Early high-speed broadband network for Riverstone, says Labor

Riverstone in Western Sydney will be among the first community areas to benefit from high-speed broadband network when the National Broadband Network (NBN) begins its roll out next year, said Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Senator Stephen Conroy. Senator Conroy joined Labor Candidate for Greenway Michelle Rowland in Riverstone [...]

Virgin Mobile undertakes to train staff

Virgin Mobile offered this month an enforceable undertaking to develop comprehensive training programs for its staff and to re-examine its email marketing process following an investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) into an alleged breach of the Spam Act.

The company also undertook to pay the ACMA $22,000 for the alleged violation.

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Australia wins its biggest anti-spamming case

The Federal Court in Brisbane today imposed $6.5 million dollars in penalties against two additional respondents in an SMS spamming case. The companies were identified by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) as Jobspy Pty Ltd and Scott Mark Moles with $4 million and $2.5 million in penalties, respectively [...]

$110K penalty to Vodafone for Coke SMS ad

Vodafone Hutchison Australia was slapped a $110,000 penalty by the Australian Communications and Media Authority after investigation of alleged breaches of the Spam Act, a media release from the government regulator reported.

Australia not in Top 10 worst spam origin countries, but home to #6 spammer

Daily updates of the independent spam-tracking organisation, The Spamhaus Project, are like a “Who’s Who?” in world economy and industrial power. The United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, China and Japan. Yes, they are all there. Except Australia [...]

Handset blocking for repeated non-genuine calls to Triple Zero

The communications industry recently launched an initiative which will progressively limit calls from mobile handsets being used to make repeated non-genuine calls to the Triple Zero emergency call service.

Mr Chris Chapman, Chairman of the Australian Communications and Media Authority, welcomed the initiative saying, ‘This is another good example of the mobile telecommunications industry working with Telstra, as the Emergency Call Person for Triple Zero, to develop industry-wide solutions to tackle the problem of non-genuine calls to Triple Zero.’

Telstra, given its experience as the Emergency Call Person, has advised that handling of genuine calls is being increasingly compromised by the need to deal with non-genuine calls or calls that do not relate to time critical or life threatening emergencies.

Under the industry initiative, developed in consultation with the ACMA, mobile handsets from which repeated non-genuine calls are made to Triple Zero operators may be blocked across all mobile networks from being able to make calls. Progressive steps will be taken to formally warn the owner of the mobile handset before the handset is blocked, in addition to the caller details being provided to police as appropriate.

All blocked mobile handsets will be placed on a register managed by the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association. A similar industry-wide blocking process and register exists for mobile handsets that have been reported lost or stolen.

Triple Zero should only be dialled in emergencies that are life-threatening or time-critical situations requiring a rapid response from police, fire or ambulance services.

Calls to Triple Zero will not be blocked under the initial handset blocking process. However, the ACMA and industry will conduct a review of the industry warning and handset blocking process after six months. This will review the trigger level for initiating the blocking and give consideration to extending the blocking process to include Triple Zero calls by fully disabling the handset.

This initiative has the support of emergency services organisations nationally – police, fire and ambulance services.

In Australia, making vexatious calls to Triple Zero is a serious offence under the Criminal Code Act 1995.

Source: Australian Communications and Media Authority

Telstra introduces new charges for bill payments

As if the current financial situation is not enough, Telstra is now introducing additional charges just for paying bills.

The changes to apply from 14 September 2009 include a new $2.20 payment administration fee for each bill payment sent through the mail or made in person at a Telstra Shop or Australia Post.

Processing fees for credit card payments will also increase from 0.69% to 1% of the payment amount plus GST for MasterCard, Visa and American Express, and from 1.68% 2% plus GST for DinersClub.

The $2.20 payment administration fee plus the charge for using a credit card will apply for bills paid in person.

What are your options?

Telstra is suggesting that payments be made via electronic bill payment system using a direct debit, BPay, phone banking or online via Telstra website. The credit card payment charges will still apply for payments made whether by phone or online.

Even with these options, we wonder how many people have the facilities to pay their Telstra bils using direct debit or BPay. We still see a number of people queuing at Australia Post outlets and Telstra Shops in shopping malls to pay their bills.

For paying your bills, you pay extra?

SBR on track to reduce business reporting burden

By July 2010, business-to-government reporting will be a faster and more efficient exercise, stripped off the tedious reporting processes currently imposed on Australian businesses.

This is the projection of the Standard Business Reporting unit of the Rudd Government who reported that the SBR program is on track.

The SBR is a multi-agency initiative which aims to make forms easier to understand, easy to automate and easy to connect on-line with various participating agencies.

The agencies represented in the SBR Board are the Treasury, Australian Securities Investment Commision, Australian Taxation Office, Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority, Australian Bureau of Statistics plus representatives from state governments, other government authorities and business councils.

The SBR initiative is expected to save Australian businesses $795 million per year on an ongoing basis.

Currently, the SBR system is undergoing pilot-testing by its six software-related partners with IBM Australia being the contractor to build the core service components. Similar to an electronic postal system, SBR’s core services will enable businesses and their intermediaries to securely submit their regulatory reports to government directly from their accounting software if it has been SBR enabled.

The six software companies in the project are Beacon IT Group, Frontier Software, MYOB, PayGlobal, Software Objectives, and Software Systems and Instrumentation.

Editor’s Note: Any reduction in the time required to lodge business reports to the government is good news to any business, especially to small businesses. According to the ABS, there were 1,964,943 businesses in Australia as at 30 June 2006 of which 1,156,497 businesses, or 59 per-cent, were classified as non-employing. On the preparation of a simple Business Activity Statement alone, we gathered that a quarterly BAS report would take anywhere from 1 – 2 hours not to mention the time required to lodge the report.

Government takes control of NBN project

In a news bulletin, CeBIT Australia reported that the Federal Government today has decided to take control of the National Broadband Network (NBN) project.

The Government abandoned the bidding process and decided to form a company instead with majority controlled by the Government.

The NBN is a $43 billion project which is described as “the largest infrastructure decision in Australia’s history.”

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was reported saying that the Government would take the lead in the project which is expected to draw telcos “jostling for a slice of the action.”

The $43 billion would be ploughed into the new Government-controlled company over a period of 8 years building the network. Funding is reported to be sourced from government bonds.

When completed, Australia would have a broadband network 100 times faster than what many Australians are using now, the report said.

Mr Rudd was also reported saying that the deteriorating global economy had also significantly influenced the Government decision to scrap the bidding process. It is estimated that the project could directly support up to an average of 25,000 local jobs every year over its 8 year life.

CeBIT Australia is a 3 day Exhibition and Conference covering the full spectrum of business technologies. It is organised by Hannover Fairs Australia.

Nearly all SMEs now use the internet

Ninety eight per cent of Australia’s small to medium enterprises (SMEs) with an internet connection use their online service to communicate with customers and suppliers and more than 95 per cent are connected to some form of broadband service [...]