Turnbull opens defamation door with inaccurate claims Quigley was “fired”
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has publicly and inaccurately claimed that Mike Quigley was "fired" from his role as chief executive of the National Broadband Network Company, in comments which appear to leave the Liberal MP open to the possibility of defamation action due to damage to Quigley's reputation.
NBN Co’s Quigley to retire
The National Broadband Network Company's founding chief executive, Mike Quigley, announced today that he would retire from the company and from corporate life, after four years of tumultuous life setting up NBN Co and initiating the construction of the NBN.
NBN support weakens in the electorate
A new poll has shown that 29 percent of Australians believe that new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should either "dump" or "change" Labor's National Broadband Network policy, in news which could show that the Coalition's message that the project is too expensive and slow to deliver may be having an effect on the NBN's popular support.
Victoria Police outlines huge IT outsourcing project
Victoria Police's trouble-plagued IT department has gone to market for a large tranche of IT outsourcing services, in a deal which will reportedly be worth up to $340 million and see five separate outsourcing contracts consolidated into one substantial contract representing one of the largest such deals in Australia's public sector this year.
Attorney-General’s Department misled Parliament on data retention bill
The Federal Attorney-General's Department has been forced to admit that statements it made in May in a Senate Estimates committee hearing that it had not drafted any legislation around the contentious issue of data retention were untrue, in a move which adds to existing questions about the department's integrity and transparency.
Qld Minister defends new ICT strategy: ‘Not brochureware’
Queensland ICT Minister Ian Walker has defended the Government's minimalistic response to the grave implications contained in the state's recent ICT Audit, arguing that an ICT Strategy document published today of only a dozen pages with sparse detail was "not brochureware" and in fact represented a "solid" first step for the state.
Labor still peddling false FTTP-on-demand costs
Labor politicians around the nation are continuing to claim that the Coalition's rival National Broadband Network policy requires Australians to pay $5,000 or be left with current broadband speeds on the existing copper network, despite the allegation having been comprehensive debunked by fact-checking sites like Politifact.
NBN Co and Telstra: History repeating?
We couldn't help but laugh at this photo sent in by a reader this week. Apparently NBN Co has decided to locate one of its facilities (we're not actually sure which one) inside a building owned by Telstra. The whole thing has a whole 'future repeating' feel about it. Is this NBN Co brought to you by Telstra? Or Telstra brought to you by NBN Co? It's like one of those Russian Matryoshka dolls; the further you go inside the wormhole, the more you find smaller iterations of the same thing. Crazy.
NBN management credibility “shattered”: Turnbull
The credibility of NBN Co's management has been "shattered" by revelations that a third of the premises which its network rollout has passed with fibre can't actually connect to the network yet, Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said this afternoon.
TransGrid reveals mass Win8 tablet rollout
NSW electrity grid operator TransGrid has revealed plans to deploy a sizable fleet of Windows 8-based tablets across its operations, as part of a wider comprehensive revamp of its desktop PC infrastructure that will also see the organisation migrate the majority of its desktops to virtualised instances through thin client technology.
NBN Co limps in to June target
The National Broadband Network Company this afternoon confirmed it had met its revised targets for the rollout of its fibre network to the end of June, revealing that at the end of last month it had connected a total of 207,500 premises; a figure in the middle of its target range of between 190,000 and 220,000.
This Saturday: PRISM protests spread to Australia
Global protests against the PRISM surveillance program operated by the Unites States' National Security Agency are slated to spread to Australia this Saturday, with a broad coalition of political and digital rights groups banding together to hold actions in major cities around Australia from lunchtime.
“Aussies treated like second-class citizens”: Choice blasts US TV giants
Consumer watchdog Choice has issued a fiery statement accusing US content giants of giving Australians "a raw deal" when it comes to making television shows and films available in Australia, pointing out that Australians pay substantially more to access the same content and encouraging locals to use technical mechanisms to get around so-called "geo-blocking".
Abbott not telling whole NBN truth, says Politifact
Opposition Leader Tony Abbot's statement that the Coalition's NBN policy would deliver broadband speeds "at least five times faster than the current average" was only half-true, fact-checking website Politifact said yesterday, in an article which has been heavily disputed by Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
“Large ISP” got away with refusing filter
Former Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has revealed that the Australian Federal Police appears to have given up on pursuing the un-named large Australian ISP which flatly refused to implement the Federal Government's limited mandatory ISP filtering scheme based on a list of offensive sites supplied by Interpol.
NBN Co “in crisis”, Turnbull tells Albanese: Answers needed immediately
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has issued a backhanded welcome message to his new opposite, Communications Minister Anthony Albanese, accusing the NBN of being "in crisis" and of being infected by "the dysfunctional revolving door culture of NSW Labor".
Albanese reportedly appointed new Communications Minister
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has reportedly appointed Anthony Albanese, one of his key lieutenants during his leadership coup and an experienced senior Minister, to replace Stephen Conroy as Communications Minister in his new cabinet.
Revealed: ASIC’s secret website block notices
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has published the full text of its official notices to telcos requesting they block websites suspected of providing fraudulent financial information, with the documents revealing that both the frequency and breadth of the agency's blocking activities has increased since they began 12 months ago.
Ludlam reveals catch-all “fair use” copyright bill
Greens Senator and Communications Spokesperson Scott Ludlam has introduced a wide-ranging amendment bill to Australia's copyright legislation which would see a range of "fair use" and "fair go" stipulations introduced, with the intention of delivering Australian consumers a fairer copyright situation than they currently enjoy.
End of an era: Stephen Conroy quits as Comms Minister
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has reportedly resigned his post in the wake of Kevin Rudd’s successful challenge for the leadership of the Federal Labor Party, after declaring earlier this week that he would not serve in a new Rudd Cabinet.
Adelaide Uni joins virtual desktop throng
The University of Adelaide this morning revealed it had joined the throng of Australian tertiary institutions making applications and platforms available to their students through desktop virtualisation, in a wide-ranging project which will see some 20,000 licences of Citrix's XenDesktop platform.
R18+ fail: Australia bans Saints Row IV
In a move which will be seen as a challenge to the efficacy of Australia's new R18+ video game classification category, the Classification Board yesterday revealed that it had refused to classify the upcoming title Saints Row IV, due to what the board said was implied sexual violenace and illicit drug use.
Copper network rotting? “Nonsense”, says Turnbull
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has described as "nonsense" claims by unions that Telstra's existing copper network is on the verge of collapse, which would make it unsuitable for use in the Coalition's fibre to the node National Broadband Network strategy.
ASIC repeatedly delays S.313 FoI responses
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has on multiple occasions over the past month, involving multiple parties, delayed responding to Freedom of Information requests seeking documents relating to its controversial decision to start unilaterally blocking websites it suspects of fraudulent activity.
Qld Transport loses CIO at critical juncture
Queensland's Department of Transport and Main Roads this month revealed it had recently lost its most senior IT executive; a move that comes as the department gears up for an extremely wide-ranging refresh of its fundamental IT infrastructure designed to bring it up to date with modern desktop and application environments.
Data retention goes back to drawing board: Parliament’s report criticises AGD secrecy
The Parliamentary Committee examining the Government's controversial national security reforms has recommended that the data retention segments of the reforms go through the committee process once again and criticised the Attorney-General's Department for the cloak of secrecy it has hung around the issue.
Rejected: Labor to block Greens warrants bill
The Labor Federal Government has flatly rejected legislation introduced this week that would see Australian law enforcement agencies blocked from obtaining access to telecommunications records without a warrant, stating that such regulations would "critically impede national security and law enforcement investigations".
Hacked? NSW Education in major outage
The NSW Department of Education and Communities has confirmed it has suffered a major event in its IT operation this week that knocked key staff services such as email offline, with an an unverified source claiming it had been hacked and suffered the deletion of thousands of accounts.
Carnegie unveils $120m ‘digital’ fund
Venture capital and private equity firm M. H. Carnegie has revealed it is preparing to launch an $120 million venture capital fund using local user interface and digital marketing firm Vivant as an incubation facility, in one of the more unusual such collaborations seen so far in Australia.
“Get a warrant”: Ludlam net privacy bill lands in Senate
Greens Communications Spokesperson Scott Ludlam has introduced legislation that would see Australian law enforcement agencies blocked from obtaining access to telecommunications records without a warrant; but it is not immediately clear if either of the major parties are prepared to support the bill.
Kundra reforms hit Queensland: State Govt pledges ‘cloud first’, IT dashboard
The Queensland Government has committed to adopting two of the most radical measures implemented by then-US Government chief information officer Vivek Kundra in the Obama administration's first term, as it grapples with a government-wide ICT Audit released last week that starkly demonstrates the potential for further disasters akin to the Queensland Health payroll catastrophe.
Internode’s business plans: Now identical to iiNet
National broadband provider Internode has changed its business broadband bundled plans to be identical to those of parent iiNet, in the latest sign that the Adelaide-based ISP will follow other iiNet acquisitions Netspace, Westnet, AAPT and OzEmail and become just another brand under the larger iiNet group.
Questions raised about Post IT transformation
Australia Post has issued a statement staunchly defending the progress of its IT transformation program, Building Future Ready IT, as questions are being raised about some aspects of the project's ability to meet its goals on time and while avoiding significant risks associated with any such corporate technology renewal effort.
Attorney-General rejects metadata warrants: ‘Law enforcement would grind to a halt’
Australia's Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has made the extraordinary declaration that Australian law enforcement in Australia "would grind to a halt" if police officers and other law enforcement agents were forced to apply for a warrant every time they wanted to access Australians' telecommunications data.
Coalition NBN completed ‘six years faster’: False claims from Liberal MP
A Queensland Liberal MP who has been described as a "Malcolm Turnbull lieutenant" and a long-time critic of Labor's popular National Broadband Network policy has written to a controversial letter to his constituents making a number of false claims about the project, including the claim that the Coalition's version could be completed "six years earlier".
Finally: Vodafone switches on 4G network
Almost two years after Telstra first launched 4G mobile broadband services and a year after Optus did the same, the nation's third mobile telco, Vodafone, has finally limped across the starting line, revealing today that it had switched on 4G mobile broadband access in selected areas of major Australian cities.
‘No worries’: Carr unconcerned about NSA spying
Australia's Foreign Minister Bob Carr said over the weekend that he "wouldn't think" Australians had anything to be concerned about in relation to the NSA Internet spy scandal which engulfed the United States last week, despite the fact that the issue appears to exclusively relate to NSA access to foreigners' data on US cloud computing servers.
NSA spy scandal: Turnbull, Ludlam demand answers
Several of Australia's most high-profile politicians in the telecommunications portfolio have publicly demanded answers from the governments of the United States and Australia in the wake of news that the US National Security Agency had obtained open access to private data held by US technology giants such as Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft.
“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.
Politifact backs Turnbull: Labor’s NBN not “free”
The Australian version of pioneering US fact-checking website Politifact has given a “mostly true” rating to statement by Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull that connecting to Labor’s NBN infrastructure will not be “free”, as various Labor politicians have claimed.
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.
Fact check: Abbott hasn’t canned FTTP extensions
The Coalition has rejected claims that asbestos concerns in Telstra's physical network infrastructure have caused it to dump plans to offer fibre to the premises services on demand under its predominantly fibre to the node-based National Broadband Network policy.
250,000 sites blocked: ASIC’s massive crackdown
Australia’s corporate regulator - ASIC - has admitted to another incident in which a website blocking request has lead to the inadvertent blocking of thousands of websites.
Optus mulls user pays FTTH NBN plans
The nation's number two telco Optus has revealed that it is considering launching plans which would allow Australians to individually pay to have the Coalition's fibre to the node NBN infrastructure extended all the way to the premises, in a move which will echo similar plans launched in the UK by British telco BT.
Customs appoints new CIO, CTO
The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service has appointed executives to its newly created chief information officer and chief technology officer roles, as the agency continues its drive to extensively restructure its technology operations.
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.
‘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.
“National security matter”: Third agency caught unilaterally blocking web sites
The Federal Government has acknowledged that a third agency, beyond ASIC and the Australian Federal Police, has been using the Telecommunications Act to unilaterally block certain websites, with bureaucrats refusing to disclose which agency was involved, apart from stating that the issue was "a national security matter".
Top Gillard IT security czar has never heard of Tor
One of the top public servants involved in advising on national Australian cyber-security policy has admitted the division she helps lead was "not familiar" with the decade-old Tor software frequently used by activists and those seeking secure communications to protect their anonymity when using the Internet.
Reversal: Australian Govt picks ODF doc standard
In a move which appears to reverse its previous approach based on Microsoft's file formats, the Australian Government's central IT decision-making agency appears to have decided that it will standardise its office documents on the Open Document Format going forward.
Fairfax columnist prints blatant NBN falsehoods
A senior columnist writing for Melbourne newspaper The Age has falsely claimed that the fibre technology used in Labor's NBN project had a life of only 25 years and that it could be made obsolete by "low earth orbiting satellites", in an article riddled with inaccurate and highly disputed claims regarding the project.
Qld Govt reportedly dumps CIO Grant
The Queensland Government has reportedly "removed" its whole of government chief information officer Peter Grant from his position, just 18 months after the executive was appointed to the role for the second time.
Coalition NBN plan to deliver “25 gigabit”: Rural MP
A rural NSW MP from the National Party has inaccurately claimed that the Coalition's National Broadband Network policy will guarantee speeds of "at least 25 gigs" to all Australians by 2016, with Labor's policy to deliver a mere "100 kilobits" in comparison, as inaccurate comments about the two policies continue to proliferate.
“Extortion”: Pirate Party slams piracy letters
The Pirate Party of Australia has described as "extortion as a business model" action by a Sydney-based law firm which has seen Australian ISPs issued with a series of letters requesting they hand over the details of users who have allegedly used peer to peer file sharing platforms to pirate content owned by the firm's clients.
Irony: Anti-piracy law firm previously argued against targeting users
The Sydney-based law firm which has issued a series of letters to major Australian ISPs seeking details of alleged Internet pirates has previously publicly argued that such a practice was not legally justifiable, and also that content owners such as movie studios should do more to make their content available online legally.
ANZ trials IBM’s Watson in customer service
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has revealed it will be one of the first companies globally to trial using IBM's Watson expert data retrieval platform to attempt to enhance the quality of data available to the bank's customer service team, in a move that could eventually lead to Watson taking questions from customers themselves.
Mass piracy lawsuits are back in Australia: Law firm targets end users’ details
A Sydney-based law firm has issued a series of letters to major Australian ISPs requesting they hand over the details of users who have allegedly used peer to peer Internet file sharing platforms to pirate content owned by the firm's clients, in a move which appears set to reopen the debate about how such cases should be handled in Australia.
Victoria abandons IT shared services? Core CenITex services to be outsourced
Dramatic internal documents leaked from CenITex this week have revealed that the Victorian State Government plans to turn the IT shared services agency into a 'broker', rather than a provider of services, and that the Government is considering outsourcing massive chunks of CenITex's work.
iiNet sells TransACT’s FTTP to NBN Co
National broadband provider iiNet this afternoon revealed it had reached an agreement which would see the National Broadband Network Company buy the fibre to the premises network which iiNet bought 18 months ago with its acquisition of Canberra-based TransACT.
At death’s door: Vodafone loses 216k more customers
Vodafone's global parent in the UK has revealed that its Australian division lost a further 216,000 customers in the first quarter of this year, as indications continue to mount that the ongoing customer outage from the beleaguered telco is accelerating, rather than declining.
Australia gets two Windows Azure datacentres
Microsoft this morning revealed plans to offer its Windows Azure platform as a service from Australian datacentres located in Sydney and Melbourne, in the latest move by a global technology giant to offer cloud computing services from Australian facilities to meet local demand and address concerns around data sovereignty.
4G race: Telstra turns on 1500th tower
Just 24 hours after arch-rival Optus announced a significant expansion of its 4G network, Telstra has fired back, noting that it had recently turned on its 1500th 4 base station, as its billion-dollar expansion of its 4G network continues to be felt around Australia.
Oracle reveals swathe of Aussie rollouts
Enterprise technology giant Oracle has published details of half a dozen sizable deployments of its technology by Australian customers, as it continues its push to convince local technology buyers of the popularity of its Fusion platforms.
Turnbull rejects Labor’s NBN subsidy claims
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has strongly denied claims by Labor MPs that the Coalition's rival National Broadband Network policy would see those in rural areas pay more to access NBN infrastructure, stating that the Coalition would maintain the so-called "cross-subsidy".
Guzman y Gomez likes the taste of NetSuite
Fast-growing Mexican restaurant fast food chain Guzman y Gomez revealed this week that it has upgraded its previous MYOB-based accounting system to a comprehensive business platform from software as a service vendor NetSuite, to help support the chain's ongoing expansion plans.
ASIC blocked “numerous” sites over 9 months
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission revealed tonight that it had in fact blocked "numerous" websites over the past nine months which it suspected contained illegal material, as fears about the extent of the agency's covert Internet filtering scheme continue to grow.
Microsoft finally launches Surface Pro in Australia
Almost 12 months after it first announced the device, Microsoft has finally confirmed that it will launch its Surface Pro family of Windows 8-based tablets in Australia later this month.
FOI requests target Section 313 notices
News that Federal Government agencies such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission have quietly started unilaterally forcing Australian ISPs to block websites suspected of containing illegal material has spurred an extensive round of Freedom of Information requests, as journalists and activists seek to ascertain how widespread the practice is.
Global eyes are watching: EFF condemns Australia’s new Internet filter
The global Electronic Frontiers Foundation has harshly criticised the Federal Government for allowing departments and agencies to unilaterally block websites suspected of containing illegal content, saying that it "beggars belief" that such a system could be in place after the previous mandatory filter policy was defeated.
Interpol filter scope creep: ASIC ordering unilateral website blocks
The Federal Government has confirmed its financial regulator has started requiring Australian Internet service providers to block websites suspected of providing fraudulent financial opportunities, in a move which appears to also open the door for other government agencies to unilaterally block sites they deem questionable in their own portfolios.
Conroy slams Turnbull’s “hysterical” budget “lies”
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has accused his Opposition counterpart of intentionally spreading "hysterical claims" in comments made this week with respect to budget treatment of National Broadband Network funding, in the latest spat between the two over the high-profile infrastructure project.
Qantas still finalising Outlook shift
The nation's largest airline Qantas has revealed that it's still in the process of migrating its corporate email platform off IBM's Lotus Notes/Domino platform and onto Microsoft's Outlook/Exchange system, with the rollout now into its fourth year.
Foxtel locks up Game of Thrones: No more fast-tracked iTunes downloads
Pay TV giant Foxtel has confirmed reports that it will block the remaining seasons of HBO's popular Game of Thrones series from being offered in Australia hours after the show is released in the US, due to an exclusive deal with the show's producer HBO signed in October last year.
‘It wasn’t us’: AG’s Dept denies massive filter false positive
The Federal Attorney-General's Department has denied any involvement in a controversial event in April which saw some 1,200 websites wrongfully blocked by several of Australia's major Internet service providers, claiming that neither it nor the Australian Federal Police were involved, despite ISPs blaming the Government for the move.
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.
“Mostly false”: Politifact disputes Labor’s $5k NBN fibre claim
The Australian version of pioneering US fact-checking website Politifact has given a "mostly false" rating to Labor's claim that the Coalition's National Broadband Network policy will see Australians charged $5,000 for access to fibre broadband infrastructure, in one of the site's first fact-checks on the Australian political arena after its launch this week.
Amazon claims huge Australian growth as dedicated local support launches
The cloud computing branch of online retailer Amazon late last month claimed it was seeing rapid uptake from the launch of its first Australia-based datacentre; simultaneously announcing the launch of a dedicated support centre based in Australia to serve local customers.
AFP FOI review keeps filter info secret
An internal review has backed a decision by the Australian Federal Police to prevent the public from ascertaining the identities of ISPs participating in the Federal Government’s voluntary filter scheme for child abuse materials, through supporting the redaction of the ISPs’ details from relevant documents released under Freedom of Information laws.
Telstra, Seven splurge on HealthEngine startup
Telecommunications and media giants Telstra and Seven West Media have revealed they will splurge a total of $10.4 million on HealthEngine, in a move which represents the second major investment in the seven-year-old Perth-based health appointment search startup in less than a year.
Telstra, Optus, TPG, spend $1.9bn on spectrum
The Australian Communications and Media Authority this morning revealed that the majority of its auction of wireless spectrum, as expected, was snapped up by Telstra and Optus to fuel their 4G mobile broadband rollouts, with surprise bidder TPG also picking up a tiny portion of spectrum. The total raised from the sale was $1.9 billion.
Turnbull’s NBN answers “make sense”, says Budde
Veteran telecommunications analyst Paul Budde has praised the Coalition for publishing an extensive 'frequently asked questions’ regarding its rival National Broadband Network policy unveiled last month, noting that the additional explanations of the policy "make sense" and that the Coalition is "moving forward" on the issue.
Qld Govt censors ICT audit, but makes progress on ICT strategy
Over the past month, the Queensland State Government has repeatedly declined to release the whole of government ICT audit it conducted last year. However, there are signs the state is making progress on plans to address wide-spread problems in ICT project and service delivery which have bedevilled many of its departments and agencies over the past half-decade.
NBN rollout update a “fantasy”, says Turnbull
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has dismissed the latest update to the rollout plans for Labor's National Broadband Network project as a "fantasy", pointing out that the initiative has been under way for four years but has failed to meet its targets and has only successfully rolled out infrastructure to a "miniscule" number of premises.
NBN Co updates rollout plan to 2016
The National Broadband Network Company over the weekend updated its rolling three-year deployment timetable, adding more than 1.35 million Australian premises to its plan for deploying fibre, wireless and satellite infrastructure throughout Australia.
Turnbull slams “dishonest” Labor NBN propaganda
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has come out swinging against what he today described as "misleading and dishonest" material criticising the Coalition's NBN policy and promoting Labor's own, which prominent Labor MPs have started distributing to their constituents ahead of the upcoming Federal Election.
Linux option $100k more than Windows, claims Members Equity Bank
Small Australian bank Members Equity Bank (ME Bank) has issued a joint statement with Microsoft claiming that using Linux as its core operating system underpinning its new core banking platform would cost $100,000 more than using a platform based on Windows Server 2012, but without providing any evidence for its claim.
Google Australia increases tax bill slightly, but results still globally inconsistent
The Australian division of search and software giant Google has published its latest set of financial results for the 2012 calendar year, revealing that it paid several million dollars more tax than the paltry $74,000 sum it claimed in 2011, but also that its revenues and headcount jumped substantially over that period.
Flat year for Australian offices of IBM, HP
The Australian divisions of global technology giants IBM and HP have suffered a relatively flat year in terms of revenue and profit growth, despite major initiatives in the rapidly growing cloud computing area by both companies that each would be likely to have hoped would have the potential to significantly boost revenue.
US ambassador begs Australians: Stop pirating Game of Thrones
US Ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich has published an impassioned statement appealing to Australians to stop breaching the copyright of US cable giant HBO by illegally downloading its popular Game of Thrones television show in record numbers.
AFR wrong, says ABS: We weren’t hacked
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has poured cold water on a series of articles by the Financial Review newspaper last week which claimed a series of "cyber-attacks" had successfully targeted the government agency, with the ABS stating that its systems had never been breached.
Coalition to answer all NBN policy questions
The Coalition has published an extensive document with which it appears to be hoping to answer all of the 'frequently asked questions' regarding its rival National Broadband Network policy, including points of contention such as its cost, technical aspects when compared to Labor's existing fibre solution, and future telecommunications industry structure.
Jetstar deal the Asian wind beneath Telstra’s wings
Telstra is talking up the international prospects for its Network Applications and Services (NAS) arm after securing a significant contract to manage IT management and procurement on behalf of expanding regional budget airline Jetstar.
Amazon Appstore challenging Google Play as Australian launch looms
Australian Android users will soon have an alternative source for sourcing paid and free mobile apps, but will they embrace it? Yes, if the first analysis of Amazon Appstore sales figures – which suggests the site is rapidly increasing its appeal to US consumers as a source of paid apps – is any indication.
Despite Aussie windfall, does Apple profit slide suggest hard times ahead?
blog Even as it marks the tenth anniversary of iTunes and its companion iPod device, Apple’s first profit decline in a decade has many observers contemplating the future of the pioneering company – and asking whether Steve Jobs’ spirit of innovation has in fact passed along with the company’s co-founder.
Australia’s Internet services slower in 2012 than 2011: Akamai
Australia’s average Internet speeds have decreased by 23% compared with a year ago, according to the latest quarterly figures from global content distribution network (CDN) giant Akamai.
NAB fills CIO role as rejigged exec team stares down 2016 migration target
onths after it kicked off a major reshuffle of its IT executives, the National Australia Bank has finally firmed up the technology management team that will lead the institution through a massive Oracle systems upgrade that’s expected to be completed by 2016.
AFP arrests alleged LulzSec hacker
A high-profile takedown is sure to send shockwaves through the hacker community after the Australian Federal Police arrested a 24-year-old IT worker on a variety of charges that could land him up to 12 years in jail.
Cross-platform tools luring mobile app developers back from HTML5
Many performance and functionality-minded application developers, who are shifting back to proprietary mobile apps after growing disillusioned with the limitations of HTML5, will find solace in today’s launch of a cross-platform development tool that allows Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android and Windows RT apps to be written using the popular C++ and Delphi development languages.
Web chat transcends customer service generational differences: Fifth Quadrant
New figures out of customer experience research house Fifth Quadrant suggest that older Australians, despite being less enthusiastic adopters of social media and smartphone apps, are as keen as younger Australians to use Web-based chats to interact with customer service representatives during online transactions.
Profiteers snap up Boston Marathon, Waco domain names
Australia’s tight domain name policies may have prevented opportunistic cybersquatters from cashing in on local disasters, but this week’s Boston Marathon bombing and Waco fertiliser explosion have had less luck avoiding cybesquatters, analysis by a local domain-name specialist has revealed.
How Westfield turned free Olympics WiFi into social-media gold
Forget big sales, exclusive brands, and big marketing campaigns: when it came to getting customers through the door over and over again during the 2012 London Olympics, the best marketing tool for Westfield’s Stratford City shopping centre turned out to be the promise of free Wi-Fi and a place to recharge spent mobile batteries.
Business warming to NBN but most still unprepared for it
Australian businesses expect massive change from the NBN and are rapidly warming to the potential role of NBN-driven teleworking, but most still aren’t ready for the changes the network will bring, a major survey of business readiness has concluded.
Can Game of Thrones help save Quickflix?
Struggling Australian streaming-media provider Quickflix has taken a punt on the hugely popular HBO series Game of Thrones, securing an electronic distribution deal that will allow online users to watch the series even if they aren’t Quickflix customers.
Coalition rejected: 78% support Labor’s NBN
An informal online poll taken by the ABC appears to have shown that voters have already rejected the Coalition's rival National Broadband Network policy, with 78 percent of some 5,700 readers noting that they didn't support the policy revealed last week.
$94 billion not the worst Labor NBN case: Turnbull
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has responded to the claim that the Coalition is misrepresenting its own estimates of the cost of Labor's NBN policy, stating that the $94 billion figure being cited is not a 'worst case scenario', with the Coalition estimating that Labor's NBN could actually cost more than $100 billion and take 20 years to deliver.
Kevin Rudd misrepresents Coalition’s NBN policy
Former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has made a factually inaccurate statement regarding the Coalition's rival National Broadband Network policy, falsely claiming that much of his electorate will see "zero upgrade" from the policy, when in fact the Coalition's plan covers 100 percent of Australia, as does Labor's own.
Turnbull openly “lying” about NBN, says Conroy
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has accused his opposite Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott of openly "lying" to exaggerate the key differences between the two sides of politics' National Broadband Network policies, using a number of concrete recent examples to demonstrate his point.
“Bicycle to the premise”: Clarke + Dawe on Coalition NBN policy
We're huge fans of the comedy duo Clarke and Dawe, who have long brought their cutting brand of satire to the ABC's flagship 7:30 current affairs show. And what better subject for this week's episode than the Coalition's new National Broadband Network policy? It all goes very smoothly for the pair -- until they get past the node, when a more unusual broadband delivery method presents itself.
NSW Govt opens datacentres to SaaS vendors
The New South Wales State Government has invited technology vendors to register their interest in providing cloud computing-based services from its two new datacentres being constructed to consolidate the IT infrastructure needs of its departments and agencies state-wide.
Coalition NBN policy launch Q+A: Full video
Yesterday we posted the full presentation given by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Sydney as they outlined the core tenets of the Coalition's rival National Broadband Network policy. And this morning we've got more; if you're interested in watching the full question and answer session which the pair conducted with assembled journalists (including yours truly), the videos are below.
“Ignorance”: Conroy slams Turnbull’s “fail” NBN policy
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has taken a pickaxe to the Coalition's rival broadband policy released this morning, describing the plan as a "fail" on the part of Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and lambasting the Coalition for its "ignorance" when it comes to broadband policy.
Coalition NBN policy launch: Full video
Missed the Coalition's rival policy launch on TV this morning and want to catch up? No worries, Delimiter's got your back. Catch the whole presentation by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull in this YouTube video. We're also working on uploading the question and answer session in which yours truly and a number of other journalists put the tough questions to the pair.
Coalition NBN policy a “farce”, say Greens
The Australian Greens have accused the Coalition of perpetrating a "farce" in the delivery of its rival National Broadband Network policy this morning, describing the alternative vision for Australia's future telecommunications needs as "planned obsolescence" on a vast scale and as "a rehashed ALP broadband policy from 2009".
Coalition releases long-awaited rival NBN policy
The Coalition this morning released its long-awaited policy alternative to Labor's flagship National Broadband Network project, promising Australians download speeds of between 25Mbps and 100Mbps by the end of 2016 and 50Mbps to 100Mbps by the end of 2019, at a projected reduced total cost of $29.5 billion.
Coalition’s FTTN NBN to cost $29.4bn
So today is the day we’ve all been waiting for. The day when the Coalition finally releases its rival telecommunications policy to go up against Labor’s flagship National Broadband Network project. Sadly, so far we still don’t have the actual policy documents which detail the Coalition’s plans; they’ll (presumably) be released later today.
Vodafone promises: Our 4G will be fastest
Mobile carrier Vodafone today revealed it would launch its 4G network in June this year in Australia's capital cities, promising the long-delayed network would deliver Australia's fastest 4G speeds so far due to initial spectrum advantages over rivals Telstra and Optus, which have had 4G infrastructure available for a substantial period already.
V8 Supercars deploys Office 365
Software giant Microsoft this morning revealed racing specialist V8 Supercars had adopted its Office 365 software as a service productivity suite, citing the fact that it had outgrown its previous IT platform and needed room for expansion.
$90bn NBN? WRONG: Oakeshott tells Coalition
The independent MP who chaired the Federal Parliament's committee investigating the NBN has lambasted the Coalition for its claim that the real cost of Labor's National Broadband Network project was likely to be up to $90 billion, pointing out that the treasury and finance departments disagreed with the Coalition's estimate.
Sydney youth charged with ‘Anonymous’ hacking
The Australian Federal Police said on Friday afternoon that a 17-year-old youth suspected of being a member of the rogue Internet activist collective 'Anonymous' had appeared in Parramatta Children's Court on charges related to "unauthorised access to computer data".
Turnbull agrees with Alan Jones: Wireless is NBN future
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has publicly backed as "the facts" a number of highly contentious statements by radio shockjock Alan Jones about Labor's National Broadband Network project, including Jones' contested claim that wireless represents the future of broadband in Australia.
ACCC knocks back NBN Co contract
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued a draft decision rejecting the 'Special Access Undertaking' (SAU) which will guide NBN Co's long-term relationship with the regulator and retail ISPs, noting that the contract had a great deal of merit but still needed work.
Netflix’s House of Cards hits Foxtel; and Foxtel only
Netflix's remake of the popular British TV series House of Cards is set to debut in Australia on the on-demand platforms of local pay TV giant Foxtel, the company revealed this morning, as debate continues to swirl about the timeliness of US content releases in Australia.
Telstra’s cloud computing suffers 24 hour outage
Telstra has confirmed that it suffered a major outage in its high-end corporate cloud computing platform last week that left a number of its most high-profile customers without some of their services for a period as long as 24 hours.
Despite quick, cheap, legal option, Australia still top Games of Thrones pirating nation
Analysis by file-sharing news site TorrentFreak has shown that Australia continues to be the world's most enthusiastic nation globally in terms of illegally downloading HBO's hit TV series Game of Thrones, despite the fact that the series was made available legally, cheaply and in high quality in Australia shortly after it was broadcast in the US.
Incompetence: NBN Co forced to ‘re-do’ segments
The National Broadband Network Company is reportedly being forced to re-do portions of its fibre rollout in some areas because of the incompetence of its contractors, according to leaked documents the Financial Review newspaper published from within the company this morning.
Aussie Windows counterfeit disks contain malware
Testing conducted by Microsoft Australia has revealed that many counterfeit Windows and Office software disks sold in local markets contain malware, in a revelation which the software giant hopes will stimulate more consumers to buy legit copies of its products.
City of Bunbury deploys IBM all-in-one servers
Technology giant IBM this morning revealed that the City of Bunbury, one of the largest Regional local governments in Western Australia, had selected IBM’s PureSystems technology to streamline and simplify its IT infrastructure and provide a cloud-ready environment to deliver future initiatives such as local Government private cloud computing.
‘Superceded’: Hadley joins Jones in wireless NBN attack
Radio shockjock Ray Hadley has joined fellow 2GB commentator Alan Jones in attacking Labor's National Broadband Network project for using fibre technology to upgrade Australia's broadband infrastructure, with Hadley claiming the fibre could be superceded over the next two decades by "something we don't even know about".
‘Dumb’ people can’t see wireless is NBN future: Alan Jones
Radio shockjock Alan Jones has repeated his comments that wireless broadband represents the future of Internet access, describing those who can't face this situation as "dumb" and claiming that the Federal Government's National Broadband Network project will consequently be obsolete before it's finished.
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.
Microsoft stonewalls IT price hike inquiry
Global technology giant Microsoft has declined to provide the Federal Parliament's IT price hike inquiry with concrete details as to why many of its products cost dramatically more in Australia than in its home country of the US, despite prolonged questioning on the issue from Members of Parliament last week.
Adobe misleads IT price hike inquiry
Adobe appears to have given a number of misleading and highly contestable answers to key questions posed to the software giant by the Federal Parliament's inquiry into IT price hikes in the Australian market, in a move which builds on questions currently being debated about the company's future relationship with its customers.
iiNet taking lion’s share of NBN customers
National broadband provider iiNet has revealed it is taking the lion's share of customers who have connected to the National Broadband Network so far, with other large ISPs such as TPG lagging behind due to their unwillingness to engage with the new national network.
New reader giveaway: Apple iPad mini
Delimiter's giving away a brand-spanking new Apple iPad mini to help promote our new weekly newsletter.
NAB sets 2016 target for final core migration
The National Australia Bank has given itself less than three years to complete its long-running, Oracle-based core banking systems replacement, with the project being the major piece of work still lagging in its total business technology transformation program, which has been under way since 2008/2009.
“Open, frank + candid”: Apple defends tiny tax bill
Iconic technology giant Apple has described its relationship with the Australian Taxation Office as "open, frank and candid" and its process of calculating its local tax obligation as "rigorous", despite the fact that the company last year paid local company tax of just $40 million, off Australian revenues of $6 billion.
Apple blames rights holders for Aussie price hikes
Technology giant Apple has blamed copyright owners such as film and music studios for Australian price hikes on content sold through its iTunes digital store, despite politicians at the Parliament's IT price hike inquiry pointing out to the company that its size as the world's largest company by capitalisation gave it substantial market power.
Vodafone sends Interpol filter live
National mobile carrier Vodafone has revealed it has become the third major Australian Internet service provider to implement the limited Internet filtering scheme supported by the Federal Government and Australian Federal Police, in a move which will now see its customers blocked from accessing a set of offensive sites supplied by Interpol.
“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.
NBN revises June forecast to 190k to 220k
NBN Co today revealed it would substantially downgrade its forecast figure for how many premises its fibre network will have passed by the end of June this year, with the figure shifting down from an initial 341,000 premises (including green- and brownfields premises) to between 190,000 and 220,000 premises, as construction delays have continued to bite the company.
Vic Govt kicks off telco purchasing initiative
The Victorian Government this week revealed it had started discussing the future of its whole of government telecommunications purchasing strategy with the market as part of a new approach dubbed 'VicConnect' that it hopes will deliver service delivery improvements to the state's departments and agencies.
“An absolute national imperative”: Matt Barrie’s epic rant on Australia’s IT investment
Freelancer.com chief executive Matt Barrie has published an impassioned article on his LinkedIn profile strongly heavily criticising the Government for its underinvestment in the technology sector, which he said had led to a situation where Australia is devoid of good IT talent and "missing out" on the ongoing industry revolution.
‘It’s not our fault’: Kogan on dumping high-usage customers
Maverick online retailer Ruslan Kogan has blamed an upstream wholesale Telstra partner for a policy which has seen some early adopters of his company's "unlimited" mobile plans dumped for using too much of their quota.
NBN support rises to 73 percent of Australians
A new poll has shown that support for Labor's National Broadband Network project has risen over the past few months to a total of 73 percent, adding to a long-term trend of enduring support for the initiative demonstrated over the past several years; with even a majority of Coalition voters supporting the project.
NBN could cost $100 billion, claims Turnbull
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has publicly claimed that Labor's National Broadband Network project could could cost as much as $100 billion to build, despite the company’s own estimates showing that it will require around $37 billion of capital injection from the Government and eventually make a return.
Blackbird launches $30m Aussie VC fund
Less than 24 hours after one of Australia's most high-profile declared Australia's venture capital industry "dead", a new $30 million venture capital fund has launched locally to support the next wave of Australian tech startups, backed by a who's who list of the local early stage technology industry.
IT sector abusing 457 visa program, says Gillard
Julia Gillard this morning stated that the nation's IT sector was taking jobs away from Australians by importing foreign workers en-masse under the 457 visa program, a situation which the Prime Minister said was "just not acceptable".
Turnbull faces questions on NBN journalist bullying
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has faced a number of questions from the media over the past 24 hours as to whether his actions towards ABC journalist Nick Ross and others has constituted 'bullying' journalists with respect to the contentious National Broadband Network issue in his portfolio.
Gen-i Australia sacks most of its staff
The Australian division of IT services company Gen-i Australia this morning revealed it would cut its staff numbers from 180 to 60 and stop competing for most contracts on the market as it focuses only on Trans-Tasman contracts as per the instructions of its parent Telecom New Zealand.
Return of the King: Kevin Rudd re-joins the NBN campaign
Kevin Rudd has given several major speeches and press conferences pushing the case for the National Broadband Project he launched as Prime Minister in April 2009 to cause a "revolution" in sectors from education to healthcare and tourism; adding the Coalition's alternative would leave Australia an "economic backwater".
Spear-phishers targeted Reserve Bank in 2011
The Reserve Bank of Australia has on several occasions been the target of targeted malicious email traffic that sought to help external attackers breach the organisation's IT security systems, it was revealed this morning, although it is believed the bank was able to fend off the attacks before they got access to any sensitive information.
BioPak replaces Sage, MYOB with NetSuite
Cloud-based business software company NetSuite this week revealed that Sydney-based sustainable packaging company BioPak over a year ago replaced a number of point solutions such as MYOB and Sage's customer relationship management software with a comprehensive NetSuite-based solution for its business applications.
HANDS OFF NICK ROSS: Conroy warns the ABC and The Australian
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has harshly criticised both The Australian newspaper and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for what he said were "outrageous" attempts to vilify and discipline senior ABC journalist Nick Ross for merely doing his job in comparing the Coalition and Government NBN policies.
Yarra Valley Water implements Oracle Exadata
Victorian utility Yarra Valley Water this week disclosed it had implemented several Oracle hardware products as it sought to boost the performance of its IT systems, including the vendor's Exadata Database Machine and its Exalogic Elastic Cloud solution.
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.
iTNews report “entirely untrue”, says NBN Co
The National Broadband Network Company has labelled claims by iTNews yesterday that it was deliberately manipulating its rollout figures in order to put a more positive light on them as "entirely untrue", and argued that the publication's claims are "not supported by the facts".
Abbott confirms Turnbull as future Comms Minister
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott confirmed over the weekend that he expected Malcolm Turnbull to become Communications Minister and have responsibility for the National Broadband Network project in a Coalition Government, following his time as Shadow Minister since September 2010.
Another Lotus migration: Caltex details huge Office 365, Windows 7 rollout
Petrol and convenience store retailer Caltex has revealed it has completed a large migration away from IBM's ailing Lotus Notes/Domino platform and onto Microsoft's Office 365 cloud email system, alongside other associated technology deployments such as an upgrade of the company's desktops to Windows 7.
Turnbull to reveal the ‘shocking’ NBN truth
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday said a Coalition Government would, following the election, release a full analysis of what Labor's NBN project would actually take in time and money to complete, an accounting which he said would leave the Australian public "shocked".
HP’s behind the Boral IT outsourcing
HP has revealed it is the key partner supporting the extensive IT outsourcing plan with diversified materials company Boral revealed in mid-January, with the global technology giant to supply a complete set of products and services as part of the program.
Exetel launches off-peak unlimited NBN plans
National broadband provider Exetel has launched a dozen new pricing plans on the National Broadband Network's infrastructure which feature unlimited off-peak downloads between 1AM and 9AM in the morning.
FTTH the best solution, says French IT Minister
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's French counterpart has labelled Labor's preferred Fibre to the Premise broadband rollout style as "the best technology" for broadband infrastructure due to its technical merits and long-term potential, during a flying visit to Australia associated with NBN Co's signing of a key contract with French satellite giant Arianespace.
82% of early stage residents back NBN
An extensive survey of residents in the early stage National Broadband Network rollout zone in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick has shown that 89 percent backed the NBN as a "good idea", even if they hadn't immediately signed up to use the project's fibre infrastructure.
Govt funds Vodafone’s Tassie expansion again
Vodafone has received its second round of government support in less than five years to expand its extensive call centre operations in Tasmania, with the ailing mobile telco revealing today it planned to double its workforce in the state to 1,500 and examine the case for bringing jobs back from overseas.
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.
HP to build Victorian supercomputer
Global technology giant HP this morning revealed that a consortium of educational institutions in Victoria had selected its Converged Infrastructure stack to build a high-performance computer (HPC) system to be named 'Trifid' that would aid with the processing of massive research problems.
NBN “disastrous” for piracy, claims music industry
Australia's peak music industry organisation has claimed that the rollout of the National Broadband Network could have "disastrous results" for the local music industry due to the lack of "graduated response" or "site blocking" processes to stop the "serious problem" of Internet-based piracy of music.
Redacted: AFP cuts ISP details from filter docs
The Australian Federal Police has sought to prevent the public from ascertaining the identities of ISPs participating in the Federal Government's voluntary filter scheme for child abuse materials, through redacting the ISPs' details from relevant documents released under Freedom of Information laws.
Qld Transport in huge IT infrastructure refresh
Queensland's Department of Transport and Main Roads has kicked off an extremely wide-ranging refresh of its underlying desktop IT infrastructure which is slated to see legacy products such as Lotus Notes, IBM Sametime, Windows XP and Novell's file, print and application deployment software replaced with more popular and updated equivalents.
Calamity: Vodafone lost 443k customers last year
Ailing mobile telco Vodafone Australia late yesterday revealed it had lost 443,000 customers and about $817 million in the 2012 calendar year, as indications continue to mount that the company's network rejuvenation, staff restructuring and executive leadership changes have had little to no impact on its fortunes.
CommBank won’t store data offshore
Commonwealth Bank of Australia says all of its data is kept in Australia -- not in offshore public cloud facilities.
CERT report finds IT hacks uncommon, usually petty
A major new study of the IT security habits and experiences of Australian organisations conducted by government group CERT Australia has found the majority did not suffer an IT security incident over the past 12 months, and those that did mainly suffered minor breaches such as the theft of a laptop of smartphone.
“Cheap stunt”: Turnbull rejects Quigley’s olive branch
Malcom Turnbull has rejected out of hand a suggestion by Mike Quigley that Australia's telco industry independently back a study into the best technology to deliver Australians the next-generation of broadband infrastructure, with the Shadow Communications Minister describing the NBN Co chief executive's move as a "cheap stunt".
DoHA latest to ditch Lotus Notes for Exchange
The Federal Department of Health and Ageing has revealed it will be the latest Australian government agency to dump IBM's Lotus Notes/Domino environment in favour of a switch to a collaboration platform built on the Outlook/Exchange ecosystem, as part of a continuing trend of migrations to the Microsoft platform.
HFC the “steam train” of broadband, says Budde
Australian telecommunications analyst Paul Budde has published a strongly worded blog post arguing that the HFC cable networks focused on by the Coalition in its rival NBN policy are akin to steam trains in the 1930's through the 1960's -- they'll still around for decades, but don't represent the future of their industry.
Quigley refutes “incorrect, misleading” AFR report
The chief executive of the National Broadband Network Company this afternoon strongly criticised the Australian Financial Review newspaper for what he said was a "disappointing", "incorrect and misleading" report that had "wrongly" claimed NBN Co would not recover its costs by its projected date.
AFR leaves crucial info out of NBN cost story
The Financial Review newspaper has published a story claiming that the Federal Government's National Broadband Network project won't recover its costs by the year 2040, despite the fact that NBN Co explicitly stated in the same document reported by the AFR that there were several potential scenarios where it would recover the costs by that date.
Pollenizer takes a further $1.1m, rejigs model
Australian startup incubator Pollenizer has raised a further $1.1 million to continue to develop its operations, and has substantially reformed its model on building startups to place a higher emphasis on its staff acting as co-founders of the startup companies it helps to foster.
Adobe faces piracy backlash over Australian pricing
Many Adobe customers have taken to the Internet to openly pledge to dump the software vendor's products or pirate them illegally, with thousands more signalling their general displeasure with what many saw as the arrogant refusal of its chief executive Shantanu Narayenlast week to answer the question of how the company can justify charging Australians up to $1,400 more for its software than US residents.
Beleaguered Qld IT Minister quits
Beleaguered Queensland Minister for Science, IT, Innovation and the Arts Ros Bates today revealed she would quit her position effective immediately, following a string of controversies and health problems which have dogged the politician since the state's LNP administration took power in March 2012.
Turnbull confirms: ‘HFC areas’ last to get FTTN, if at all
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has confirmed that metropolitan areas of Australia in the HFC cable footprint of Telstra and Optus would not immediately receive the Coalition's planned fibre to the node upgrade if it wins Government; despite the fact that very few in those areas actually use the HFC cable and it is regarded as deprecated.
Coalition FTTN would ignore HFC areas: Conroy
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has challenged Shadow Minister Malcolm Turnbull to confirm his rival broadband policy would not see fibre to the node technology immediately deployed to areas already covered by the HFC cable networks operated by Telstra and Optus, despite the fact that few use the ageing HFC networks.
Farce: Adobe CEO flatly refuses Australian price questions (video)
The chief executive of global software vendor Adobe, Shantanu Narayen, has refused to directly address questions regarding price markups that can see Australians pay up to $1,400 more than US residents for the company's software, in a press conference in Sydney this morning which at times threatened to descend into a farce.
Telstra tests 4G network up to 90Mbps
The nation's largest telco Telstra has revealed it has tested its 4G mobile network at speeds of up to 90Mbps and will shortly introduce a smartphone and Wi-Fi dongle that can theoretically access the network at peak speeds even higher -- up to 150Mbps -- although the network is not yet capable of those speeds.
Victoria releases concrete, detailed ICT strategy
The Victorian State Government has released the final version of a new whole of government information and communications technology strategy containing hard deadlines for goals, with which it aims to start addressing extensive IT project and service delivery issues which have resulted in more than a billion dollars in budget overruns and a string of failed IT projects over the past half-decade.
Please explain prices: Parliament subpoenas Apple, Microsoft, Adobe
Federal Parliament has issued documents formally compelling major technology vendors Apple, Microsoft and Adobe to compulsorily appear before its committee investigating price hikes on technology products sold in Australia, in a move that finally ends months of stalling by the vendors, who have proven unwilling to voluntary discuss their pricing strategies in public.
BitTorrent “not time-critical”: Telstra defends trial
The nation's largest telco Telstra claimed over the weekend that BitTorrent-style peer to peer traffic on its network was "not time-critical" and so could be slowed on its network "without significant consumer detriment", in an extensive statement defending highly controversial plans to trial several new network management practices.
Qld Coalition MP issues loaded NBN survey
A North Queensland LNP Member of Federal Parliament has issued his constituents with a wide-ranging survey canvassing their views on a number of areas, including several questions which appear to take a misleading approach regarding the Government's National Broadband Network project.
Three years on, RailCorp may get CIO
More than three years after it lost its last chief information officer, NSW State Government agency Railcorp has finally flagged plans to overhaul its IT executive management structure, in moves associated with the split into two separate divisions, Sydney Trains and NSW Trains.
KONE staff pick Lumia over iPhone, Samsung, HTC
More than 70 percent of staff at the local division of elevator manufacturing company KONE picked a model from Nokia's Lumia handset line over other options from Apple, HTC and Samsung, when given the choice, the Finnish manufacturer claimed in a statement issued yesterday.
“Cloak of invisibility”: Husic on tiny Apple tax bill
Crusading Labor MP Ed Husic has delivered a blistering attack in Federal Parliament on the tiny Australian tax bills paid by global technology giants Apple and Google, accusing the local management of the Cupertino, California-headquartered Apple of maintaining a "cloak of invisibility" to avoid engaging with the Government on such issues.
Telstra customers threaten desertion over P2P trial
Telstra's plans to kick off a trial that will see it throttle some peer to peer services on its ADSL broadband network have been met with an outraged reaction from its customers, with many instantly threatening to cancel their services and take their business elsewhere if the trial goes ahead.
NBN confirms doubled satellite, wireless speeds?
NBN Co today revealed that its satellite and wireless services designed to serve a small proportion of the population will feature higher speeds than previously confirmed, with the services now to provide download speeds up to 25Mbps and upload speeds up to 5Mbps. However, questions remain over the timing and technical details of the company's announcement.
Ads not misleading: Google wins High Court case
Search giant Google has won a High Court case against the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in which the regulator had alleged that Google breached the law by displaying misleading or deceptive advertisements on its search results pages.
Attanasio quits Customs as CIO role abolished
The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service has revealed plans to abolish its chief information officer role in the wake of the resignation of its incumbent CIO Joe Attanasio from the position in late November last year.
NBN should be in caretaker mode, claims Turnbull
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called for the National Broadband Network Company to stop entering into major contracts that would affect a Coalition Government, due to what Turnbull described as being a form of the traditional government 'caretaker mode' that keeps governments running during elections.
Rackspace hires high-profile cloud CIO Perkins
Hosting and cloud computing giant Rackspace this morning revealed it had hired one of Australia's most cloud-savvy chief information officers, former Altium IT executive Alan Perkins, in a key role to spearhead the adoption and development of the company's solutions in Australia.
NSW kickstarts cloud email, virtual desktop trial
The New South Wales State Government today kicked off two trials of virtual desktop and cloud email services, in a move which could eventually signal a mass migration of some 30,000 government users into the cloud and which represents one of the first concrete steps by the state into the new cloud computing landscape.
Qld LNP MPs doorknock for FTTN petition
Two Federal Coalition Members of Parliament have flagged their intention to conduct a door-knocking campaign in their Queensland electorates to garner support for a petition which would support faster high-speed broadband being rolled out to their regions; effectively, a petition in support of the Coalition's fibre to the node rival NBN plan.
“Below target”: Andrew Bolt slams NBN progress
Conservative commentator Andrew Bolt has continued his ongoing series of attacks on Labor's flagship National Broadband Network project, claiming that the project is behind target and describing the way it accounts for having finished network construction in a given area as being "rubbery".
Customs restructures IT with CTO
The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service has advertised for a new chief technology officer to ensure its strategic IT vision is aligned with its business operations; but it's not immediately clear how the new CTO will fit in with the company's existing chief information officer position held by Joe Attanasio.
Telstra remediation work delaying NBN?
The Federal Government has advised Sydney residents that at least one suburb due to have been connected to the National Broadband Network's fibre rollout has had its connection delayed due to the need to wait for Telstra to conduct remediation work in its pits and conduits in the area; however, Telstra has stated that the delays could be more properly attributed to NBN Co.
“Morons”: Freelancer CEO wants ACS disbanded
The outspoken chief executive of crowdsourcing company Freelancer.com has posted an extensive diatribe online calling for the Australian Computer Society to be disbanded, describing the professional body as a "joke" and being run by "f*cking morons".
Abbott confirms Coalition FTTN policy; Hints Turnbull will be Comms Minister
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott this afternoon confirmed the Coalition would take Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull's fibre to the node-based broadband plan to the Federal Election as its broadband policy and appeared to hint that Turnbull would become Communications Minister in an Abbott administration.
Mainframe out; Westpac adopts Exadata, Exalogic
Top-tier bank Westpac has revealed that it will shift some processing resources off existing mainframe infrastructure and onto Oracle’s Exadata and Exalogic platforms, as it attempts to gain higher levels of efficiency in the platforms that underpin its project to achieve a single view of customer information.
Hockey admits: We can’t shut down the NBN
Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey yesterday admitted that the Opposition would find it hard to “shut down” the National Broadband Network project completely if it wins the upcoming Federal Election in September, and would release further details “in the next few weeks” about the Coalition’s plans for the project.
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.
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.
Last chance: Microsoft plans huge Win8 price hike
Microsoft Australia has confirmed that Australians have only several more days to buy its new Windows 8 operating system at promotional prices before it hikes its prices on the software massively as at the 1st of February.
Slow progress: NBN Co releases Dec 2012 stats
The National Broadband Network Company overnight released hard statistics showing the progress of the rollout and uptake of its network infrastructure during the three months to the end of 2012, showing that the company is still making only slow progress in its construction effort and uptake of its services.
$6 billion: Apple’s huge Aussie haul in 2012
Technology giant Apple has revealed it had a record year in terms of revenues and profits from its Australian operation over the past year, raking in revenues up 23 percent to almost $6 billion, as new iPad and iPhone launches sent the company’s finances into the stratosphere over the past 12 months.
NBN Co offers $108 bounty on new customers
The National Broadband Network Company has kicked off what it described as a “promotional” initiative which will see it pay retail Internet service providers $108 per end user customer who signs up to the network by the end of June, a period shortly before the next Federal Election is to be held.
Turnbull loose with facts on NBN finances
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has inaccurately claimed that the Federal Government is wasting tens of billions of dollars building its National Broadband Network project, despite the fact that the organisation’s business plan shows it will actually make a modest return on investment for the Government.
Board-level dialogue key to NAB Oracle overhaul
One of Oracle’s most senior executives has labeled board-level engagement between the giant US vendor and local customer National Australia Bank as having been key to the bank’s unusual Oracle-based core banking IT upgrade project, which has seen the vendor develop its software with the direct input of NAB.
Telstra finishes South Brisbane fibre migration
The nation’s largest telco late yesterday revealed it had completed the project of migrating all 18,000-odd copper telecommunications services in the South Brisbane Exchange area to the telco’s new fibre network, with the finalisation of the controversial project just around the corner.
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.
FoI request targets NBN rollout stats
A Freedom of Information request has been filed with the National Broadband Network Company seeking hard data regarding the progress in rolling out and uptake of the company’s network as at the end of 2012, as well as documents relating to the process of compiling the statistics.
NBN tower “life-threatening”, claim residents
A small community group in the Victorian town of Dereel is attempting to block the installation of a National Broadband Network wireless tower in the region despite most of the community approving, inaccurately claiming that the installation of the tower could cause life-threatening radiation to residents in the area.
QBE appoints new CIO amid restructure
Insurer QBE has unexpectedly appointed a new chief information officer, with its incumbent executive holding the position shifting to another position within the group.
Telstra sets up nebulous software dev unit
The nation’s biggest telco Telstra has set up a new software development business unit, stating that it plans to use the division to take advantage of software-driven business opportunities integrated with its network assets, but without stating precisely what projects the new unit will be working on.
Gillard spends big on cyber-security; including new centre
Prime Minister Julia Gillard this morning announced that the Federal Government would spend $1.46 billion through to 2020 on strengthening what she described as its “cyber security” capabilities, including establishing a dedicated Australian Cyber Security Centre.
4G LG Optimus G hits Telstra in March
Korean consumer LG today revealed it would launch its high-end Optimus G smartphone exclusively on Telstra’s 4G mobile network in March.
Cloud burst: Oracle reveals second Australian datacentre
Oracle co-president Mark Hurd has used a visit to Australia over the past week to officially launch the company’s second local datacentre, which the US enterprise IT giant will use to expand the variety of cloud computing and hosted services it provides locally to Australian customers.
NRMA, Coles reveal sizable Oracle deployments
US technology giant Oracle has revealed that two major Australian organisations, Coles and the NRMA, have chosen Oracle as the basis for new IT projects, using technology ranging from Oracle’s customer relationship management platform to its Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Linux.
Pirate Party registered for 2013 election
The Australian branch of digital freedom political group the Pirate Party today confirmed it had successfully registered as a political party to contest the upcoming 2013 Federal Election, overcoming registration issues which had prevented it from contesting the 2010 election as a party.
#Vodafix: Vodafone back to kilobyte charging
Vodafone customers concerned by the company’s move decision last month to start charging for mobile data usage on a per megabyte basis can rest easy, with the company announcing it would back down from the decision, in a move it dubbed a “Vodafix”.
‘Bold & visionary’: UK MP loves Australia’s NBN
One of the UK Government’s up and coming technology-focused politicians, Chi Onwurah, has declared Australia’s National Broadband Network to be bold and visionary following a visit Down Under and asked her own country’s administration why it doesn’t have similar ambitions in its own, much more limited broadband policy.
DHS reveals year of IT outages
New Federal Government super-department the Department of Human Services has revealed it suffered 137 IT outages thoughout the year to the end of September 2012, with dozens of instances where customers of services such as Centrelink were unable to access online services through Centrelink's web site.
ANZ’s startup accelerator reveals next class
The Innovyz START startup accelerator program recently launched by ANZ Bank has revealed the second 10 startups to which it will attract funding and mentorship, with the major of successful startups originating in South Australian capital city Adelaide.
Never gonna give you up: ACCC takes TPG to High Court
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission this morning flagged plans to appeal a bruising legal loss against TPG, with the regulator continuing to push its case that TPG's 'unlimited' ADSL and telephone bundle advertisements were misleading.
News Ltd sells TrueLocal to Sensis
Publishing giant News Ltd has revealed plans to sell its online search and directories business TrueLocal to Telstra’s Sensis division, subject to approval from the competition regulator.
Qld school iPad trial a strong success
Queensland’s education department has published several extensive reports detailing recent trials of iPads within the classroom, with the documents overwhelmingly classing the Apple tablets as a success, including in their ability to help students improve their academic performance.
Twitter must toe the troll line, says Gillard
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has singled out social network Twitter for not yet signing up to the Federal Government's new complaints handling process for major social networking sites, in a speech this morning pointing out that rival companies such as Facebook and Google had already done so.
CIO promoted as Boral outsources IT
Diversified materials company Boral this morning revealed it would embark on a wide-ranging IT outsourcing program which would see an undisclosed number of jobs go and its chief information officer promoted.
NBN makes construction chief redundant
The National Broadband Network Company today confirmed it had made its head of construction Dan Flemming redundant, just 18 months after he was appointed, in a move that marks the second time the leadership of the company's construction team has changed in less than two years.
Vodafone dumps Crazy John’s brand
Mobile telco Vodafone has confirmed it will shortly dump the Crazy John's brand from its retail stores and re-brand them under the Vodafone master brand, in a move which will also see the closure of some Crazy John's stores entirely.
WiPro outsourcing takes chunk out of Woolworths
Retail giant Woolworths has confirmed the jobs of some 64 in-house technical staff will be affected as part of a wide-ranging IT infrastructure outsourcing contract inked last year with Indian IT services company WiPro.
Unisys picks up more Queensland Education work
Queensland's Department of Education, Training and Employment has extended an extremely long-term major IT services contract with supplier Unisys to the value of $29.4 million and simultaneously put a second tranche of IT services work on the market.
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.
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.
Australia has its first R18+ video game
The Federal Government's Classification Board has revealed that it has classified its first video game under the new R18+ category, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge, following the delivery of amended classification rules last year after a long community campaign to see the new adult-only category implemented.
NSW wants to ban smartphone, tablets, from courts
The New South Wales State Government has flagged plans to amend court security legislation to ban the use of devices such as smartphones and tablets to communicate events inside courtrooms to those outside, in a move that could squash see a trend towards using Twitter to report court events live.
NBN hard rollout data ‘not yet finalised’
The National Broadband Network Company has again declined to release hard data measures relating to the rollout and uptake of its fibre infrastructure in the last quarter of 2012, stating that the figures were still being "finalised", despite stating the release of more nebulous rollout data last week meant it was meeting its targets.
Qld expansion: Optus beefs up 4G coverage
Optus has revealed that it has rapidly expanded its 4G coverage in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, as the SingTel subsidiary races to catch up with the more widespread coverage offered by Australia’s largest 4G network operated by Telstra.
Court reversal: TPG ads not misleading
The full Federal Court has largely reversed an earlier decision by a single judge which had found that TPG's advertisements of its $29.99 'unlimited' ADSL and telephone bundles had been misleading, forcing the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission onto the back foot in the case.
Service Stream deploys 1,400 Office 365 seats
Telecommunications infrastructure construction and maintenance firm Service Stream has revealed that it has deployed more than 1,400 seats of Microsoft's Office 365, in one of the largest known rollouts of the software as a service platform in Australia outside of the education sector.
Seittenranta to be permanent DPS CIO
Long-time Centrelink and Department of Human Services IT executive Eija Seittenranta has been appointed to a permanent role as the chief information officer of the Federal Department of Parliamentary Services, following a temporary appointment to the role in October.
Free ‘trinkets’ while courses cut: Union condemns UWS iPads plan
The academics union has condemned a plan by the University of Western Sydney to give away 11,000 iPads as part of a $35 million bid to keep its content and teaching relevant to students.
11,000 iPads in one hit: UWS goes Apple crazy
The University of Western Sydney has revealed that it will deploy some 11,000 iPads to students and staff this year, in one of the largest rollouts of the Apple tablets known in Australia so far and a move that will see every first year student at the institution receiving one of the devices.
FoI breach? Govt withholds #natsecinquiry docs
Evidence has emerged that the Federal Attorney-General’s Department may have breached Freedom of Information regulations in delaying the release of documents which will enhance the transparency of its discussions with the telecommunications industry over the controversial National Security Inquiry proposal.
A drone’s eye view of the Tasmanian bushfires
Amazing video is emerging of drone-shot footage from what appears to be footage of the Tasmanian bushfires -- apparently shot using a GoPro camera attached to a Quadcopter FPV.
$180m Vic Ultranet project a complete failure
Victoria's Auditor-General has published a damning report classifying the state's $180 million Ultranet educational technology project as broadly a complete failure, with the project being hardly used by the state's students and teachers and being delivered late, over budget and with significant contract probity issues.
We’re giving away another Nexus 7
Because it's still the season of giving, and also because it really helped promote our weekly newsletter last time, we've got our hands on another Google Nexus 7 tablet for another reader giveaway, as we did at the end of last year.
Govt splits AGIMO, appointing CIO, CTO
The Federal Government has announced it will split its troubled IT strategy division the Australian Government Information Management Office in two, promoting internal staffers into two new chief information and technology officer roles in line with the recommendations of the Reinecke review regarding the agency’s future.
NBN Co to release updated rollout stats
NBN Co has confirmed it will shortly release updated statistics relating to how many premises its predominantly fibre network was deployed to over the last quarter of 2012, in what is expected to be an extremely closely watched announcement which will do much to qualify the network’s progress ahead of the upcoming Federal Election.
ADFA hack a national security failure: expert
According to media reports, a single hacker from the Anonymous group, calling himself Darwinare, released online the names, birthdays and passwords of 20,000 staff and students from a university database at the Australian Defence Force Academy.
Tasmania wants on-island private cloud
The Tasmanian Government has gone to market for an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) or private cloud solution that can be used across its operations, telling potential suppliers that any supplied option must be located in the state and that it envisages transitioning most of its services to the environment in the long-term.
NBN Co conceals updated rollout stats
The National Broadband Network Company has declined to provide updated statistics relating to how many premises its predominantly fibre network has covered over the past two and half months, stating that it will only release updated details on its rollout every calendar quarter.
NSW moves closer to ‘cloud-first’ strategy
The New South Wales Government has given further signs that it is moving to adopt the kind of ‘cloud-first’ IT procurement strategy which jurisdictions such as the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand have pursued over the past several years, in a move which could fundamentally change the way the state buys and uses technology.
Adam buy harms ‘fragile’ competition: Macquarie
Business-focused telco Macquarie Telecom has filed a submission with the competition regulator calling for it to block Telstra's proposed acquisition of Adelaide ISP Adam Internet on the grounds that it would "further weaken" the already "fragile" state of competition in the nation's telecommunications market.
Conroy fights Internet control in Dubai
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has revealed he is leading a team to a key telecommunications conference being held in Dubai this week at which the International Telecommunications Union is attempting to seek greater control over the operation of the Internet.
Quickflix sacks one third of workforce
Ailing IPTV and online DVD rental business Quickflix has revealed plans to sack one third of its workforce and initiate a plethora of other restructuring moves as it struggles to keep its trouble-plagued business afloat.
‘Unbalanced’: Turnbull hammers ABC again on NBN
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has again hit out at the reporting of the National Broadband Network debate by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, accusing the broadcaster of “superficial, misleading and unbalanced reporting” of the issue and detailing a litany of complaints about the ABC’s Lateline program specifically.
Parliament must subpoena IT giants: Choice
Consumer group Choice has called for the Federal Parliament to use its powers of subpoena to force recalcitrant IT vendors such as Apple, Adobe and Microsoft to give evidence about their price setting practices in Australia, due to the vendors' reluctance to voluntarily appear before a committee into Australian IT price hikes.
Copper network not “rooted”, says Telstra
The nation's largest telco Telstra has rejected unsubstantiated claims that its copper network was suffering a fault rate of up to 30 percent, pointing out that in October this year, only about 1.3 percent of its telephone lines nationally suffered any kind of fault, and that it invests hundreds of millions of dollars each year keeping it that way.
Why setting the floor price for digital dividends auction is the right approach
Last week’s directive from Communications Minister Stephen Conroy to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to postpone setting the reserve prices for the upcoming digital dividends auction will help ensure the sale’s success.
Melbourne IT may sell off divisions
Diversified Australian hosting and digital services group Melbourne IT today revealed it would conduct a review into the future of its various divisions which may result in selling some of them off, in the wake of disappointing flat revenue growth over the past six months.
$63m baby: Oracle sells ‘the works’ to Defence
Oracle has revealed that it signed a wide-ranging $63 million contract with the Federal Department of Defence earlier this year that will see the US technology giant supply virtually all of its major product lines, ranging from its popular PeopleSoft, Database and Fusion products to its Exadata hardware and even its Exalogic Elastic Cloud technology.
NSW Govt launches Opal card on ferries
However, the new Coalition Government in NSW over the weekend shone a ray of light into the public transport smartcard ticketing situation, with the new Opal smartcard being launched on Sydney ferries, to start with.
Low-cost Telstra ‘Adam’ brand worries iiNet
National broadband provider iiNet has warned the competition regulator that Telstra must not be allowed to introduce a new, low-cost ‘Jetstar’-like brand into the broadband marketplace without strict controls being placed around such an initative, due to the potential for Telstra to further increase its already dominant market share.
Australian Govt pledges action on Google tax avoidance
The Australian Government has outlined a series of new legislative initiatives with which it will attempt to protect its corporate tax base and rein in the tax minimisation strategies of corporations such as search giant Google, which expects to pay just $74,000 in corporate income tax for the 2011 calendar year in Australia, despite making an estimated $1 billion in local revenue.
BT demonstrates 10Gbps on normal fibre
British telco BT has demonstrated that it is possible to deliver broadband speeds of up to 10Gbps over its normal fibre infrastructure extending to some homes and businesses; the same Fibre to the Home infrastructure which is being deployed in Australia as part of the Federal Government’s National Broadband Network project.
Whole of Govt CIO Steward retires
Australia’s Whole of Government chief information officer Ann Steward this week announced her intention to retire from the public service after seven years leading peak IT strategy agency the Australian Government Information Management Office and long years more in the global public sector generally.
“Nonsense”: Turnbull rejects ABC’s FTTN criticism
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has dismissed as “nonsense” claims by contracting companies deploying Labor’s National Broadband Network project that changing the project’s model to a fibre to the node rollout would be “an expensive, time-consuming hindrance”.
Quickflix leadership decimated as losses mount
Online DVD rental and Internet media company Quickflix this week revealed a series of senior leadership losses including the representative of investor HBO, as the company continues to burn through cash and seek further funding to continue its operations.
Suncorp scopes Win Server 2012, Hyper-V
Second-tier banking and insurance giant Suncorp has revealed it has plans to deploy Microsoft’s latest Windows Server 2012 server operating system and Hyper-V virtualisation platform and reduce use of VMware’s rival technology, to assist in gaining efficiencies as part of its virtual desktop infrastructure rollout to staff.
Optus makes first startup investments
National telecommunications player Optus has made its first investments in several Australian technology startups, courtesy of its Innov8 seed fund set up in collaboration with parent SingTel, with local groups 121cast and Venuemob getting the nod for initial capital investment.
Pirate Party appeals data retention censorship
The Pirate Party of Australia today confirmed it would continue fighting to have key documents associated with the Government’s controversial data retention and surveillance package released to the public, flagging plans to appeal a decision by the Federal Attorney-General’s Department to block the release of the documents under Freedom of Information laws.
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.
Just watch, Quigley tells NBN critics: We’re on track
NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley has laughed off criticism of the speed of the rollout of the National Broadband Network’s fibre deployment, confirming it is on track for its December target of 758,000 premises being constructed, and pointing out similar criticism levelled at the deployment of Australia’s first telephone networks in 1909.
‘Parochial’: Turnbull slams ‘NBN cheerleader’ media
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has again heavily criticised Australia’s technology media for what he described as its “cheerleader” approach to the Government’s National Broadband Network, saying the nation was “let down by the so-called technology media” as it did not examine local events closely enough with reference to the global telecommunications sector.
4G Galaxy Note II hits Australia next week
Want a larger version of Samsung's Galaxy S III handset? With a stylus and decent handwriting recognition? And 4G speeds to boot? You're in luck. Korean electronics giant Samsung announced last night at a Sydney event packed with ... well, hype and B-grade celebrities such as Todd Sampson.
Vodafone loses 154k more customers
Ailing mobile telco Vodafone has revealed it lost a further 154,000 customers in the three months to the end of September, with the continued customer churn piling on more financial woes for the company and signalling that the company's internal transformation under new chief executive Bill Morrow may not yet be having a positive impact.
iiNet, Internode implement Conroy’s new filter
National broadband provider iiNet and its subsidiary Internode have pledged to implement the limited child abuse Internet filtering scheme adopted as policy last week by the Federal Government, noting they had received independent legal advice advising them to comply with a new "compulsory" request by police to do so.
AAPT buys NEC’s Nextep division
It appears as if business and wholesale-focused telco AAPT is expanding its grip on those sectors of the Australian market, after exiting from the consumer side of the industry through the sale of its retail base to iiNet in mid-2010. This morning it announced it would buy NEC Australia's Nextep division.
Turnbull inaccurate on internet filter details
Malcolm Turnbull has appeared to make a number of incorrect statements over the past week regarding the Federal Government's now defunct mandatory Internet filtering policy, as the Shadow Communications Minister and other senior Coalition figures continues to make inaccurate statements in the communications portfolio.
iiNet harmonises TransACT, NBN plans
National broadband provider iiNet appears to have broadly begun harmonising the broadband plan prices of its new subsidiary TransACT with its plans available on the Network Broadband Network infrastructure, in a move which is slated to deliver significantly enhanced value to TransACT customers.
Finally, Amazon launches Sydney datacentre
After six months of rumours and the launch of several ancillary services down under, US cloud computing giant Amazon Web Services has finally announced the availability of locally-hosted cloud computing services from an Australian datacentre; with prices comparable to those seen overseas.
Alan Jones slams Turnbull’s NBN performance
Alan Jones has attacked the performance of Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull in holding Labor’s National Broadband Network project to account, with the shockjock commentator attempting to use a variety of inaccurate statements about the NBN to demonstrate that Turnbull is avoiding the issue and “plotting” against Liberal leader Tony Abbott instead.
Legal basis shaky for Interpol filter, says IPA
Australian free market thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs has accused the Federal Government of relying on an “obscure” section of telecommunications law in a way that was never intended to implement its new limited Internet filtering scheme, and warned of the potential for scope creep under the scheme.
Finally: Conroy kills mandatory filter for good
Ding, dong, the witch is dead. Almost five years after the current Labor Federal Government starting trying to force its controversial mandatory Internet filter policy on an extremely unwilling Australian population, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has formally dumped the policy in favour of a much more limited system already in place at Telstra and Optus.
VMware out, Hyper-V in at ING Direct
Internet banking brand ING Direct revealed this week that it had upgraded its server infrastructure to the latest version 2012 of Microsoft’s Windows Server operating system and further standardised on the vendor’s Hyper-V solution, as the bank’s enthusiasm for Microsoft’s server stack continues to grow at the cost of virtualisation rival VMware.
Defence desktop overhaul gets green light
The Department of Defence’s long-awaited desktop PC overhaul project has been given the green light to go ahead in a mass deployment, after a successful trial of 700 users conducted by the project’s main technology vendor Thales.
“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.
NBN critics ‘like climate deniers’, says Budde
Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde has accused the harshest critics of Labor’s flagship National Broadband Network project as being similar to “climate change deniers” in their irrational opposition to the project, arguing that such critics are given undue prominence in the media, despite representing less than five percent of the population.
Fire + Rescue NSW deploys 400 Chromeboxes
Emergency service Fire and Rescue NSW has revealed it has dumped a number of traditional desktop PCs and plans to ditch more, as part of a widespread deployment of Google’s Chromebox cloud-based desktop platform which has so far seen some 400 of the gadgets deployed to fire stations throughout the state.
6 months free: New Internode 1.5GB mobile plan
iiNet subsidiary and national broadband provider Internode has launched an inexpensive new mobile plan offering customers six months’ free access to its monthly NodeMobile plan, including 1.5GB of data and $450 of mobile calling value, to customers who sign up for two-year ADSL broadband and telephone plans.
Qld Labor Govt feared IBM payroll backlash
New cabinet documents released by the Queensland Labor Party pertaining to the payroll systems disaster at Queensland Health have revealed the then-Labor administration in 2010 feared that IBM would pursue its own lawsuit if the State Government terminated its contract over the botched IT systems overhaul.
Naked DSL subject to water damage: Telstra
The nation’s biggest telco Telstra has opened up another front in its ongoing struggle against being forced to sell naked DSL services to customers and other ISPs, arguing that selling naked DSL would cause a significantly higher number of costly network faults from water damage than other types of broadband services.
Pyne won’t retract false 100Mbps NBN claim
Federal Shadow Education Minister Christopher Pyne has declined repeated requests for him to retract an inaccurate comment he made on Triple J's Hack program last week claiming that no customers had been connected to Labor's National Broadband Network at speeds of 100Mbps, despite evidence being provided to the contrary.