PUE of 1.38 for FY26. The operator also set out its views on SOCI regulation and its economic footprint.
Splice Internet, the retail business of the Rural Fibre Co Group, will offer fibre-only NBN plans through the Traralgon and Cranbourne points of interconnect, with prices starting at $85 a month.
GlobalData expects Australian fixed internet services revenue to grow at a compound rate of about 1 per cent over 2026-2031, with fibre and fixed wireless access lines offsetting a decline in cable.
A hardware fault at an Optus base station in Angaston, in South Australia's Barossa Valley, knocked out mobile voice and data, and police warned it may have blocked emergency calls. Optus said other carriers covered the area, while police stood by their warning.
Anthropic has filed with the US SEC to list on the Nasdaq as ANT, reporting first-half revenue of US$16.3 billion, a US$80.7 billion net loss and hundreds of billions of dollars in compute commitments.
Local AI founders want Canberra to use Australia's appeal as a data centre location to secure guaranteed, affordable computing power, while the federal government develops national approval standards for the facilities.
OpenSignal's new D2D Satellite Map shows direct-to-device connections in every Australian state and territory, as the Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation pushes carriers towards satellite partners. RMIT's Mark Gregory says technical and spectrum questions could leave the market in limbo until at least next year, and possibly 2028.