This article is continuously being updated

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, today announced that Optus will participate in the Australian Government’s Internet Service Provider (ISP) filtering pilot.

Senator Stephen Conroy outlined the process as being evidence-based.

“The participation of Optus will help ensure the Government obtains robust results from the pilot, which will inform the evidence-based development of our ISP filtering policy.”

This news comes after iiNet withdrew from the trial process.

Optus have released Q & A info on their website.

Tech Wired have been given the following information:

Gary Smith, General Manager of Regulatory Compliance at Optus said:

• Optus has been accepted into the Governments’ ISP filtering Pilot, due to begin on 22 May 2009.
• The trial will last for approximately six weeks.
• An area covering Sydney/Newcastle will be used for the trial.
• Residential customers in the chosen area will be eligible to participate.
• Customers can opt-out of the trial, even after it starts.
• Communication via email to customers will be issued from 22 April, 2009.
• Optus is participating in order to accurately gauge the effectiveness of filtering and the impact on its network, including download speeds and customer experience.
• Participation will be strictly limited to filtering ONLY the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) blacklist which contains URLs of prohibited content.

Maha Krishnapillai Director of Government and Corporate Affairs at Optus said:

“Optus has always been a strong advocate of promoting the safety and wellbeing of our customers online, in particular families.

Our participation in the ISP filter pilot is further proof of our commitment to explore ways in which Optus can contribute to the protection of families, and their safe use of the internet.

We are looking forward to working with Government on this initiative, and to better understand the implications of internet filtering.

Additionally, as an IIA accredited Family Friendly ISP, Optus informs customers of how they can obtain a content filter which they can download onto their home computer.

The telecommunications industry must be able to demonstrate that using the internet can be as easy, safe and secure as possible – especially for families using the internet to live, work and play.

Optus believes the best way to accurately gauge the impact that this type of filtering may have on our network -including download speeds and customer experience – is to play a proactive role in the pilot.”

Late last month Optus announced it would be the first telecommunications company in Australia to carry the HTC Dream with Android Operating System. Since its launch Tech Wired has had the chance to trial the mobile and produce a short video review.

The mobile was compared heavily to the iPhone as a benchmark for what mobile technology should be capable of doing in the year 2009.

Some highlighted features it includes that the iPhone doesn’t:

• Digital compass
• Full QWERTY keyboard and Trackball
• 3.2 megapixel colour camera with auto focus
• A really cool way of unlocking
• microSD capability
• Removable battery

The mobile is available exclusive to Optus starting from $59 + handset costs @ http://optus.com.au/dream.

Rating: 4/5

Watch the video review below:

HTC Drean – Android from Ben Grubb on Vimeo.

ADELAIDE-based communications company Internode has signed an agreement with Telstra Wholesale that will allow its  customers to access Telstra’s ADSL2+ network which comprises of over 1,400 enabled exchanges. Read more

Customers Worldwide are starting to speak up about slow speeds and reception issues related to their iPhone 3G.

The Australian MacTalk Forum is starting to fill up with forum members complaining about reception issues, with over 400 posts from disgruntled users, with members trying to be of assistance.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Telco Optus are given out “goodwill credits” to unsatisfied customers.

Mr Wells, an Optus customer told the Sydney Morning Herald:

“After an hour of being on hold and extraordinary delays and being passed from left to right” he was able to speak to a team leader, who credited him $49, the cost of one month’s phone payment.

It is not know yet whether the issue is in fact hardware or software related or even an issue at all, with Apple refusing to comment.

Sources:
Sydney Morning Herald
MacTalk.com.au Australia

All of today’s Apple announcements can be pretty much summarised quickly by browsing over there press release titles for today.

New 3G iPhone released – $199USD for 8GB – $299USD for 16GB – Available July 11 in 22 countries (INCLUDING AUSTRALIA!) – On the Vodafone & Optus networks in Australia.

Vodafone says that the 3G iPhone will be available on both prepay and contract price plans.

OS X 10.6 will be named Snow Leopard

Game Apps have been introduced for the iPhone

iPhone firmware 2.0 will be released in July and will be free for iPhone users and $10 for iPod Touch users

.Mac gets replaced by Mobile Me – Free upgrade for .Mac users