Telstra has rejected claims by its competitors that it is milking universal service obligation (USO) payments for extra cash. Under universal service obligation legislation, currently being reviewed by parliament, Telstra will keep its copper network in place for the 7 per cent of Australia not covered by the fibre roll-out of the National Broadband Network and will provide a minimum voice service as it has for years. For this, Telstra will be paid $50 million in the first two years, and $100 million each year after for a period of 20 years by the government.

Read more:
Competitors clueless on USO: Telstra

Fish, barrel; fox, henhouse; Abbott, NBN. Mocking Tony Abbott's ignorance of telecoms has become so easy and habitual that his latest pronouncements would normally hardly merit a response

Here is the original post:
Abbott paving a telecoms road to nowhere

Last year's privacy flap over Carrier IQ , which makes diagnostic software that's embedded in millions of mobile phones, may spur on new US federal legislation. A draft House of Representatives Bill (PDF) would give the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the power to regulate "monitoring software" that's capable of transmitting location data or other information about who's using the phone. The FTC would have a year to require the disclosure of "the fact that the monitoring software is installed on the mobile telephone", and, in addition, anyone installing the software would have to obtain the "express consent" of customers

Read more here:
Carrier IQ may spur new privacy law

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has granted Telstra exemptions from open wholesale-access laws governing fibre networks for the telco's South Brisbane and Velocity greenfields networks. Legislation forcing fibre-network owners to offer open, wholesale layer-two bitstream services as NBN Co does comes into force on 12 April 2012.

Read the original:
Telstra fibre exempted from NBN laws

Several Australian businesses have been exposing their building management systems online, allowing anyone to view information such as the temperature in their office or even whether the exhaust fan in the toilet is running. (Screenshot by Michael Lee/ZDNet Australia) The information comes after Twitter user @ntisec discovered that a simple Google search for part of the URL used by Tridium's building management system (BMS) software called Niagara resulted in a large listing of open systems. He posted his findings to Pastebin , stating that there were simply too many to go through

See the rest here:
Australian control systems exposed online

Would you agree to have a National Broadband Network tower placed in your backyard?

Here is the original post:
Dirty SOPA dodgers

Victorians will soon have no choice but to adopt the troubled myki integrated ticketing card for public transport, as the state's Transport Ticketing Authority has this week finalised plans for the removal of older Metcard ticketing machines from train stations. (Timetable Tripup image by MrPbps , CC2.0 ) The paper ticket-based Metcard system is being slowly phased out in favour of the myki contactless system that allows commuters to tap on and off of the train, tram or bus with an integrated smart card, rather than purchasing their ticket at a machine in advance. Bernie Carolan, CEO of the Victorian Transport Ticketing Authority (TTA), told ZDNet Australia in a statement today that the agency will start removing ticketing machines from individual lines starting next month

Read more here:
Myki in hot seat as Metcard kit ripped out

Lawyer Karen Sandler's heart condition means she needs a pacemaker-defibrillator to avoid sudden death, so she has one simple question: what software does it run? Karen Sandler (Credit: Linux.conf.au) Yet it turns out that it's impossible for her to see and understand the technology that's being installed into her own body and upon which her life depends. Regulatory authorities don't see or review the software either.

See the rest here:
Cyborg lawyer demands software source

Jimmy Wales jumped on the "screw SOPA" bandwagon this week and led Wikipedia into a 24-hour blackout to protest , causing panic, confusion and general hysteria among the knowledge-seeking population. But ask yourself this: what if Wikipedia never came back online?

View post:
A world without Wikipedia

We're not really sure who uses a business laptop. Now that ultrabooks are here and spreading, we're even less sure. HP Folio (Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET) In our office, we've seen more and more people asking (and hoping) for MacBook Airs

Go here to see the original:
Ultrabooks have killed the business laptop