The Trans-Tasman Cable is connected, providing a 20Tbps fibre-optic connection between Sydney and New Zealand's Waikato coast. Operated by Vodafone, Telstra, and Spark, the link is the second and provides competition to the existing Southern Cross Cable.

We spend a lot of time on our phones - so it makes sense if our batteries usually hit that dreaded 10 percent mark before the day's even half over. That's why it's important to stock up on chargers whenever you can, and now you can re-up on three extra-long Lightning charging cables for a fraction of the cost.

Some subscription services are worth it (you can pry Netflix from my cold, dead hands) but for this month's money challenge, we challenged you to save money by ditching the subscriptions you don't use or need. To help you, here are a few ways to get the perks of some popular subscription services, like gym memberships and pay TV, for free.

Hi Lifehacker, We've just moved into our first house and I was excited to find that Optus cable internet was available. The technician came out but then said it wasn't possible to connect us because we are the back house of the section. Have I been fobbed off or is there a legitimate issue with connecting cable through a section if it wasn't done at the time of building?

Telstra is expanding the data allocations for its fixed line broadband customers, but it may take some time to affect you if you're a Telstra customer, and it's not entirely clear how much more quota you'll get.

Yesterday, NBN Co announced that it had successfully renegotiated its $11 billion deal with Telstra to acquire its existing copper network, as well as setting up contracts to buy and continue using the cable (HFC) networks owned by Telstra and Optus. While we're seeing lots of high-fiving going on about the deal and how it might speed up the rollout of the National Broadband Network, there are still lots of uncertainties — especially in terms of when consumers will actually get to enjoy the fruits of these arrangements.

Unlimited broadband offerings aren't so common these days. If you're a download freak and happen to live in one of the areas in Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne where Optus offers cable internet, its new $90 a month deal might be worth considering.

Dear Lifehacker, I am moving into a new place and the place has VDSL2 cable internet - hooray! However, the modem supplied only has one output on it, and I am planning to connect five devices to it. Am I best off purchasing a wireless router and attaching that to it, or hunting for a wireless VDSL modem?

Melbourne residents have been able to get Telstra's 100Mbps Ultimate cable internet service since March this year, and now the rest of the cable-connected nation is finally following suit. The service will be available in Perth from November 30, and in Sydney, Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Adelaide from December 12.

We first heard about them a year ago, but Telstra's ultra-fast cable plans are finally on sale to selected Melbourne consumers. On offer from the BigPond Ultimate plan is a theoretical maximum speed of 100Mbps, but you'll pay for the privilege.

Hi Lifehacker, My internet (Optus Cable) is quite strange and I'm wanting to know how to fix these problems. Firstly, for some downloads I get 60Kb/s, and for some I can get up to 2,000Kb/s. Is this huge difference just to do with server speed and location of the download? It's quite frustrating having to wait 10 minutes for a 30MB file, when I have downloaded 1GB+ movies in that same time.

Optus has upgraded its HFC (cable internet) network in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to the DOCSIS 3.0 standard, offering up to four times greater speed for customers using the service. That's a welcome improvement if you're regularly working with large files, but you'll have to pay for the privilege.

Cable was the first practical broadband option for Australians, and it generally remains the fastest choice. Now it's getting insanely fast. Telstra today announced that it will speed up its cable network to 100Mbps, in an upgrade that's due for Melbourne users by December this year. No word on whether other cities will be included, but it's hard to imagine Sydney won't follow course pretty swiftly. Tellingly, there's also no word on price. Nonetheless, it's good to have a continuously evolving alternative to ADSL, even if it doesn't stretch much outside capital cities.