Telecom companies Telstra (ASX:ALZ) and Eftel (ASX:EFT) on Thursday both announced high-level staff changes.

The federal government business responsible for the National Broadband Network, NBN Co, today fended off claims that first release site residents will be charged for fibre optic cable-laying to their houses if they don’t sign up before the trial ends.

Internode founder and managing director, Simon Hackett, has taken out the Future in Review (FiRe) 2011 Entrepreneur of the Year award in the US, for his work in telecommunications.

Internode boss Simon Hackett has delivered a heavy critique of the costing model proposed for the National Broadband Network (NBN), stating that small ISPs will be all but wiped out under the current NBN arrangements.

iiNet subsidiary Westnet has reported that a server outage mid-last week, which affected email services for some 5000 customers, has been restored.