Craig Liddell

An innovative, pedal powered, wireless network provides Internet access to off-grid villages in Laos. Jhai PC is a project of non-government organisation (NGO), Jhai Foundation. “The equipment will be powered by electricity stored in a car battery charged by ‘foot cranks’,” Lee Thorn, Jhai Foundation chair, explains. These “are essentially bicycle wheels and pedals hooked […]

Frustrated by poor Internet access in regional areas, a NZ project is developing a wireless, last mile alternative. The Waikato Wireless Project aims to develop a new platform that can be used to deploy future generations of high bandwidth (>10Mbps) wireless networks in rural and remote parts of New Zealand (NZ). “It is widely recognised […]

The uncertainty about Tasmania’s Broadband e-Lab project meeting subscriber targets again throws the spotlight on the Networking the Nation (NTN) project. “With the collapse of so many telco companies,” says one ISP manager, “you would think that the government would realise that its not an easy business to be in at the moment (or any […]

European Union (EU) governments are trying to relax stringent data protection rules to guarantee police and law enforcement agencies’ access to private phone calls and emails. The directive draft proposes law enforcement authorities will maintain logs of all Internet traffic for up to seven years, a move that would increase police powers to intercept communications […]

AUSTRALIA — The South Australian parliament will next month debate a range of amendments to their state-based Classification Bill to include online content, in line with the Federal Government’s Online Censorship Amendment. The Amendment focuses on individuals responsible for uploading “offensive” content and will include online discussion groups and e-mail. The SA Government is believed […]

Research released by Internet analyst Red Sheriff reveals the information gap between regional and metropolitan areas is closing. However, a report by Monash University, published late last year, says regional areas are missing out on IT jobs. The uptake of the Internet in regional areas increased considerably in the last year, the Red Sherrif report […]

[Sydney, AUSTRALIA] The failure of digital television to capture the imagination of Australians yesterday is the result of poor government policy, according to a number of experts. Communications expert Jock Given said the Federal Governments high-definition option for digital television denied Australians the real benefits of the new technology. “Some of the benefits are not […]