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Another amigo says adios to Telstra

By on 22 January 2009 in General, Telstra

sombreroTelstra COO Greg Winn, one of Sol Trujillo’s famous amigos, is hitting the trail and heading back to Arizona.

The departure was announced on Telstra’s corporate website this morning and follows the repatriation of fellow amigo and former Telstra public relations chief Phil Burgess, for personal reasons, last August.

Widely respected for steering the business through important IT transformations, Winn is one of the few Telstra execs on mega-salaries who may prove worth it in the long run.

Interestingly, he won’t be replaced:

Mr Winn’s position as COO will not be filled.  Instead, most of his direct reports will report to Mr Trujillo.

While many are commenting that it’s odd for the post not to be re-filled, we think the reason is obvious.   It would probably take several months for Trujillo to locate and lock in his perfect replacement.  And if Trujillo himself wasn’t to remain at Telstra for many more months, would his successor be all that pleased to inherit the last amigo’s idea of the perfect COO ?

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Dodo’s doh! doh! liability limitation

By on 20 January 2009 in General

dodo_deadHow simple can Parliament make it ? In certain cases, a service provider cannot limit its liability in any way. Not at all. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

Yet time and again, CSPs pretend (the polite legal word is ‘purport’) to limit liability when they can’t.

Take Dodo’s current standard contract, for instance …

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Court allows service of legal documents via Facebook

By on 13 December 2008 in General

An ACT court has allowed court documents to be served on two defendants through a notification posted on their Facebook pages.

Although court documents must normally be delivered in defined ‘traditional’ ways like personally or by post, it sometimes happens that people are uncontactable – deliberately or otherwise – by the approved means.

In those cases, courts can order that documents or notifications be sent to them via other channels that are reasonably likely to come to their attention.  It’s called ‘substituted service’ and this is the first time we’ve heard of it being allowed through Facebook.

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Film heavyweights sue iiNet for copyright infringement

By on 20 November 2008 in General

Breaking News: A host of major film studios and Channel 7 have today launched legal proceedings in the Federal Court against iiNet alleging copyright infringement.

The studios are claiming that iiNet infringed copyright by not stopping iiNet customers from using BitTorrent to infringe the studios’ copyright in their respective films.

Under Australian law, a person can be liable for infringement if he or she ‘authorises’ another person to infringe copyright.

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Internet Filtering: A contradiction

By on 14 November 2008 in General, Telecommunications Act

Despite mounting pressure from the Telco / ISP industry, the Federal Government is pushing forward with its intended internet filtering trials.

The Communications Minister Senator Conroy has recently called for ISPs to volunteer for internet filtering trials, that may lead to eventual universal ISP level internet filtering across Australia. The Government claims that the ISP level filtering will alleviate the evils of the internet, including child pornography.

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Tribute to Phil Tsakaros (1959 – 2008)

By on 13 November 2008 in General

It was a great loss this week with the passing of Phil Tsakaros, after his battle with cancer. Phil was widely known and respected throughout the Telco industry for his knowledge, technical ability, and cheeky humour.

Phil started his career with the Royal Australian Air Force within electronics, progressing to be a key figure in the setup of Austar on the Gold Coast. After his time at Austar, Phil joined Pacific Internet (now Pacnet) where he worked in a senior engineering / technology role. Phil was instrumental in securing major government contracts for Pacnet.

Phil will be sadly missed by all his friends within the industry – as was evident at his funeral.

On behalf of CSP Central we express our condolences to his wife Lisa and their children.

In memory of Phil Tsakaros.

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Mythbuster: A CSP can’t cut service just because a payment is late

By on 12 November 2008 in General, Mythbusters

A surprising number of people, both service providers and consumers, believe that an overdue payment entitles a CSP to suspend or terminate service.

For consumer and small business contracts, that simply isn’t true.  If there’s nothing more to it, the credit management rules in the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code preclude a CSP from immediate action.

Not much commentary required on this one … we’ll let the TCP Code speak for itself.

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Complying with ACCC demands … on a budget

By on 19 September 2008 in General, Trade Practices Act

A trade practices compliance program is always a good idea.  It guards against infringements and helps to reduce penalties if something does go wrong.

It’s especially important if you use a call centre for telemarketing.  Rest assured … if you don’t arrange for compliance training, the agents won’t get any.

But when the ACCC demands that you undertake a compliance program, it’s not ‘if’ but ‘how many bucks will we blow on this ?’

Here’s a case study on how to deliver a course that can satisfy court orders, including agent training, without a massive price tag.

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ACMA pings another spammer

By on 4 September 2008 in General

ACMA has fined Best Buy Australia $4,400 for breaches of the Spam Act 2003.

The penalty is modest compared to the $1m plus maximums that apply to repeat offenders, but makes it clear that ACMA won’t overlook a spam breach just because it doesn’t involve large numbers.

BBA really asked for trouble by not actioning people’s requests to be dropped off its mailing list.

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It’s time professionals were IT-literate

By on 2 September 2008 in General

If you hired an accountant who couldn’t count or a lawyer who couldn’t read or write, you’d want your money back.  Reading, writing and ‘rithmetic have long been core business competencies.  It’s time to consider what competency means in a techno world.

We were recently involved in a case where eight or ten highly paid lawyers needed access to a common set of documents.  It soon became apparent that any solution that demanded even modest computer skills would not fly.  Apparently efficiency and $750 per hour price tags are incompatible.

It set us to wondering about what constitutes core skills these days.  Here are some of the things we count as basic in the late two-thousand-and-nothings, courtesy of my weekly Hands On column.  Not everybody in the IT industry would pass our tests, either.

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