The head of the Catholic Church, who is now 83 years of age, declared the challenges that we now face within a virtual world are to be authentic and faithful in the search for friends and not to construct false and artificial profiles online.
 

No doubt Pope Benedict XVI is deeply concerned about youngsters entering cyberspace and considers this to be a very crucial time in history where many people are spending the majority of their time on the Internet.
 

Although the Pontiff appears to have accepted the online world of the Internet and social networks as an integral a part of modern life, he emphasises how important it is to limit this time and retain strong communities by spreading the word of the Gospel.
 

Read more at the dailymail.co.uk – Beware the internet’s virtual world, Pope tells young
 

The Government’s proposed ISP filters which are meant to safeguard young probing eyes from illicit content found on the web have come up thumbs down after initial test results showed shortcomings. The findings have suggested that the products tested could in fact filter websites that produce illegal content or block peer-to-peer networks, however they could not identify content that is being shared across the P2P networks such as BitTorrent.

The report, released today by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, showed ISP filtering technologies were improving, however it also highlighted significant holes in current technologies to automatically filter content shared over peer-to-peer networks.

source: zdnet.com.au

The government is considering introducing new guidelines in order to control, and make social media network entities such as MySpace, Facebook & Bebo safer for users.

When you have close to 200 million members covering these respective social networking portals, it’s imperative that safe and protective measures be introduced. Hence the Australian Communications and Media Authority recommendations which appear to be aimed at the younger generation that suggest ’default private profiles be introduced for users under 18′, and ‘increasing the reporting mechanisms for bullying/anti-social behaviour’.

“The guidelines aim to ensure the online social networking experience remains a positive one by providing good practice recommendations to online social networking providers to assist them in providing proper protections for their users,” said Chapman.

Read more at smarthouse.com.au

No it’s not the TV screen, it’s the Internet screen. Hang on a sec, maybe it’s both?

Australian’s are dumping Television as their preferred form of home entertainment in favour for the Internet. A recent report by Nielsen Online shows the average Internet use at 13.7 hours per week online, that’s .4 of an hour up on time spent in front of the TV at 13.3 hours per week.

So why is this trend occurring? Nielsen analyst Tony Marlow suggests that we’ve reached a point of Media Saturation where it may be difficult to go beyond two or three activities at any one time. However, industry group Free TV Australia disagrees by saying that the online sector is struggling to find a robust measurement of Internet usage.

The unprecedented decrease in time spent in front of the TV was a warning sign that Australians might have reached the feared “media saturation point”, at which they were unable to simultaneously conduct any more activities, posing new challenges for marketing companies.

“In 2007, according to the official source for Australian metro ratings, OzTAM, Australians watched, on average, over three hours and 32 minutes of television a day, or 24.5 hours per week,”

Read the entire article at news.com.au

The results are in!  A recent Australian Broadband Survey Report conducted in 07/08 stated that more than 50% of respondents clearly voted for the Government as the entity who should be behind the next generation internet access network (FTTN). Other significant results include: Most people suggesting that Broadband prices are just too high and would be greatly influenced to change ISP’s for a lower price, higher download limits and faster line speeds. The demand for VoIP is on the up and most Broadband customers are still very unhappy with the ability of ISPs to change ‘contract’ conditions at any time.The survey was conducted over a 4 week period (31.12.2007 to 01.02.2008) with 17,881 verified participants taking part.

Below are several examples of the feedback obtained in this years ABS that perhaps both Business (ISPs) and the Government should pay close attention to.

Which entity should be responsible for the next generation internet access technologies (e.g. fibre to the node)?

Telstra  5.7%
G9 consortium  21.4%
The government  51.9%
Other (e.g. Deutsche Telekom)  5%
Don’t know  16%


Do you support the government’s policy for mandatory ISP-level content filtering (opt-out)?

Strongly agree  2.9%
Agree  10.4%
Disagree  22.9%
Strongly disagree  51.5%
Don’t know  12.3%

From the following, what is most important for you in a broadband internet connection?

Fast speeds  39.2%
Ability to download large amounts  27.9%
It is always connected  14.9%
Lower service costs  11.7%
Low latency  3.5%
Frees up telephone line  2.5%
Exclusive content  0.1%

What would entice you to change ISP?

(ISP Average)
Lower prices 75.4%  
A higher download limit 56.7% 
Faster line speeds (e.g. ADSL2+) 50.4% 

See the full report here.

The demand for online content in Australia, and more so the consequence of such, has not only witnessed sharp growth for Broadband in general, moreover a revenue increase within the assoicated Telecommunication Industry.

Through the rise in demand for faster Broadband Internet in the 2006-07 financial year, and it’s various types of technology (Wireless, ADSL, Satellite & Cable), many Australian Telcommunication Providers & Companies were able to advantage and make significant profits. 

Together with faster Broadband and it’s rising trends in online video and music content along with online advertising, another relatively new online service also contributing to growth was in the area of Voice technology, namley that of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol aka Broadband Phone). 

Below is a list of Australia’s Top 45 Fastest Growing Telecommunication Companies as compiled by Dun & Bradstreet (ASIC) and sourced via SmartCompany.com.au

Rank	Company name	Revenue FY 2007 $	Growth from FY06
1	DESTRA CORPORATION	66,829,000	438%
2	ANSEARCH	8,406,407	401%
3	COMTEL CORPORATION	8,269,339	163%
4	MY NET FONE AUSTRALIA	3,275,942	104%
5	ENGIN	17,422,398	102%
6	PIPE NETWORKS	23,933,000	88%
7	MOBILEACTIVE	9,675,243	73%
8	GLOBALCONNECT AUSTRALIA	17,434,071	72%
9	CLEVER COMMUNICATIONS AUSTRALIA	18,198,423	69%
10	SIRIUS CORPORATION	4,898,000	68%
11	INTEG COMMUNICATION SOLUTIONS	455,815,000	52%
12	NETREGISTRY	12,986,000	51%
13	OCEAN BROADBAND	1,872,036	49%
14	TEL.PACIFIC	36,373,304	40%
15	UNWIRED GROUP	34,015,000	38%
16	TELE-IP	17,317,184	34%
17	INTERACTIVE DATA SERVICES	1,865,242	34%
18	AUSTRALIA STAR COMMUNICATIONS	82,494,000	33%
19	BIGAIR GROUP	9,103,496	32%
20	EFTEL	34,142,000	31%
21	M2 TELECOMMUNICATIONS GROUP	43,793,367	31%
22	NEWSAT	16,561,000	30%
23	BENDIGO COMMUNITY TELCO	23,534,654	29%
24	SERVICE STREAM COMMUNICATIONS	114,720,000	27%
25	JUMBUCK ENTERTAINMENT	14,500,585	25%
26	CHIME COMMUNICATIONS	204,346,760	25%
27	TRANSACT COMMUNICATIONS	60,511,000	22%
28	REVERSE CORP	50,886,000	21%
29	VISIONSTREAM AUSTRALIA	10,011,292,000	18%
30	AMCOM TELECOMMUNICATIONS	36,700,000	17%
31	VODAFONE AUSTRALIA	2,252,800,000	16%
32	BQT SOLUTIONS	3,236,000	15%
33	INFOXCHANGE AUSTRALIA	4,086,616	15%
34	NEIGHBOURHOOD CABLE	8,167,577	11%
35	AUSTAR UNITED COMMUNICATIONS	550,584,000	10%
36	BT AUSTRALASIA	96,413,000	8%
37	MERCURY MESSENGERS	59,673,866	8%
38	GOTALK	137,550,000	7%
39	IINET	229,628,477	7%
40	QUESTE COMMUNICATIONS	28,188,248	6%
41	TELSTRA CORPORATION	23,709,000,000	4%
42	SINGTEL OPTUS	7,597,400,000	4%
43	ITEL COMMUNITY TELCO	7,480,818	3%
44	SP TELEMEDIA	426,568,000	3%
45	MACQUARIE TELECOM GROUP	255,525,000	2%

Direct Brain Surgery, conduct climate change experiements and interpret human genome in real time with precise definition through state-of-the art broadband. This could be the not so distant future according to a recent article that appeared on AustralianIT.com.au.

The cutting edge technology, founded by Phil Scanlan, is 250 times faster than a standard Broadband connection and offers ultra high definition resolution that could allow an emergency surgical operation that is conducted by a surgeon on one side of the world who operates a robot to perform the sugery on the other. The mind boggles to fathom the potentials that this kind of techonology could offer. I imagine that only time will tell to see if this new technology is ‘the real thing’ and kicks off. The Rudd Government seems to think it might, and has vowed to test the ultra high res Broadband technology in Australian Institutions and Households.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the ultimate aim was “to deliver this sort of technology to everybody’s home”.

“A surgeon in Australia could direct an emergency surgical intervention by operating a robot in Antarctica; scientists in Australia and Japan could share research tools or operate an underwater robot exploring the Great Barrier Reef.”

Read the entire article at AustralianIT.com.au.

In a very similar and ignorant circumstances to that of the previous Liberal Government, Kevin Rudd is seeking to block all objectionable material before it can be downloaded by Australian Internet users. Many business and industry experts are declaring that this totalitarian type of censorship will not work, effect underlying ‘freedom of speech’ principles and cost consumers more in the long run along with bogging down the Internet.

It appears that Mr Rudd and Senator Conroy seriously need to slow down and rethink their entire so called ‘clean net’ plan prior to muzzling ISP’s with filtering software. What’s wrong with parents implementing content filtering at a PC level? AIIA spokeswoman ‘Sheryle Moon’ suggests that filtering should be implemented by parents at the PC level.

“This is like King Canute trying to hold back the tide” said Hostworks chief excutive Marty Gauvin. “It isn’t going to make a great deal of difference other than to make Australia a less desirable market to create digital content”

“It’s worth remebering that server-level filtering was trialled in Tasmania and was ultimately rejected” said iiNet’s Mr Malone. “There is no real way to do it accurately at a national level.”

“We think that filtering should occur at the PC level,” said Ms Moon. “It should be up to parents to make decisions about what their childeren can and cannot access.”

Read the entire article at MISAustralia.com

The past decade has seen a rapid emergence of Internet use that may in fact lead to a ‘meltdown’ by the time 2010 comes around. Analyst group ‘Nemertes Research’ conducted studies over the past year that suggests the Internet could drastically slowdown over the next 3 years due to core switching/routing bottle necks caused by excessive amounts of data transmissions. The studies show that Public Networks may overload, however they will not fail to operate, moreover suffer from slow access times and bandwidth restraints.  

Analyst house Nemertes Research Group has spent the last year analysing both data flows over the internet and the core infrastructure that carries it and concluded that in three to five years serious bottlenecks will occur.

The report echoes earlier warnings by the man who lead the team that built the internet’s predecessor ARPANET, Dr. Larry Roberts. He said last month that unless serious technological advances were achieved in networking then the internet was in trouble.

Read the entire article at ITNews.com.au

General Internet complaints have risen dramatically over the previous financial year among Australian Internet subscribers according to Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (or should I say ‘Ombudswoman’) ‘Deirdre O’Donnell’.

The recently released figures show that complaints were up by 16.9 per cent in the 2006/2007 financial year which represents more than 100,000 annoyances. About 17 per cent of those complaints made to the Ombudsman by unsatisfied customers are customer service related, with Billing and payments, including direct debits, capped and bundled phone plans topping the list.

Complaints in the 2006/07 financial year were up 16.9 per cent to 102,463 over the previous year, ombudsman Deirdre O’Donnell said.

Source: Couriermail.com.au ‘Internet complaints surge’

Broadband Guide says: Read or enquire about your Broadband Plan’s respective ’Term and Conditions’ on every contract you enter so that you’re aware of the obligations that you’re undertaking. This may save you some unexpected nasty billing surprises along with saving you a few phone calls, emails and letters to your ISP and or the Ombudsman.