Australian Technology News

MANY Australian mums are using social networking websites to follow their embarrassed children, a survey has found.

Cisco's local chief Les Williamson today said it was too early to say what role the networking titan could play in the $43 billion National Broadband Network (NBN) project, and that he would honour NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley's request for contact via industry representative bodies.

At Cisco's annual Networkers customer conference, Williamson would not be drawn on discussions about Cisco's potential for supplying equipment, such as core routers, to the NBN, preferring instead to stick to downstream technologies that would support, for example, education and healthcare services in a fast broadband world.

"I think it's way too early for Cisco to be making a clear statement about engagement [on NBN]," Williamson told ZDNet.com.au today.

"Where the commentary is going at the moment is very focused on residential and access delivery," Williamson told media earlier. "I think that discussion is going to evolve to an outcome-based discussion [around] what are the service delivery models for health and education for the broader society, and what are the architectures that are going to be needed to deliver on that."

While other companies, such as Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks have issued statements around the suitability of their technology for the NBN, Williamson cited discussions between the Federal Government and Telstra over its possible separation as the impediment to him discussing Cisco's potential role in the new network.

"I think the public discussion between the [Federal] Government and Telstra is the next thing that would limit us from getting too specific around it," said Williamson. He added, however, that it was on the company's radar, given that the NBN was potentially a "fairly large infrastructure spend".

Some industry sources have said that while Cisco has not been a purely telco provider, it cannot be ruled out of a race being publicly contested between networking companies, Huawei, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens Network and NEC. NBN's Quigley has said that the NBN Co would select two primary suppliers for the fibre network in order to minimise the risk of interoperability problems. It's been estimated that networking equipment will make up around a third of the total cost of the network.

Williamson denied he was cautious over Cisco's potential involvement in the NBN, and said that he would engage with the NBN Co, as Quigley publicly requested of the industry as a whole, via select industry groups. Cisco is understood to have sent a number of executives to the closed-to-media event last week at which Quigley made the comments.

"My chairman and CEO John Chambers knows Mike. You know, he's a respected player in the industry. They've had contact, and I think that Mike was on the record as saying that he wants to hear through industry groups, not through individual approaches. We've been playing that role from the get-go. I'm a member of the AIIA and other industry groups," said Williamson.

Bumper year
Despite the economic downturn, and importantly, the Federal Government's Gershon review, which saw local IT services firms suffer as agency budgets stalled, Williamson said growing government spending on its equipment helped see the supplier's Australian revenues increase for the year by 20 per cent on the last.

Cisco's earnings reported to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for the year to 27 July 2008 had revealed a drop in revenue over the previous year of 7 per cent, falling to $888.8 million. With the 20 per cent increase Williamson has claimed the company has made since then, its revenues would have reached just over $1 billion.

"Gershon said less money should be spent on day-to-day and what's called non-prodcutive areas, but they never said anything about not increasing spending in productive areas," Williamson said, noting the government's $13 million TelePresence deal with the Federal Government, awarded earlier this year, was a prime example.

Having locked down several major deals over the past year for its TelePresence video-conferencing equipment, Williamson and Cisco have been heavily promoting the technology; though, he did not announce any new customers today. ZDNet.com.au, however, understands that Coca-Cola Amatil's recent deal with Telstra does include provisions for the future deployment of Cisco's Telepresence units.

Liam Tung travelled to the Gold Coast to attend Cisco Networkers as a guest of Cisco Systems.

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FROM malfunctioning police robots to seductive androids and, of course, the Terminator.

Oh Virgin Mobile, you know us too well.

The party-hearty mobile operator today launched its new-look branding and members' lounge alongside a new CBD store on Pitt Street in Sydney. Part of the new direction for Virgin will be ongoing member's benefits for subscribers, starting with "Free beer on Fridays" running for the entire month of October. Members and guests logging into the new Members' Lounge website will have the option to be sent a redeemable voucher via SMS for a Hahn Super Dry in selected venues.

The mobile operator will also leverage the Virgin brand by offering deals to its customers in partnership with Virgin Airlines and Virgin Car Insurance. Customers who fly Virgin, for example, will be able to claim 10 per cent of the cost of their airline ticket back as credit on their mobile phone account. Members' benefits will also revolve around entertainment, which embraces Virgin Mobile's recent sponsorship of the Metro Theatre in Sydney. Members will be given VIP treatment at gigs hosted by the Metro, including advantages when buying tickets, access to the best areas of the theatre, and band meet and greets.

At the store opening, Virgin Mobile Australia CEO Peter Bithos explained that the shift in the company's focus is intended to provide value to customers beyond the signing of a new contract and for the life of the subscription. "We want a relationship with our members that goes beyond a transactional one," says Bithos.

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Telstra today said it was negotiating with the Federal Government over proposals to separate the telco and reassured investors that the interests of its shareholders would take precedence.

In a letter sent to shareholders, chief executive David Thodey and chairman Catherine Livingstone said the negotiations were being conducted in a positive and constructive manner. "As we stated last week, we are disappointed the government has felt it necessary to introduce this legislation at a time of such fundamental change in the industry," the pair wrote.

"This legislation will mean a significant change to Telstra and the industry. We are continuing our negotiations with the government in a much more constructive and positive manner, but let us conclude by addressing a misconception that has been raised recently in the media.

"The board and management have always had, and will continue to have, the interests of shareholders as our over-riding priority."

Thodey and Livingstone said in their letter they had been encouraged by the many emails and letters it had received from shareholders expressing concerns about the government's initiatives.

Under legislation introduced to parliament a fortnight ago, Telstra faces the structural separation of its wholesale and retail businesses — by either voluntary or forcible means. The proposal is aimed at creating a more level playing field ahead of the build-out of a high-speed National Broadband Network (NBN).

The telco is preparing a submission for a senate inquiry into the proposed regulatory reforms, which is due by October 7, Thodey and Livingstone said. Telstra shares were up three cents at $3.26 at 1326 AEST.

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HOW large a project is the RuddGovernment's plan for a nationalbroadband network? Have a look.

The Pirate Party, which champions issues such as intellectual property rights, free speech and data privacy, is on its way to becoming an official party in Australia.

The party is gathering followers with the hope of achieving the 500 exclusive members needed to achieve official registered party status in the eyes of the Australian Electoral Commission. It is also holding elections next week on Wednesday night at 8pm to appoint a president, deputy president, general secretary, deputy general secretary, treasurer and deputy treasuer. Applications were to be sent in to applications@pirateparty.org.au.

The Pirate Party in Sweden, called Piratpartiet, secured one of 18 Swedish seats in the EU Parliament, according to the party's website. Over the weekend, its counterpart in Germany won 2 per cent of the vote in national elections. In the regional elections for the area of Schleswig-Holstein, the party also achieved 1.8 per cent of the votes.

According to ITNews, the party currently has 300 members here in Australia. When it receives its full number, the party said on its Australian site that it hoped to exert political pressure to help change intellectual property legislation. The party has limited the issues it wants to take a stand on to only intellectual property rights and related privacy issues.

The party said it doesn't endorse illegal copying of copyright material, but disagrees with the degree of control the intellectual property laws currently allow. It seeks a better balance between sharing information and recognition for authors, looking for reform.

"[The law] now acts to constrain, rather than foster innovation, and leads to the criminalisation of an entire generation who are sharing knowledge, culture and information freely and for no monetary gain, and a movement by proponents of copyright towards the erosion of civil liberties," the Australian site said.

Issues which were being discussed on the party's forums on its Australian site included the possible three-strike policy, which would shut down the internet connection of anyone who downloads pirated material after warnings; the proposed Australian internet filter; as well as proposed changes to Australian telecommunications legislation, which have the potential to affect the legality of communications interception.

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THE US Secret Service is looking into a Facebook poll that asked if Obama should be assassinated.

Not all federal government agencies can apply for datacentre resources under the newly formed interim datacentre panel. In fact, only five have been cleared to do so, according to the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO).

The five agencies who were allowed to purchase datacentre services under the government's new panel — put in place to fill the gap until its new datacentre strategy came into full swing — would be able to buy services up to March 2010. At that time the panel would be closed, although the panel vendors would still provide services, according to AGIMO division manager for business improvement John Sheridan. He said that the agencies should be able to forecast their need, making the short time span enough.

Sheridan would not name the five agencies, but said that the number included Centrelink which had already settled on Canberra Data Centres to provide its extra datacentre requirements in a $4.88 million contract. Sheridan said that although this deal had been made outside the panel, it had been done in conjunction with the formation of the panel.

The five vendors hadn't been reluctant to sign on to the panel, despite the low number of agencies who would be accessing it, according to Sheridan. New agencies could apply to be able to use the panel, he said, but they would have to show their need by proving, for example, that an existing contract had just run out or that their demand had expanded significantly.

Agencies who didn't fit those criteria will have to wait for the whole-of-government datacentre strategy. A report detailing options for the strategy will be completed by the end of the year, according to Sheridan. When it's completed, the secretary's ICT Governance board (comprised of members at the secretary or CEO level and chaired by Department of Finance and Regulation secretary David Tune) will consider its recommendations and put forward its considerations to government.

The report will have a broad scope. "At the moment, we're definitely not ruling any options out," Sheridan said, adding that it will raise many ideas from agencies having their own decentralised datacentres, to the government buying infrastructure as a service. "It depends on where the value for money lies," he said, adding that Sir Peter Gershon — who had suggested in his report on federal government IT that the government needed a whole-of-government datacentre approach — had only wanted the government to have a concerted strategy so that it didn't "unknowingly go ahead".

The report will have input from AGIMO staff, from staff seconded from agencies as well as from external parties. CPT Global was asked to conduct a survey on government datacentre demand for $286,935, while another company was paid to complete survey of the supply in the market place. Gartner was hired to do a study on trends in the technology.

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THE US Secret Service is trying to identify the people who launched an online poll at Facebook asking whether US President Barack Obama should be assassinated.