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McKinsey Inks New NBN Deal

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The Federal Government has hired the firm behind the controversial $25 million NBN implementation study – McKinsey – to pen another multi-million-dollar report.The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has hired McKinsey for $4.98 million to consult for USC Co, the company charged with ensuring basic telephone services are available under the universal-service obligation, according to The Australian newspaper.

The contract, and the likelihood of yet more consultancies, was foreshadowed in documents obtained by the Oz under freedom-of-information laws, which say the department wanted McKinsey to look at the scoping, costing and funding of USO Co.

Brisbane To Build Own Network

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Brisbane’s Lord Mayor Campbell Newman has announced he will not wait for the NBN and build its own network under a deal with UK company i3, which he claims will take just four years.As suggested in previous reports, the fibre-optic network will be installed in the city’s wastewater pipe network from next year. The aim is to connect up to 15,000 homes a month.

UK-based i3 Asia Pacific has sold the idea to the Lord Mayor and says it will provide home and businesses with access to 100 megabits-per-second broadband, akin to the Labor Government plans.

The plan is for i3 to act as a wholesaler, providing broadband capability to existing telecommunication retailers, including Telstra and Optus, in competition with the NBN Co network.

An i3 statement says the technology will make Brisbane Australia’s first “fibrecity” with all homes and businesses potentially having access to 100Mbps broadband within four years. However there will be no opt-out provision, leaving doubts as to how many homes might actually sign up.

 

It is also not clear how individual household connections will be made from the buried sewer lines. However pictures on the i3 Web site show a cable emerging from the ground and connecting to a simple box on the outside wall of a house.

“Work on the fibre-optic network will start in early 2011 and will be delivered using the group’s proven low-cost methodologies which include the use of existing ducts such as the sewer system, and microtrenching to lay the fibreoptic cables,” said Elfed Thomas, CEO of i3 Group.

He claims that by the end of 2013, the i3 Group will have connected almost one million UK homes with broadband capable of supporting speeds of up to 1Gbps on an open-access wholesale basis. The company has also completed trials in the USA.

Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said he looked forward to seeing more details on the i3 proposal – and noted that, just like the NBN, the Lord Mayor’s plan was going ahead without a cost-benefit analysis.

Investors Give Microsoft The Thumbs Down As Share Value Falls

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Investors are not happy with Microsoft’s future growth prospects as the big IT Company keep losing ground to the likes of Google and Apple. As a result their shares fell 4 percent, hitting a six-week low, despite thge Company delivering a 15 percent growth in revenue, from sales of Office 2010 and the successful launch of the Kinect motion controller for games.

Investors are not happy with Microsoft’s future growth prospects as the big IT Company keep losing ground in to the likes of Google and Apple. As a result their shares fell 4 percent, hitting a six-week low, despite thge Company delivering a 15 percent growth in revenue, from sales of Office 2010 and the successful launch of the Kinect motion controller for games.

Investors are concerned about Microsoft’s continuing lack of traction in the tablet and mobile phone arenas and continuing large losses in its online software business.

Microsoft reported net income of $6.63 billion on sales of $20 billion, up 15 percent, for the quarter. Strong uptake of Office 2010 drove business division revenue up 24 percent to more than $6 billion. Entertainment division revenue climbed 55 percent on the back of the successful launch of the Kinect, which sold 8 million units in its first 60 days on the market.

However Deutsche Bank rated the result disappointing, telling clients results for its Windows business “point towards PCs being cannibalised by tablets.”

The analyst added that “investors continued to be concerned about [Microsoft’s] lack of traction in the tablet and mobile space.”

JP Morgan said concerns regarding tablets will “hang over Microsoft like a dark cloud” and wondered “if the slew of new Android tablets expected to flood the market in the June quarter will make recently reduced PC unit shipments too optimistic.”

Others were more concerned about the continuing losses in the online software market: in the latest quarter its business reported a $543 million loss. It has lost a total of $2.5 billion over the past four quarters.

Investment Web site Silicon Valley Insider called the continuing losses over the past 20 quarters  – see chart, page 1 – “astounding” and said in most business circles this would be considered a “failed business”.

It adds: ” One of shareholders’ biggest complaints against Microsoft is the fact that the company’s stock price is so stagnant, and essentially has not traded more than $10 above or below its current stock price in the past decade. How long will investors wait for Microsoft to improve its stock-market performance, when other companies like Apple and Google have run circles around it when it comes to stock performance?”

– The result was mired in further controversy after market information company Selerity was able to publish the results several hours ahead of their official release. Selerity – which sells market data it culls from the Web to investors – says it was able to use special software it has developed to access Microsoft’s press release disclosing earnings on a public area of the software maker’s site ahead of the release.

The software involved combs Web sites, e-mails and press-release services for information that investors and their computerised trading programs can act upon.

Mark Murray, a spokesman for Microsoft, said the company’s “preproduction work” is done on servers that aren’t connected to the Internet and not normally accessible to search software.

 

Web Conference Biz To Grow 149%

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Demand for web conferencing services in Australia is set to grow by 149 percent in the five years to 2014, according to a survey by consulting and research outfit Ovum, part of the Datamonitor group.

Ovum predicts global spending on Web conferencing will hit US$2.7 billion by 2015, up from $1.2 billion 2010. In the Asia-Pacific region spending will reach $534 million in 2015, at a compound annual growth rate of 23.5pc since 2010.

According to Ovum, demand in Asia-Pacific is growing faster than the global average because of greater economic development and a higher base of new corporate customers.

IE9 A ‘Dud’ Say Research Group

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Microsoft has launched the new version 9 of its Internet Explorer Web browser, promising “a faster, richer and more immersive Web experience” – but consulting group Ovum has labelled it a non-event, at least as far as most business users are concerned.

“This is largely because IE9 does not run on Windows XP – the operating system running on 67 percent of corporate desktops,” said Ovum principal analyst Richard Edwards in a statement rushed to media.

He added: “New browser versions are also expected from the competition, but we believe the next battleground for the ‘browser wars’ will be fought not on the desktop, but on the smartphone and tablet, and this is where Microsoft’s existing browser offering still has a lot of catching up to do.”

Microsoft says that, as the only browser with fully hardware-accelerated HTML5, Internet Explorer 9 enables “faster, more visually compelling Web experiences and applications”.

It is also highlighting security features including “tracking protection” to limit exchange of information with third parties.

Meanwhile, Google has developed a WebM plug-in for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9. The preview plug-in is now available to download for IE9 on Windows 7 and Windows Vista, though the release seems rushed to happen on the day of the IE9 launch. For example, the “known issues” page is, at time of writing, “not yet available”. The developers did, however, comment on the download page; “They said elephants couldn’t ride flying dolphins. They said that one of the world’s most popular browsers couldn’t play WebM video in HTML5. They were wrong.”

The release of the plug-in comes after Microsoft released HTML5 H.264 plug-ins for Google’s Chrome in February and Mozilla’s Firefox back in December of last year.

Most Expensive Roamer Named

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Optus is Australia’s most expensive mobile network for data roaming, according to a study by online travel site, Australian Business Traveller.The site compared the price of data roaming on Optus, Telstra, Vodafone and 3, including various discounted plans on offer. Optus came out the worst on basic data roaming pricing, charging a flat $20 per megabyte worldwide.

Telstra and Vodafone charged $15 and $10 per megabyte respectively, while 3 charged $20 in most countries and 50 cents a megabyte in countries where 3 Mobile networks were available.

Prices fell significantly with pre-paid, discounted roaming plans, under which Optus customers paid between $9.09 and $10 per megabyte worldwide.

The price fell further to between $2 and $2.67 per megabyte in 11 Asian countries, including China and Indonesia,  where Optus offers special; “DataRoam” packages.

NBN Co Gains Access To Some Telstra Pits – But Rollout Still Stalled

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Telstra has agreed to let NBN Co use its pits and ducts for rollout of the National Broadband Network in NBN’s currently stalled second-release sites – but full rollout of the network will have to await the delayed vote by Telstra shareholders on the Government’s proposed $11 billion deal with the carrier, NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley told a parliamentary inquiry yesterday.

Work on the second-release sites was stalled last month after NBN Co indefinitely suspended construction contracts for its second-release sites, accusing all 14 tenderers of padding their tender pricing.

On the pits and ducts deal, Quigley said: “We’ve done a lot of preparatory work … but we really cannot press the final go button on volume until we have that deal finalised.”

He said that to proceed without the deal in place would end up costing the Government a lot more. If the deal goes ahead, he said: “We have available to us an enormous number of facilities. Huge facilities in terms of underground ducts, exchange facilities and backhaul facilities.

“If we were to ignore those, we may in fact go ahead and start building and then be building for example aerially where in fact we could have used the Telstra ducts. Or drilling underground and putting new duct in when there’s useable duct on the same street for Telstra.

The 19 new second-release sites include Bacchus Marsh and South Morang in Victoria; inner north Brisbane, Springfield Lakes and Toowoomba in Queensland; Riverstone and Coffs Harbour in NSW; Modbury and Prospect in SA; Victoria Park, Geraldton, and Mandurah in WA;  Casuarina in the Northern Territory; and Gungahlin in the ACT.

Grilled about allegations of corruption in Costa Rica during his term as a top executive at Alcatel, Quigley reiterated that he had no knowledge of what had gone on, and had never been questioned over the matter by US authorities. He apologised for having previously stated he was not responsible for operations in Costa Rica, after learning that for a period in 2001-03 he was.

 

The joint Senate and Reps committee was established in April to report every six months on rollout of the NBN and achievement of take-up targets, among other matters. Yesterday’s sitting in Sydney was the first.

March Of The Zombies: Aussie ISPs Strike Back With iCode

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Most Australian Internet service providers today will introduce a new voluntary code of practice – dubbed the iCode – in a bid to combat the growing problem of “zombied” computers.

The iCode is an initiative of the Internet Industry Association (IIA), but has the backing of the Australian Government. According to IIA chief executive Peter Coroneos the initiative is attracting the attention of governments worldwide as they grapple with the problem of hordes of infected machines coming under the control of criminals and potentially, terrorists.

IIA says zombied computers can capture and forward passwords, send information to others without the knowledge of users, wipe information stored on machines or cause personal computers to attack other computer systems worldwide – all without the owners of the computers being aware of what is happening.

The iCode – which today will be introduced by around 80 percent of Australian ISPs, according to the IIA – is said to work hand in hand with the Australian Internet Security Initiative (AISI) established by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

AISI will remain a major source of intelligence to ISPs about possible network infections, Coroneos says.

The iCode meanwhile will enable ISPs to inform customers if their computers are infected and advise them on how to deal with the threat. Web-based resources will include self-help tools, as well as guides to professional help, including house calls if necessary.

More info is promised at www.icode.net.au.

Consumers Flocking Online To Buy As US Retailers Move In

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The rise in the Aussie dollar has seen Australian consumers flocking to overseas-based Web sites in record numbers to make purchases – especially fashion and consumer electronic items.

Riding the trend is eBay Australia, which for the past month has been conducting what it calls “a soft launch” of a fashion portal in Australia – hooking up Aussie customers with labels such as Topshop, lingerie vendor Victoria’s Secret, and legendary upmarket department store Nordstrom.
“As eBay approaches its 11th birthday in October, we have grown tremendously,” says eBay Australia spokesman Daniel Feiler.
“Our figures show Australian eBay users are purchasing 60 percent more with offshore sellers than a year ago, and we are drawing on that with the ‘soft’ launch of our global portal, focusing just on fashion this month,” Feiler told CDN.
Although eBay Australia does not break out local figures, international revenues at the parent company rose 4 percent in 2009 to US$4.7 billion (A$5.02 billion) based on strong global demand.
The latest surge in business comes as the Aussie hovered around 94 US cents, based on a weaker greenback and bullish economic data in the US, as well as strong economic conditions Down Under.
However, Feiler says that the local dollar is not the only impetus for Australians shopping offshore.
“Australians are more comfortable shopping overseas online and this is down to two factors: one is value and the other is the strong Aussie dollar. However, it is down to the huge markets of the US and UK,” Feiler told CDN. “The US is always cheaper for clothing and fashion.

 
“Australians no longer have to visit the US with an empty suitcase – they don’t need to do that any more while they can shop online regardless of the strength of the dollar.
Free shipping, too
“This beta portal launch is essentially tapping into that trend but initially value is the component, not just the Aussie dollar. That is part of it, but the other thing is the range – you can get brands and fashion labels online from overseas that are not available in Australia.
“Australians are cosmopolitan and more confident shopping online, and while it is early days for the fashion portal, we are tapping into the fashion trend as the largest category on ebay.com.au.
“There is a growing trend for fashion labels such a Victoria’s Secret and Top Shop to open this portal to Australian customers. Some are targeting consumers with promotions such as free shipping to Australia.”
Research from Forrester shows that 35 per cent of Australia’s online retailers expect sales to rise more than 50 per cent in 2010. – Kate Castellari

H-P Moves Out, Apple Moves In

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Apple is set to double the size of its campus in Cupertino, south of San Francisco in the heart of Silicon Valley – taking over a 98-acre block vacated by longtime near-neighbour Hewlett-Packard.

Apple needs the campus to house its rapidly growing workforce, which has expanded 12,300 to 46,600 in recent years.

Cupertino officials, who had been disappointed by H-P’s departure, said they were thrilled that Apple will now be the city’s biggest landowner.

“We’re very proud to have Apple’s headquarters in our city. It’s not just a company. It’s the company,” said Mayor Kris Wang.