There is grim irony in the fact that the Government of the party pledged to look after the little people appears to be damaging the value of the Telstra shares into which more than a million Australian small investors sank their savings, reports The Age. … more

Preventing a repetition of the vertically integrated monopoly enjoyed by Telecom’s copper network was always going to be a cardinal requirement of the Government’s $1.5 billion investment in an ultra-fast broadband infrastructure, says The New Zealand Herald in an editorial.

A previous National administration failed lamentably to curb the anti-competitive excesses that sprang from blunders during the privatisation of telecommunications. Consumers suffered as Telecom was allowed to run the sector for more than a decade. Now, at last, lessons seem to have been learned.

To read this New Zealand Herald editorial in full, see:
www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10564530

The Commerce Commission has indicated it plans to push ahead with an inquiry into mobile roaming charges. … more

Skype, the Internet calling service that has more than 400 million users around the world, is aggressively moving onto mobile phones. … more

A staggering rise in mobile phone usage in India has stoked an unacceptable surge in public rudeness and the most annoying offenders should be sent to prison, according to the country’s equivalent to the House of Lords. … more

Europe’s top telecoms official has said the European Union won’t ease its stringent regulation of the sector despite its own figures showing the slowest growth rates in telecom revenues since 2003. … more

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has given all telecommunication operators January 1st, 2010 as deadline to commence registration of the Sim Card in their networks. … more

The European Commission (EC) has unveiled a new strategy to prepare the region to act in case of major disruptions or attacks against critical information infrastructure, reports vnunet. … more

The Government has unveiled plans for a new Crown-owned investment company that will spend up to $1.5 billion on high speed broadband infrastructure, reports The New Zealand Herald. … more

A judge is set to consider whether to approve Hong Kong businessman Richard Li’s $3 billion effort to take telecom operator PCCW private, a closely watched moment for the city’s securities regulators, business community and the minority shareholders who have criticised the deal, reports The Wall Street Journal. … more