telecoms - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Meet the CIO charged with saving Australia’s most endangered species

  ​One of the more unusual senior technology vacancies in Australia has been filled.

• Google-backed Sydney to Japan cable construction commences

  ​The laying of a Google-backed 9500-kilometre submarine fibre optic cable linking Sydney to Japan via Guam has commenced.

• Twilio's enterprise play: Champion devs, woo their bosses

  ​Twilio’s APIs are behind some of the essential features of Australia’s most popular apps. Increasingly, when a developer wants to add SMS functionality (like when an Uber driver messages that they are waiting outside) or the ability to voice call (like with Airtasker) into their software, they have used Twilio’s building blocks to do so.

• Telstra to kill 2G services

  Telstra will shut down its GSM network by the end of 2016, the telco's group managing director of networks has revealed.

• MyNetFone charts course in app-dominated world

  The future of voice communications may be in 'over the top' applications, but there's life yet in the humble phone number according to the CEO of VoIP provider MyNetFone. Phone numbers "are this invisible glue that everyone takes for granted," Rene Sugo says.

• Audit highlights NSW telco procurement shortcomings

  NSW government agencies have been paying too much for telco services according to the results of an audit released today.

• Warrnambool's lessons: Telcos, government need to emphasise infrastructure resilience

  Researchers at RMIT University have released the final version of a report into the 2012 fire in Telstra's exchange in Warrnambool, south-west Victoria. The fire, which erupted on 22 November, 2012, knocked out telecommunications for some 20 days, affecting up to 100,000 people in the region.
  

• Optus takes issue with deregulation proposals

  Australia's number two telco, Optus, has taken issue with elements of proposed deregulation of the telecommunications industry.

• 200 more Optus jobs to go: Report

  More than 200 Optus employees are set to lose their jobs.

• Telco industry pushes for more deregulation

  The Communications Alliance and the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) have both reacted positively to federal government moves to reduce telco and communications related regulations.

• ACCAN flags concerns about NBN complaints

  The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network is concerned about the number of telecommunications-related complaints in current NBN rollout sites.

• Optus registers 26% jump in ICT revenue

  Optus Business revenue increased 2.4 per cent to $378 million in the December quarter despite declines in data and voice revenue, the telco reported today. The biggest increase was in ICT and managed services, with revenue jumping 26 per cent to $126 million.

• Vic government's mobile bill blows out

  Victorian government organisations' spending on mobile voice and data services grew by close to 70 per cent from 2008 to 2012, reaching $23.5 million in 2012, according to a report prepared by Victoria's Auditor-General, John Doyle.

• Telecom companies at risk of becoming mere utilities

  For telecommunications companies everywhere, the future has "catch-22" written all over it. Network operators face disintermediation of their customer relationships and commoditization of voice and data services, while at the same time they are called upon to invest significantly in deploying new network technologies to meet exploding bandwidth demands and QoS requirements. Simultaneously, network operators face changing market dynamics and a host of new competitors.

• Dial (or read) before you dig

  Cable workers map out telecoms networks