Archived News for IT Professionals

The National Broadband Network Co (NBN Co) has secured more radio spectrum frequencies at auction, which will be used for the delivery of its wireless broadband service.

Primus Telecom has been left to hunt down a new chief executive after Ravi Bhatia announced his surprise resignation from the post.

Mark Britt has been appointed to take over as chief executive of ninemsn, after outgoing CEO Joe Pollard departs the digital joint venture in September.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has released an issues paper relating to the preparation of explanatory material on new non-discrimination provisions that form part of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

As part of the National Broadband Network reforms, NBN Co and other designated superfast telecommunications networks will be prohibited from discriminating between access seekers, except under limited circumstances.

"This issues paper provides an important opportunity for all stakeholders to express their views on the operation of the non-discrimination provisions and the guidance the ACCC should provide within its explanatory material," ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said.

"The guidelines that the ACCC are developing will serve as an important part of the framework for a fair and level playing field across the NBN and superfast telecommunication networks."

The ACCC is required to publish explanatory material relating to these non-discrimination provisions on its website. The issues paper is the first step in a consultation process that will inform the development of the explanatory material.

The ACCC is now accepting comments from interested parties. Submissions to the issues paper should be provided to the ACCC by COB on Monday 8 August 2011.

The ACCC expects to release final explanatory material in late 2011.

The issues paper will be available on the ACCC’s website http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/996290

The Australian Information Industry Association, the Australian Computer Society and the Pearcey Foundation this week announced the state winners of Australia’s premier technology innovation awards program, the 2011 iAwards.

For the first time this year, the National iAwards, now in their 17^th year, not only recognise awards for individual companies, they include recognition of individuals through the Australian Computer Society Annual Awards program as well as the Trevor Pearcey Medal for Outstanding Achievement in ICT through the Pearcey Foundation.

State and territory winners and merit recipients will go on to compete for national honours against leading companies from other states and territories at the 2011 iAwards Gala Dinner in Melbourne on 4 August. Winners of the national iAwards then have the opportunity to compete internationally at the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards later this year.

A new committee to undertake the 2011-12 Regional  Telecommunications Review that will examine telecommunications services in  regional, rural and remote parts of Australia has been appointed, chaired by Rosemary Sinclair, Director, External Relations, at the Australian School of  Business at the University of New South Wales.

A consortium headed by McKinsey and Company has been selected to lead the national change and adoption process as Australia moves to introduce Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records (PCEHR) next year.

Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, said the National Change and Adoption Partner will help educate and support the training and information needs of the health workforce who will use the system.

“The consortium will plan, design and develop training, guidance and tools in collaboration with clinicians and software providers. It will also provide change management support for clinicians including at the 12 lead implementation sites.

Optus has been found guilty by the Federal Court of breaching the Trade Practices Act by engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct in its advertising campaigns for its ‘Think Bigger’ and Supersonic’ broadband internet plans.

Telstra CEO, David Thodey, has announced major changes to the company’s operations to position it for future development.

Cloud backup innovator incriptus has partnered with Loftus IT, enabling the Australian IT solutions provider to offer its customers the advantages of lower backup infrastructure costs and an easy path for growth.


The new solution, Loftus BACKUP powered by incriptus, will allow Loftus customers on smaller networks, especially those using laptops, to form their own eco-friendly backup cloud.


Loftus IT Managing Director David Bullock says there has been an ever-growing demand from its customers for secure, affordable, scalable data backup.


“Up till now, backing up data into the cloud has meant sending encrypted files to large, remotely located data centres that are huge energy consumers,” Mr Bullock said.


“incriptus has changed all that with its distributed backup process – it’s the most efficient process I’ve seen and we will be working with incriptus to refine the product for a larger segment of our enterprise market.”


Loftus IT will add Loftus BACKUP to its unique portfolio of consulting, infrastructure services, application development and integration, procurement and support expertise.


The incriptus backup process uses the unused space to be found on all computer hard drives by first encrypting files, then fragmenting them and distributing the fragments to computers throughout the incriptus user network.


incriptus CEO Trevor Glen says that, as a result, no file can be reconstructed from any individual fragment and no complete document resides on any single computer in any single location.


“It all happens in the background and the only place those pieces can all come back together again is on the originating computer,” Mr Glen says. “No data centre operator ever has access to a complete file and no natural disaster can wipe out a single location of backed up data.


“Users don’t even have to worry about their files being lost if computers in the incriptus network fail as there is built-in error correction.”


The Loftus IT backup solution has the added advantage of being environmentally friendly as it does not require the use of and continuous building of data centres that already consume about 2% of the world’s electricity.


“The incriptus powered product will actually result in Loftus IT customers forming their own user cloud,” Mr Glen said.


For information on Loftus IT, visit www.loftusit.com.au. For more information about the incriptus technology, visit www.incriptus.com.

A research team at RMIT University will use a $255,000 Australian Research Council Linkage Grant to develop methods of detecting internal threats to website security.

The Victorian Government’s announcement of its new eServices Panel has prompted an angry response from the IT companies shut out from government tenders.

Australian information security company, Pure Hacking, has challenged the global software development community to improve its development standards and build secure software.

Darwin International Airport has become the eighth and final Australian international airport to implement the SmartGate  automated border processing system.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has published an Information Paper to assist providers of hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) and fibre to the premises (FTTP) broadband internet services in complying with the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

Australia’s  national ICT research centre, NICTA has unveiled three new products at the international biotechnology forum, Bio2011, in Washington.

Just under $143 billion dollars worth of internet orders were received by Australian businesses in 2009-10, up 15% on the previous year, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Wholesale trade and manufacturing industries continued their lead as the main businesses receiving online orders, both at over 40%. The retail industry came in at fifth place.

Nearly all (94%) of Australia's large businesses had a web presence at 30 June 2010, while micro businesses (employing up to four people) are still the least likely to, with only about one-third offering some form of web presence. Broadband dominated as the internet access method (97%), with little variation between industries.

Primary industry - agriculture, forestry and fishing - was least likely to place online orders, with just over one-quarter (26%) using the internet to make purchases.

Innovation is also on the rise, with 44% of Australian businesses undertaking some form of innovation - developing or introducing of new or significantly improved goods, services, processes or methods - in 2009-10.

Large businesses were more than twice as likely to undertake innovative activity than micro businesses (74% compared to 36%).

Wholesale trade was the most innovative, with almost 60% of businesses in the industry reporting some form of innovation. Innovation in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry was reported by about one-third of those businesses.

Further information is available in Summary of IT Use and Innovation in Australian Business

A co-operative team from RMIT University and the Australian National University (ANU) have developed a method that will allow mechanical pressure into electricity.

Telstra chief executive David Thodey has promised to push ahead with promoting his company’s wireless services despite the $11 billion deal between the telco and the National Broadband Network Co (NBN Co).

Telstra has claimed that Australians will have access to the world’s fastest 3G hotspot after the launch of the Telstra Ultimate Mobile Wi-Fi in what the telco describes as being able to deliver “blistering download speeds ranging from 1.1Mbps to 20Mbps”.