OECD says Australia has most expensive Mobile Broadband

The OECD has just released its mammoth "Communications Outlook for 2009" and it shows Australia as one of the most expensive countries for communications services in the OECD, in particular, Australia is the most expensive country for high usage mobile broadband.

The OECD looked at average prices across countries for a low-use mobile broadband subscription (20MB to 1000MB per month), medium usage (2GB to 6GB) and for high usage (6GB to 20GB). The comparisons were made in September 2008.

For high usage the OECD found that "The average mobile broadband price across the 20 offers in the group is $US44 [purchasing power parity adjusted] per month. Ireland has the least expensive subscriptions at the higher data caps than other countries in the OECD at $US20 PPP per month. The price in the most expensive surveyed market, Australia, has an average price of $US62 for this data range and is more than three times the price of similar connections in Ireland."

The average price per month for a low-use subscription was $US25 across the 17 offers in the category. The least expensive connections were in Sweden ($US11) and the most expensive in Spain ($US33). Australia was in second place at $US27.

The 352 page report is available for download, price $US75. It "presents the most recent comparable data on the performance of the communication sector in OECD countries and on their policy frameworks." The data provided map the eight years of competition for many OECD countries that fully opened their market to competition in 1998.

More details can be found at:

OECD Communications Outlook

[Source: ITWire ]

Telstra wins $146m Catholic Schools network

Telstra has won a five-year, $146 million network services deal to provide network connectivity to 1550 Australian Catholic schools.

The deal, negotiated on behalf of the schools by the Australian Catholic Education Network Consortium, will see Telstra connect five data centres over an optical fibre network that connects to more than nine in 10 Catholic schools.

Graeme Jane, a consultant on the project told iTnews the consortium started planning the network two years ago.

"It is a significant process to convince the church and 24 separate dioceses around the country of the idea to have one network for everyone's benefit, then to agree on specs, on services, on governance," he said. "That takes a long time."

Jane said the group went to tender with strict requirements around capability and price, from which Telstra "came up trumps".

Telstra may win more business from the Catholic Church by contract provisions allowing it to extend the network to church's health and welfare operations, Jane said.

NBN-proof

Telstra was required to allow the church to migrate to the Federal Government's National Broadband Network (NBN) should it be delivered to most of the schools before the five-year contract is over.

"We were certainly aware the National Broadband Network was coming," Jane said. "What the Catholic Education Group has done is say, we will have an open mind to it. We are fully aware the fibre to the premises NBN is a solution for us down the track. But we need a network right now. It might take a long time for the NBN to get to all the places where these 1600-odd schools are."

"We asked ourselves - can we afford to wait? The answer was no. So we mitigated the risk by putting safeguards in the contract to allow for big changes in the industry down the track. We have allowed for a transition to the NBN."

Filtering

The network will be operated by the church's Catholic Network Australia. But it will not be filtering the feed that goes to schools.

Such issues are dealt with at state level but under the new network, filtering will be decided on by dioceses.

"(Catholic Network Australia) will not be imposing any filter on the network - it will be the responsibility of agencies within each diocese," Jane said. "They might ask (it) to do it collectively down the track but for now all applications are decided at diocese level."

[ Source: itnews -Mobile Edition]

Digital Regions Initiative

A competitive selection process for digital education, health and emergency services in regional, rural and remote Australia will commence in the second half of 2009.

"The $60 million Digital Regions Initiative will ensure Australians living outside our major metropolitan centres enjoy the benefits of digital education, health and emergency services," the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, said.

"The National Broadband Network will deliver high-speed broadband to all Australians, no matter where they choose to live or work and the Digital Regions Initiative will drive important developments to enable the productive benefits on offer."

"Through the Digital Regions Initiative, the Rudd Government will form partnerships with state, territory and local governments to drive digital development in the key service areas of education, health and emergency services."

Senator Conroy today invited comments from key stakeholders on the draft program guidelines for the Digital Regions Initiative.

"These guidelines will shape the way we deliver projects supporting digital education, health and emergency services under the Digital Regions Initiative. I look forward to receiving views on the operation of this program," Senator Conroy said.

The Digital Regions Initiative was announced on 5 March 2009 as part of the Government’s initial response to the Regional Telecommunications Review. Further funding was announced in the 2009–10 Budget.

Examples of possible initiatives include but will not be limited to:

• remote medical consultation, diagnosis and treatment to address regional skills shortages and enhance patient care
• digital resources and services such as teleconferencing to improve access to educational opportunities for regional, rural and remote students and teachers, and
• digital technologies to improve emergency and disaster response.
  

Following the finalisation of guidelines, the first Digital Regions Initiative competitive selection round will commence in the second half of 2009.

The draft guidelines and information on the Digital Regions Initiative are available online at www.dbcde.gov.au/digitalregions

When will the Digital Regions Initiative commence?

The Digital Regions Initiative will commence in 2009 and conclude in 2013.

Draft guidelines are now available for public comment until 8 July 2009. [Download Guidelines ]

• Expressions of Interest will be invited in the second half of 2009.
• Projects are expected to commence in early 2010 to ensure regional communities benefit as quickly as possible.

What types of projects will be funded under the Digital Regions Initiative?

• The Digital Regions Initiative will expand and replicate successful Clever Networks, state, territory and local government projects and models of service delivery into other regions. It will also support the expansion of projects across state/territory borders or nationally.

• The Digital Regions Initiative's key focus is on improving service delivery through the use of innovative digital enablement technology. Projects will be expected to offer sustainable solutions and longer term benefits for regional Australians.

[ Source: Dept. of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy]

Related Links

• Communities of Integrated Networks - C.O.I.N.s - 2004 -2009

Technology for Not for Profit Organisations!

Dear Colleagues,

We work with many not-for-profit, income exempt organisations across our region and we know how difficult it is to support your IT capacity with the price of software and hardware often being well-beyond our limited operating budgets.

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DonorTec

DonorTec provides donated software and hardware from companies such as Microsoft and Cisco to eligible Australian non profit groups with Income Tax Exempt Status (ITE). Via this program you can get the latest products.

This is an exciting program to assist Australian non profits build their ICT capacity and has already assisted hundreds of groups to make huge savings in their operations!

The Donortec Program is provided by Community Information Strategies Australia Inc CISA (trading as Connecting Up Australia) in partnership with TechSoup. Both CISA and Compumentor/TechSoup are nonprofit organisations that are part of a global partnership for technology donations with companies such as Microsoft and Cisco and more companies to come.

 

For more details please follow this link:

http://www.donortec.com.au

Australia 2020 - Broadband Government Response

The Prime Minister released the Government response to the Australia 2020 Summit on 22 April 2009.

The release follows the Prime Minister’s commitment to consider fully the more than 900 ideas generated by participants to the Australia 2020 Summit.

The Response outlines ideas the government will implement, those it will explore further and those which, at this time, will not proceed.

The Response includes ten chapters – based on the topics discussed at the Australia 2020 Summit – which can be viewed or downloaded separately.

Whilst the entire report will be of interest to many, Chapters 3, 4,6 and 7 will probably hold most interest for members and stakeholders of the CRLLEN.

Of particular interest will be the reference to Broadband infrastructure in Chapter 4.

Australia 2020 Government response

Developing Australia's digital skills

Developing Australia's digital skills. To fully participate in the digital economy, Australians need effective digital, media literacy and e-business skills. We are talking about skills at all levels individual, business and higher education and vocational training.

Read on for more detail about these issues and to let us know the best ways we can develop Australia's digital skills... [Digital Economy Future Directions Latest Topics]

Wireless OK where broadband won't go

The [Australian] federal government is set to save millions of dollars in subsidy payments for families that cannot receive broadband, following a ruling that wireless internet services are adequate...

[Source: MIS Australia]

UK government unveils broadband-for-everyone plan

Every home in Britain will be guaranteed access to broadband internet under plans unveiled by the government, which put the technology on a par with telephones as an essential service.

"We are developing plans to move towards an historic universal service commitment for broadband and digital services," Culture Secretary Andy Burnham told MPs in the House of Commons on Thursday.

Universal service obligations (USOs) were used in 1840 to guarantee postal services across Britain, and in 1984 to ensure everyone had access to a phone.

The plan to give every household broadband access by the 2012 Olympic Games in London is part of a new strategy, which includes upgrading radio from analogue to digital, to ensure Britain's future in a digital age.

[Source: SMH]

Bridging the Digital Divide - A Young Person's Perspective

The Inspire Foundation - a national organisation that uses technology to create opportunities for young people to change their world - and funded by Vic Health has recently undertaken a research report arising out of the "Bridging the Digital Divide" project entitled "Young people's perspectives on taking action". The report found that "taking action" to marginalised young people means something quite different to traditional definitions of social and political participation.

The research found that some of the barriers to participating in social and political action included not knowing how to take action, the attitudes of others and their own personal circumstances and characteristics. For the most marginalised, issues such as safety, personal security and health were very important.

Download

Young people's perspectives on taking action, 'Bridging the Digital Divide' , Inspire Foundation and ORYGEN Youth Health, University of Melbourne.

[Source: Thanks to Sheree Brown]

National baseline of school broadband connectivity 2008

National baseline of school broadband connectivity 2008

This paper presents the aggregated national findings drawn from the first Fibre Connections to Schools (FCS) initiative baseline survey. The FCS baseline will be used to support the future implementation of the FCS initiative, including the development of high level strategies, program guidelines and investment approaches. This paper contains only data at a highly aggregated national level in accordance with the confidentiality undertaking given by DEEWR to respondents.

The survey, which was developed in consultation with education stakeholders, was distributed by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) in May-June 2008 to government school authorities and Catholic and independent school sector bodies for response by the end of July 2008. The baseline reflects responses as at 15 August 2008.

Releated links

National baseline of school broadband connectivity 2008.

Download the national baseline of school broadband connectivity 2008 [ 425.1 KB]