Oceania > Australia > Communication

Communication / ICT in Australia

  • Free Wi-Fi increasingly important for overseas visitors

    AUSTRALIA, 2014/09/17 The Tourism Research Australia data revealed a 13 % increase in internet use in 2013-14, with most overseas visitors (43 %) using their smartphone to use the service. An extra 34 % used their iPad. Visitors most often used the internet to get maps (83 %), data on destinations and attractions (44 %), restaurant guides (37 %), event guides (21 %) and for language translations (16 %). The data as well shows that the number of international tourists coming to WA in 2013-14 jumped 50,000 (or 6.7 %) on the previous year, taking the total for the year to just short of 800,000.
  • Australia's largest infrastructure project,Tony Abbott slots into the top job.

    AUSTRALIA, 2013/09/09 The National Broadband Network, Australia's major infrastructure project, is set for a shake-up as Tony Abbott slots into the top job. The Coalition’s approach to the NBN, begun under Labor, has gone from promising to dismantle the NBN to saying in August 2010 it would spend up to $6.25 billion of public and private funding on an alternate broadband policy. In April this year the Coalition finally announced its broadband policy, with 71 % of Australia to get fibre-to-the-node (FFTN); 22 % to get fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP); 4 % to get fixed wireless; and 3 % to get satellite.
  • Australia central bank cyberattacks

    AUSTRALIA, 2013/03/12 Australia's central bank confirmed on Monday it had been targeted by cyberattacks and that no data had been lost or systems compromised, but would not comment on a media statement that a malware virus used in one attack was Chinese in origin. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) was responding to a statement in the Australian Financial Review newspaper that claimed the central bank had been repeatedly and successfully hacked and data stolen.
  • New Zealand's major online auction site Trade Me

    AUSTRALIA, 2012/12/22 Struggling Australian media giant Fairfax said Monday it is selling its remaining 51-% stake in New Zealand's major online auction site Trade Me for AU$616 million (US$650 million). Fairfax, which owns newspaper mastheads such as The Age in Melbourne, the Sydney Morning Herald and Wellington's Dominion Post, said it would use proceeds from the sale to pay down debt.