"I invite interested parties to provide their views on the legislation covering the access regime for the National Broadband Network and governing the operations, ownership and control of the National Broadband Network company," Senator Conroy said in a statement this afternoon.

The government will hand submissions to the soon to be selected lead advisor for the NBN implementation study.

Views sought include how it should implement the new telecommunications regulatory framework that was raised in its recent reform discussion paper. It's also seeking views on the process for defining services to be offered by the company, how and for what period it should set price and non-price terms and conditions, and how the company should deal with pricing and access equivalence to the NBN.

Ownership caps will also be covered. Conroy has flagged that private investors should own no more than 15 to 20 per cent of the company, but he now wants to know what those restrictions should be to ensure equivalence. The government is also seeking views on how it should sell its 51 per cent stake in the network.

Written submissions are due by Thursday 30 July 2009.

Today's call for views follows 120 submissions the Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy received in response to its telecommunications regulatory reform discussion paper.

Responses from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Optus, and the Competitive Coalition of Carriers had recommended Telstra's structural separation, amongst other regulatory changes.

Telstra advised against functional separation, and suggested a new telco adjudicator be established that was partly funded by Telstra but run by the government. It also wanted an independent auditor to evaluate the worth of its copper network.

Conroy today said the NBNCo is planned to be overseen by the current regulator, the ACCC, with a reminder the company will operate on a wholesale-only, open access basis.

The call for papers comes as the Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts has launched an inquiry into Conroy's first piece of NBN legislation, which will attempt to expand the government's information gathering powers from solely telcos to all utilities.

The committee will look at whether the confidentiality provisions under the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (National Broadband Network Measures No 1) Bill 2009 are enough to protect privacy of the utilities. A report is due by 17 August.

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• Conroy calls $250m backhaul tender
• Conroy lands first NBN legislation
• Conroy: NBN won't be an eyesore
• Conroy praises Telstra diplomacy

SmartGate uses ePassport data and face recognition technology to perform the customs and immigration checks usually conducted by actual officers. The system aimed to make border crossing simpler and easier, but still maintain border integrity, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said today.

Regular Australian and New Zealand travellers amongst the five million who use Sydney's airport each year would notice the advantage SmartGate, it is claimed. The system was first introduced at Brisbane airport in 2007 and is now also available at Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Cairns international airports.

To be eligible to use SmartGate, Australian and New Zealand travellers need to be the holder of an ePassport and be aged 18 or over.

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• Custom to finally deliver SmartGate
• E-passport fraud no threat to SmartGate
• UK airport begins biometric ID trial
• Protecting our borders: IT stands guard

The company will supply the department with 9000 Hewlett Packard 6350b laptops, although the potential exists to increase the number to 15,000, a spokesperson for the department told ZDNet.com.au this week.

The state's program, which started in 2007, will see every permanent state school teacher or TAFE lecturer who works at least two days a week (around 39,000) with access to their own laptop by 2011.

Over 29,000 Lenovo/IBM Thinkpad laptops were supplied via Queensland-based CoreTech for the first two phases of the rollout. ComputerCorp bought Coretech last year.

The department hoped to have the new round of computers in schools and TAFES by the middle of September. Aside from delivering laptops, the program will also pay for new IT infrastructure in schools, including wireless access. The teacehrs will also get the option of undertaking professional development to get the most out of their computers.

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• ComputerCORP buys S Central, Synergy
• Tasmanian Govt appoints hardware panel
• WA, NT pick PC revolution suppliers
• Qld Education uses old PC panel

The jobs it claims Telstra has planned to cut, but is yet to execute, are mostly from Telstra's support divisions, including financial and business administration staff. Telstra has not confirmed the redundancies. "In their Melbourne Global Operations Centre alone, Telstra looks to cut almost 100 key personnel," the union said on its website today.

The jobs proposed to be cut were included in a leaked list detailing 600 other jobs the union claims Telstra has cut in the past three months. Roles included administrators, engineers, technicians, installers, designers, project coordinators and technical specialists. The cuts are Australia-wide, with the majority coming from Melbourne and Sydney.

The list, which does not reveal individuals' names, includes the suburbs, job titles, and business divisions of staff it claimed Telstra has made redundant. The disclosure comes just days after several unions and Telstra reached an agreement on the principles the two would stick to in upcoming enterprise bargaining negotiations.

Telstra has, after facing repeated industrial action, accepted the role unions play in negotiating work conditions. The Labour Government's Fair Work Act ushered in yesterday, which replaced the former government's Work Choices program, goes some way to setting rules of engagement between unions and companies.

The union said it was still keen to "work positively with Telstra" and to secure a new enterprise agreement. The union conceded that some jobs would be surplus as a result of Telstra ushering in its to-be-completed transformation program, but criticised the telco for being short-sighted.

"Telstra simply isn't thinking long term — where the National Broadband Network build will place enormous demands for skills through the requirement of 25,000 employees," the union wrote.

Telstra did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

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• Thodey effect: Union suspends action
• Customers king, Thodey tells Telstra staff
• Thodey's pay: at least $2m per year
• Telstra CEO: Who is David Thodey?

New Zealand's Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and network engineers from Telecom contractors Downer and Transfield staged a series of drive-by protests through central Auckland. EPMU national organiser for the telecommunications and power industry, Joe Gallagher, said some 450 vans took part in the demonstration.

The van protest streaming through Auckland (Credit: Alain Russell)

The vans featured the livery of Telecom New Zealand's network arm, Chorus. Gallagher said the engineers were angry at being forced to become owner-operators instead of employees as a result of Chorus restructuring the contractor deals between the three Australian-owned companies.

In the past, Transfield and Downer EDI Engineering were contracted by Telecom (and later by Chorus as operational separation was mandated). Gallagher said a new company, Visionstream, will now serve the populous Auckland and Northland regions, a move announced last week and brought in, he said, "with great secrecy".

As a result of the restructuring, engineers that were employees of Downer and Transfield will now be expected to become independent owner-operators. This means, Gallagher said, that they have to buy their own expensive vans and gear, which must meet Chorus' specifications.

All in all, Gallagher said around 900 people would be affected by the changes. He believes there would be no benefit to engineers as a result of the changes, and said it was unfair to shift costs to his members in a recession. "It's not like our guys are earning millions as it is — most are on NZ$18 to $20 an hour, and have been on that money for the past 20 years," he said.

Gallagher added the collective agreements with Downer and Transfield had now expired, but believes it's necessary to make a stand to stop Telecom from "destroying the industry, like they seem to do every five years". He would not say if any further action by the union is on the cards.

Chorus spokesperson Melanie Marshall said her company was a little disappointed with the protests, but disputed the turnout was as large as the EPMU claimed. Marshall estimated there were only 80 vans in the drive-by action, and noted that the engineers were back at work at 11 o'clock.

It's not like our guys are earning millions as it is

EPMU organiser Joe Gallagher

According to Marshall, the changes are necessary for Chorus to meet its commitments to customers. "We need more flexibility with time," Marshal said, as customers want to be able to book installers and maintenance engineers outside working hours.

The changes are part of a 10-year contract that Chorus is signing with the three Australian companies. In total, Marshall said the contract was worth NZ$3 billion, and that it would help provide certainty for everyone over a long period of time.

Marshall said Visionstream's owner-operator model was already in place in Australia, and that the company had "processes" to help engineers shifting from being employees and needing to finance vehicles and equipment.

She said that Chorus had been consulting with the union and its members over the changes, holding "meet and greets" with Visionstream and providing information on the plans. A Visionstream spokesperson said the union was being disingenuous in saying engineers will be worse off under the owner-operator model.

The company will provide training on how to run a company, as well as financial support, including interest-free loans to purchase vehicles and equipment, the spokesperson said.

According to the spokesperson, the owner-operator model has worked to the benefit of Telstra network engineers in Australia, with no ex-employees regretting the move to independent contractors. Saying the union was fully briefed on the changes, the Visionstream spokesperson said his company was happy to continue to engage with engineers and that it is keen to retain the skilled workers.

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• Telstra, unions agree on bargaining principles
• Telstra freezes executive pay
• ANZ spends $10m to offset offshoring
• Thodey effect: Union suspends action

The complaints related to delays in receiving the cashback from the hardware manufacturer, and difficulties in receiving consistent answers from HP or agents, according to the ACCC, which had looked into the problem last year.

"The ACCC received more than 190 complaints about Hewlett-Packard's cashback and gift promotions over the past year, primarily related to sale of personal computers and printers," ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said in a statement.

The commission said that HP had cooperated fully, working with the ACCC to resolve problems. It had employed a new service provider to manage the cashback and gift promotions, as well as putting in a new claims processing process. With the complaint handling process improved, HP's website has included instructions for those consumers who had not yet received their cashback.

"Cashback offers are popular with consumers, so it is very important that companies making such offers treat consumers fairly and provide clear and straightforward information about claiming cashbacks," Samuel said.

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• Tech.Ed attendees get free HP netbook
• HP SkyRoom
• HP settles with CSIRO
• HP Australia bulked up in 2008

Despite being innovators and vigorous competitors, the ACCC believed Hutchison and Vodafone's services would have degraded over time, lessening their effectiveness as competitors to Telstra and Optus.

The competition watchdog allowed the merger to proceed under Section 50 of the Trade Practices Act, which prohibits a merger if it's likely to lead to a lessening of competition in the foreseeable future. The report focused on mobile telephony and mobile broadband markets.

The report reveals why the ACCC appeared not to support the merger when it said in April the merger would likely lead to higher prices for such services, but ultimately back-flipped when it approved the deal last month.

Vodafone and Hutchison were "vigorous competitors" in each market, forcing lower pricing from Telstra and Optus, but still the ACCC said their absence as individual players would unlikely lead to a lessening of competition in the foreseeable future. Key to its finding was the view that constraints on Hutchison's and Vodafone's network capacity, resulting from a failure to expand existing networks, would ultimately lessen their effectiveness as competitors.

"Without this network expansion, Hutchison would suffer a significant competitive disadvantage — in particular, the speed of its [mobile broadband] and other data services would slow down and the quality of its voice services would degrade," it reported.

"It is highly unlikely that Vodafone would have continued to make the investments necessary to remain competitive in MBB across Australia in the absence of the merger," the regulator said of Vodafone.

The ACCC acknowledged in its report that the merger would lead to a significant increase in concentration in the already concentrated markets. It also noted that Telstra and Optus may behave more competitively during the integration period of the newly merged entity VHA faces, but it said this would likely be short-lived.

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• ACCC approves Voda/Hutch merger
• Voda, Hutch plans to stay post-merger
• Hutchison confident Voda merger will proceed
• Voda sues Telecom NZ over 'interference'

David Bartlett
(Credit: Tasmanian Government)

Due to low retention rates, the state government decided in 2007 to do something about its system for students after year 10. It proposed a three-tiered system: a Polytechnic, Skills Institute and Academy catering for students who favoured practical learning, employment skills development and academic learning respectively. The program kicked off in January across 14 campuses, with another four or five to be added later.

ICT services were being standardised with shared ICT support, including centralised help desk, single or consistent sign on for all corporate applications, a single backup solution for files, and access for all student and staff to shared labs across campuses.

In budget estimate hearings two weeks ago (23 June), independent member for Rosevears Kerry Finch pointed out that since the new system had begun, there had been IT problems.

"I am informed that since secondary colleges will become part of polytechnic campuses their computer services have entered a disaster zone — that's how it has been described to me. There are long waits and lack of access. Is there a response to that?"

"I think 'disaster zone' is a bit harsh, to be honest," Premier David Bartlett said. "I know from my own background that bringing together nine campuses in a short period of time to operate on disparate systems, two different enrolment systems, a whole range of things, is an extremely complex task and I think the shared services unit in the Polytechnic and the IT area did a very good job in doing that."

He admitted that not all the services which teachers had previously had access to were not online for day one, but he said that he had been told there had been significant improvements. "Partly it is about finding something that is wrong and partly it is about trying to bring old systems together with new systems and the normal migration issues."

Finch said that the feedback he had heard was that students had been unable to configure their laptops into the polytechnic area network service which meant they had to go home to access their email and other services.

Bringing together nine campuses in a short period of time to operate on disparate systems, two different enrolment systems, a whole range of things, is an extremely complex task

David Bartlett

General manager of the shared services unit Tony Luttrell responded to that, saying he understood those issues had now been resolved. "But in talking about that, it's worthwhile understanding that we've inherited about 3500 computers ranging in ages from current 2009 models to ones which are seven years old, so some of the computers in the labs have limitations... So there is a real mixture of capabilities across the 19-odd campuses and this will take some time, as the premier said, to all be on the same age or fleet of current technology," he said.

Aside from fixing migration issues, Bartlett also believed that the IT systems in the newly formed institutions needed upgrading, since despite the new schooling model, students and staff would still be using their old systems which had the same problems they'd always had.

"I have a clear view that we need to invest much more in both student systems or support systems like HR and finance, but much more in teaching and learning systems in IT as well and we will be doing that ... but that will take months and years to invest in; things don't change overnight," he said.

Although the students might have access to new systems in the future, whether they'll be able to use Facebook on the network is still in question.

"There is an educational debate around social networking and it is one that is not resolved," Mike Brakey, CEO of the new Tasmanian Academy said. "With things like Facebook, the question that educators would raise is where is the inherent educational value in social networking?"

He said that having students chatting to their friends on social networks might not be the best use of resources.

"So I think in a sense we've hung back from some of that technology until we can get out heads around that debate because we want to be able to use things like Facebook for those educational purposes; in other words, to facilitate better learning communication on campuses rather than just social networking."

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• Tassie tips $12.7m in Aurora's NBN
• Suppliers wanted for Tassie's e-health revamp
• Minter Ellison wins Tassie NBN work
• Lenovo, Acer picked for Tassie schools

In a statement, Squiz managing director John-Paul Syriatowicz pledged to keep Funnelback trading as a separate company, with its own brand. "There will be no changes to company structure, staffing or strategy," he said. However, he noted that Funnelback's search solution would be closely integrated with Squiz's MySource Matrix content management solution.

Syriatowicz said it made sense for the pair to come together.

"As organisations continue their inevitable move towards browser-centric information management, powerful, fully-integrated search will play an increasingly important role," he said. "I believe 2010 will herald a fundamental shift in the content management systems and search marketplace as clients and vendors realise the two are inseparable. Trying to treat them as discrete solutions simply doesn't work."

Squiz did not disclose how much it paid for Funnelback, which was spun off as a CSIRO-owned company in early 2006. The search group boasts the Federal Government, Oxfam and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation amongst its customers.

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• Funnelback holds fast to australia.gov.au
• Aust govt plans revamped Web search
• CSIRO births new search company
• CeBIT: Nairn talks up govt blogs

(Credit: Apple)

If you queued for your iPhone last year, or even a week ago, you might be peeved to know that Apple will now ship your shiny, new iPhone 3GS while you wait (im)patiently on your living room sofa.

Apple has updated its Australian online store to include unlocked iPhone 3Gs and 3GS', in all capacities and all available colour options. The outright prices are as we reported on iPhone launch day: AU$719 for 8GB iPhone 3G, and AU$879 and AU$1040 for the 16GB and 32GB iPhone 3GS models respectively.

3 Mobile continues to build momentum on its planned iPhone launch, announcing that the handsets will be available in its stores on 17 July, but are still yet to confirm plans and pricing.

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• Carriers in a tether over iPhone capabilities
• Apple closes Sydney store to browsers
• Optus' iPhone elites get upgrade discount
• Apple to sell unlocked iPhone 3GS

iiNet, Vodafone, Optus, NextGen and Internode have welcomed the government's plan to build backhaul transmission links to the six regional locations announced yesterday. All agreed the build should improve competition to areas that are either under-serviced or monopolised by Telstra.

The two companies known to be lodging bids, Leighton's fibre subsidiary NextGen and Optus are keen to accommodate the government's plans, according to its spokespeople. Chief of fibre company NextGen Phil Sykes told ZDNet.com.au its parent Leighton's core business gave it a natural advantage and said the proposed September start was "very do-able".

Optus' director of Government and Corporate Affairs, Maha Krishnapillai, said it was already rolling out fibre in some areas and had the workforce for a quick deployment.

Internode chieftain Simon Hackett told ZDNet.com.au that the ISP and its carrier company, Agile, was considering responding to the tender too. "Anything that serves to create competitive alternatives to unviable monopoly backhaul pricing from Telstra is a good thing for the country — anywhere and everywhere that this occurs," he said.

Telstra has not responded to ZDNet.com.au's request for comment.

Key criteria the government wants to find out, according to the tender documents, is how soon construction can start, a completion date, and when services will be available. While both NextGen and Optus plan to bid for the entire project, Optus' Krishnapillai conceded the government's desire to have the project completed quickly could mean multiple companies will be allocated work.

But Ovum telecommunications analyst David Kennedy has questioned the government's plan to roll the network into the NBN Company. The tender documents reveal the government is planning for the backhaul builder to manage, maintain and provide third-party access to the network for the first five years after its completion. After this, either the NBNCo would take over ownership or the builder could be retained as a contracted service provider.

"If the government wants to put backhaul infrastructure into the NBN that raises the prospect of the newly funded fibre and Telstra's fibre being rolled into the same company in the future," Kennedy told ZDNet.com.au. "If that happens then the whole drive of this — to promote competition — will be null and void."

"There needs to be care taken that we are not funding competitive infrastructure that will be rolled into a monopoly in the future," he said.

The government, however, has insisted that, given the company would be a legislated, wholesale-only monopoly, it would, unlike Telstra, lack the incentive to give itself a good deal on access prices.

Still, whether competition is delivered depends less on the regulatory regime, but the economics of the new links, according to Internode chief Hackett.

"Competition isn't dependent on the fibre, it's dependent on the fibre access cost being low enough to make service delivery viable. It's not sufficient if the access cost is a little bit lower than Telstra backhaul prices; the data links have to be made available at metro level wholesale dark fibre pricing," said Hackett.

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• Conroy calls $250m backhaul tender
• Rudd's big backhaul day in Darwin
• Sept start for NBN regional backhaul?
• Tasmanians a step closer to backhaul competition?

(CERN Datacentre, CERN, Geneva image by Cory Doctorow, CC2.0)

The datacentre, located on the campus of Herston hospital, is believed to be one of three datacentres Queensland Health operates. It only lost power for a fraction of a second, when two flooded Energex transformers failed at around 5:00pm on that day, according to a source close to the incident. Uninterrupted power supplies kicked in to keep servers up.

However, the brown-out tripped the chilled water system, cutting chilled water to the hospital campus. As it wasn't monitored, the datacentre support team didn't notice the loss of the chilled water. A datacentre employee came on scene to check everything was running, but being happy that there wasn't anything wrong, he left.

Only two of 10 air-conditioning units within the datacentre were able to use refrigerated gas if chilled water wasn't available, meaning that although the rest of the units were operating, they weren't cooling. The temperature in the datacentre began to rise.

Although people were called in to investigate the temperature rise, the cool water problem wasn't found. Due to a DNS change the day before the problems began, there were no messages being sent to tell staff of server problems. Four hours after the brown-out, services began to suffer. On-call hospital staff were affected and complained. Soon after, a server shut down.

The whereabouts of the air-conditioning specialist who had been called in was unknown to many staff members and he didn't answer his phone. It had taken the engineer three hours to arrive on site. Five hours after the systems failed, the fact that the chilled water pumps had not been operating was discovered as more servers shut down with temperatures over 50 degrees. It was believed to be fixed.

In the face of a severe weather event, the IT staff involved were outstanding in their response to minimise the impact of this incident.

Ray Brown, acting CIO Queensland Health

Because the remote access system wasn't working, staff had to wait until they arrived at the datacentre until they could begin shutting down servers. When they arrived, they started to move systems over to an alternate datacentre, which in some cases caused brief user inconvenience. Some, however, could not be moved since their servers had no ability to failover and Queensland Health's architecture for virtual machines didn't allow moving it over to a second datacentre.

The hospital's Cerner electronic medical record (patient administration) system was shut down by the hospital staff.

Six hours after the brown-out, the air conditioning was still not working. Although staff believed they had found the problem, more systems including iPharmacy shut down until 75 per cent of applications were down and the datacentre reached 45 degrees.

Eight hours after the brown-out, chilled water was finally brought back up. Nine hours after, the datacentre was back to normal and the services could be restored. By nine o'clock the morning after the brown-out, all services were restored.

Over the course of the problems, 12 applications caused significant impact, with another 12 having minor impact. Three years ago the datacentre was forced to shut down for the same reasons. Afterwards, the team had been told it could not happen again.

When queried on the incident, Queensland Health acting CIO Ray Brown did not respond to a question on what facilities around the state the downed applications provided services to. However, it is believed that Queensland Health's three datacentres provide services around the state to multiple locations.

He denied that there had been more than one incident over the past three years at the datacentre.

According to Brown, since several applications were relocated to the other datacentre, there was "minimal disruption" to services. "The majority of services impacted were available by 2:30am and all Queensland Health systems categorised as critical remained operational during this incident," he said.

"In the face of a severe weather event, the IT staff involved were outstanding in their response to minimise the impact of this incident. The ability of staff to physically attend the site was severely hampered by flooding in the area."

Lessons had been learned, according to Brown. Queensland Health was exploring options to remove reliance on chilled water. It also intended to replace the remote access system by the third quarter of this year. It is undertaking a review of management tools and is examining the crisis management plan.

Queensland Health has lost several chief information officers over the past several years. Long-time CIO Paul Summergreene had his contract terminated by the department in July 2008. Dr Richard Ashbury filled his shoes for a short time, before leaving the chair vacant, with Brown currently leading the department's IT function in an acting capacity.

The news also comes as the Queensland Government flagged in the last state budget its intent to splurge hundreds of millions of dollars on health IT systems to support its e-health capability.

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• Woolies splurges on $50m datacentre
• Tanner looks for interim datacentres
• Qld's Stanwell plans new datacentres
• Cisco launches blades in datacentre push

Michael Coates, general manager of Basslink Telecoms, had flagged the 30 June self-imposed deadline for when the cable would commence carrying customer traffic.

Missing the deadline means little in the broader context of the cable's deployment, however, with it having already shifted back months, in part because of third-party relationships with Victorian utilities that it needed bedding down before the cable could be used.

Coates was unavailable for comment today, though Basslink customer and internet service provider Internode hasn't complained, and is looking forward to reducing its reliance on Telstra in coming weeks. "Basslink is in final link-testing before our part of it is handed over to us. It's all going well as far as I'm aware," Internode supremo Simon Hackett told ZDNet.com.au today.

Internode too will need to run tests before pushing production traffic through the new fibre cable. Hackettt said the cable was technically live.

"I expect Internode will in turn do its own internal testing for a week or two before putting the link into service alongside our existing exorbitant-cost Telstra link," Hackett said. "Basslink and Internode [are] ensuring the brand spanking new service is stable and error free before we start moving production traffic," he added.

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• Tasmania's NBN shrouded in mystery
• Internode DSLAMs Victoria, Tasmania
• Tassie tips $12.7m in Aurora's NBN
• Basslink to go live by 30 June

An equipment fault at TransGrid's Bayswater Substation in the Hunter Valley at 10:50am this morning knocked out power to the Equinix facility in Mascot, as well as electricity in several cities and states, according to state-owned energy wholesaler TransGrid.

Equinix spokespeople have been unable to respond to ZDNet.com.au's questions. Large datacentre providers usually have back-up generators available to cope with such power outages.

For example, rival datacentre operator Global Switch confirmed it was also affected by the outage; however, its backup generators kicked in and spared any disruption to customers, a spokesperson for the company told ZDNet.com.au.

"A joint effort from staff in NSW transmission and distribution organisations ensured that power supplies were progressively restored within an hour of the incident occurring," TransGrid's general manager of Network Performance and Operations, Lionel Smyth said in a statement this afternoon.

AAP contributed to this story

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• TransGrid scores CIO from RailCorp
• TransGrid CIO resigns
• TransGrid CIO departs
• TransGrid outsources to Mincom, overlooks Fujitsu

(Parliament House image by Ryan Wick, CC2.0)

This time last year, at least 40 lobbying firms had an information technology or telecommunications company as a client. This year that number has been pulled up to 50.

One of last year's most prolific hirer of lobbyists, Telstra, does not appear to have changed its spots with its new management. Around this time last year, the telco hired four lobbyist firms to push its agenda with the government. As of today this is still the case, although the exact firms have changed. The telco has dropped Enhance Corporate, which currently services Cisco and Novell, and has picked up Parker and Partners, which has Alcatel-Lucent and EDS as clients.

Telstra's partly owned subsidiary Foxtel has dropped its lobbying level slightly, only hiring two firms to push its agenda instead of three as last year. The lobbying done for Kaz Group last year is now also done in favour of new owner Fujitsu, not former owner Telstra.

Optus only employs one firm, as does Hutchison (now merged with Vodafone), which does not appear on the lists, to form VHA Group. Altogether there are now 273 lobby firms listed on the register as of today. This has increased from a level of 186 when ZDNet.com.au last looked at the register.

Satellite companies seemed to see the value of networking. Intelsat engaged the same number of lobbyist firms as Telstra. Earlier this year it won a $160 million three-year contract with the Defence Material Organisation to supply communications to the military. Inmarsat was the client of two lobby firms and Iridium Satellite, NewSat and Orion Satellite Systems all enlisted the help of one lobbying specialist.

HP and EDS as well as Sun and Oracle have gained lobby value from their respective marriages (the merger of Sun and Oracle is still pending). HP, which employed only one firm to push its interest, has now gained the added benefit of three that work for EDS, bringing it up to four like Telstra and Inmarsat. Sun Microsystems and Oracle Australia also both employed two, making for a combined total of, again, four. SAP holds its own with three firms.

Microsoft, Google and Dell only put their toe in the water with one firm each, while Apple has splashed out the cash for two. Australian software firms IBA Health and Mincom also afforded one. Of the services companies, Accenture had three firms pushing its line, while Dimension Data and Unisys employed two. ASG, CSC, CSG and Capgemini all had one.

iiNet and the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft faced each other off with one firm each. The Federation and the internet service provider are currently engaged in a landmark copyright case.

Telecommunications suppliers went wild, with Cisco continuing its love for lobbying from last year with three firms helping it with government relations. Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson, Motorola and Qualcomm all had two, while Huawei, Juniper Networks, 3Com and Polycom satisfied themselves with two.

Former National Broadband Network bidder Axia NetMedia, which has been quiet since the new $43 billion plan was announced, still employs a lobbyist. NextGen Networks and TransACT do as well.

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• IBM reveals ammo for lobby cannon
• Qld Govt ICT lobbyists exposed
• We're not a lobbyist, says CCC
• Telstra tops Canberra lobbyist list

Conroy and the state ministers met on Monday at the Online and Communications Council meeting in Melbourne.

Robert Schwarten
(Credit: Queensland Government)

"I was advised at the meeting that the location of the NBN headquarters would not be decided until the NBN Company board was in place. I understand this process of finding a suitable chairman and board members is currently underway," Queensland ICT Minister Robert Schwarten told ZDNet.com.au in an email today.

The revelation comes as the informal battle to host the NBN headquarters is heating up behind the scenes, with state governments handing in unsolicited bids and Shadow Communications Minister Nick Minchin labelling it a "political auction".

Spokespeople for the NSW and Victorian state government ministers who have, along with Queensland, expressed interest in hosting the NBN Company, this week declined to comment on the process behind or progress of their bids.

NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Commerce Carmel Tebbutt released a statement prior to the Monday meeting claiming that NSW had the most telecommunications skills and pointed out that the fibre-optic cables from major international markets ran through Sydney.

Victorian Treasurer and Minister for Information and Communication Technology John Lenders also recently pitched Victoria as Australia's recognised "telecommunications hub". The state is also home to Telstra's headquarters. Lenders also pointed out Melbourne was home to the telecommunication arms of regulators: the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Schwarten also made a pitch to Conroy and has previously said the state was hiring a consultant to sharpen its bid.

Shadow Minister for Communications Nick Minchin, however, believes the states should not be directing their bids to Conroy and that the current debate was not the right way to handle the matter. "This process should not be subjected to some party political auction involving state Labor governments," Nick Minchin told ZDNet.com.au by email yesterday.

"If and when Senator Conroy appoints a board for this company, which is being established as a commercial entity, it should be that board which makes that decision, free from political interference and pressure," he said.

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• Qld seeks help with NBN HQ bid
• Nathan Rees wants NBN HQ too
• Victoria, Qld fight for NBN HQ

David Thodey
(Credit: Suzanne Tindal/
ZDNet.com.au)

The document formalises the direction Thodey had indicated the telco would take in its future negotiations with unions as the groups work toward a new enterprise agreement. Thodey's discussions with the unions had already led to industrial action being called off at the telco.

The principles were agreed upon by Telstra; the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU); the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU); the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU); and the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists & Managers Australia (APESMA). Thodey and Telstra's HR group managing director Andrea Grant signed on Telstra's behalf.

Consensus over bargaining principles is set to play a critical role in coming weeks as the telco resets its enterprise agreement with a unionised workforce, which represents around 20 per cent of its 40,000 headcount.

CEPU president Ed Husic welcomed Telstra's agreement on bargaining principles. "After 13 years of conflict-driven laws, today marks the start of a new way for employers and unions to relate and deal with each other — for the mutual benefit of businesses and the employees that work there," he said in a statement.

While the agreement enshrines the rules of engagement, a likely tough battle looms following Telstra's recent decision to set pay increases for staff on Australian Workplace Agreements of just 2 per cent for the next year. The CEPU has said it would push for a pay rise this year of around 7 per cent.

However, Telstra's agreement should mean staff will have an easier time joining a union to bargain on their behalf. A key principle agreed upon was that union membership was a matter of employee choice. Telstra also recognised that employees can rightfully be supported by their union during workplace issues. Senior representatives from each party will meet annually to discuss the principles.

The agreement comes as the Federal Government ushers in its new Fair Work Act, which from today compels parties to bargain in good faith and gives back the unions a spot at the negotiating table. Telstra was unable to answer ZDNet.com.au's questions at the time of writing.

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• Thodey effect: Union suspends action
• Union considering ending Telstra action
• Union to meet 'good faith' Telstra
• Union attacks Trujillo's racism charge

(Credit: Nokia)

Nokia Australia today launched its flagship smartphone for 2009, the Nokia N97, and demonstrated some of the Australian-developed widgets and apps to be pre-installed on the handset.

Representatives from Facebook, Austereo, ABC and News Limited were on hand at the launch to show new applications developed to bring local Australian content, including news tickers, podcasts and social networking tools. Apps from these developers are either pre-installed on the phone, or are available through Nokia's Ovi Store.

The N97 features a new widgets-focused home screen platform, giving users six positions to add updating web content and shortcuts. Partners, like News Limited, have created widgets for these home screen fragments to display updating data downloaded to the phone. The widgets also act as shortcuts to mobile websites for these services, linking from a Facebook widget, for example, to the mobile version of the site.

This handset is the latest in Nokia's N-series range of multimedia products, most notable for the N95 released in 2007. The N95 was considered one of the first smartphones to embrace the concept of technology convergence by bringing fast internet browsing, GPS and multimedia into the one device. The N97 builds on this convergence story, offering HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity options for the web, a 5-megapixel camera and 32GB of internal storage plus the option to expand this using microSD memory cards.

"In the N97 we've created our most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer," said Emile Baak, Nokia Australia's managing director.

Nokia confirmed that the N97 will be available mid-July with an RRP of AU$1129, or on contract through Optus and Vodafone.

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• Nokia E63
• Nokia N85
• Aussie iPhone developers strike gold
• Telstra's iPhone-free parallel universe

The Federal Government's first targets for patching up the nation's so-called blackspots will be: Emerald and Longreach, Queensland; Geraldton, Western Australia; Darwin, Northern Territory; Broken Hill, New South Wales; Victor Harbor, South Australia; and South West Gippsland, Victoria.

The government plans to attack the telecommunications blackspots by constructing backhaul networks or backbone telecommunications links that connect remote and metropolitan areas together. A tender was released today and is available from the government's official tender site, AusTender.

It's not clear yet what other regions will be targeted for backhaul construction, with Conroy today flagging that the government will select more locations throughout the year.

"Subject to the outcome of the first round tender, more locations will be identified later in the year," Conroy said in a statement today.

"It should be clear that National Broadband Network backbone infrastructure investment will not be limited to these individual locations and routes," he added.

Both the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania have been left off today's list; however, Tasmania is expected to see the first leg of the NBN deployed at some stage this month. Neither the Federal or Tasmanian governments have confirmed a specific date yet.

It is hoped that the project will improve broadband services to regional Australia via the planned high-speed backbone links, some of which may run alongside Telstra's — an outcome that Telstra advised against in its submission to the government's consultation paper on the matter.

Despite the apparent delay in today's announcement, which was initially expected in May, Conroy said it still planned to commence construction in September as originally planned.

Shadow Minister for Communications Nick Minchin expressed doubt over Conroy's plan to run a tender and begin construction by September would be met.

Minchin said the OPEL project would have been complete this year if it hadn't been canned by Conroy.

"OPEL was targeted for completion this year and would have seen new fibre backhaul rolled out in under-serviced areas of every state and territory, with a 30 per cent discount on current backhaul pricing across the 15,000-kilometre network," Minchin said in a statement.

"Senator Conroy's decision to cancel OPEL, despite now belatedly pursuing a solution very similar to it, raises serious questions about his judgement and level of commitment to rural and regional Australians," he added.

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• Rudd's big backhaul day in Darwin
• Sept start for NBN regional backhaul?
• Tasmanians a step closer to backhaul competition?
• Austar wireless to use Soul backhaul

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
(Credit: Australian Labor Party)

Rudd is expected to reveal at least six new backhaul links, including a link between Perth and Geraldton, in addition to a formal request for tender process for suppliers to build the connections. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy will not be in Darwin with the Prime Minister.

Telstra will today get a first taste for how much the government has taken heed of suggestions it outlined within its response to the Federal Government's Regional Backbone Blackspots Program Stakeholder Consultation paper.

Telstra had warned the government against running two backhaul links in areas it enjoyed exclusivity. It said this would result in consumers paying higher prices than if it relied on its existing infrastructure.

West Australian ISP iiNet's submission highlighted the problems ISPs faced in regional areas, stating that it had been unable to deploy Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) technology in regional areas, which would provide ADSL speed broadband, because of Telstra's monopoly.

The $250 million for backhaul links has been allocated by the government to improve competition at a wholesale level in rural areas currently dominated by Telstra and, in part, is the Rudd Government's alternative to the Optus/Elders led $1 billion OPEL project planned by the Howard Government but later canned by Conroy.

Leighton's carrier subsidiary Nextgen in May flagged it intended to make a bid for the work, claiming it already had plans to build in blackspot areas.

The government's backhaul project appears to be running slightly late, with the initial consultation paper having outlined an indicative time frame of May for the backhaul tender documents to be released, with construction due to start in September.

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• Sept start for NBN regional backhaul?
• Tasmanians a step closer to backhaul competition?
• How to fix broadband blackspots
• Minchin would bring back OPEL