Piracy policy: The questions the Govt won’t answer
Australia's chief lawmaker has declined or avoided directly answering a number of central questions regarding the Federal Government's policy on online copyright infringement, as the future of the nation's broad response to the issue of piracy through platforms such as BitTorrent continues to swirl with uncertainty and rumour.
Conroy has “stuffed up” NBN pricing, says Hackett
In the latest salvo in an ongoing war of words with Stephen Conroy and NBN Co, Internode managing director Simon Hackett has accused the Communications Minister of having "stuffed up" the National Broadband Network pricing model in a way that will slow the growth of broadband in Australia.
NBN leaks: AFP raids Conroy’s office, Labor staffers’ houses
Australian Federal Police officers have raided the Melbourne office of former Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and the houses of two Labor staffers seeking to ascertain the identity of whistleblowers who have leaked a series of key documents from within the NBN company.
Business “translation” key for CIOs, says Melbourne Airport IT chief
The chief information officer of Melbourne Airport has told attendees at the Cisco Live conference in Melbourne this week that the ability to translate technical projects and language into business outcomes and concepts was still key for chief information officers.
Huawei is head-hunting in South Australia
Chinese manufacturer Huawei yesterday announced it would create 50 new jobs in South Australia, as part of its commitment to build Vodafone Hutchinson Australia's new network; news that comes as the state's Premier Mike Rann is visiting the company's facilities in China.
“Shameful” AFP NBN raid may be illegal, says Conroy
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) raid on the Department of Parliamentary Services yesterday was possibly illegal, according to Senator Stephen Conroy, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Shadow Special Minister Of State.
Superloop to boost offerings with BigAir acquisition
Fibre network provider Superloop has announced its intent to acquire BigAir Group, a telco that manages one of the largest metropolitan fixed wireless networks in Australia.
Pressured Turnbull agrees to aerial FTTP trials in Tasmania
Under siege from all sides of politics over the Federal Coalition's reluctance to pursue a full Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) broadband rollout in Tasmania, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has spoken to NBN Co about the possibility of conducting FTTP trials in the state that would test Labor's plan to deploy fibre on aerial electricity poles.
BlueScope Steel renegotiates CSC deal
Steel giant BlueScope Steel appears to have re-negotiated its long-term IT outsourcing arrangement with CSC, with a new, potentially eight-year agreement inked before the initial period of its old arrangement expires in December 2010.
Optus financial customer hit by Chinese DDoS
Optus has revealed that one of its customers was hit yesterday by a distributed denial of service attack originating in China -- but the target was understood to be a financial services company and not a publisher like AAP as was speculated this morning.
NBN bitchslap: IT hero schools ignorant radio host
A senior IT professional specialising in regional telecommunications in Victoria yesterday afternoon delivered an extraordinarily erudite and pointed education to a 3AW radio host who had gone on an extended and inaccurate rant live on air, rebutting claims that the National Broadband Network project would cost $233 billion but deliver speeds no different to ADSL broadband.
Qld Govt IT needs work, says auditor
Queensland's Auditor-General has warned the State Government it must pull its socks up when it comes to the governance of its IT projects and security of its IT assets, in the wake of a number of high-profile and damaging technology debacles in the state that have called into question how its $1.5 billion annual IT spend is administered.
NBN Tasmania details Hobart, Launceston rollouts
The Federal Government today said it had made a capital injection of $100 million into the Tasmanian arm of the National Broadband Network Company in order to facilitate the rollout of optic fibre to the cities of Hobart, Launceston, Burnie and Devonport.
Vodafone NZ may buy TelstraClear
The nation's largest telco Telstra this morning revealed it was in talks to sell its New Zealand unit TelstraClear to Vodafone New Zealand, in a move which would finally put an end to speculation about the future of the struggling division, which has always found it hard to bring in profits from the Kiwi nation.
Melbourne college in 1,100-seat Win7 migration
Uniting Church school St Leonard's College has in the past few months completed a sizable desktop migration to Microsoft's new flagship operating system Windows 7, in a rollout that also saw its supporting server infrastructure switched from Novell Netware to Windows Server 2008 R2.
NBN: Conroy blasts ‘ignorant & dangerous’ Abbott
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has delivered a verbal double barrel shotgun blast in the direction of Tony Abbott, claiming the Opposition Leader has displayed a "woeful ignorance" regarding Labor's vaunted National Broadband Network project.
Watch: 1800km of new copper ‘simply part of NBN architecture’, says Turnbull
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has defended the NBN company’s purchase of 1800km of brand new copper from repeated attacks by the Opposition in Question Time, telling the Parliament yesterday that the copper cable was “simply part of the architecture” of the NBN company’s new Multi-Technology Mix approach.
Ballarat best ‘on-shoring’ IT services hub
Enterprise IT analyst firm capioIT has crowned the Victorian region of Ballarat as the best non-metropolitan location in Australia for IT services delivery, for a range of factors including historical investment in the area and integration between the government, education and commercial sectors.
Back off: Optus, TPG tell Govt on Telstra pricing
Major telcos Optus and TPG have joined the rest of Australia’s broadband sector and sharply warned Malcolm Turnbull’s Department to stop interfering in the competition regulator’s decision to cut Telstra’s wholesale pricing by 9.6 percent.
Australia’s Aconex wins huge Panama Canal deal
Australian company Aconex this week announced a deal that has the potential to put it squarely on the global stage in its role as a provider of software as a service-based project collaboration solutions to the construction and engineering sectors.
Cisco launches Internet of Things innovation centre in Sydney
Cisco has launched a new innovation centre in Sydney that will focus on open Internet of Things (IoT) developments.
Atlassian announces massive revenue jump
Atlassian, the Sydney-founded provider of team collaboration and productivity software, has announced a spike in revenue in its latest financial results.
Oracle is child’s play for NSW Dept
As part of the NSW Government's Keep Them Safe program, the state's Department of Community Services recently implemented Oracle's Policy Automation software to replace an unwieldy 108 page child risk assessment guide with a new online system dubbed the Mandatory Reporter Guide.
NBN CEO won’t talk South Brisbane, TransACT
The chief executive of the NBN company has flatly refused to comment on contentious situations with relation to the company's rollout in the South Brisbane and Canberra areas, where it appears to be overbuilding existing open access high-speed broadband infrastructure.
Investigation finds WA Dept of Health botched Fujitsu core computing contract
Western Australia's Auditor General has released a damning report identifying weakness and inconsistencies in the management of the Centralised Computing Services contract at the Department of Health.
Vic opt-out block no big deal, says NBN chief
NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley isn't fazed by the Victorian Government's decision to reject the 'opt-out' policy which would have seen every premise in the state receive fast broadband by default, noting today Australians could make their own decision to sign up to his company's planned new network or not.
Did NBN Co fudge its rollout numbers?
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull this week claimed the National Broadband Network Company had in January fudged its network rollout statistics by retroactively updating its December fibre rollout database to show additional premises; a claim NBN Co has denied.
30 startups receive $16m boost from Entrepreneurs’ Programme
In a bid to see more Australian products in the global marketplace, the last month has seen a number of startups receiving funding from the Australian Government’s Entrepreneurs' Programme.
SAP loses Aussie MD Ebbeck
The long-serving leader of German software giant SAP's Australian business, Tim Ebbeck, has unexpectedly resigned, with the company currently conducting an executive search to find a replacement.
NSW announces Opal app top ups, credit card “tap in” trial
The NSW Government has announced that customers using its Opal smartcard ticketing system for public transport services can now top up via its "new and improved" Opal Travel app. Also announced were 2017 trials of a scheme that would allow commuters to tap "contactless" credit and debit cards as an alternative to the Opal card.
Telstra cutting top execs’ pay levels
Telstra chief executive David Thodey appears to be taking a dramatically different approach to remunerating its top executives compared to his predecessor Sol Trujillo, with new executives coming on board over the past several years attracting pay packets millions of dollars less than those they are replacing.
Privacy Foundation outlines ‘major concerns’ with opt-out e-Health scheme
The Australian Privacy Foundation (APF) has aired “major concerns” with the Personally Controlled eHealth Record (PCEHR) system and the government's proposals to make it an ‘opt-out’ scheme.
Privacy Commissioner still won’t talk OzLog
Federal Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim wouldn't disclose the details of any discussions his office had had with the Attorney-General's Department over its controversial data retention proposal, under questioning on the matter in a Senate enquiry into online privacy today.
“Welcome to the 1940s”: Labor lampoons NBN Co for deploying new copper
The Australian Labor Party has lampooned the NBN company for its willingness to deploy brand new copper cables in some areas to ensure the Government’s Fibre to the Node model will succeed, welcoming the company back to the “1940’s”, when copper cables were regarded as state of the art technology.
iiNet offers 50% discount on terabyte HFC cable plans
iiNet is offering a 50 percent discount for a limited period on HFC cable plans in some parts of Victoria where it owns its own infrastructure.
Full Stephen Conroy Q+A video
This afternoon at an event in Sydney to launch a new Macquarie Telecom call centre, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy took questions from the press on the timing of the internet filter legislation, Brisbane's proposal to run broadband through sewers, and whether he or Kim Carr is Australia's Minister for Information Technology.
New policy: Labor would dump FTTN for FTTP, keep HFC
The Opposition today released a new National Broadband Network policy for the Federal Election, with Labor committing to dumping the Coalition's Fibre to the Node plans and supporting Fibre to the Premises instead, but keeping the other HFC cable, satellite and wireless aspects of the current plan.
ACCC concerned about Foxtel/Austar merger
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced on Friday that it had delayed its decision on approving Foxtel’s takeover bid for Austar until September.
Aussie firms deploy corporate social network tibbr
Software giant Tibco has revealed that two sizable Australian companies, accounting group HLB Mann Judd and real estate agency Compton Green, have deployed its internal corporate social networking platform tibbr to streamline their internal communications.
Adelaide backup startup seeks expansion funds
Adelaide-based startup Memory Box Backup has revealed it is seeking to raise $1.5 million in capital to take its technology onto the world stage, and believes it has the potential to list on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Turnbull’s broadband brochureware falls short of election promise
The new Coalition Government has failed to successfully deliver what it had promised before the election would be a key report on the overall status of broadband infrastructure in Australia, instead releasing just before Christmas an extremely brief report of only several pages which does little to illuminate the situation.
Nintendo may target other mod chip sellers
Nintendo Australia today said it could take similar action against other sellers of devices that allow games to be illegally copied for use on its consoles, after it won a $620,000 victory against one such firm this week.
Spirit Telecom continues fibre rollout at up to 400Mbps
Fibre-optic broadband provider Spirit Telecom has released a shareholder update to the market, stating that it continues to expand its superfast broadband service to new buildings and that it is considering making acquisitions that would "complement" the firm's direction.
“On time and on budget”: NSW claims early victory in cloud ERP rollout
The NSW State Government has claimed initial success in its high-profile deployment of a cloud-based ERP consolidation project at the NSW agency of Trade and Investment, claiming that so far the project has been delivered "on time and on budget", but with a large chunk of the work still to go.
Turnbull’s MyBroadband tracker overestimates broadband speeds
A crowdsourced comparison of real-world broadband speeds has appeared to show that the MyBroadband broadband availability site launched by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull last week is significantly inaccurate, with speeds being almost universally below the data produced by the site.
Christmas 2010 for Windows 7 phones?
It may be Christmas before Australians will be able to get their hands on a mobile phone with Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Series platform...
Will Google’s Nexus One hit Australia?
Mobile telcos VHA and Optus have not yet responded to reports and rumours the pair are planning to launch new handsets based on Google's Android mobile platform in Australia — including a claimed launch by Vodafone of the search giant’s own Nexus One phone.
Citigroup: Coalition NBN plan “difficult to achieve”
A detailed analysis of the Coalition's rival National Broadband Network policy has found the "quick and dirty" plan would be difficult to achieve, faces significant hurdles and would wind the telecommunications reform process in Australia back by three years, although it would cost less than Labor's vision.
Cheap, legal options wouldn’t stop Australians pirating
An extensive survey conducted by respected analysis house Essential Research has found that a huge proportion of Australians would continue to pirate content such as TV shows and movies online, even if such content was made available everywhere globally at the same time for a low price.
NBN Co releases wholesale, ACCC agreements
The National Broadband Network Company yesterday published two key documents which will guide how it provides wholesale broadband services to ISPs over the coming decades, using the fibre, wireless and satellite infrastructure which it is currently rolling out.
Westpac appoints McKinnon lieutenant Whincup CIO
Top tier bank Westpac has appointed one of Bob McKinnon's top lieutenants, UK import Clive Whincup, to succeed him as chief information officer.
Government issues draft amendments to Copyright Act
The government has announced proposed changes that are designed to simplify and modernise Australia's copyright laws.
iiNet launches terabyte NBN plans
Just 70 customers might have signed up to the National Broadband Network in Tasmania so far in total, but iiNet today revealed it would provide them with a terabyte data quota and full 100Mbps speeds on all plans to truly get the benefit out of the fledgling fibre service.
WA Govt exposes dodgy IT deals
An investigation by Western Australia's Corruption and Crime Commission investigation has found that more than $1.2 million of IT software was purchased by a former council CEO without going to tender or getting quotes -- over a period in which they received gifts and benefits from the supplier.
Leaders needed: Thodey wants united telco front
Telstra chief executive David Thodey has issued a call to arms for Australia’s telecommunications industry to present a united front on a range of issues, in the face of what he described as “shocking” intervention by regulators on issues such as customer service.
FTTN rollout hits 50,000 homes in record time
The NBN company today revealed its Fibre to the Node infrastructure was ready to be used at some 50,000 homes, a milestone that it reached just 51 days after formally launching the infrastructure in September.
4,800 DistributeIT sites “unrecoverable”
Beleagured domain name seller and web hosting group DistributeIT today informed customers who had sites hosted on a number of its servers that their sites and emails were now considered "unrecoverable", as fallout continued to rain down from a disastrous hack on the company's infrastructure over the past several weeks.
Govt blocks Internode FOI request for Telstra/NBN deal
The Federal Government's Information Commissioner has rejected an attempt by internet service provider Internode to obtain the complete text of Telstra's $11 billion deal with the National Broadband Network Company under Freedom of Information laws.
MyBroadband stoush: Turnbull attacks “foolish” IT academic
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has taken a pick axe to an article published by electrical and computer engineering academic Mark Gregory, claiming that the RMIT senior lecturer's criticism of the Government's new MyBroadband broadband tracker site constitutes a "confused and illogical" attack, and that Gregory had misunderstood the site's rating scale.
NBN leakers are ‘thieves’, not whistleblowers, says Ziggy
NBN chair Ziggy Switkowski has made an extraordinary intervention into the Federal Election campaign, defending the NBN company's record under the Coalition and claiming insiders who have leaked senstive information of being politically motivated thieves and not whistleblowers.
Turnbull forces all Dept staff to re-apply for jobs
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has ordered all 550 staff at his Department of Communications to re-apply for their jobs, according to the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), as part of a sizable cull that could see up to 125 jobs cut from the department.
NBN take-up “a bitter jest”, says Turnbull
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has labelled news that NBN Co has signed up some 4,000 customers to its networks as "a bitter jest", pointing out that the company's own corporate plan planned for 35,000 customers to be using the infrastructure by June 2011, and 137,000 by June 2012.
Coalition missteps on NBN budget savings
The Federal Opposition has again incorrectly alleged that it could save money by cutting the Labor Federal Government's multi-billion dollar National Broadband Network project, despite financial projections which show the project is likely to make the Government billions.
Telstra migrates email offshore to Windows Live
Australia’s largest telco Telstra has promised its BigPond customers a faster and enhanced email service named BigPond with Windows Live, without the need to change email addresses. The caveat? Their data will now also be stored offshore with Microsoft.
Scoopon won’t talk Packer pow-wow
A spokesperson for sister websites Scoopon and Catch of the Day has declined to comment on a report that media and gambling tycoon James Packer is negotiating to take a stake in the two companies.
Pirate Party: Circumvention promotion offence like Iran, China
The Pirate Party Australia has likened the idea being discussed by the Federal broadband department that promotion of circumvention of the internet filter could become an offence to opporessive censorship regimes in Iran and China.
Doug Campbell retires again
NBN Tasmania chairman Doug Campbell has announced his decision to return to retirement following an 18 month hiatus leading the National Broadband Network project in the Apple Isle.
Coalition calls for kids’ e-safety commissioner
In the wake of the death of Labor’s controversial Internet filtering policy, the Opposition has proposed creating a new Federal commissioner to coordinate a national approach to protecting Australian childrens’ safety online, with powers that would include forcing social media providers such as Facebook and Twitter to take down objectionable content.
Telstra’s structural separation: It’s here
Depending on who you talk to, it's been coming since deregulation in 1997. Yesterday Communications Minister Stephen Conroy released draft versions of the regulatory instruments through which Telstra will be forced to structurally separate its operations into different whole and retail divisions, a process which will likely mainly be achieved though the rollout of the National Broadband Network.
Microsoft to offer Win10 as a service for businesses
Microsoft has announced that it will soon be offering Windows 10 as a service for enterprises through its Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) channel.
Bronwyn Bishop to chair new House of Reps tech Committee
The Federal House of Representatives has reformed its internal committee dealing with matters pertaining to telecommunications, setting up a new structure which has seen tech-savvy Liberal MP Jane Prentice replaced as chair with veteran MP Bronwyn Bishop.
Unisys confirms Qantas baggage systems win
IT services giant Unisys has confirmed it has won a lengthy deal to provide new baggage tracking systems for Qantas, after the pair’s relationship in a trial system was outed by the airline in July.
LG’s new Android mobiles hit Australia
Korean electronics giant LG has launched a new range of Android-based smartphones in Australia, dubbed the Optimus L-Style series.
Labor colleagues pay tribute to “visionary” Conroy
Labor politicians from across Australia have paid tribute to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and longtime Victorian Senator, Stephen Conroy who announced his retirement from politics on Thursday.
Hockey repeats inaccurate NBN claim
Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey has continued to publicly repeat a factually inaccurate statement regarding the accounting treatment of the National Broadband Network funding as a capital investment, maintaining that the funding should be treated as an expense, despite direct evidence to the contrary, including the acknowledgement of fellow Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull.
APRA warning shows cloud maturity: Salesforce.com
A long-time proponent of cloud computing has hailed a warning by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority about the technology as evidence of its maturity and growing adoption — rather than as a potential problem for the nation’s financial sector.
Canva raises $15m after repeated previous capital injections
Australian graphic design software company Canva this week revealed it had raised a further $15 million in venture capital investment, in what appears to be the company’s fourth sizable capital raising in only the past several years.
Labor forces NBN Co back to Senate
The Opposition has forced senior executives from the National Broadband Network back to take questions from a Senate committee for the third time in a month, as debate grows about whether and to what extent such constant hearings represent obstruction of the company's work.
Apple to open Penrith store on 23 July
Apple has this morning confirmed its newest retail store in Australia will open to the general public on the 23rd of July.
City of Melbourne out to mark new CIO
The City of Melbourne (CoM) has advertised on employment website Seek.com.au for a chief information officer position with a 3 year contract at $216,300 annual package.
Turnbull files private members’ bill for NBN transparency
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull today revealed he had garnered Coalition support for a private member's bill that would force Labor to disclose key financial details of its flagship National Broadband Network project and conduct a cost/benefit analysis into its construction.
Fiona Stanley Hospital IT gets $40m more
The Western Australian Government has allocated a further $40 million in funding to the troubled IT systems of the state's flagship Fiona Stanley Hospital, in a state budget which comes ahead of the similar, $187 million deployment of similar new IT systems at the upcoming Perth Children's Hospital.
Conroy releases 126MHz digital dividend spectrum
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy late yesterday announced the Government would release 126MHz of broadcasting spectrum as a digital dividend for use by mobile carriers, in a move immediately welcomed by both Telstra and Optus.
iPhone 4 party was worth it, says VHA chief
VHA chief executive Nigel Dews today reported a clean slate for iPhone 4 customer service complaints to date on the company's Vodafone and 3 brands, and said the company's glamorous launch party at the Ivy bar in Sydney was well worth it.
“Extraordinary incompetence”: Turnbull on NBN greenfields
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has gone on the warpath regarding NBN Co's performance in rolling out fibre to greenfields housing estates, touring a number of estates nationwide and damning what he said was NBN Co's "extraordinary incompetence" in its greenfields rollout schedule.
iiNet, Internode, Primus discuss filter with AFP
Australian ISPs iiNet, Internode and Primus are preparing to implement the limited Internet filtering scheme promulgated in Australia by the Australian Federal Police in cooperation with international policing agency Interpol, the AFP stated in documents revealed this week.
Victoria to trial IoT tech for better water management
In what it is calling "an Australian first", Victoria's South East Water has started trials of a new low-powered Internet of Things (IoT) technology to improve real-time monitoring and help to boost the reliability, efficiency and safety of its water and sewer assets.
Defying the Senate: NBN Co refuses to disclose brand new copper needs past 1800km
The NBN company has flatly refused to say how much brand new copper it need beyond its existing reserves of 1800km to make its Fibre to the Node broadband rollout model function correctly, in response to a question by one of the most powerful Senators overseeing its operations.
NewSat offers to buy NBN Co satellites
Pure play satellite company NewSat has made an offer to the buy the National Broadband Network Company's two satellites before they are even launched, as speculation continues to swirl around the potential privatisation of chunks of NBN Co's infrastructure under the new Coalition Federal Government.
Who are Australia’s richest technologists?
We've always loved the annual rich list published by Fairfax magaxine Business Review Weekly. It's like gossip for the absolute top end of town. Each year you get to gloat as you see how family millionaires' fortunes fell a little this year on the rankings, and enjoy the success of young guns rising to the top on the back of their own effort.
Dell Streak exposes itself for Optus
It's been a long courtship, but Dell has finally found a match made in Heaven for its Streak mini-tablet and combination smartphone, with Optus set to launch the device in Australia with a three month exclusive starting from October 1.
Conroy re-commits to filter, slams Lundy amendments
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has reiterated the Government's support for its mandatory internet filter policy after the change in Prime Minister and has slammed proposed amendments by Senator Kate Lundy that would allow Australians to opt in or out of the technology.
Rumours place Rowland as Turnbull’s Shadow
Rumours flying around the telecommunications industry have named second-term MP and former corporate lawyer Michelle Rowland as having picked up the role of Shadow Communications Minister in Bill Shorten's new Labor Shadow Cabinet, leaving more high-profile candidates such as Kate Lundy and Ed Husic out of the running.
[Ad] Thank you, Delimiter sponsors!
I just wanted to take a moment out to thank Delimiter's amazing site sponsors this month.
Tassie education dept wants Mac, Linux anti-virus
Tasmania's Department of Education has gone to market for anti-virus software for its 40,000 desktop PCs and 1,000 servers, specifying solutions must be able to secure not only Microsoft Windows, but also Mac OS X and Linux, in a move that once again raises the question of whether the alternative platforms require dedicated security software.
Simon Hackett appointed CEO of Redflow
Redflow, an energy storage solutions provider, has announced two new senior management changes, including the appointment of a new acting Chief Executive Officer.
Forgotten again: No new Kindles for Australia
For the second year in a row, Amazon has decided not to launch the majority of its new Kindle tablet and e-reader devices in Australia, in a move which appears set to diminish the local popularity of the devices.
Optus buys more wireless spectrum
The nation's second-largest telco Optus has agreed to buy additional spectrum licences for 10MHz of paired spectrum in the 2100MHz band from Qualcomm subsidiary...
Telstra to make 480 positions redundant
On October 27th, Telstra informed the Communication Workers Union (CWU) about its proposed operational changes that will result in making 480 positions redundant. The majority of the affected positions are held by Telstra employees, while the rest include agency staff.
Finance issues $57m whole of govt MFD tender
The Federal Department of Finance and Deregulation has gone to market for multi-function devices such as printers and faxes, in a purchasing initiative which will cover the majority of the Federal public sector.
NBN Co launches social initiative with Men’s Sheds and Keith Schleiger
NBN Co has announced a collaboration with the Australian Men’s Shed Association that is aimed to highlight how access to fast broadband can help men "build supportive friendships and better connect with friends and family".
Victoria slams ‘risky, uncompetitive’ NBN policy
Victoria's Coalition State Government has heavily criticised the Labor Federal Government's flagship National Broadband Network policy, arguing in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the NBN that the project could see the telecommunications sector's existing "dysfunctional" market structure replicated and competition put at risk.
Curtin Uni, ANZ Bank to deploy Microsoft Surface
Western Australia's Curtin University of Technology and ANZ Bank have both flagged plans to deploy Microsoft's Surface multi-touch tabletop system, which went on sale in Australia today.
Voluntary filtering on track for mid-2011
Stephen Conroy's Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy tonight said voluntary filtering of the internet for child abuse material by three of Australia's largest internet service providers was on track to kick off in the middle of this year.
Google to launch High Court ad challenge
The Australian newspaper has reported that Google will appeal in the High Court a ruling last week that the search giant had displayed misleading or deceptive advertisements on its search results pages.
Video review: the ABC’s iPad app
Australian Apple site MacTalk Australia has posted this video review of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's iPad app.
Christian lobby slams “incomprehensible” filter block
The Australian Christian Lobby has slammed as "incomprehensible" a revelation by Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey late yesterday that the Coalition would vote against Labor's controversial mandatory internet filtering project if associated legislation made it into parliament.
Kmart calls police to investigate IT security breach
National retailer Kmart has called in the Australian Federal Police and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner to investigate an IT security breach which it has confirmed saw customers’ data accessed by unknown parties.
End of an era: Godfather Malone quits iiNet
The long-time chief executive of top-tier national broadband provider iiNet, Michael Malone, this morning revealed plans to completely resign from the company he founded twenty years ago in his garage, in a move that will signal the end of an era for Australia's broadband industry.
ASUS first to import NVIDIA’s Optimus technology
Hardware manufacturer ASUS has revealed plans to bring laptops to Australia utilising NVIDIA's new Optimus graphics technology, which can automatically switch between using a device's integrated or discrete video cards depending on the task being performed.
Redflow launches ZCell battery to rival Tesla Powerwall
Australian battery specialist Redflow has launched a residential energy storage solution called ZCell – a product that will rival Tesla's Powerwall, which launched in Australia in late January.
Desktop disaster: So bad Vic Police use home PCs
Victoria Police's IT systems are so out of date that police officers often simply go home to open modern documents on their own PCs, a new report has found, and officers are also required to fax hardcopy documentation into a central repository following the end of their shift.
New ANZ CIO settles in
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group’s new chief information officer Anne Weatherston is settling into her new role, the bank said today, with meetings...
Greens take aim at Government’s national facial recognition database
The Australian Greens have raised privacy concerns over the government's plans to introduce a national facial recognition scheme next year.
HP investigates Foxteq scandal
Technology giant Hewlett-Packard today said it was looking into reports that conditions for workers at the Rydalmere, Sydney factory operated by its partners Foxteq and Weststaff.
You’re flat out wrong, NBN Co tells AFR
NBN Co and two of its key contractors have categorically denied a front page report by the Financial Review this morning that the contractors weren't bidding for the next round of NBN construction deals due to rollout delays, describing the newspaper's report as "patently untrue".
Talent manager builds on Windows Azure
Talent management firm PageUp People has picked Microsoft's Windows Azure public cloud computing platform to host its CareerPath application, according to a statement issued by Redmond late last week.
Sun’s Aussie chief leaves Oracle ship
Sun Microsystems Australia and New Zealand managing director Andrew Goodlace appears to have left the company following its acquisition by software giant Oracle.
Video: WA Premier cans shared services project
In this video published by the Western Australian Government today, WA Premier Colin Barnett outlines the Government's response to a damning report into its eight year-long shared services project, which has run significantly over time and over budget.
Will CSC buy troubled iSOFT?
Multiple media outlets are speculating that IT services giant CSC might buy troubled Australian e-health company iSOFT, in a move that will finally give CSC full control over the company it has long partnered with in the UK Government's makeover of its national health technology systems.
ASG buys IT consulting firm Capiotech
Perth-based IT services group ASG has picked up IT consulting firm Capiotech for about $30 million, bringing 90 staff on board and enhancing the company's business intelligence capability.
Labor’s NBN was a “fantasy model”, says Fifield, despite FTTP progress
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has described the previous Labor Government’s near-universal Fibre to the Premises approach to the National Broadband Network as a “fantasy model” and “unachievable”, despite the fact that almost all of the progress on the NBN thus far has been based on that model.
Telstra launches dual-channel HSPA+ hotspot
The nation's largest telco Telstra has launched another 3G mobile Wi-Fi hotspot to support its flagship Next G network, with the device to be the first to support higher speeds through dual-channel support for the HSPA+ technology used on the telco's network.
Defence conducts OpenOffice.org trial
The Department of Defence has reportedly conducted an informal trial of the open source OpenOffice.org productivity suite involving some 100 users.
Victoria dumps HealthSMART e-health project
The Victorian State Government has reportedly decided to walk away from its troubled central electronic health project HealthSMART, which has reached only a limited number of its goals over the past decade since it was initiated, despite soaking up several hundred million dollars worth of government funding.
Melbourne Uni students ‘strongly’ prefer Gmail
The University of Melbourne has picked Gmail for its new student email platform, after polls of students indicated a "strong" preference for the Google offering over the alternative Live@EDU platform, despite the popularity of the Microsoft offering amongst university IT administrators around the nation.
Aussie author society backs 35% eBook royalties
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has published an extensive analysis of how the onset of electronic books changes the publisher contractual landscape, including a recommendation that Australian authors attempt a return of 35 percent of royalties from eBooks – much higher than traditional paper books.
End of an era: Oracle Australia’s ‘safe hands’ leaves
Long-term Oracle Australia and New Zealand managing director Ian White has resigned from his post and will leave the company, ending an eight and half year tenure successfully leading the local operations of one of the globe's largest technology giants.
Telstra to invest $250m more to fix network issues
Telstra CEO Andrew Penn has announced that his firm is to spend $250 million addressing issue that have hit users of its mobile and broadband networks in recent months.
ING Direct shifts entire bank platform onto private cloud
Financial services group ING Direct this week revealed it had switched its entire production IT infrastructure onto a private cloud platform, in a move the company claimed was a first for any bank in Australia.
Springboard buys Hydrasight
Independent Australian analyst house Hydrasight has been bought up by larger analysis player Springboard Research.
Optus hints at Android-based tablets
Optus hinted today that it may launch tablet in the Australian market based on Google Android, as the popularity of the mobile operating system continues to take the SingTel subsidiary by storm.
Winner announcement: Ninefold competition
You may remember that together with our friends at Australian cloud computing company Ninefold, Delimiter recently ran a competition. Here's the winner!
Telstra to launch new home Wi-Fi tech and Internet bundles
Telstra is introducing new Wi-Fi technology that it says will take in-home broadband speeds and coverage to "new levels".
Conroy F-bomb beats policy debate on Google News
Fascinating video above by Jim Stewart from our favourite Aussie search engine optimisation firm StewArtMedia. In the video, Stewart dissects how news aggregator Google News treated reporting of yesterday's speech by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.
NBN policy spurred Internode buyout, says Hackett
Internode's inability to gain sufficient scale to compete in a National Broadband Network world was a core reason why he decided to sell the company to rival Internet service provider iiNet, Internode supremo Simon Hackett said this afternoon.
Vodafone upgrades hit Central Coast customers
Vodafone today revealed it would shortly start conducting a large series of upgrades to mobile facilities on the Central Coast in New South Wales, setting itself a gruelling schedule with plans to hit 44 sites in less than four weeks.
“Extraordinary”: Telcos slam Turnbull’s Dept for backing Telstra over consumers
A group of major Australian telcos have issued a fiery statement damning Malcolm Turnbull’s Department of Communications for its “extraordinary” attempt to support Telstra’s profitability and keep telecommunications prices from dropping.
ABS staff “angry” at Turnbull following Census outage, union says
The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has said staff at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) are "angry" at comments by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull following the failure of the Census web service.
Telstra signs up first Next G wholesaler
The nation's largest telco Telstra today revealed it had signed up the first telco customer to resell its flagship Next G network, with the company being itself a wholesaler of telecommunications services named iTelecom Wholesale.
Little difference on broadband policies, claims Katter
Federal Independent MP Bob Katter today claimed that there was little difference between the broadband policies of the two major parties at a press conference this afternoon, where he announced his support for the Coalition.
StarCraft II region lock angers Australian gamers
Video game manufacturer Blizzard Entertainment is facing a wave of dissent from Australian gamers furious about the company's decision to lock Australians into only being able to play multiplayer games of its upcoming StarCraft II title against players in Southeast Asia -- not in America or Europe.
Wikileaks Party deregistered due to lack of members
The short-lived political party formed around Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been deregistered by the Australian Electoral Commission after it fell short of the requirement to have 500 registered members.
Turnbull gives mixed messages on NBN cost/benefit
Malcolm Turnbull has over the past several weeks given several conflicting messages on how the cost/benefit analysis into Australia's future broadband needs that the Coalition has promised to conduct upon taking government would actually be carried out, with at least three separate approaches being cited by the Shadow Communications Minister at different times.
Internode launches NBN wireless, reveals pricing
National broadband provider Internode today started selling fixed wireless services over the National Broadband Network's fledgling wireless broadband footprint, with the ISP's pricing in the area to be the same as its pricing on the lowest speed tier (12Mbps) of its NBN fibre plans.
Video: Five ways to defeat the filter
Digital rights lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia has published this video consisting of five easy ways to defeat the Labor Federal Government's mandatory internet filtering scheme. The technology has not yet been implemented, but has already been trialled.
NEHTA, DoHA deaf to consumers, claim critics
A new e-health lobbying organisation has voiced its frustration at the National e-Health Transition Authority and Department of Health and Ageing for not communicating with consumers well enough.
Victorian Govt outlines new IT strategy
The Victorian Government has launched a new four-year strategy aimed to harness new digital technologies to "deliver modern services for the community".
Coalition policy “a blast from the past”, says Conroy
Both the Labor and Greens parties this afternoon opened fire on the Coalition's rival broadband policy revealed this morning, in an ICT sector election debate that at times saw Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and his shadow Tony Smith at each others' throats.
iiNet selling 4,000 BoBs per month
Tier two ISP iiNet today revealed it was selling about 4,000 units per month of its flagship BoB combination ADSL router and internet telephony...
Melbourne IT weakened by strong dollar
The Australian dollar's strong performance against the greenback has not helped local hosting giant Melbourne IT, which yesterday revealed a drop of five per cent in revenue over the past six months.
Optus lifts profits but loses customers … what is its long-term future?
The nation's number two telco Optus today reported a 15 percent jump in net profits for the year ended 31 March as cost-cutting initiatives take fat out of its operations, but the company is still facing a troubled future due to the fact that its overall revenues and customer numbers are still slumping.
Failing Qld e-health system needs $439 million fix
Queensland Health needs a mammoth $439 million injection of government funding to fix its ailing patient administration system, according to explosive documents tabled in the state's parliament by the Queensland Opposition yesterday.
Qld Rail wants traditional IT infrastructure outsourcing
The past year has seen a raft of cloud computing options launched in the Australian technology landscape, with companies as diverse as Telstra, CSC, Optus and Fujitsu focusing on infrastructure as a service offerings. But not everyone's biting -- with one government agency this month going to market for IT infrastructure services which couldn't look more traditional.
Huawei rejects “faceless” espionage talk
The Australian arm of Chinese networking vendor today again defended itself against what it described by "faceless accusations" of espionage in foreign countries by "one newspaper".
VHA more than doubles mobile data caps
The latest shot in Australia's mobile price war has been fired -- and it's not a good one for Telstra and Optus.
Telstra starts VDSL vectoring FTTN trial
The nation's largest telco Telstra has reportedly kicked off a trial of the Coalition's preferred fibre to the node, VDSL and vectoring technologies in an effort to show what they are capable of on its copper network, as the Coalition's plan to dial down Labor's more ambitious fibre to the premises NBN rollout gets into gear.
Australia extends global Internet piracy lead
Australia has dramatically extended its lead over other countries when it comes to the levels of Australians pirating popular US television shows, according to new statistics released overnight by TorrentFreak, with the limited availability of such content in Australia believed to be driving the trend.
EFA loses Jacobs to the Greens
The high-profile chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia has revealed he is set to leave his role for a role advising Greens Senator Richard Di Natale in Federal Parliament.
The ABC didn’t sack Bitcoin miner
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation didn't fire an un-named IT worker who attempted to use the broadcaster's vast server infrastructure to make himself a fortune through the Bitcoin virtual currency system, it has emerged, with the employee merely being disciplined and having their access to certain IT systems restricted.
AGL turns to Microsoft for project management tools
AGL Energy has deployed Microsoft’s Project Online in order to more efficiently manage projects across the company.
Vic Govt instantly blows $4.4m on Windows 2003
The Victorian Government has paid Microsoft a whopping $4.4 million for extended support for the now-defunct Windows Server 2003 operating system, in a move which sharply demonstrates the extreme cost of running operating systems which are no longer formally supported by their vendors.
Data#3 deploys Cisco network for Edith Cowan
Australian technology provider Data#3 has announced the deployment of a "next-generation" Cisco network service for Edith Cowan University (ECU).
ASG to provide Windows 10 desktop as a service for Finance Dept
IT services player ASG Group has inked a four-year agreement with government to provide a 'desktop as a service' solution for the Department of Finance.
Fed Govt releases motherhood ICT strategy
The Federal Government today published what it described as a new strategy document which would set the overall direction for the Australian Public Service’s use of ICT in the future. However, the document contains few specific details of steps that will be taken, preferring to focus instead on a series of high-level motherhood statements.
Federal Police in nation-wide piracy crackdown
The Australian Federal Police yesterday embarked on a major crackdown of counterfeit goods, including pirated software, computers and CDs and DVDs, in a move hailed by as a victory by software companies like Microsoft and representatives of the music and film and TV industries in their war against copyright infringement.
Snowden ‘shamefully betrayed’ USA: Bishop
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has heavily criticised NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden during a visit to the United States.
ANZ Bank inks $450m deal with IBM
ANZ Bank this morning revealed it had signed a $450 million deal with global technology firm IBM that would allow the bank to access all of IBM’s technology and feature an ‘Innovation Lab’ to more rapidly bring new products and services to market.
NSW Trade + Investment wants to go full cloud
The NSW Department of Trade and Investment has signalled plans to continue shifting more of its IT assets to cloud computing platforms as part of a "journey" away from managing and owning its own infrastructure, in the wake of the successful deployment of a wide-ranging ERP platform based on a SAP software as a service solution.
IBM, VMware sign strategic cloud partnership
IBM and VMware have agreed a strategic partnership aimed to make it easier for businesses to advantage of the cloud’s speed and economic factors.
In court: Apple offers refunds to iPad buyers
Iconic technology giant has reportedly offered to refund any Australian customers who bought its new iPad tablet under the misapprehension that 4G network speeds were available in Australia, in a preliminary hearing in Melbourne this morning, after the national competition regulator filed a lawsuit over what it called 'misleading' advertising in the area.
Telstra gets two new 4G Motorola handsets
Google subsidiary Motorola has revealed it will launch two new Android-based handsets in Australia in the last three months of 2012, the RAZR M and the RAZR HD, with both models to be available exclusively through the nation's largest telco Telstra -- and supporting 4G speeds.
Offshore cloud not an issue, claims NetSuite CEO
The flambuoyant chief executive of software as a service player NetSuite yesterday claimed his company's Australian customer base wasn't phased by the fact that its datacentres are hosted in the United States, in a visit to Sydney in which he also commented on the impact of the National Broadband Network.
Telstra offers free NBN trial in Tasmania
The nation's largest telco Telstra has revealed plans to hold a three-month free trial of fibre to the home services over the fledgling National Broadband Network rollout in Tasmania, bringing the total number of ISPs to sign on in the state to five.
Photos: Vodafone goes Android crazy
When local mobile carrier VHA invited us last week to visit them at a special launch for the "Android man", we didn't quite know what the company was talking about. It turns out the Android man is just that -- a massive Android mascot which has been travelling around Sydney.
My Health Record trial criticised over opt out, privacy
The new system is already under criticism for failing to explain how or why users would opt out, enabling automatic enrolment, and glossing over the potential for user information to be accessed by non-medical government agencies.
Monash University invests $4.1m in supercomputer project
Monash University has announced it has invested $4.1m in a high-performance computing facility with plans to build a new supercomputer.
New Nikon COOLPIX line-up hits Australia
Camera manufacturer Nikon has released seven new models in its popular COOLPIX digital camera line-up in Australia, all priced at a recommended retail price of under $600.
Oops: Pro-NBN ad campaign raises $40k
A crowdfunding campaign which aimed to raise $15,000 to place pro-FTTP NBN ads Malcolm Turnbull’s local newspaper has massively blown its original target in a matter of days, with almost $40,000 being pledged to the cause so far.
WA DUMPS SHARED SERVICES PLAN
Eight years after it was begun and with its credibility in tatters, the Western Australian State Government today announced it would cancel its controversial plan to provide shared corporate services to its departments and agencies through a centralised platform.
Please join Delimiter’s new email newsletter!
Just a quick administrative note to let you know that over the past several weeks Delimiter has launched a new daily email newsletter.
CommBank deploys Lync to 32,000 staff
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has revealed it recently deployed Microsoft’s Lync unified communications server to some 32,000 staff across its operations, in one of the largest known roll-outs of the fledgling technology in Australia so far.
More NBN cost/benefit analysis pointless: Budde
One of Australia’s most respected telecommunications analysts this week called for the nation’s politicians to show “leadership” when it comes to national telecommunications infrastructure, arguing out that further cost/benefit analysis conducted on the sector would constitute further ‘procrastination’, after dozens of such studies have already been conducted.
NBN election: Labor polling voters on Coalition’s NBN performance
The Australian Labor Party has started directly calling voters to ask whether the Abbott/Turnbull Government's handling of the National Broadband Network will influence how they vote at the upcoming Federal Election, in a sign Labor sees it as a key election issue.
Aussie pair buys 19 iPads in US haul
A number of Australians visited the US over the weekend to pick up early copies of Apple's new iPad tablet device weeks before it goes on sale in Australia later this month, with one particularly enthusiastic pair picking up 19 iPads for themselves and mates.
Bligh’s technology speech ‘bland and disappointing’
One of the state's main technology industry associations has labelled a speech by Premier Anna Bligh in front of the cream of Queensland's technology sector as being "bland" and "an opportunity squandered".
Warner Bros to appeal Mortal Kombat ban
The game publisher behind the highly regarded Mortal Kombat video game series has announced it will appeal a decision by Australia's classification board to ban the game's sale in Australia, rejecting the argument that the title was more extreme than other games already on sale locally.
ACT audit praises IT security; without testing it
The ACT Auditor-General's Office has published a report praising the security of the territorial government's IT systems, basing its conclusions on the evidence presented by government staff, but without actually testing that security, as some State Governments have done over the past several years.
ANZ becomes Apple Pay’s first Australian bank partner
ANZ Bank has announced that it now offers Apple Pay to its five million Australian customers, becoming the first bank in the country to do so.
Analysing cloud computing contracts: Video
The good chaps over at iTNews had a fascinating event last week where they sat down and got into the nitty gritty of cloud computing contracts — you know, the ones where you sign all your customer data away to the likes of Salesforce.com without reading any fine print, or host your sensitive secrets on Amazon Web Services. The videos make excellent viewing and we’ve watched quite a few this morning … when we were supposed to be doing proper work. So check them out, if you have the time and inclination.
IPA publishes anti-Labor NBN attack riddled with grievous errors
Free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs has published an article strongly attacking Labor's NBN project as "the worst conceived infrastructure project in Federal history", but has included a number of popular misconceptions and outright errors regarding the project in its article.
NEC undergoes redundancy round
Diversified technology solutions group NEC has notified its Australian staff that it will shortly undertake a round of redundancies, just months after the company warned it was facing “immediate profitability challenges” despite having a “very healthy” pipeline of contracts.
Turnbull’s NBN blowout caused by MTM, says Quigley
Former NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley has stated that the up to $15 billion blowout in the cost of the National Broadband Network was due to the Multi-Technology Mix imposed by Malcolm Turnbull, using previous comprehensive audits of the company as evidence.
Telstra tests high-speed encryption on its carrier network
Telstra has trialled high-speed optical encryption in its production network between Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney claiming it as a "world first" in data safety.
Mac Uni adopts hundreds of iPads
Macquarie University this week revealed it had already deployed "hundreds" of iPads to meet staff demand for the hyped Apple tablet -- just a scant few months after the device launched in Australia in late May this year.
Defence hasn’t tested IBM contract since 1999
The Federal Department of Defence has revealed that it renewed a major IT hardware and software contract with IBM in late 2008 to the tune of $342 million, despite not having put the work out to public tender since 1999.
Hypocrisy: The Australian attacks ABC’s NBN objectivity
The Australian this morning published several articles accusing a senior ABC journalist of failing to uphold the broadcaster's editorial standards in coverage of the National Broadband Network, despite the fact that the News Ltd newspaper and its commentators have themselves faced the same criticism from the print media watchdog and others in the past.
Foxtel to launch broadband by late 2014
Pay TV giant Foxtel today announced it would launch broadband internet and fixed-line telephony services bundled with its television product, with a target date of "late 2014" and no pricing yet announced.
DBCDE’s NBN chief to retire
Stephen Conroy's Department of Communications, Broadband and the Digital Economy is about to lose another one of its most senior staffers, with its long-serving...
Support Wikipedia blackout, Greens tell Labor
The Australian Greens Party has demanded that Australia's Labor Federal Government support efforts such as Wikipedia's site blackout initiative to protest the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and associated legislation currently being considered by the US Government.
Budget 2016: Govt establishes joint taskforce to fix myGov
The Government has established a joint taskforce to remediate its troubled myGov digital identity and verification platform, bringing in experts from a number of government departments and throwing $50.5 million at the project.
Turnbull accuses ABC of NBN “propaganda”
Malcolm Turnbull has accused the national broadcaster of creating “relentless propaganda” to support Labor’s flagship National Broadband Network, in a stance which the Shadow Communications Minister yesterday described as “embarrassing”.
ABC suspends Catalyst host after “inaccurate” Wi-Fi show
The ABC has suspended a TV host and accepted there were errors in the "preparation and ultimate approval" of a February episode of the popular science show Catalyst, which discussed the health risks of wireless devices such as mobile phones.
Quigley clarifies Senate NBN profit ‘misconceptions’
NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley has attempted to clarify controversial comments he made during Senate questioning last week about the National Broadband Network's commercial return, saying they didn't tell the full story about the NBN's profitability.
“SYSTEMIC BUSINESS RISK”: 90% of Qld Govt’s ICT needs to be replaced Total cost:...
Ninety percent of the Queensland Government's ICT systems are outdated and will require replacement within five years at a total cost of $7.4 billion, the state's first comprehensive ICT audit released today revealed, as Queensland continues to grapple with the catastrophic outcome of years of "chronic underfunding" into its dilapidated ICT infrastructure.
Govt kicks off long-term ERP strategy
The Department of Finance and Deregulation has kicked off a major effort to examine the Federal Government's use of enterprise resource planning systems, with a view to optimising how the public service uses such platforms in the long-term.
Troubled Optus slams NBN legislation
Optus has taken a sledgehammer to the Federal Government's proposed National Broadband Network legislation in flaming hot submissions to the Senate NBN committee, describing the option for the NBN Company to provide retail services as "deeply worrying".
Targeting Turnbull: $15k raised for pro-NBN ads
A crowdfunding campaign has raised $15,000 in a matter of days to place ads supporting an all-fibre National Broadband Network policy in a local newspaper in the electorate of Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, as evidence continues to grow of mass popular support for Labor's previous Fibre to the Premises policy.
iiNet launches faster ADSL transfer process
National broadband provider iiNet has introduced changes in its broadband transfer process, making it possible to switch to an iiNet service easily, in a few hours -- allowing them to avoid the lengthy downtime associated with churning to a new ISP, which can sometimes extend to several weeks.
Turnbull rails against parliamentary NBN blockage
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has accused several of the independents and Greens MP Adam Bandt of irresponsibility for their decision not to support his private member's bill designed to increase transparency of the National Broadband Network and force the Government to conduct a cost/benefit analysis.
Navitaire outage strands Virgin Blue passengers
Virgin Blue this afternoon blamed Accenture subsidiary Navitaire for a disastrous hardware failure that took down its reservations systems and resulted in lengthy queues at Australian airports today as the airline was forced to check in passengers manually.
New leaked docs appear to show further FTTN delays
The Coalition's controversial Multi-Technology Mix approach to the NBN has taken another body blow, with a fresh set of leaked documents from inside the NBN company reportedly showing that its Fibre to the Node rollout is comprehensively missing its targets.
“Large ISP” (TPG?) refuses to deploy Interpol filter
The Australian Federal Police has revealed that its limited mandatory ISP filtering scheme based on a list of offensive sites supplied by Interpol has not yet been taken up by most of Australia's ISPs, with only Telstra and Optus having implemented the filter so far and a further "large ISP" having flat out refused to comply with the project.
Govt again refuses to release Attorney-General’s metadata
The Federal Government has again refused to release the telecommunications metadata of Attorney-General George Brandis, stating that to do so would require "substantial consultation with IT experts" and that it would prevent the Liberal Senator from doing his job.
Salesforce a winner as NSW’s ChildStory project announces vendors
The NSW Department of Family & Community Services' ChildStory project has announced the winning vendors for a $100-million IT platform that is aimed to boost child safety in the state.
“Really good job”: Abbott praises Turnbull’s NBN work
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott this week said the fact that the Australian population overwhelmingly believed long-time rival Malcolm Turnbull would be the best choice for leader of the Liberal Party indicated that Turnbull was doing “a really good job” as Shadow Communications Minister, including his ongoing attacks on Labor’s National Broadband Network project.
Govt invests in big data, surveillance systems for AFP, ACC
The Coalition Government has announced it is to invest $2.6 million in a big data and surveillance projects for the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime Commission.
Coalition IT policy: Quite similar to Labor’s
The Coalition has released a wide-ranging policy on how it would develop Australia's digital economy and government use of IT, in a move which broadly appears to place it on an even footing with the current Labor Federal Government and commit it to many of the same existing initiatives.
Labor dances around telco national security support
Labor’s Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland has made a series of nebulous statements expressing vague concern about the Government’s latest package of telco-related national security reform, but without actually taking a position on the controversial legislation.
NetApp snipes at EMC storage launch
NetApp Australia's most senior technical head has taken a number of potshots at the company's arch-rival EMC, in a blog post published after a major launch by EMC last week of a slew of new products and features.
Photos: Gillard launches IBM R&D lab
Prime Minister Julia Gillard this morning launched a new global research & development lab which IBM has created at the University of Melbourne, partnering with the State and Federal Governments to create 150 new jobs at the facility over the next five years.
‘No apologies’: ASIC pledges to block more sites
The chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission last week said the regulator would not "apologise" for using an obscure section of the Telecommunications Act to block websites suspected of fraud, and stated that the organisation would continue to use the controversial power to block more sites.
CommBank unveils Android app
The Commonwealth Bank yesterday announced it would offer its NetBank mobile banking app to Android users starting from tomorrow.
In a statement, the bank said...
Take that, Telstra: Optus has 500 4G towers
The nation's number two telco Optus has revealed it has already upgraded some 500 mobile phone towers across Australia to support high-speed 4G mobile broadband services, in a rapid-fire rollout aimed at curtailing Telstra's lead in the provision of the next-general mobile services.
Delusion? South Australia pledges “No more big ICT projects”
The South Australian State Government has issued a new whitepaper designed to provoke discussion of its future ICT strategy, promising as part of the document that from now on, it won't pursue "big ICT projects" any more, with all technology-related initiatives to last 90 days at most.
Brookfield deploys Windows 10 instead of “old” 7 or “jarring” 8.1
Australian company Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions has revealed it is in the throes of a major deployment of Microsoft’s new Windows 10 operating system, taking the opportunity offered by corporate restructuring to go ahead with the upgrade.
HP GETS BUILDING: New datacentre revealed
HP announced today its multi-million dollar investment to build a new data centre in Western Sydney, in a press conference attended by Senator Stephen Conroy.
War of NBN words: Turnbull clashes with Pesce again
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has again engaged in a highly public clash of wills with technology innovator and futurist Mark Pesce, over whether Labor's flagship National Broadband Network policy is the right way forward for Australia's telecommunications industry.
EFA rejects “extraordinary” Conroy attack
Online rights group Electronic Frontiers Australia has responded to what it described as an "extraordinary challenge and attack" by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy today, which the group said was conducted under the cover of parliamentary privilege.
$6,500 StarCraft II tournament hits Australia
It's been more than 12 years since Blizzard Entertainment launched the first game in its extremely popular StarCraft franchise. Version 2 will hit Australia at midnight on Monday night -- and the nation's gamers are ready.
Apple iBooks manager could be Sydney-based
Iconic technology giant Apple has advertised for an executive to manage its fledgling iBooks product for the Asia-Pacific and Canada regions, adding the position could be based in Sydney or Toronto.
Aussie Internet freedom at risk, says Sex Party
The Australian Sex Party has accused the Federal Government of following the lead of the United States in restricting civil liberties in Internet usage, with proposed American legislation such as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in play in the US and controversial talks between the content and ISP industries similarly under way locally.
Google updates Aussie Street View images
Google today updated the imagery on its controversial Street View service in Australia for the first time since the Wi-Fi sniffing scandal emerged late last year.
Pirate Party cautiously welcomes classification review
Pirate Party Australia has welcomed some of the recommendations made by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) about reforming the current classification system, in a wide-ranging report published this week into the way Australia restricts content consumption.
Optus fixes unmetered YouTube loophole for prepaid customers
Optus says it has now solved a technical limitation that unintentionally allowed some of its prepaid customers unmetered access to YouTube.
In a statement, the...
Harris Farm deploys IBM all-in-one servers
Retailer Harris Farm Markets revealed in late December that it had deployed IBM's all-in-one compute, storage and networking Flex System in its operations to meet a variety of aims ranging from reducing IT costs and complexity to boosting the performance of business systems such as its ERP platform.
Three years later, Optus finally gets HD voice
Almost three years after Telstra and two years after Vodafone, national mobile operator Optus has finally enabled high-definition voice calling on its mobile network.
Qld Govt Depts have no disaster recovery plan
Two sizable Queensland Government departments have no central disaster recovery plan, the state’s Auditor-General has found, despite the region’s ongoing struggles with extreme weather conditions that have previously knocked out telecommunications and data centre infrastructure.
Fifield leaves door open for greater NBN FTTP rollout
Senator Mitch Fifield appears to have opened the door for the NBN company to change its percentage mix of broadband technologies, in his first interview since being sworn in as Malcolm Turnbull’s replacement Communications Minister on Monday this week.
iPad Sydney queue video: First in line
Rahul Koduri is first in line to buy an Apple iPad at Sydney's Apple store. He works in a Telstra shop, studies engineering and develops iPhone and iPad apps.
Conroy’s dept launches Twitter account
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's department -- Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) -- has set up a trial Twitter account, joining what it described as the "tweeps".
“They’ve completely stuffed it”: MyRepublic slams Turnbull’s “shit” NBN
Pioneering Singaporean broadband provider MyRepublic has reportedly damned Malcolm Turnbull’s Multi-Technology Mix vision as “shit” on the eve of launching predominantly fibre-based broadband services with unlimited quotas in Australia.
Tasmania’s huge payroll overhaul may go cloud
The Tasmanian Government has flagged plans to overhaul its dated whole of government human resources and payroll systems, in a move which will affect some 28,000 employees and may see the state shift its systems into a cloud computing/software as a service model.
Nitschke promotes hacking class to beat filter
Pro-choice euthanasia information and lobbying group Exit International has started holding what it describes as 'hacking masterclasses' to show seniors how they can circumvent the Federal Government's planned internet filter and access practical information on euthanasia.
UWS, UTS share datacentre space
Two of Sydney's largest universities have teamed up to source co-location datacentre space from business-focused telecom Macquarie Telecom, in an effort to pool their resources and bettter serve the needs of students and staff.
NZ group pledges new AU/NZ/USA fibre cable
A group of high-flying Kiwi businessmen have formed a new venture to build an undersea fibre-optic cable to connect Australia, New Zealand the United States.
Atlassian’s SourceTree ditches Mac App Store
Atlassian, the Australian developer of the SourceTree app for Mac have decided to stop submitting SourceTree updates to the Mac App Store after March 1st, the deadline for all submitted applications to run inside a ‘sandbox’.
Turnbull insists MTM CBN not “old technology”
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has issued a statement insisting that the Coalition's new "Multi-Technology Mix" approach to its Coalition's Broadband Network (CBN) project is "NOT" "old technology", despite that several of its constituent parts -- the existing copper and HFC cable networks -- 15 years to many decades old.
iiNet massively undercuts Internode’s NBN plans
National broadband provider iiNet this morning released its highly anticipated National Broadband Network pricing, undercutting plans released by arch-rival Internode by as much as half in some areas.
Stop delaying the NBN, Conroy tells Turnbull
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has issued a pointed response to Malcolm Turnbull's demand for more transparency on the National Broadband Network project, claiming his shadow was only interested in delaying the flagship Labor initiative.
Primus wins million dollar Payless Shoes deal
Independent Australian footwear retail chain, Payless Shoes has inked a million dollar, three-year deal with Primus Telecom, one of Australia’s largest telecommunication carriers. Primus will provide an integrated Voice and Data Network solution that includes a network-based EFTPOS system plus additional hosted services across the retailer's 232 stores and its Sydney-based head office.
Aussie piracy report a “farce”, says Pirate Party
The Australian Pirate Party has attacked a study commissioned by the Australian Content Industry Group (ACIG) and put together by research group Sphere Analysis, calling it “a farce”.
Openstack gaining traction in Australia
A survey of attendees at the country's first OpenStack conference held in Sydney last month has indicated that OpenStack is likely to experience growth in the Australian market over the next 18 months.
Telstra pledges strong NBN asbestos controls
The nation's biggest telco Telstra has announced a wide raft of new measures designed to ensure safety around the handling of dangerous asbestos materials in its pits and pipes, as concern continues to grow regarding the issue unearthed by the rollout of the National broadband Network.
Optus signs ICT services deal with QBE
Optus Business has inked a new three-year ICT services deal with QBE Australia to deliver voice, mobile and data network services for the insurance multinational.
AGL to launch $300 million digital transformation
AGL has announced the launch of a three-year, $300-million digital transformation programme aimed to improve customers' experience with the company.
HP reigns supreme in Aussie PC market
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the most popular PC vendor of them all? HP, according to the latest data from analyst firm IDC, which yesterday crowned the US giant king of Australia's PC market, with almost a quarter of machines shipped over the last three months of 2010 in Australia being from HP.
Commission of Audit recommends ‘cloud-first’ policy
The new Coalition Government’s Commission of Audit (CoA) has strongly recommended the Federal Government adopt a "cloud-first" IT infrastructure procurement policy, in a move which would clear up Canberra's often-confused approach to the issue and see it follow other jurisdictions such as Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
Labor wins: NBN TO GO AHEAD
The broadband policy which the Coalition has repeatedly described as a "white elephant" gained its freedom today with the long-awaited news that Labor will form government with the support of the Greens and three independent MPs.
Vic Dept tenders for major cloud solution
The Victorian Department of Business and Innovation has gone to market for a major Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solution, in a move that comes on the back of a successful Software as a Service deployment at the department and signals its plans to become a leader in the state government in the cloud computing arena.
Victoria partners with Oxford Uni on new cyber-security centre
The Victorian Government has inked a deal that will see Oxford University’s Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre (GCSCC) establish its first ever international office in Melbourne.
Austar/Foxtel deal strengthens Telstra, warns Optus
The nation's number two telco Optus yesterday raised concerns about Foxtel's multi-billion dollar bid to acquire fellow pay TV operator Austar, claiming the merger would strengthen rival Telstra's ability to exploit bundled services. However, not everyone agrees with the SingTel subsidiary.
Telstra ploughs $50m into fixing network outages
The nation's biggest telco Telstra today revealed it would plough a combined $50 million of funding into initiatives designed to stop it from suffering future major mobile network outages of the type that it has suffered over the past several months.
Govt could shift 450 sites to Drupal cloud
The Federal Government has revealed long-range plans to migrate its public-facing websites to Drupal on a software as a service (cloud computing) basis, in a move which could end up seeing around a third of the government's 1,200 odd-sites migrated off commercial and other alternatives and onto the open source platform.
Coalition implodes in Internet filter fail
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been forced to issue an embarassing retraction regarding the publication of a new online child safety policy late yesterday afternoon, which had initially stated that the Coalition was planning to resurrect Labor's failed mandatory Internet filtering scheme.
Total war: Telstra in colossal 4G expansion
The nation's largest telco Telstra has returned fire from all cannons in its developing war with Optus for 4G mobile coverage and customers, announcing this morning that it now has some 500,000 4G customers and would be expanding its 4G network to two thirds of Australia's population by mid-2013.
Gillard: Conroy will get filter into shape
New Prime Minister Julia Gillard today said she understands concerns about the Government's controversial mandatory internet filtering policy, but Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was putting effort in to get the policy into shape.
Turnbull just opposes everything, claims Conroy
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy this afternoon returned fire back on his new shadow, Malcolm Turnbull, accusing the Liberal heavyweight of mindless opposition on the National Broadband Network issue.
Turnbull’s amendments hit furious Conroy
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has revealed the cost of the Coalition's cooperation in getting Labor's wide-ranging telecommunications legislation through the Federal Parliament: A handful of amendments aimed at protecting both Telstra and Australian consumers.
Govt may force data breach disclosure
In a move which has been debated and rumoured within the IT security industry for years, the Federal Government this week confirmed it would seek public opinion on whether it should force organisations to disclose when their databases containing personal information had been broken into by hackers – or even inadvertently.
NSW Education ERP upgrade only a little late, over budget
A comprehensive audit of the NSW Department of Education and Communities' wide-ranging Learning Management and Business Reform program, which involves a number of rolling upgrades of business administration software, is late across a number of areas and over budget, although not to the degree seen in similar projects around Australia.
ICT Audit largely clears Federal Govt of problems
A comprehensive ICT audit of the Federal Government's ICT operations has largely found they are sound and performing to required standards, with expenditure within appropriate levels and only a small proportion of major ICT projects at risk.
Telstra integrates Netflix, Stan, Presto into re-badged Roku box
The nation’s largest telco Telstra today revealed it will launch a Telstra-branded version of the popular Roku TV streaming device to Australians, as the telco struggles to ensure its over-the-top services remain relevant in a next-generation viewing world which increasingly appears to be dominated by the likes of US giant Netflix.
Ludlam demands Govt TrapWire answers
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has demanded answers from the Federal Government as to whether it knows whether the controversial TrapWire surveillance system had been deployed in Australia to keep tabs on locals through the use of public surveillance cameras.
Video: APC Magazine’s iPad app
APC Magazine is one of the first Australian publishers to create an iPad app, and it looks pretty swish. You can get a tour of the application through this video.
Vic Govt kicks off CenITex outsourcing
Just several months after the plans leaked to the media, the Victorian Government has gone to market for IT outsourcing partners to replace large chunks of the service delivery functionality currently provided by its extremely troubled IT shared serices agency CenITex.
16 weeks later, Optus launches terabyte plans
Almost four months after iiNet and others shook up the market with what were dubbed Australia's first terabyte broadband plans, the nation's second-largest telco has come to the party, updating its offerings to bring it into the terabyte league.
Vodafone to sell “strictly limited” Nexus One from tomorrow
Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) has listed on its website and announced that the Google-developed handset, the Nexus One, will be released on to the Australian android-based smart phone market tomorrow. Vodafone Australia will start selling Google's Android-based Nexus One handset in Australia tomorrow, but stocks are "strictly limited" and customers advised orders will only be taken through its website "on a first come, first served basis", with no pre-orders available.
Australia’s first driverless bus takes to the road
Australia’s first "fully driverless" and electric shuttle bus took to the streets of South Perth yesterday for the on-road stage of its ongoing trial, according to the RAC.
Turnbull’s Dept seeks slab of new consultants
Malcolm Turnbull's Department of Communications has gone to market seeking a huge tranche of new consulting advice, on issues ranging from NBN Co's renewed deal with Telstra to the composition and future of Australia's ICT industry at large and for assistance regarding every technology category the department has any involvement in.
Virgin Australia provides in-flight Galaxy Tabs
Airline Virgin Australia has revealed plans to use Samsung's Android-based Galaxy Tab 10.1 device to launch Phase I of its new in-flight entertainment system on most of its Boeing 737 and Embraer E190 aircraft in April 2012. Business Class guests on all sectors will be able to use the Galaxy Tab while Economy Class passengers taking flights over three hours will have access to the device.
Optus continues Android push with X10 Mini
Optus has ramped up its offering of Android-based handsets with the release of the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini earlier this week.
BT hikes FTTP on demand prices
UK wholesale telco BT Openreach has substantially increased the prices it is charging customers for extending fibre broadband from local neighbourhood 'nodes' all the way to premises, in a move which calls into question the Coalition Federal Government's plan to use the service in its Coalition Broadband Network plan.
Copper maintenance cost not an issue, says Turnbull
Upgrading Telstra’s copper network to fibre to the node was the “quickest and easiest” way to get better broadband for Australians, the office of Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said this week, highlighting a study which had shown that the cost of maintaining the decades-old infrastructure was not significant compared with the overall investment required for universal fibre.
Defence inks research deal with IBM
Assistant Minister for Defence Stuart Robert yesterday announced a new alliance between the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and IBM to conduct research in a range of what the pair described as "high-end defence technologies".
Cisco refreshes Flip camera line
New handheld video cameras in the popular Flip line acquired by Cisco in March last year will hit Australia in early November, the company announced this week.
Australia misses out on Apple app bulk buys
Alongside major pricing changes announced this morning, Apple has announced the forthcoming availability of a new program which will allow businesses to buy apps in bulk at once -- but there are no immediate plans to make the arrangement available in Australia.
NBN Co confirms flooding kills FTTN nodes
The NBN company has confirmed that minor flooding as has been seen in Bowral this week is enough to stop its Fibre to the Node cabinets from functioning, although the nodes do feature circuit breakers to stop them leaking electricity directly into floodwaters around them.
Accel pumps $35m into 99designs
US venture capital powerhouse Accel Partners has invested $35 million into fast-growing crowdsourced design marketplace 99designs, which is headquartered in Melbourne and was created in early 2008 by the founders of popular online web development forum SitePoint.
NSW Govt directly regulates taxi mobile apps
The NSW Government has formally embraced and started regulating the taxi smartphone apps which have been taking Sydney and other locations by storm, setting regulations to support the apps against the wishes of incumbent players in the taxi industry and capping surcharges at five per cent to stop overcharging.
Qld Govt invests $1 million in drone tech
The Queensland Government has invested $1m in drone technology – a move that the State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said will lead to 100 new aerospace industry jobs.
NBN company re-writes blog post to clarify copper condition
The NBN company appears to have slightly reworked a blog post it published yesterday defending the state of the copper network it is buying from Telstra, in effect removing its claim that it had not had to replace any copper to ensure the Coalition’s Fibre to the Node technology functioned correctly.
Court finds $29.99 unlimited TPG deal misleading
The Federal Court has reportedly ruled that TPG's prominent nationwide advertising campaign for $29.95 "unlimited" broadband plans was misleading because it didn't properly disclose additional line rental costs and setup fees.
Nokia N8 goes for $749 on all carriers
Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia this morning revealed it would sell its flagship N8 handset through all of Australia's three major mobile telcos for $749 up-front from 1 November.
Optus revamps plans with easier data sharing
The nations number two telco Optus has revamped its mobile phone plans, allowing customers to pay only a once-off setup fee of $5 to share data between devices with different SIM cards, launching SIM-only plans, bolstering voice and data value and setting excess data fees at $10 per gigabyte per month.
NBN media criticism highly politicised, says Budde
Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde has sharply criticised Australia's media for not levelling the same "malice" and "vicious media attacks" at the Coalition's National Broadband Network policy as it has with Labor's NBN vision, despite the fact that the two policies share a great deal of similarity.
Cisco’s Williamson takes APAC role
The long-time leader of Cisco's Australian division has been promoted to take on responsibilities for the US networking giant's newly created Asia-Pacific operation, with the company planning to appoint a successor for the local lead role "in the near future".
Second fatality mars NBN rollout
The National Broadband Network project has suffered what is believed to be its second fatality, with a contractor in the Blue Mountains town of Katoomba reported to have lost his life while working on NBN infrastructure on Friday.
Penny Arcade Expo hits Melbourne for two years
The organisers of the popular Penny Arcade Expo ('PAX') event have announced that the popular show will be held in Melbourne in July 2013 and 2014, in an event which will mark the first international version of the expo founded by the creators of the video gaming comic.
iiNet’s piracy stance attracts global praise
A decision by Australia's third-largest ISP to pull out of controversial secret talks with the content industry over Internet piracy issues has attracted international attention, with global commentators and readers highlighting the ISP's approach as a sensible one to dealing with litigious film and TV studios.