Reality check: Piracy is not killing Australian film

28
Imagine a world where you can only consume culture from government-approved sources, months after its widely publicised release overseas, in low definition, with long term lease agreements where you can never purchase a copy to own, only to borrow and use within a specific set of technologically locked parameters. Where the freedom to share or own copies of cultural works has finally been stamped out and middlemen are free to charge what they like for mediocre services and innovation is locked in a box then dropped into an ocean abyss.

Online GST push places an unfair burden on pop culture lovers

5
Will the long tail of the internet be docked by the fastidious imposition of GST to online purchases?

Freeplay reminds us videogames matter: The ‘culture’ debate is over

1
Videogames are already here, are already culturally and politically active, and have been for quite some time. We no longer need to debate if they deserve a spot at the cultural dinner table. We just need to recognise they are already there.

Malcolm Turnbull and the great Huawei farce

28
It doesn’t matter at all whether Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull was or was not briefed about the Federal Government’s security concerns about Huawei. What matters is whether those concerns are actually objectively grounded in hard evidence. Because all indications so far support the argument that they are not.

Why #NatSecInquiry is filling me with worry

6
This inquiry, and any proposals that stem from it, should be looked at very closely and any expansion of powers of the state put forward should be fought.

You talkin’ to me? Gerry Harvey’s one-man, online retail debate

9
Online retail promises or threatens to greatly change how Australians buy and sell over the next few years. However it works out, I hope that Gerry Harvey is around a fair bit longer, saying things to provoke and amuse us.

R18+ rating added for videogames … but are children protected?

8
New guidelines for the classification of videogames have been released by Federal Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare and, despite being a step in the right direction, the revisions are largely disappointing and a missed opportunity.

Five reasons to block Woz’s Australian citizenship

54
A number of media outlets have reported this week that Apple co-founder and global technology sector luminary Steve Wozniak is attempting to become an Australian citizen. But is this really a good idea? Here’s five reasons why we should stop the Woz at the border and send him packing back to his home country of the United States.

Turnbull’s Quigley slander is flatly offensive

142
Malcolm Turnbull’s dogged attacks on the highly capable and transparent chief executive of the National Broadband Company are without basis and run contrary to the Shadow Communications Minister’s public call recently for truth, leadership and responsibility to re-enter Australia’s political sphere.

TPG’s $69.99 unlimited plan shows the NBN future

83
The $69.99 unlimited plan revealed by cut-rate ISP TPG yesterday shows what the future of broadband plans on the National Broadband Network will look like, and it's not good news for premium ISPs such as Telstra, Optus and iiNet.

The lost cause of American political fact-checkers

16
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” — Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Explainer: what is 4G?

4
If you’re looking to buy a new smartphone or computer you’ve probably seen advertisements and offers for 4G-compatible devices. You might even own a 4G-compatible device already. But just what is 4G? How does it compare to existing 3G networks? And what is the current availability of 4G networks in Australia?

NBN irony as Turnbull takes the high ground

52
Last week Malcolm Turnbull gave what is generally acknowledged to be a landmark and admirable speech calling for truth, leadership and responsibility to boost the quality of debate in Australia's rapidly deteriorating political sphere. Now if only the Liberal MP would practice a little of the same when it comes to the National Broadband Network.

Trolling our way to national security

25
Yesterday's Daily Telegraph features a call to action – an Internet petition to stop trolling (the media definition of any offensive or deliberately hurtful behaviour online, not the traditional definition). This is both terrible journalism and falling for a trap.

Optus and TV Now: Will copyright law catch up to the cloud?

2
A legal decision which forced Optus to shut down its time shifting service TV Now may eventually lead to reform of existing copyright law to cater for cloud technology.

History repeating: Five ways data retention is like Conroy’s filter

15
Like history repeating, the Australian Government just keeps on coming up with disturbing new ways it wants to control and censor the Internet. Here's five ways the current controversial data retention proposal is similar to its predecessor in infamy: Senator Conroy's mandatory ISP-based Internet filter, which was shot down in flames in 2010.

Surviving the zombie apocalypse: the DayZ experiment

7
Amid the resurgent popularity of zombies in recent years – think The Walking Dead, I Am Legend, Shaun of the Dead and so on – the 2011 publication of Dan Drezner’s Theories of International Politics and Zombies showed we might be able to learn something useful from the lumbering horde. In short, Drezner poses the question: how would we deal with a zombie outbreak?

Doctor Who? One small step towards innovation

32
Following the ABC’s announcement that they will be streaming timely content from the new series of Dr Who, I applaud the broadcaster for moving with public demand and technological advancements.

Why a 4G iPhone will spell doom for Vodafone

129
The local launch of a new Apple iPhone supporting 4G mobile speeds will spell disaster for ailing mobile carrier Vodafone -- the only major mobile telco in Australia not to have launched or even started constructing a 4G network to deliver improved speeds to customers.

Five things to like about the Coalition’s NBN policy

138
The Coalition's rival National Broadband Network policy has copped a lot of flak over the past several weeks. Business Spectator commentator Alan Kohler described it as "madness" and analyst Paul Budde described the UK model it's based on as "unconvincing". But there's still a lot of reasons to like the policy -- and here's five.

New copyright laws not the answer to illegal downloads

26
New laws are not the answer. Rather, we need to look at education, technical mechanisms, licensing solutions and responsibility of ISPs and search engines to find a workable balance between the right to own and creative content and the ability of users (and intermediaries) to access and reuse such content.

For whom the Whirlpool trolls? Stephen Conroy and the NBN

16
Is Whirlpool or the Financial Review more accurate when it comes to reporting on the National Broadband Network? Two Canberra journalism professors analyse the situation.

NBN: Misleading parliament should be a crime

49
The Federal Government should follow Queensland and enact a law which makes it illegal for politicians to knowingly mislead Parliament with false information. This would immediately have a dramatic and positive impact on the quality of the debate around the National Broadband Network.

How far should Australia go for Julian Assange?

38
Australians are constantly finding themselves in trouble overseas and turning to their government for assistance. But there is a limit to what Australia is legally required to do.

Analysis: Liberal MP Fletcher cherrypicks NBN facts

59
Liberal MP and former Optus executive Paul Fletcher's highly critical article about the new corporate plan released last week by the National Broadband Network Company contained a number of generally factually accurate but contextually misleading statements about the project, analysis has shown.

Premises passed the only useful NBN measurement

55
The National Broadband Network Company and the Federal Government should standardise on the "premises passed" statistic to measure the network's progress and stop using the confusing and amorphous "premises commenced or completed" measurement to provide concrete detail on how well it is progressing against its network rollout targets.

Blowouts? No. The NBN is very much on track

114
Last week the majority of Australia's media reported that the National Broadband Network Company's corporate plan showed it had blown its budget and was running late. But the truth is that the document actually paints a picture of a sensible and mature operation which is hitting almost all of its targets.

Help us fact-check Fletcher’s NBN comments

22
Delimiter invites readers to help us fact-check an important NBN-related article by Coalition MP Paul Fletcher. Let's get to the truth of the matter, together.

Help us fact-check Conroy’s NBN comments

81
Delimiter invites readers to help us fact-check an important NBN media release by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Finance Minister Penny Wong. Let's get to the truth of the matter, together.

Why Pirate Party members are not ‘whiny brats’

17
There appears to be an assumption within the broader intellectual property industries that members of Pirate Parties are just whiny brats who “want everything for free.” They consider us uneducated idiots who have not really given any thought into what we advocate. I find this odd.

Delimiter’s curious response to UK Superfast report

49
Delimiter has published a curious response to a UK House of Lords report on broadband policy released this week. Strange days indeed. Perhaps Delimiter read a different report to everyone else.

Cheaper hardware, software and digital downloads? Here’s how.

39
Australians are paying about twice as much as they should for a range of tech products including computers, software and digital downloads. It’s time for the government to act to bring this shameful situation to an end, to stop foreign multinationals from ripping us off. But until then, people should take steps to lower the cost of buying tech products. How? Read on.

Why is Anonymous hacking Australia?

7
We are in a new phase online where the blind are leading the blind, trying to find a path towards a more secure and regulated internet that enshrines our right to privacy.

Advancing a competition agenda

15
Regulatory assessments have not acknowledged that Telstra’s dominance in fixed telephony has significant impacts on the mobile industry, according to Vodafone chief executive Bill Morrow, who argues in this opinionated article that in a converging world, this siloed approach is no longer tenable.

Five ways the NBN is better than Google Fiber

140
This week Google finally launched its Google Fiber service in the US. But don't be lured by the company's sweet, sweet promises of cheap, unlimited fibre broadband to your home. Australia's National Broadband Network will be five times as good as Google Fiber. And here's why.

Turnbull needs evidence for FTTN claims

145
A consensus is developing amongst National Broadband Network commentators that Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull needs to provide more evidence that Fibre to the Node is the best style of broadband infrastructure rollout for Australia's long-term telecommunications needs.

Weighing the environmental costs: Buy an eReader, or a shelf of books?

7
Bookshelves towering floor to ceiling filled with weighty tomes, or one book-sized device holding hundreds of “books” in electronic form: which one of these options for the voracious reader creates the least damaging environmental footprint?

If Nicola Roxon doesn’t believe in her own policy, why should we?

8
Contrary to utopians such as Julian Assange, there is a place for secrecy in national security. But we need to be able to trust the spooks and police. Proposals that are vague, extraordinary and unsubstantiated do not induce trust. Neither does an Attorney-General who confuses kite-flying with an own goal.

How long before Vodafone hangs up?

40
Vodafone Australia is spending hundreds of millions of dollars re-building its troubled 3G mobile network, boosting its customer service levels and trying to win customers back with attractive marketing offers. But the sad truth is that all of its efforts appear to be having little impact on its dismal future.

Help us fact-check Turnbull’s NBN comments

162
Delimiter invites readers to help us fact-check an important and lengthy policy statement by Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Let's get to the truth of the matter, together.

Be sceptical of vague new ‘National Security’ powers

11
Any proposal by the government to increase its own power should be treated with scepticism. Double that scepticism when the government is vague about why it needs that extra power. Double again when those powers are in the area of law and order. And double again every time the words "national security" are used.

Pirate Party ACT registration not a failure

16
Pirate Party Australia failed a recent attempt to register their Australian Capital Territory branch. But media reports about the issue don't tell the whole story.

Dark day for the ACCC as it abandons competition

68
The Government and the NBN Co have decided to use our taxes to buy out Optus' competition just as they have done with Telstra’s HFC. A black day indeed for the ACCC and competition in Australia.

Dreaming of the perfect NBN policy

168
In an ideal world, the perfect National Broadband Network policy would be a mix of the policies espoused by both Labor and the Coalition, taking the best ideas from both sides and ditching the bad ones. It would address Australia's short-term needs while still investing in the future. Here's how it would work.

Verizon Wireless vs Telstra: The great mobile rip-off continues

18
Does the recent announcement by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) of a new code of practice to prevent bill shock for “long-suffering telco customers”, and improve product marketing practices, bring Australia up to par with its international cousins? In a word: no.

Watching the detectives: the case for restricting access to your social media data

0
Let’s hasten slowly in considering calls to free the state from administrative inconveniences such as warrants and rules of evidence.

How the NBN will change education: Australia’s “Last Spike” moment

182
The NBN is all about people; not about technology. It is about being able to train, inspire and educate students of whatever age to work together as never before. And it is about devising solutions to real challenges in an interdisciplinary way.

Coalition NBN notes: Some truth, mostly fiction

76
Last week Crikey leaked a confidential document which appeared to contain a large number of speaking tips for Coalition politicians to help them discuss policy areas in public, including with respect to the National Broadband Network. But to what extent is the document accurate when it comes to the NBN? Read on to find out.

How important will NBN contention ratios be?

149
Will cheaper ISPs provide a degraded level of service on the NBN compared to 'premium' ISPs, through the use of poorer contention ratios? We'll look at both sides of the issue in this follow-up article on the future of retail ISP competition under the NBN.

NBN competition will rest almost solely on price

160
Retail competition on the National Broadband Network will rest almost solely on price, in my opinion, as the importance of other differentiating factors between telcos like Telstra, Optus, TPG and iiNet will diminish almost to zero. And here's why.

Sayonara Steve: Today I ditch the iPhone

76
This afternoon I will march down to Telstra's store in Sydney's central business district and replace my much-loved Apple iPhone 4 with a HTC One XL. I'm leaving the cosy embrace of the Apple mobile empire and entering into a new relationship with Android. And here's why.

Salesforce needs a more anti-social approach

14
As it continues its mega-push into what it has described as "social enterprise" technologies, Salesforce.com risks losing its focus on its core CRM products, particularly as its software as a service model has failed to prove itself in several key markets in Australia.

Praise the Sun

9
In the critically acclaimed video game Dark Souls, there is a mysterious character known as Solaire of Astora who has developed something of a global cult following which may give us some insight into this human existence.

NBN: Sorry Mr Hockey, you’re still wrong

235
Yesterday Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey issued an extensive statement attempting to show that comments he had made about 4G mobile broadband having the potential to be "far superior" to the National Broadband Network's fibre had been taken out of context. Unfortunately, he only succeeded in digging himself a bigger hole.

4G comments taken out of context, says Hockey

163
Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey has described as "inaccurate and misleading" an article published by Delimiter which highlighted claims Hockey had made that 4G mobile broadband had the potential to be "far superior" than the NBN, claiming his comments were taken out of context.

Tiny niche ISPs join the NBN market

41
When you think about competition on the National Broadband Network, you normally think about major telcos like Telstra, Optus and iiNet battling it out to win Australia's broadband spend. But the truth is that a large number of very small ISPs have already joined the NBN market and are also competing.

Warning: Telstra is killing off Australia’s mobile competition

123
In five years' time, just how much market share will Telstra have in Australia's mobile phone industry? If it keeps on adding 900,000 new mobile connections every six months while its rivals do diddly squat, I would have to say the answer will be: Most of it.

Higher 100Mbps uptake will spur NBN price cuts

212
If Australians continue to buy 100Mbps NBN services at the current rate, it is likely that the real-world consumer cost of accessing the NBN will come down substantially over time, as the network will pay for its own construction much faster than the National Broadband Network Company had been anticipating.

The ACCC is falling too far in love with the NBN

146
In rubber-stamping the uncompetitive $800 million deal which Optus has signed with NBN Co, the national competition regulator has signalled a disturbing loss of independence and an obsequious willingness to make the Federal Government's National Broadband Network project succeed at all costs.

Would FYX’s global mode have breached copyright?

7
We should think carefully about the inevitable alarmist claims regarding FYX and be wary about movie industry calls for new laws that protect their interests at the expense of Australian consumers.

The NBN, service providers and you … what could go wrong?

12
The NBN will provide Australians with a raft of exciting new opportunities. For services providers, it will provide a much-needed chance to improve their customer relations and procedures. And who wouldn’t welcome that?

Australia’s IT startup scene: Blooming, not dying

22
This morning the Sydney Morning Herald published a series of articles claiming that Australia's technology startup ecosystem is unable to support local entrepreneurs, causing them to increasingly head to the US in search of the financial backing they are unable to attract in Australia. The only problem is, the evidence doesn't support this assertion.

Reality check: ISPs do not understand content

34
Australian ISPs, regulators and the Government need to take a step back and stop fooling themselves that future telecommunications competition will rest on ISPs' ability to provide bundled video content services to users. The reality is that ISPs aren't good at this task and customers don't want them to do it.

The Govt should hold a referendum on the NBN

111
The Federal Government should hold a non-constitutional referendum during the next Federal Election on whether Labor's National Broadband Network should go ahead, in order to settle the long-term fate of this important decade-long infrastructure project once and for all and end the incessant political bickering around it.

AGIMO needs a little Obama magic

8
It's hard to imagine AGIMO getting to the point where it has the direct support and interest of Australia's Prime Minister of the day in its efforts. But, if we've learnt anything from Vivek Kundra in the US, it's that this kind of executive-level buy-in is possible.

Reality check: AFACT is not planning mass lawsuits

27
Worried that AFACT will start suing individual users, now that it has lost its High Court case against iiNet? You needn't be. The organisation itself has denied any such plans, and even the legal case to identify Australian Internet pirates is on shaky ground at the moment.

iiNet’s Hollywood ending: what does its court victory mean for copyright law?

8
In what is being billed as iiNet versus Hollywood, the Australian internet service provider has come out an apparent winner after the High Court dismissed a copyright infringement case brought by industry movie studios. Nicolas Suzor, lecturer, Faculty of Law at Queensland University of Technology, explains the decision and what it means.

Back off, AFACT: Changing the law is not the answer

73
The Federal Government should ignore the pathetic demands of the film and TV industry for new legislation to "exterminate" Internet piracy and fix the blatantly obvious problems with its commercial model, following its latest loss in Australia's High Court. Australia's copyright law works well as it stands, and does not need changing.

Correction: NBN wireless isn’t ‘replacing’ ADSL

60
Calm down, everyone. The fact that the National Broadband Network is rolling out wireless broadband services in your area doesn't mean that your existing ADSL broadband service will be shut down. You won't be left in the lurch with inferior speeds and latency.

At least two web browsers for every Australian desktop: It should be mandatory

50
In mid-2008, a government staffer at an employee town hall meeting being held by the US State Department got up to ask Secretary of State Hilary Clinton what appeared to be a rather unusual question for the venue. "Can you please let the staff use an alternative web browser called Firefox?" asked public affairs officer Jim Finkle.

Have iiNet’s acquisitions helped or harmed competition?

25
Has iiNet's ongoing series of acquisitions harmed or helped the development of market competition in Australia's telecommunications sector? It's a difficult and complex question -- and one which we will attempt to answer in this in-depth analysis of the situation.

RTFM: How to keep CIOs under control

10
Chief information officers never seem to understand. It doesn't matter if the servers are up or down -- that's a user problem. The real issue is whether they are configured properly in the first place. The system must be perfect, pristine. Users pollute that nirvana.

Coldplay: No paradise in Australia for Huawei

1
Placing barriers to entry in the government space for the building of a network when Huawei operates extensively in the corporate sphere here in Australia seems more than a little political. It mirrors the overtly partisan nature of the debate in the United States, which is mired in assertion rather than evidence and procedures for determining investment occluded rather than transparent. A Coldplay indeed.

History is the key to understanding Huawei

3
Up until last week, many Australians were probably unaware of Chinese telcommunications company Huawei. But the decision by the federal government to ban Huawei from any involvement in the National Broadband Network has shone the spotlight on the company and its remarkable rise to prominence.

Wardriving & surviving: Who’s using your Wi-Fi?

9
The Queensland Police wardriving effort is certainly not the first of its kind. In fact, wardriving has been occurring since the inception of Wi-Fi in the 1990s.

Spotify: Saviour of the music industry?

8
It says an awful lot about the music industry that the key IT companies have dominated legal sales mechanisms in providing affordable digital systems and a decent market share. Spotify will continue to be an interesting experiment in an industry that is still not relaxed and comfortable about the new century.

Opening Pandora’s box: secret treaty threatens human rights

1
The Australian Parliament should reject ACTA because of its impact on human rights – particularly taking into account health care, access to medicines, and development.

Huawei & the NBN: Beware the CCP’s long arm

7
Huawei Australia’s local company men appear to have little idea of how China’s political economy, the Chinese telecommunications sector, or the Shenzhen-based parent company operates.

The datacentres that ate NSW

8
Cloud computing: Surely it is time for some fresh thinking in NSW government procurement – as taxpayers, don’t we deserve it?

Govt’s treatment of Huawei is inconsistent

28
While it is impossible for outsiders such as Ovum to assess the merits of national security issues because there is too much we don’t know, it is clear that there has been a lack of consistency and transparency in the way that Huawei has been treated.

Innovation is key in the Asian Century

0
If we are to fully capitalise on the benefits of the Asian Century, we need to fully embrace Chinese innovation and R&D in exactly the same way we would with any other country. To do anything else would risk Australia not being ‘on the right side of history’.

Watching Media Watch’s iPad coverage

26
In its criticism of the media coverage of the launch of Apple's new iPad in Australia this week, the ABC's normally stellar Media Watch program went too far, alleging journalistic impropriety where there was none, and unfairly targeting media outlets for legitimately covering an important news story which the public was interested in.

Huawei’s NBN blockout raises fundamental questions

23
As I have argued for several years now – and Alexander Downer himself has stated in recent weeks – the argument that Huawei is some sort of quasi-intelligence gathering arm of the Beijing government is so ludicrous that it should scarcely be tolerated in serious company.

The Department for ACTA

8
A key player in Australia’s negotiations to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) revealed itself last Monday and surprisingly it wasn’t News Ltd, the US Embassy in Canberra or even a reigning political party. The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade emerged as ACTA’s cheerleader-in-chief in Australia, trumpeting the benefits of the treaty before a rare open federal parliamentary committee.

ISP: Secret anti-BitTorrent piracy talks failing

24
It’s perhaps understandable that the rightsholders and ISPs don’t want their personal arguments heard in public. But by not allowing the people whose habits they hope to change get involved, it leads away from greater cooperation and understanding and towards suspicion and isolation. Piracy reductions definitely won’t be found at the end of that road.

In secret piracy talks, iiNet risks losing its integrity

88
By participating in a series of highly secret, closed door negotiations with the Government and the content industry over the future of Internet piracy in Australia, national broadband provider iiNet risks losing its integrity and the trust of its customers that it will represent their best interests on the issue.

Telstra’s 3G network is dying in CBDs

98
Popularity has its downside. Reports from around Australia over the past week have made it very clear that Telstra's flagship Next G network is often struggling to function at all in the CBDs of capital cities such as Sydney and Melbourne during peak load times, leaving customers in the lurch without any access to wireless broadband.

Conroy’s filter: To be or not to be?

31
Two and a half years ago, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced a significant delay to Labor's controversial mandatory Internet filter project, pending a review into the Refused Classification category of content which the filter was to block.The results of that review were published yesterday and contain very little guidance for the Minister. What will Conroy do now?

Turnbull again misleads public on NBN

67
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has this week made a number of misleading and factually inaccurate statements in a series of interviews and comments about the Government's National Broadband Network project, on topics ranging from the technology used in the project to its cost and retail broadband prices.

Why AFACT is wrong (and always will be)

36
The expression ‘copyright theft’ is a paradox: it is impossible to take away a person’s right to copy information or ideas. ‘Theft’ is used to misinform the public, media and, most importantly, lawmakers, in order to outlaw what many see as perfectly normal behaviour.

Telstra’s NBN plans: Just universally awful

90
Telstra's National Broadband Network plans released today are the broadband equivalent of Kryptonite. With less choice, less download quotas and less value than any other provider on the market, but for a higher price, Telstra's NBN options do more than stink -- they glow with a sickly radioactive foulness and should be avoided at all costs.

Save the NBN Kevin, you’re our only hope

66
The fate of the National Broadband Network now rests squarely in the hands of Kevin Rudd. If the former Prime Minister wins power back from Julia Gillard, Labor has a chance of retaining power at the next election and continuing the NBN rollout. If he fails to do so, most commentators agree, Gillard will be annihilated and Abbott will scrap the project wholesale.

R18+ game classification: The quest continues

2
The battle for an R18+ classification for videogames in Australia has been something of an epic, but the journey’s not over yet. There are still plenty more rocks and potholes to navigate before we start seeing R18+ games in local stores.

Fact-checking NBN politics: Where reality defeats spin

23
Perhaps the most common complaint about the ongoing National Broadband Network debate is the extent to which it has become dominated by misleading political spin that may obscure the fundamental ideas being discussed. With this in mind, this article will attempt to fact-check a number of recent NBN-related statements from both sides of politics. Who's telling porkies? We'll find out.

The truth about NBN Co’s satellite needs

56
Does the National Broadband Network Company really need to launch two expensive new satellites to provide remote Australia with broadband? Setting the politics aside, from a technical perspective, it appears the answer is a clear: "Yes".

Do Australia’s video game developers have a future?

18
While there are obviously plenty of opportunities to develop a sustainable video game industry in Australia, the key appears to be an ongoing dialogue between industry and policy advisors at a state level, and an association such as the GDAA.

Macquarie opens kimono on IT operations

2
One of Australia's largest but most secretive IT end user organisations has this week given industry observers a tantalising glimpse of its broad IT strategy, including staff restructuring across the board, back-office systems integrations and offshoring moves.

Why NBN prices will be higher (by Malcolm Turnbull)

129
In this post, Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull responds to the claim that broadband pricing will not increase under Labor's National Broadband Network plan.

AFL rights: Optus, Telstra in a techno-legal time warp

10
The danger here is that regulators go with a business-friendly commercial fix, rather than regulation in the public interest. At the heart of capitalist property law is the right to exploit: just ask Optus.

Correction: NBN prices will not be higher

92
In several radio interviews this week, Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull stated that the National Broadband Network project would cause consumer broadband prices to rise higher than those currently on the market. However, unfortunately this statement was factually incorrect.

Who owns footy rights? Optus web copyright victory explained

2
Yesterday’s Federal Court ruling that Optus customers are able to view sporting matches minutes after they are streamed live without breaching copyright is a landmark decision that alters our understanding of copyright law, and has significant implications for the AFL’s broadcasting rights deal.

TV Now: Why the AFL should be grateful

17
More eyeballs in front of live sport broadcasts are what matter. The AFL should be encouraging people to watch their product. Trying to stop them is just completely counter-productive.

Coalition reveals new FTTN broadband policy

25
The Federal Opposition today released a comprehensive new broadband policy to rival Labor's big-spending National Broadband Network project, describing its own initiative as a landmark 'Fibre to the Nothing' (FTTN) proposal.

Correction: Cutting the NBN won’t save money

120
Yesterday Opposition Leader Tony Abbott stated in a high-profile speech at the National Press Club in Canberra that cutting Labor's National Broadband Network project would free up Federal Government money to be spent in other areas such as transport. It was a nice political soundbite. However, unfortunately, this statement was factually incorrect.

Improving technology’s grades in Australian education

3
In Australian society, so much of the ongoing narrative about the current generation of students in our schools is focused around the different way that they understand and use technology; and so much of that narrative is focused around fear. But it doesn't need to be, and there's more than one side to the story.

What Apple’s incredible quarter means for Australia

12
$46 billion in revenue. 64 percent quarter on quarter growth. 37 million iPhones shipped. Apple just stunned the world with some incredible financial growth over the last three months of 2011. But what do these results mean for Australia?

A couple of important NBN corrections

27
Over the past several weeks, several prominent newspaper commentators have published a number of factual inaccuracies with respect to the Federal Government's National Broadband Network project. With the aim of informing good public policy debate, it seems appropriate to try and correct the record.

Blackmailing NBN Co works best through the media

155
Over the past week a rather pathetic little game of bluster, bluff and ultimately blackmail has played itself out in Australia's telco sector as a handful of Australia's major ISPs have done everything in their power to demonstrate just how self-interested they can be when it comes to exploiting the National Broadband Network.

Dick Smith’s not the hero product we need

45
Dick Smith and Harvey Norman are fabulous examples of retail marketplaces where you can buy anything. But increasingly, people don't want to buy anything. More often than not, they only want to buy the best thing. And that's the one thing which mass market retailers never quite seem to want to sell you.

Chekhov’s gun: Why Hackett had to fire Internode

45
Reality check: Simon Hackett didn't sell Internode because of the National Broadband Network. He didn't sell it to cash out. And he certainly didn't sell it to take Internode to the next stage of its development. He sold it because one man -- no matter how strong -- can only hold up a visionary ideal for so long, and twenty years of doing so is more than enough.

The Kindle Fire will storm Australia in 2012

40
Prediction: When Amazon's Kindle Fire launches in Australia next year, it will very quickly become the second most popular tablet locally behind Apple's dominant iPad, easily eclipsing rival offerings from the likes of Samsung, Motorola, Research in Motion and more.

Demolished? No. Turnbull’s criticism has only tempered the NBN argument

56
In September 2010, Tony Abbott set one of the Coalition's most senior politicians loose on Labor's flagship National Broadband Network project, with instructions to wreck and "demolish" it. Fifteen months later, with Malcolm Turnbull's credibility in the portfolio in tatters and his arguments falling on deaf ears, it is clear that mission has failed, with his criticism having only clarified and strengthened the NBN policy.

Multi-dwelling units a major issue for the NBN

98
The experiencein Hong Kong and Singapore suggests that NBN Co. in Australia will ultimately be able to gain access to most – but maybe not all – multi-dwelling units with recalcitrant owners to complete its network rollout, but doing so will require the patience of Job and might take a lot longer than anyone thought.

Samsung beats Apple: But what does it mean?

2
Australian judges have responded quickly and intelligently. The courts have explicitly based their decisions on perceptions of community benefit and on a coherent interpretation of what the national Parliament, through the Patents Act 1990, wants the law to do. The latest decision shows that patent law is working, and working well.

Self-interest is ruling Australia’s piracy debate

88
Over the past few months, I have alternately been appalled, disgusted, saddened and ultimately bored at the degree to which naked self-interest is ruling the ongoing debate about how Australia will deal with the issue of online copyright infringement (Internet piracy).

Anti-piracy scheme throws users to the legal wolves

54
The anti-piracy scheme proposed by the ISP industry this afternoon as a response to online copyright infringement through platforms like BitTorrent opens the door for content owners to start taking hundreds of thousands of Australians to court for minor offences such as downloading a handful of films or TV episodes.

Govt to upgrade filter to new SOPA version

29
The Federal Government today confirmed plans to upgrade its controversial mandatory Internet filtering scheme with the new Stop Online Piracy Act module released in the United States this week, with Communications Minister Stephen Conroy confirming the new functionality would be ready ahead of the next Federal Election.

The iiBorg are assimilating all NBN competition

63
You can easily imagine what coffee meetings with Michael Malone must be like these days. "Resistance is futile," the leader of the growing iiBorg empire would sternly tell anyone brave enough to enter his company's headquarters. "You will be assimilated. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own."

Disappointing: Turnbull hasn’t fleshed out his NBN plan

131
In one of the greatest disappointments of Australia's telecommunications debate this year, Malcolm Turnbull has done virtually nothing to flesh out the details or address criticisms of his rival draft National Broadband Network policy since it was unveiled in August.

The Westpac dialectic: IT outsourcing and warring narratives

28
At a certain point, corporate-speak becomes more than an abstraction. It becomes more than a useful metaphor. It becomes something which is simply undesirable in the honest relationship between an employer and and an employee. It becomes something which is all-too pervasive in our media-saturated society. It becomes ... spin.

Optus proves: Coalition wrong on NBN pricing

119
The release of Optus' National Broadband Network plans yesterday represents the final nail in the coffin for the Coalition's patently untrue claim that the rollout of the NBN will cause broadband prices around Australia to rise above current ADSL levels.

Optus’ NBN plans: The most intelligent so far

106
Well, colour me extremely surprised. Optus' National Broadband Network plans released today are among the best so far, and represent a level of innovative thinking about the next-generation infrastructure that has so far been missing from all previous NBN commercial pricing options.

Conroy’s time as Comms Minister is coming to an end

110
There are very good reasons to suspect that Stephen Conroy's reign of fire and blood as Australia's Communications Minister is rapidly coming to an end; with the nation to receive new talent in this crucial portfolio at the next Federal Election -- or even substantially before it.

Cranky Telstra wants its champagne glass back

14
Telstra's response so far to concerns about its Structural Separation Undertaking has been conciliatory by its own standards; but has not yet come anywhere near to substantially addressing issues with the document expressed by its rivals and the competition regulator over the past several months.

UK piracy ruling will affect Australia

11
It’s only a matter of time before the internet is fully regulated in Australia. The English High Court decision brings this reality one step closer.

A little context, for our big Apple crybaby

30
Reading through some of the news reports about Apple’s court case today blocking the Australian launch of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, I couldn’t escape the feeling that the iPad maker’s lawyers had been spending too much time immersed in the company’s famous reality distortion field.

Reality check: Telstra 4G not aimed at the NBN

7
Those claiming that Telstra's 4G mobile broadband rollout is a shot across the bow of the fibre National Broadband Network need to take a chill pill and look a bit harder at what the company is really aiming to achieve with the project: Freed up capacity on its existing mobile infrastructure to deal with existing demand.

Apologies: The iPhone 5 won’t run on Telstra’s 4G

10
Right, you're thinking. Telstra has just launched its 4G/LTE network around Australia and Apple is planning to unveil the iPhone 5 next month. There's every reason to believe these two beautiful facts could come together in one glorious orgy of speed-filled smartphone goodness, right? Wrong.

NBN plans trapped in an ADSL framework

53
From the quota included to shaping speeds, from what is considered 'on-net' traffic and even the inclusion of dial-up backups, the release of NBN pricing plans by iiNet, Internode and Exetel betrays nothing so much as that thinking on NBN pricing is still trapped in a paradigm where ADSL broadband is the norm.

Does the NBN even need a voice port?

82
If there is one thing which has always surprised me about the National Broadband Network project, it is the dogged insistence of the network's designers on building a legacy voice telephony port into what is supposed to be next-generation infrastructure.

Opinion: Internode must slash its horrible NBN pricing

57
The release of iiNet's highly affordable National Broadband Network pricing this morning makes it as crystal clear as the view from Simon Hackett's glider that fellow ISP Internode must drastically slash its own prices or be left out of the NBN race altogether.

Deconstructing Australia’s wireless/NBN fetish

45
The uncertain future development roadmap for wireless technologies and their potential to plug the broadband gap between copper and fibre means wireless will continue to be at the centre of the National Broadband Network debate for the foreseeable future.

Australia desperately needs stable telco policy

46
The long-term nature of infrastructure investment and the squabbling of the past half-decade has made it increasingly clear that a bi-partisan approach to telecommunications policy is needed in Australia. The only difficulty may be convincing our arrogant, indecisive, stubborn and incredibly own-party blinkered political leaders that they should sit across the table from each other and discuss the issue like adults.

Internode up shit creek? Bullcrap. Here’s why.

43
Those currently running around like Chicken Little with their heads cut off and proclaiming that the sky is going to fall on national broadband provider Internode need to take a swift injection of reality juice directly to the frontal lobe. The loss of four of Internode's most senior technical staff and a few other "difficulties" at the company are not evidence of a pending wider collapse.

Westpac: A case study for the complex cloud

2
Until we start to have more complex debates about cloud computing, Australian CIOs will face great challenges in explaining the right path forward for their organisation to senior executives such as CEOs and CFOs. Because right now, 'cloud' covers so much under one umbrella that many CIOs are switching off when they hear the term used ... while most CEOs and CFOs no doubt think, when they think about the cloud, that it's a catch-all solution to every problem.

What’s your favourite beer?

20
Over on the Delimiter forums, talk of the National Broadband Network has quietened down while another, far more serious issue has been being debated since last Friday afternoon: What is everyone’s favourite beer? And judging from the results, you are all a bunch of picky bastards with expensive tastes.

Um, HP? You might want to kill the TouchPad ads

8
Um, HP? You might want to stop advertising the TouchPad, seeing as your exclusive Australian partner Harvey Norman has now run out of stock following the $98 fire sale and you’re not planning to make any more. I know it’s short notice, but surely something can be done about this series of ads plastered around the country?

Why Australia’s tablet market is still Apple’s bitch

22
The mobile device market in Australia – even more so than in many other markets – has become, if I may quote Ruslan Kogan, Apple’s bitch. Hoping to tap into an as-yet-untapped vein of anti-Apple sentiment, retailers are dutifully stocking alternatives as one contender after another launches heavily-marketed iPad alternatives – but I don’t get the impression many people are buying them.

Towards a more complex NBN argument

241
The furious debate which took place over the weekend over National Broadband Network applications highlights the fact that the project raises fundamental questions about what the role of Government should be in our complex and multi-layered society ... and just what needs it should attempt to address.

Why on-premise private cloud matters

2
In this article, CSC Australia and Asia chief technology & innovation officer Bob Hayward responds to our critical comments about the company’s recently launched BizCloud offering. Hayward is also a former director of IT advisory at KPMG and a former senior vice president and Gartner Fellow.

In defence of Turnbulls’ NBN speed claims

300
Those blinded by Labor’s glitzy NBN vision need to rub their eyes for a second and realise that Malcolm Turnbull knows what he is talking about when he says there are few consumer applications which require the kinds of 100Mbps speeds which the fibre network will provide.

Will Telstra give iiNet one 4G ring to rule Optus?

47
Like a cluster of ancient elves residing deep within the sheltered enclaves of evergreen forest glades, the worthy folk of SingTel subsidiary Optus have long focused their gaze to the far north, where the dark lords of mighty Telstra have ruled Australia's telecommunications sector from their fiery thrones.

Laptops for schools should have been iPads

46
Let's not kid ourselves that this was the right choice. Had the politicians waited several years and spent its money on tablets instead, Australia's education system would have been the envy of the entire world.

Turnbull: Praising the mistakes of Alstons past

77
Malcolm Turnbull's knee-jerk rejection last week of proposed changes to local telco infrastructure planning laws starkly demonstrates how far the Coalition is right now from understanding the fundamental and underlying changes required to implement its own new telecommunications policy.

Dated Treasury advice does not invalidate the NBN

44
If there is one thing we can absolutely rely on with respect to the debate about the National Broadband Network, it is that every week, some minor interest group, technically illiterate Coalition politician or blow-in journalist will find some new and completely spurious reason why the project shouldn't go ahead.

Turnbull must quickly fill his NBN policy holes

83
Last week Malcolm Turnbull outlined a telecommunications policy which could become a credible alternative to Labor's NBN juggernaut. But for all its surface-level attractiveness, the Liberal MP's vision is far from complete -- and unless the holes are plugged quickly, it will die a quick and painful death.

Technological change should spur privacy law update

0
Last month’s data breach at Medvet – the South Australian state government enterprise that dominates the workplace drug and alcohol testing industry – suggests your expectations of information privacy are misplaced.

Turnbull’s new NBN policy is 90 percent win

414
Yesterday Malcolm Turnbull did exactly what a Liberal shadow minister should do: Present a credible, fiscally responsible and less disruptive alternative to a big-spending and over the top Labor project which since it was unveiled in 2009 has been the policy equivalent of using an elephant gun to kill a house fly.

Apple’s Samsung lawsuit raises wider patent questions

3
The mobile patent wars, it seems, have reached Australian shores.

Curmudgeon: 3D smartphones have no depth of feel

9
3D smartphones won't succeed as gaming or content consumption devices, but that doesn't mean they won't find their niche.

Is Google+ building a cathedral or a bazaar?

0
The more you control the way the information is presented and, more importantly, the links between that information (i.e. people’s identifiers), the easier that information is to collect. The last thing Google wants is the messy, anarchic environment of the Bazaar, where people can be anonymous, have multiple identities, interact with anyone they please, and remain unobserved.

Evil descends on the NBN? Erm, not quite

5
Another day, another hacking exploit makes headlines.

Why NBN ISPs won’t all perform the same

66
opinion This week, Exetel chief executive John Linton made the audacious claim that all ISPs reselling National Broadband Network services would deliver the exact same performance to customers. However, I believe the claim to be broadly wrong – and in this article I’ll attempt to demonstrate why.

Orgies of self-interest leave no room for sober justice

54
This week, I have become increasingly embarassed at the incredible callousness with which our society has seized upon an unproven crime to further its own diverse naked self-interest, with scant regard for apparent defunct concepts such as 'truth', 'justice' and that archaic concept which was once labelled 'the presumption of innocence'.

Enough with the NBN pricing hysteria, already

172
Everyone feverishly slamming early National Broadband Network pricing plans needs to sit the hell down, take a chill pill and stop engaging in an orgy of self-congratulatory rage over pricing which is actually very reasonable and wholly expected when you remove your head from the media hype machine and examine it in detail.

Pulling apart the NBN’s untenable pricing model (by Simon Hackett)

39
The National Broadband Network (NBN) is the subject of promises from the government that consumers will pay comparable prices to current day ADSL2+ and phone service bundles in order to access entry level NBN based services, and that NBN based retail pricing will be nationally uniform. Unfortunately, a number of pressure points in the wholesale pricing model exist which will make these promises (from the government) untenable in practice, unless serious issues with the underlying pricing model are addressed by NBN Co and the ACCC.

Five questions about the Coalition’s new NBN policy

62
Yesterday Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull had a big splash in the media, announcing what many described as a new Coalition National Broadband Network policy. But while it has its merits, we’re not so sure the policy has been fleshed out very far; So here’s five questions for the member for Wentworth to answer at his leisure.

Chrome OS, like Tux, will never fly

32
Chrome OS may be all shiny and new now, but Google is taking a lot for granted in hoping that it can turn Australia Chrome overnight. Without some killer apps that you can't get by loading the Chrome browser on the computer you already have, I suspect the world will quickly realise that a kilogram of Chrome OS carries exactly the same weight as a kilogram of penguin feathers -- which is to say, not very much at all.

Australian Amazon datacentre? Or just a CDN node?

11
There's simply no way that Australia will see an Amazon datacentre presence consisting of anything like the same scale that the company has deployed in the US, Europe, or even Japan. What we will see is likely something like Amazon Edge, plus a little bit on the side. Datacentre rollouts are more complex than headlines would make them out to be -- and so are commercial decisions for a company as big as Amazon Web Services.

ANZ’s purely tactical IT strategy is short-sighted

6
The purely tactical IT approach which ANZ is following may seem like the right one at the moment. But down the path, the bank may find its ability to shift gears technologically has been shredded to pieces through a process involving a thousand cuts.

Reality check: Internode is not ‘price gouging’

185
Those who are currently having a big fat whinge about Internode's new broadband plans need to harden up and realise that the ISP isn't trying to gouge users for profits; in fact, it's one of the only truly honest and transparent companies in Australia's telecommunications sector.

Has the Coalition concluded its Quigley witch-hunt?

76
If Malcolm Turnbull or anyone else in the Coalition wants to be effective in setting telecommunications policy in future, they had better start to demonstrate a little more respect for those who will be implementing it.

BitTorrent war: Will ‘six strikes’ policy come to Australia?

26
Forget 'three strikes and you're out'; Internet users in the US are about to have a total of six warnings about downloading pirated content before their ISPs get fed up with them and disconnect their broadband connection for good. But could such a scheme ever be implemented in Australia?

Five disturbing things about the Interpol filter

40
This month, Australia gets its first mandatory Internet filtering scheme, courtesy of a project which is seeing the nation’s largest ISPs Telstra and Optus block their users from visiting a ‘worst of the worst’ list of child pornography sites defined by international agency Interpol. But the project hasn’t exactly come up smelling like roses. Here’s five things we find disturbing about the whole thing.

Biggest ever? Optus penalty just another “parking fine”

2
It’s possible to view the Optus penalty this week as nothing more than a cost of doing business, a slap on the wrist, a quick 10min in the corner of the room with its face to the wall. This isn’t a substantial fine — and it shouldn’t be treated as such.

WA shared services disaster a warning to others

0
The decision by the West Australian (WA) government to abandon its shared corporate services is a salutary reminder of the governance realities of the Westminster system of government. Portfolio and agency autonomy is the dominant force whatever the desires of central agencies and the grand plans cooked up for them by consultants. Just because benefits appear compelling in a spreadsheet does not mean that they can be realised in practice.

Australia’s desktop PC paradigm is under siege

23
Right now chief information officers and IT managers right around Australia are facing a difficult decision regarding one of the most critical but also trouble-plagued segments of their IT infrastructure -- their desktop fleets.

Optus’ NBN deal gives it an unfair advantage

69
Optus' $800 million National Broadband Network deal is an unnecessary and unsavoury sweetheart arrangement which smacks of favouritism and will deliver Optus a war chest with which to attack smaller rivals like iiNet, TPG and Internode; rivals which will not be paid to migrate their customers onto the NBN.

Gillard is ripping up Labor’s NBN credibility

96
No matter how hard the Australian Labor Party tries, when it comes to the telecommunications sector it just keeps on shooting itself in the foot -- a fact demonstrated starkly by Prime Minister Julia Gillard's appalling comments on the NBN over the past week.

Voluntary filter: Why I’m dumping Telstra

50
I cannot and will not be a party to online censorship, and that is why I left Telstra.

Could Internode buy iiNet? On paper … maybe.

9
Could Internode buy iiNet, now that Amcom is divesting its 23 percent stake in the Perth-based Internet service provider? On Monday I said no, but some readers questioned that view. So let's take a closer look at the possibility. Hell, it's likely still a pipe dream, but it's fun to speculate!

Making Don Malone an offer he can’t refuse

2
This week we're running a series of articles looking at why it's unlikely that iiNet will be acquired anytime soon, despite Amcom's decision to divest its 23 percent stake in the ISP. Yesterday we looked at potential buyers; today we're looking at iiNet's executive team.

Why iiNet won’t be acquired: No buyers

13
Speculation that iiNet will be acquired following a decision last week by Amcom to divest its 23 percent stake in the ISP is simply ill-informed. Our favourite Perth-based broadband provider isn’t going anywhere — and over the next week, every day we’ll publish one major reason why.

Sit tight for Australia’s tablet price war

10
If you're considering buying any form of tablet device in the next month or so Australia, stop right where you are, put your wallet and your hard-earned cash back in your pocket and go and take a cold shower for ten minutes until you calm down and your lust for loot has vanished from your feverish brain.

Can David Thodey escape his Big Blue shadow?

11
One cannot help but feel that there was a certain irony to David Thodey's life yesterday which must have been impossible for the Telstra CEO to ignore.

When does technology fade into the background?

1
Sometimes it’s time to let things go and stop treating them as unusual just because they involve a certain type of technology.

Having your Exchange cake and Gmail too

2
For the past several years, many Australian chief information officers and IT managers have been hard-locked into choosing between just two options when it comes to evaluating the future of their email systems.

NBN: Is $109 the magic triple play price?

16
Most of Australia's major fixed-line telcos have standardised their pricing on mid-range bundled broadband, telephone and IPTV plans around the $109 mark.

Australia’s ICT industry is fierce and strong

0
Australia's second technology boom is upon us, and things will never be the same again.

NBN 2.6 million times too slow, says Alan Jones

30
Radio shock jock Alan Jones appears to have gotten his technologies a little confused, in an analysis this week of how a new data speed record set by scientists in Germany might affect the National Broadband Network.

It’s too soon for Windows 8

24
Many organisations upgrading to Windows 7 probably clandestinely expect their new desktop operating system to last as long as the last one -- a decade or so.

Oh dear: Microsoft, SAP chiefs can’t spell

8
oh dear You’d think after graduating to the top of the pile and being appointed to run the Australian divisions of global technology giants like Microsoft and SAP, you’d be able to get simple spelling right. Apparently not, judging by several tweets by Microsoft’s Asia-Pac chief Tracey Fellows.

In defence of an honourable man

126
It is completely legitimate to debate the merits of the NBN; like many others, I myself have been a long-term critic of the project, particularly its economic model. But it is not legitimate to link an innocent man with bribery and corruption simply to serve those ends.

Can wireless replace fixed broadband? Yes … and no.

66
Over the past week, I’ve been conducting a little experiment with respect to my household broadband situation.

Why EA will be great for Firemint

2
Criticising Firemint for simply doing the necessary in order to release the best work they possibly can is unfair and ultimately gets in the way of what should be the number one aim of anybody in the game development industry, regardless of their business circumstances: creating the most awesome games possible.

Stop the personal attacks, now (by Mike Quigley)

45
The past week has seen the debate over the National Broadband Network take a disappointing turn. It has moved away from arguments over the pros and cons of building a ubiquitous network available to every premise in Australia to an unfounded attack on the integrity of myself as the chief executive of NBN Co and on my chief financial officer, Jean-Pascal Beaufret.

Firemint – success or sell-out?

6
But I can’t help feel the way I have always felt when seeing something amazing that Australians have built with their own blood, sweat and tears being snatched up by a massive, impersonal, multinational. Like so many Australian companies before it, Firemint has now missed its chance to become something truly great – it has cashed in its chips and joined the mothership.

Why Telstra is wrong on VoIP (by Simon Hackett)

83
There is a deep sense in which the statements made about VoIP by Telstra today are simply trying to deflect its own status as the last adopter of this technology by claiming that it is somehow not going to be good enough until Telstra 'invents' it via some mysterious magical property imbued upon it by calling it 'digital voice' instead of VoIP.

The Earl of Wentworth is debasing himself

60
Turnbull has already been forced to make too many political compromises to prevail against a man who has never given in ... nor faced the voters on election day. Quigley is the real deal. And the sooner the Earl of Wentworth realises that, the better.

Why I’m ditching VoIP for the PSTN

102
This week I called iiNet and cancelled our VoIP service. We’re returning to the Public Switched Telephony Network. All of my calls from now on will be placed over the ageing copper infrastructure which the National Broadband Network will eventually replace. The switch will take down our broadband connection for several days, but at the end of the process it’ll be worth it.

Telcos can’t have their femto-cake and eat it too

19
Telcos cannot have their cake and eat it too. The commercial model guiding how customers will pay for any femtocell service must be fair. And right now, it’s clear that it simply is not.

A review of Australian political iPhone apps

4
It appears that neither of Australia’s two major sides of politics – Labor and the Coaltiion -- has so far developed an iPhone app to help keep their supporters up to date on their activities. Even the Greens – known as a progressive party in touch with the younger generation – don’t have an iPhone app that we could find.

What makes a great Australian iPhone app?

22
On Thursday this week, Delimiter will publish its first eBook. Entitled The best Australian iPhone apps (under $5), this 40 page effort will list and review over 30 of the best iPhone apps focused on Australia, as well as featuring a introduction by well-known Australian iPhone developer Graham Dawson – creator of the popular Oz Weather app, among others.

Welcome to NBN 17. It’s safer here.

73
For some people, mathematics and a crowbar are more than enough.

Lining up for an iPad does not make you crazy

33
Embedded in much of the coverage of Australian queues for the iPad 2 several weeks ago was a not-so-subtle implication that those who lined up for hours and sometimes days to buy the hyped Apple tablet must be somewhat crazy.

eBooks in Australia – What went wrong?

46
This article is by Darryl Adams, a government worker and internet tragic. A former IT worker, he still pines for the days of IBM...

iiNet’s piracy authority is only half a solution

69
The problem with iiNet's scheme is that its 'traffic police' analogy is far from apt for the situation which Australians find themselves in with respect to watching TV and movie content.

Lotus fans: Show me the money or shut the hell up

41
If there is one thing I am absolutely sick to death of, it is the pathetic rantings of die-hard Lotus Notes fanboys about how technically superior their product is, and how everyone else who isn't drinking the IBM kool-aid are somehow "biased" and don't understand Notes' obvious superiority.

How seriously should we take Ruslan Kogan?

38
As we said before, Ruslan Kogan is a talented, visionary and successful entrepreneur who deserves our attention. But the events of the past few weeks have demonstrated we simply cannot take the maverick businessman at his word -- because he has done little over the past week to back up some very large and very public claims with hard evidence.

Optus’ stagnation begs leadership change

41
After seven years of leading Optus and many more in senior leadership positions at the telco before his ascension, O'Sullivan obviously still relishes his role and has a passion for the telecommunications industry. But he no longer has the energy to stay on the bleeding edge which the sector habitually operates on.

Five reasons Australians shouldn’t buy an iPad 2

66
Here's five reasons why Australians, specifically, shouldn't buy the iPad 2. Treat it as an antidote to the mega-hype that will be circulating today in Australia's media-sphere about Steve Jobs' latest masterpiece. We're calling it anti-marketing.

Picking apart the Coalition’s NBN misinformation

218
Whether or not any of us is a supporter of the NBN, I think we as the Australian people would be much better served by some fair and reasonable debate based on facts, rather than the spewing out of inaccurate, and misinformed spin! Where do they get such dumb ideas?

Why are media giants so afraid of technology?

50
What our media companies should take from the popularity of piracy, even in Australia, is how this new medium (the big, bad Internet) can be used as a distribution channel for the new generation of media consumer.

O’Sullivan and Dews: Leaders in exile

4
In scale and tone, Paul O'Sullivan's reluctance to enter the limelight of the Australian telecommunications industry is currently only matched by one man: VHA chief executive Nigel Dews.

iiNet’s BoB Lite: Insecure by design

65
While testing iiNet's new Bob Lite integrated ADSL router yesterday, I became aware that it ships with an extremely insecure default Wi-Fi setup.

4G: How Telstra will ROFLstomp Optus, VHA

45
When the reality of a working LTE deployment hits Australia through late 2011, with all mobile phone owners increasingly being smartphone owners ... Telstra's Next G network will become nothing short of irresistable.

Oh dear: One for the ladies …

4
Now it's time for Delimiter's female audience to enjoy themselves ... courtesy of a promotion of some kind by Virgin Mobile in Martin Place yesterday, involving the telco's "big cap" plan and chocolate enticements to break up with your current mobile provider. "In less than 24 hours you could be out of an unhappy relationship, and into a brand new phomance with someone who really cares," says Virgin head of customer narketing Dan Woodall. We bet.

The NBN will not kill your “way of life”

131
Some ideas are so bad that they deserve to be ignored and cast back into the wilderness from whence they came. The ideas that the National Broadband Network will somehow destroy someone's way of life is one of them.

Caption contest: What is David Thodey doing?

31
We couldn't help but wonder what precisely David Thodey is doing here at Telstra's half-yearly financial results conference this morning. It looks like he's either planning to throttle someone, or is holding some kind of invisible ball. Or is it a new Xbox 360 Kinect move? Let us know in the comments.

Anti-NBN junkies need to go to rehab

168
Like the junkie who can't quite quit their harmful habit, the haters of the NBN project just refuse to give up the object of their fervent hatred, fumbling around in the dark continuously for their next fix; the next flawed argument that might just prove once and for all that the project is a dud.

Conroy’s R18+ decision

2
A feeble Delimiter Friday afternoon attempt at humour, based on the Rage Guy and other memes floating around at the moment online.

Internet control: Conroy’s not fooling anyone

6
Today, Senator Conroy has was asked about the crisis in Egypt, where a desperate government cut internet access in order to hinder protestors. The minister in response declared his undying love for an Internet free of government control and assured us that such a thing could never happen in Australia.

Refer the matter to an “Online Retail Forum”?Yes, Minister.

22
As a complete waste of time, as Sir Humphrey would no doubt say, Conroy's Online Retail Forum will be a stunning success. I'm fairly sure that everyone's answer to whether or not it should be held will arrive shortly: "Yes, Minister".

Oh dear: Simon Hackett, datacentre disco star

5
While researching Simon Hackett for an article on his entry into iiNet's 'Top Geek' competition, we found this amusing video of the Internode managing director entering what appears to be one of the ISP's datacentres ... in style. Hit it, boys!

Why AGIMO’s open source policy will change nothing

20
Open source does not fit the framework which proprietary vendors have painstakingly installed in the minds of organisations like AGIMO over the decades. It's taken time, but Microsoft already won that war.

In defence of limited govt IT purchasing

1
It should be obvious at this point that it is not the Government's ability to follow its own tendering processes which is broken, but rather the tendering processes itself.

NBN: Who will be connected last?

197
Now that Labor's ambitious National Broadband Network project has finally cleared all of the regulatory, commercial and political hurdles that have stood in the way of its path to universal bandwidth nirvana, it's time to ask the most important question of all about the project. Who will be connected last?

Has Apple’s iPhone jumped the shark?

25
Apple only has a brief interval of time in which to attract our middle class attention with shiny new toys before we start to feel guilty for not joining the faster, broader and increasingly more innovative and open Android upgrade cycle.

Give Turnbull a break, he’s a funny bastard

30
This intelligent, responsive, charismatic, technologically savvy and ambitious politician is currently barking up the wrong tree with respect to the NBN and feeding the public a lot of crap about speeds -- even if his financial arguments are sound. But the last thing I want to say about Turnbull, is, let's give the poor man a break.

Why Vodafone customers are a pack of lazy whingers

122
Don’t whinge about the company which is providing you with poor service, then sue them, and finally, demand the Government do something about their security problems. It’s an open, competitive market, people. DUMP THEIR ASS AND PICK ANOTHER PROVIDER. How hard can it be? Really, Vodafone customers, how long will it take you to realise you can go elsewhere?

Let’s face it, Gerry Harvey has a point

108
But in the meantime, let’s not simply tell Gerry Harvey to STFU because he has a dud website and is a rich old fatcat billionaire having a whinge in public. He didn’t get to where he is by being ignorant — unlike most of the people buying his products.

Education the key as Reinecke echoes Gershon

7
In Australia, as the Reinecke Report is digested, it’s time for us to get serious and undertake the significant cultural and behavioural change that Gershon specified, and the first step in any change is education, for all players.

The real reason The Hoff is in Sydney

13
Delimiter can exclusively reveal that the iconic American actor has been in Australia for the past six months, on a secretive mission to aid Australia's technology sector in its quest to finally overtake Silicon Valley and become the premiere global market for technology companies.

Private cloud ball is now in IBM’s court

0
There is one factor which IBM's cloud computing strategy appears to be lacking at the moment.

It’s the internet, stupid: WikiLeaks and the modern state

4
Many have speculated that the internet, fully realised, would bring forward an era of global citizenship and the permanent fracturing of the nation-state. Whether this is folly or fact will only be understood in hindsight, but for now, we'll have to be content with watching the world's governments grappling with more immediate questions of what they have tried to hide, and what they now have to fear.

Remember, Telstra isn’t that expensive any more

32
Here at Delimiter, we’ve created this handy motivational poster to help Optus mobile customers through the bad times.

What the hell is going on at NAB?

9
The Westpac experience has delivered Australia's banking sector a stern lesson when it comes to reducing Severity 1 incidents in banks. You can cut down the problems; but it will take time, serious investment, strong leadership and a commitment to change. I'm not sure that the NAB has all the elements it needs right now; it may take a change of CEO for the bank to understand that, as it did at CommBank and Westpac before.

Google’s US-centricity is starting to grate

17
In short, if Google Australia wants to take the high road, it has to earn it and show Australia that its local presence is not just a sales and marketing office.

Oh dear: Generation Y, meet Stephen Conroy

10
Oh dear. We're fairly sure this meeting would have been punctuated by long, uncomfortable silences.

NBN Co business case: A big fat load of nothing

24
I just wasted twenty minutes of my life poring through one of the most boring and vacuous documents which I have had the privilege to read in my career as a journalist. And I want that time back.

Australia’s double dragon enterprise IT revolution

3
Australian workers are starting to demand that their data and applications can be delivered to any device, anywhere, at any time, and they want all this now. Cloud computing + iPad = a level of flexibility and productivity that has heretofore been impossible in the enterprise.

I tried to buy a Samsung Galaxy Tab … but failed

9
The scene: Deep in the dungeon of a Federal Government agency. Our protagonist, a mild mannered government worker by day, intrepid reporter at night, sees the Delimiter article on Vodafone releasing the Samsung Galaxy Tab on this date! Hallelujah!

Australia needs a cloud computing regulator

2
It is time that the Australian ICT Industry created an appropriate regulatory model for cloud computing and once again showed the world its ability to create resilient and innovative environments for effective business -- just as was done when the G8 turned to the APRA model as the basis for global financial regulation.

Australia’s blue collar ICT challenge

0
The bottom line is that Australia lacks call centres, cloud computing hubs, ICT hardware and software manufacturing capability not because we don't have high-speed broadband. Rather it is the lack of a definable understanding of how ICT services and their supporting labour force will take its place in the roll-out, development and economic benefit of the NBN that represents the real issue needing to be addressed.

Gmail vs Outlook/Exchange: Round Two

25
Yesterday I dipped my proverbial toe in the water of public opinion about the respective merits of different email platforms, and boy -- did I get burnt. That calm-looking summer pool was actually boiling hot with conviction.

Server vendors’ days are numbered

6
This week I had a conversation with an Australian chief information officer which I considered both profoundly interesting -- but also extremely disturbing.

Google has lost its startup culture … and its mojo

14
The departure of high-profile and long-serving senior managers Kate Vale and Lars Rasmussen from Google Australia this month represents more than just the typical losses of a couple of mid-level employees to greener pastures.

After just six weeks, Turnbull has Conroy on the run

13
Why the hell should Turnbull let Conroy have his way now? He's got the Senator on the run. All he needs to achieve is some modest concessions from the Government on the NBN -- which he appears close to -- and six weeks after the Coalition lost the election (in a manner of speaking), he's got a claim to being the most successful member of the Shadow Cabinet, on a national issue which Tony Abbott clearly knows nothing about.

NBN war: Is The Australian out of line?

269
Conroy’s arrogant attitude towards criticism of his prize project will need to change drastically — and soon — if he truly wants to drive the project forward and to success. Otherwise, he may find it’s not just The Australian on his back about the issue — but much of the rest of the media as well.

Oh dear: Conroy claims “nude DSL” is taking off

4
Biting wit proved the flavour of the night at a Senate Estimates Committee hearing in Canberra tonight as Communications Minister Stephen Conroy faced off against the acid tongue of Liberal Senator Mary Jo Fisher and and that of others, in an caustic five-hour marathon question and answer session in which Conroy referred to the popular new phenomenon of "nude DSL".

Deconstructing morality and Labor’s internet filter

18
What exactly is a moral question?

Forget “shareholders”, what about Telstra’s stakeholders?

5
Shareholders are important in the thinking of companies, because without them there would be no company. But they are not the only ones who should be important. Other parties exist and their stake in a company's future plans should also be considered.

How much did Gillard’s endorsement cost IBM?

13
This morning IBM achieved what can only be described as a sensational marketing coup: It convinced Australia's Prime Minister to get up on a stage and enthusiastically sing the praises of its corporate brand in front of a national audience.

Quit yammering and learn to love the NBN

81
This article is by Darryl Adams, a government worker and internet tragic. A former IT worker, he still pines for the days of IBM...

Oh dear: David Thodey finds out about the iPad

6
Telstra chief executive David Thodey wasn't happy when he found out that the Apple iPad launched in Australia six months before Telstra's T-Touch Android tablet.

The NBN must have a cost/benefit analysis

5
The Gillard Government must urgently undertake a thorough cost-benefit analysis of the network. Its stubborn failure to do so can only lead us to conclude that it does not want to know what that analysis will reveal.

Did AGIMO censor Reinecke’s Gershon review?

0
When a Government entity blacks out a portion of a public document, it always sparks intense speculation as to what has been censored and why. Is the hidden information dangerous for Australia's enemies to know? Commercial in confidence? Or simply slightly embarassing?

BlackBerry tablet too little, too late for corporate Australia

3
This is the reality that Blackberry maker is currently facing in the Australian marketplace. Its products are no longer considered hot in the minds of executives in either the business or government sectors.

Australia losing out in global internet marketplaces

5
The internet is a global marketplace. If you want to truly take advantage of it you need to treat it as such. Attempting to shoe-horn old ways of doing business into it isn’t going to work. It needs to be approached from outside the traditional ways of selling to consumers. The first person to start doing that right is going to win. Big.

Cost benefit rationality of the false NBN dichotomy

13
The truth is -- as Malcolm Turnbull has been at pains to point out, to his peril -- that the private sector has stood willing and able to replace and upgrade vast chunks of Australia's ageing yet still very functional telecommunications infrastructure for some time– as long as that ever tricky requirement falls into place – regulatory certainty.

Public ownership of the NBN is just crazy talk

54
Put simply, committing to public ownership for the sake of public ownership is a backward step that nobody should be seriously considering at this stage of the NBN's deployment. It is just crazy talk.

Why Michael Harte is worth $4.2 million

2
Harte is paid millions of dollars each year not because they run IT infrastructure and make technology strategy decisions. The truth is the modern CIO role is evolving to become more akin to the head of operations in many organisations -- with broad responsibility for ensuring that all aspects of a company's systems meet operational outcomes.

Oh dear: McDonald’s rejects Kogan job application

3
Ruslan Kogan just might be the Australian technology sector's version of Richard Branson. The 27-year-old entrepreneur still has his youthful good looks and enjoys going out, he is skilled at making millions, and everywhere he seems to go, he generates controversy.

Turnbull: NBN is a business, not a public good

45
Dealing as they are with other people’s money, trustees as they are for the financial security of generations to come, Governments must be rigorously transparent and accountable in their investment decisions.

Oh dear: McAfee CEO is bored by his own press conference

9
We can understand that McAfee chief executive Dave DeWalt has a lot on his mind. He just sold his company to Intel for US$7.68 billion, his press team is running wild naming Cameron Diaz the most dangerous celebrity in cyberspace, and the internet “threat landscape” is always growing.

Oh dear: Turnbull’s web site wilts on first day

2
There's a long history of politicians and governments having problems keeping their web sites up. Conroy himself had a little spot of bother with the National Broadband Network Implementation Study back in May when the lengthy document was finally published online.

Prediction: Groupon will buy Jump On It

4
All of this adds up to a clear picture: If Groupon is planning to expand into Australia, acquiring Jump On It would give it an instant presence, staff on the ground and established contacts with business -- not to mention the company's not-inconsiderable revenue.

I hate you Telstra … more than Steve Jobs

35
This article is by Darryl Adams, a government worker and internet tragic. A former IT worker, he still pines for the days of IBM...

Decentralised NBN key to unlocking bush potential

6
Decentralisation is the key to unlocking the potential of our regions while making life in both "Sydney and the Bush" just that little more bearable.

So we have an NBN … where’s my television 2.0?

7
Righto. So. Now we're getting our 21st century internet (thank Messrs Oakshott, Windsor and Wilkie). Can we also get our 21st century television?

Mod chip or freedom to choose?

7
Sony’s legal case to stop a handful of tiny Australian retailers distributing a device – known as a ‘mod chip’ – which would allow consumers a much higher level of control of the PlayStation 3 hardware is only one example of the dominance which this approach is gaining.

Why wasn’t Maxine McKew Labor’s Old Spice guy?

1
It was clear from the result that the people where not buying the messages either major party was selling. Social media as a network is the cheapest network to utilise, and by failing to tap into the social media users’ goodwill, both parties made themselves look inept and outsiders.

Five reasons Australian email belongs in the cloud

4
If your company or organisation is not currently considering migrating its email systems onto a cloud computing platform, then you're in danger of being left behind.

How Australia created the technology election

3
This election, online issues finally got the attention they deserve. And the situation is here to stay.

Kogan vs Harvey Norman: Welcome to Sitzkrieg

4
This article is by Darryl Adams, a government worker and internet tragic. A former IT worker, he still pines for the days of IBM...

Oh dear: Meter Maids heat up Tech.Ed

8
Meter Maids attend Tech.Ed.

Oh dear: Kogan’s all-out war on Harvey Norman

4
Not content to have successfully lampooned Labor's mandatory internet filtering project, the bad boys at Australian electronics manufacturer Kogan have taken aim squarely at Harvey Norman. Mumbrella points out the company is planning a satirical advertisement aimed at the retailer.

Aussie Govts don’t know how to buy open source

4
There is huge potential for governments to reduce costs and increase community value by embracing the collaborative technologies of Open Source and Open Standards. But in order to achieve this, governments need to make fundamental changes to funding practices in order to recognise the cross-agency value of collaborative technologies.

NBN: Where do we go from here?

16
The National Broadband initiative is an opportunity to see if we can manage a more evolved form of government where people can elect the representatives that represent their ideological views, but with the knowledge that the country will be governed in a non-dogmatic way and with greater participation.

Election rant 7: Labor’s arrogance hamstrung NBN policy

0
Labor’s broadband policy is better than the Coalition’s. But Australia may not choose what is best for it. Australia may choose the leaders it feels more comfortable with instead.

Oh Dear: Firemen + the Church of Father Quigley

1
Industry lunches are generally pleasant and padded enough to bring in the bacon munchers -- but one does not expect a veritable comedy sketch and an impromptu evangelist "Hallelujah father! I am cleansed!" rejoice session.

Election rant 6: NBN envy – or apathy?

5
In the end game, politically and economically, the NBN is a nice thing to have. But it's not an essential thing. And that's the other thing about the problem of the grass always being greener on the other side of the fence.

Election rant 5: Can we even use a Terabyte a month?

7
The Coalition got a lot of things wrong with its election broadband policy, wireless being the chief one. But Finance Spokesperson Andrew Robb got one thing dead right: Australia's telecommunications market has not failed.

Oh dear: The Chaser on Coalition broadband policy

2
The Chaser has been putting in a stellar appearance during the election period with its new show Yes We Canberra. So it's encouraging to see the comedy group is keeping up with the Coalition's broadband policy.

Election rant 4: Labor’s three NBN strikes

0
The Coalition might not have an entirely workable broadband policy of its own. But Tony Abbott's camp is right to state that Labor's NBN is a "dog's breakfast" and that the Government's performance in this area is not to be trusted.

Forget e-health, the NBN is a big, fat, entertainment machine

4
What the supporters of the NBN should be doing is heavily promoting the reasons that an average, wage-earning family would have for the NBN. And that argument, simply, is entertainment.

Election rant 3: Prevailing wisdom

4
Many telcos and industry pundits don't like to admit it, but if you examine the past 15 years of history in Australia's telecommunciations sector, you will find a stark picture: Faster speeds, billions of dollars spent on successful infrastructure, strong degrees of competition and better consumer outcomes.

Oh dear: The iAbbott cometh

1
Ah, YouTube. We love you so.

Election rant 2: NBN Co’s outrageous Labor favour

20
During an election, public servants had better keep their head down -- unless they want it to be chopped off.

Election rant 1: Who’s greediest?

20
As many pigs have discovered over time – heading straight for the feeding trough without keeping a watchful eye out for the farmer's axe can lead one to feeling that they're high on the hog when they're actually a pig in a poke.

Do we even need a fibre National Broadband Network?

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As someone who is very pro-technology and likes to be on the cutting edge, I find myself staring at many of my colleagues and acquaintances in the industry with disbelief when the topic of the National Broadband Network comes up. People I know (and some who just email or tweet me) ask if I've bumped my head and forgotten what I do for a living. It even has had me re-thinking my views, but ultimately I keep coming to the same place.

Gershon funds must remain quarantined

0
The Australian ICT Policy Reform online petition is seeking support from the Australian ICT industry to call on both the Gillard Government and the Opposition to maintain quarantining of the agreed savings identified as a result of the Gershon review. These funds should remain available for re-investment by the Australian Public Service to enhance existing service delivery for all Australians and provide an opportunity for ICT driven innovation within the public sector.

Oh dear: Filter issue dogs Kate Lundy

8
You can't blame Kate Lundy for trying. The Labor Senator is one of the most enlightened in her party when it comes to technology, and while she doesn't always agree with some of its policies, she tries to make the best of a bad situation.

Are online + eBook retailers killing small bookshops?

14
Are eBooks and cheap online imports killing small Australian bookshops?

Goddamnit, just make Malcolm Turnbull Comms Minister already

7
For all the sweet love of Jesus that everyone knows you hold in your godfearing soul, Mr Abbott, forgive Malcolm Turnbull just enough to make him Communications Minister.

Twitter, newspapers + new media: Some observations

3
The winners online will not be those with the best technology, but with the best technological imagination. Very little that has happened online in the last ten years would have been predicted ten years before, so be bold and dream big dreams. They are more likely to be realised than you think.

Double standards: When filtering is not always mandatory

1
Two completely separate policies, both designed to protect children from "bad stuff", but with completely different implications.

Oh dear: Optus’ “theatrical” 3G USB modems

5
We have always known Optus was a big fan of the higher forms of performance art, with its sponsorship of the Cirque du Soleil and even the penchant of its chief executive Paul O’Sullivan for cracking Telstra jokes on stage. But we didn’t know that even its USB modems were involved in the performance.

Clueless Telstra iPhone buyers get what they deserve

22
Take some responsibility, people. It's only common sense to know what you're buying and what you're signing. It's not Telstra's fault that you're an idiot. So shut the frack up. OK?

Australian IT security firms should stop scaremongering

3
I was disappointed yesterday morning to read yet another scaremongering plea for business dressed up as an informed commentary piece by a high-profile member of Australia's IT security community.

Oh dear: Microsoft Australia’s anti-piracy propaganda

7
Microsoft Australia creates an anti-piracy video.

Retail service providers an endangered species

24
When the NBN rollout comes past your premise, you will have a choice of which retail service provider you sign up with. But that choice may be limited -- and the plans not as broad as you would like.

Oh dear: Masterchef contestants at Telstra with giant Apple tree

1
Looks like contestants from Ten's Masterchef show are already at Telstra's flagship T-Life store in Sydney's CBD preparing for the launch of the iPhone 4 at midnight tonight.

iPhone 4: Is a Telstra plan worth the money?

3
There is only one question that wannabe iPhone 4 owners need to ask themselves when gearing up to buy Apple's hyped handset when it launches in Australia at midnight Thursday night. Can you afford to pay Telstra's exorbitant prices for access to its superior network?

BigPond broadband is cheap as chips

16
I stumbled upon a shocking and unbelievable truth when casually browsing around the websites of several of Australia's top internet service providers this afternoon.

Oh dear: There is a StarCraft II truck driving around Brisbane

3
Title says it all, really. The game launches on Monday.

Oh dear: Telstra’s cyber-safety quadrants

3
We think Australia's telcos might be taking cyber-safety a little too seriously, if this video by Telstra is any indication.

Not the Twitter election you were expecting

3
Now that the phoney war has ended and the real Federal Election is in full swing, mainstream media and blogs are debating if this will be the 'Twitter election' or some other flavour of social media revolution. I argue that it will be, but not the way the pundits are postulating.

Oh dear: For once, Conroy was right

1
We couldn't help but feel sorry for Conroy recently when he did get something completely right -- and then someone else tried to tell he was wrong anyway.