Telstra urges regulatory restraint

Telstra has urged the Australian Federal Government to show regulatory restraint as it progresses into the early stages of rewriting the rules governing media and communications to reflect an increasingly online-dominated world, reports Computer World.

According to the submission, formal recognition and promotion of industry investment was required to fully realise the potential of convergence. Government investment in fixed access, via the National Broadband Network, would by itself not be enough.

In its submission to the government's call for industry feedback on its Convergence Review draft Terms of Reference, Telstra executive director, Public Policy and Communications, Jane van Beelen, says: “In response to burgeoning consumer demand, major infrastructure investments will be required to increase the data carrying capacity of Australia's mobile networks.”

Google has struck a deal with TV advertising sales firm Viamedia, which will cover approximately two million homes across 18 cable and telco operators to the Google TV Ads online marketplace, states Multichannel.

With the addition of Viamedia, the Google TV Ads network will reach 37 million cable, satellite, and telco homes in the US says Mark Piesanen, head of strategic partner development for Google TV Ads.

Viamedia CEO Jeff Carter says: "This partnership with Google TV Ads will allow our organisation to be on the forefront of the online television advertising convergence, and we are excited about the possibilities it brings to both Viamedia and national advertisers.”

Mobile broadband gateway developer Stoke will participate in a consolidated multi-vendor LTE lab test run by BT's advanced research mobility team.

“This research with Stoke enables us to explore together the opportunity to develop innovative services for current 3G environments and opportunities for evolving the architecture to 4G”, says BT.

The objective is to investigate how the technologies could offer advanced fixed-mobile convergence for BT's retail and wholesale business units, in a way that: helps to prove vendor interoperability in key aspects of the architecture; validates key features; and allows the research department to identify value-added opportunities.