Hurdles facing Oz 3G roll-out

Telstra`s biggest hurdle to roll-out full 3G services in Australia by 2008 is integrating the existing GSM and CDMA networks, reports ARNnet.com.

The current network services (GSM, CDMA and 3G with Hutchison) mean the telecoms company has to build duplicate infrastructure to cater for all services, according to Telstra 3G technology infrastructure manager Michael Swadling.

The main difficulty Telstra has for 3G is three networks will overlay each other and in some unique coverage areas only CDMA will work; in some areas GSM doesn`t and vice-versa. "This isn`t really a very good situation where you are trying for a set of services that work seamlessly across wherever the customer wants to use them," Swadling said.

Novell has announced its plans to release a beta for its Linux Desktop 10 that will include new features that offer better interoperability with Microsoft Office and OpenOffice, reports SearchOpenSource. The beta is tentatively scheduled for release in March.

The planned beta package, which incorporates OpenOffice, includes support for Visual Basic macros used in Excel. It also offers better integration with OpenOffice, allowing Linux Desktop 10 to automatically adopt the use of icons similar to that of the native operating system and support digital signatures.

Worldlink Integration has announced that it has joined the Retail Broadband Alliance, a forum that makes it easy for migrating to broadband networks to increase revenue, cut expenses, and improve customer experience, reports sys-con media.

The Retail Broadband Alliance brings together companies in the US that represent products and services used in the entire retail sales supply chain for data networks. The organisation has more than 150 members.

Voltage Security has unveiled the Voltage Enterprise Privacy Management Integration Kit, reports sys-con media.

This release of the kit empowers Voltage`s charter partners to tightly integrate Voltage IBE with their solutions.

The company`s vision is for the Voltage Enterprise Privacy Management platform is to bring together policy, identity and encryption to enable more sophisticated access control and policy enforcement, says Sathvik Krishnamurthy, president and CEO of Voltage Security.