What are you saying?

From web filtering and the NBN Co to local femtocell deployment - what you've been saying this week about the state IT in Australia

Every week, Computerworld Australia collates all the things our readers have been saying about the news, both in the forums and in comments.

Here’s what you had to say on: The Government’s deal with ISPs to impose web filtering

"'Child pornography' is always the first excuse. The next level of censorship will add just another thin layer so as not to arouse angst with the public such as chemistry related information "just in case" teenagers get the wild idea to make firecrackers. Layer by thin layer censorship will choke off reality. Finally all information outing the criminal behaviour of central banking and their bed partner in politic's and mainstream media will be off limits for the sake of "national security". Wake up people, the water is quickly warming in the frying pan..." – said Jeremy West on Filtered Internet for 70% of web users under government deal

"Since illegal material has always been filtered in some form I don't see this as a sell out. The issue remains how is material classified and how does the public have a say. Quite clearly Child porn and bestiality should be banned and are already in most countries but that is about the extent of the filtering that can be tolerated (no filtering on ideas you don't like ie Encyclopedia Dramatica etc). Conroy and Gillard are simply delaying the implementation until after the election and then they will go back to the original plan , does anyone trust the ALP and particularly Gillard." – said TrueBlue on Filtered Internet for 70% of web users under government deal

"Yes - lets hide this away until after the election. We can pretend its gone away and buy a few votes and then screw everyone over once we are voted back in." – said Cinco on Filtered Internet for 70% of web users under government deal

"Well, this is one way for me to save money. Optus will lose me as a customer after more then 8 years. Sell outs are all they are." – said Barry on Filtered Internet for 70% of web users under government deal "I personally don't have a problem at all with this move, I don't think many have a problem with blocking child pornography. My problem is with the broad RC proposal." – said Alan on Filtered Internet for 70% of web users under government deal

"My 24 month contract with Bigpond ends in December and I will now be leaving thanks to their filter plans. Internode here I come!" – said Good bye Telstra on Filtered Internet for 70% of web users under government deal

Here’s what you had to say on: Optus’ Sydney trial of Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless broadband technology

"Once again these are offered as "Up To" speed which means 99% of people WILL NEVER GET THE ADVERTISED SPEEDS!!!! How can the ACMA allow this false advertising... Its like having a big sign out the front saying fee beer inside. Then once entering and asking for your free beer your told "ow but you need to be over 10 feet tall to get the free beer".

Everyone knows you cant be 10 foot tall and so does the pub. Its the exact same with wireless internet. Your led in under false pretenses of expected speeds only to be charged for a hugely under performing product. Sorry Optus, but you can stick your wireless and ill go with future proof Fibre Optics." – said Jason on Optus scores 50Mbps in Sydney LTE tests

"Peak speeds are once again being allowed to be misinterpreted as continuous speeds. At least they admit that the LTE signal is bursty late in the article. Wireless will be an important complementary technology for mobility and blackspots, but cannot sustain VoIP phone calls or IPTV. As Vividwireless stated recently, wireless is a different product than fixed broadband. The most cost effective primary broadband solution for all but 7% of premises has been shown to be fibre in the McKinsey Implementation Study. LTE will be good for a lot of things, but is not in the same league as fibre." – said Francis on Optus scores 50Mbps in Sydney LTE tests

Here’s what you had to say on: Ageism in the ICT workforce

"Where about the code of ethics/professional conduct these recruiters are supposed to adhere to when selecting staff and totally disregard when overlooking mature staff (> 45) in favour of younger less experienced people? These people in recruitment roles are members of the ACS, PMI, etc all who have quite clear codes of ethics / professional conduct. These so called professionals are absolute hypocrites and should be stripped of their membership if found to be guilty of age discrimination!" – said Fed up on ACS launches fight against ageism in ICT

"Australia seems to be the only country on the planet that puts so much emphasis on the superficiality of "youth" which is indicative of a detached society in general. This seems to be the general perception other nations have of Australia which is really too bad. Considering the rampant ignorance of modern Australian youth in most aspects of life: social ettiquette, intelligence, problem solving, spirituality, common sense, etc, etc., etc., it staggers the imagination how blinded Australian society in general is to this phenomena. Perhaps Australian's in general just choose to ignore it. Personally when it comes to dealing with the commercial/retail sector and customer assistance in general I'm so grateful when it's an older Australian or older permanent resident from another culture who displays some semblance of connection to reality in the moment and you can at least feel like you're dealing with another human being and not the blank stare of some youthful zombie." – said Jeremy West on ACS launches fight against ageism in ICT

Here’s what you had to say on: The NBN Co’s actions this week

"They'd best get to work soon. Three years on, $300 million spent, only three test users connected. At this rate they'll get 430 people connected before the $43Bn runs out! If they can only be 25,000x better on expenditure and 1,500,000x better on schedule, they'll be back on target..." – said Canberra Watcher on NBN Co selects contractors for mainland fibre roll out

"What a waste! A billion dollars for a wireless service limited by bandwidth, suffering lag of 100ms+, affected by bad weather. Anyone with a sky dish will tell you its rubbish. Why so much money on a bad technology for less than 1% of the population. Conroy is definately smoking crack. There is much better ways of doing things." – said Peter on NBN Co to spend circa $1 billion on satellites

"Peter, I'm guessing you can't read.."Fibre is too difficult to get to them and the terrain is such that you just can’t get propagation of the wireless signal effectively and get a reliable service.” Satelite will be fine for the last customers." – said Sam on NBN Co to spend circa $1 billion on satellites

"Satellite is pathetic, I pity the poor people who get lumbered with it. Very high latency so forget VoIP, forget online gaming, and get used to jerky media playback. And there is no technology that can change these facts!" – said Kariston on NBN Co to spend circa $1 billion on satellites

"The point's already been well made - two way sat can be annoying because of the inevitable signal distance issues, but it is a hell of a lot better than dialup or nothing at all." – said gnome on NBN Co to spend circa $1 billion on satellites "As a former ISDN customer of Telstra (with which I was content), the main limitation of my current 2way satellite service is the occasional blips in service, and the expense of higher speed and download capacity. If they can't put fibre through to my home (20k away from major rural centre), or put in a decent wireless service, (the hills mean I have no NextG connection), then I am happy that they will provide a cheaper, faster, higher capacity satellite service." – said Amigo1985 on NBN Co to spend circa $1 billion on satellites

"The reality is that 2% of premises in Australia cannot be viably reached by fibre or wireless. Even though the half-second lightspeed transit delay to a geostationary satellite makes VoIP very unpleasant, it is better than nothing. The new Ka-Band satellites will also be capable of HDTV streaming, except for localities experiencing a thunderstorm. The alternative is wireless, but the cost of a tower cannot be justified if there are only a handful of premises within its effective radius, and multiple towers are needed if there are too many premises. The maths has been done, and this is the best the taxpayer can do for now for the last 300,000 remote or isolated premises." – said Francis on NBN Co to spend circa $1 billion on satellites

"Well no doubt the cost benefit analysis demonstrates that this is a good investment for the country to make and there will be realisable benefits. Oh wait... that's a waste of time, waste of money, waste of space isn't it Senator Conroy." – said David on NBN Co to spend circa $1 billion on satellites

Here’s what you had to say on: Local femtocell deployment

"Ericsson comments are right: you can't deploy passive femtocells in shared spectrum without interference problems that might affect all customers. But how come SFR in France and SoftBank in Japan have succesfully launched femtocells in shared spectrum? The answer is that they have launched with a new generation of intelligent femtocells, which constantly monitor their environment and adapt to any changes, like your neighbour installing a femto, a macro user entering your apartment, or simply opening a window. I work for the company that invented and patented this technology (Ubiquisys). I'm hoping that as people become aware that some femtocells are more than miniature base stations, that a more informed debate will emerge." – said Keith Day on Femtocells held back by technical difficulties: Ericsson

"Keith is right - today there is no technological barrier to deploying femtocells. There is a whole ecosystem of companies offering successful femtocell solutions for home and business use, most of them using semiconductor devices made by the company I work for (picoChip - that's the plug over with:) Softbank in Japan, SFR in France, Vodafone in the UK and Spain, AT&T in the US and Movistar in Spain are all offering fully commercial femto services. So if femtos are a headache, they're a very unusual type of headache - one that operators seem to like having. Much of the technology needed to build femtocells into the mobile network is already enshrined in international standards via 3GPP. And by the way, it's not just me and Keith! Our industry association, the Femto Forum, has over 120 members including 55 operators accounting for 1.4bn subscribers; and around 70 technology providers, including some of the industry's biggest names such as Alcatel Lucent, Cisco, Huawei and NSN. Perhaps the most interesting effect of this for old lags of the telecoms industry (like me), is the need to learn new tricks fast. For us, making a compact basestation that works "out of the box" is nothing short of a revolution. Sometimes progress is uncomfortable, but we know it'll be worth it in the end (when we can use our mobiles in the basement!)." – said Andy Gothard on Femtocells held back by technical difficulties: Ericsson

"James, the thing that is missed here is how is this massive wireless broadband load increase, doubling every year till 2014 (according to Cisco) is going to be provided? Sure WiFi can do internet but it is much more than that. People want simple to install wireless, they want SMS, MMS, no hassle installation, they want a single number to call when there is a problem too. I've personally had experiences with a VPN setup when I don't know if it is the router, WiFi, my ADSL provider, or my work was the problem- who wants all that hassle. Actually I think if you look around you will see there is much more going on in Australia than you think - even world-first research results." – said Mark on Femtocells held back by technical difficulties: Ericsson

Here’s what you had to say on: The Victorian Opposition crack at myki transport card

"Now Ted says he will "consider axing MYKI". A far cry from a promise. It does however allow him to claim later that he "fixed it" so it stays. Does Ted want to tell us how many millions he will pay some company to come in to remove all the equipment and infrastructure? Or does he just plan to leave it in place and let vandals dismantle it for him. A desperate man grasping at anything he can to get into power. PATHETIC!" – said RJB on Baillieu has another crack at myki

"Myki is one of the biggest disasters in Victorian history. It shows that Brumby and Co are just useless and tired. You would have to be a moron not to go and licence the Pasmo or Octopus systems from the start - in true Labor style they have reinvented the wheel at the expense of tax payers. I have used both Pasmo or Octopus systems and they are far better than Myki and are proven to work." – said EK on Baillieu has another crack at myki

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More about Alcatel-LucentALPAT&TAT&TAustralian Computer SocietyCiscoEDS AustraliaEricsson AustraliaetworkInternodeLPLucentmobilesOctopusOptusSFRSoftbankTelstra CorporationTelstra CorporationTICVodafoneWest

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