wonk v3.0

Something funny in Comindico fate. (The Age)

To date I haven’t highlighted any articles on Comindico going into Administration and then Receivership because there hasn’t been any which I would consider to be quality journalism. The one linked above is a little different in that it has a more in depth look at what lead to Comindico being in the position its in, and also asks a few interesting questions. From the article:

“The only questions are whether Paul O’Sullivan at Optus can afford to let Telstra do this, whether Comindico’s biggest customer, Larry Kestelman’s Dodo, will raise a paddle at the auction, and whether Mike Robinson and Nick Kotzhambos come back for more.

Actually they’re not the only questions. There’s also: why did Cisco agree to suspend its debt and then change its mind, and why did Comindico and JPMorgan take 18 months to raise the other $27.5 million and meet Cisco’s terms?“

I suspect the answers to some of the above will never be revealed, but it will be interesting to see who ends up buying Comindico in the coming weeks or months, and what if any impact that will have on the local telco industry.

Virgin unveils plan for space service (The Age)

From the article: “The bid is a natural first for Branson, a high-school dropout turned flamboyant tycoon who has made several failed attempts to circle the world by hot-air balloon.

“It’s just the kind of thing he absolutely loves, because it gets him maximum publicity,” said David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flight International magazine. “But the technology is there, it’s plausible.”

It reminds me of when I was working in an office near Darling Harbour in Sydney and one day noticed a helicopter flying past the window which was carrying someone suspended by a rope. I thought to myself “Thats odd, who would do that?”. After reading the paper the following day I discovered it was Richard Branson.

Telstra to offer VoIP to residences next year (The Age).

Telstra have made an extremely vague media release about offering a residential VoIP product in 2005. The release is full of buzz words but contains no technical details on what format the service will be provided in, or who it will be available to. I suspect it will only be offered to people who already have a significant monthly spend with Telstra, such as people with Foxtel cable or a product bundle which includes BigPond ADSL.

If you are reading this because you are interested in using VoIP at home you don’t have to wait around for Telstra to get their act together. There are plenty of small VoIP providers around who will be happy to have your business. Some Melbourne based examples are ATP and Freshtel.

ACCC to grill Telstra chiefs. (Australian IT)

From the article: “Australian Competition and Consumer Commission deputy chairman Ed Willett told The Australian last night that Telstra had been served with a special notice under the Trade Practices Act known as a “155″, which is akin to a court discovery notice.

The tool, which is only used when the ACCC has been frustrated in its search for evidence against big companies, allows the ACCC to interview company executives, with the conversations being legally binding.“

It will be interesting to see what comes of this process. Certainly many people within the industry were unhappy with the way Telstra dropped their retail pricing to levels below their wholesale pricing. Many are also unhappy with the ‘corrected’ wholesale pricing which was released shortly afterwards. Perhaps the ACCC are seeking additional powers to be able to regulate wholesale ADSL pricing as their do with voice termination.

Broadband users cross 1m mark. (The Age)

“Broadband use in Australia has crossed the one-million mark, the ACCC said in a media release today.

In its quarterly broadband survey, the consumer watchdog said at the end of June, the total broadband take-up was 1,047,800. As to definitions, it said broadband was taken to mean any high speed connection greater than 200kbits/sec over a mix of media.”

I’m not sure that I’d agree with their definition of broadband, but 1 million users on speeds greater than dialup is still cool.