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Local law firm Piper Alderman today claimed to have collected the details of some 9,000 customers who were interested in taking part in a class action lawsuit against mobile telco VHA over its troubled Vodafone network hiccups over the past few months.

The firm only called for registrations of interest early last week, in the wake of enduring public interest in VHA’s problems, spurred by online forums such as Vodafail.com. Since that time, the company has apologised several times over the problems and committed to upgrading its Vodafone network and targeting trouble spots.

But class action veteran Piper Alderman seems determined to push ahead.

“To date, approximately 9,000 Vodafone customers have registered their interest,” it stated in an update to its web site today. “In the next five to ten business days, we will be sending group members a request for further information relating to their specific circumstances. Upon receipt of this information, we will process it and take the matter forward.”

In addition, the firm may extend the action to customers of VHA’s ’3′ brand.

“Due to the number of enquiries we have received from 3 customers, we will investigate potential claims against 3. When we ask you for further information, we will ask you to identify yourself as either a 3 customer or a Vodafone customer,” Piper Alderman wrote.

One key issue in the firm’s prosecution of its case against VHA will be obtaining what the legal profession refers to as ‘litigation funding’. On its site, Piper Alderman noted it would need to apply for such funding, which would be used to fund the legal costs of taking a case to court. Such funds are often reimbursed by the target of a lawsuit in the case that the prosecution is awarded what the court calls “costs”.

“Usually, upon a successful outcome, the litigation funder will be entitled to reimbursement of the legal fees it has paid plus a percentage of any compensation to which group members are entitled,” wrote the firm. “This commission is usually in the range of 25 to 40 percent of that compensation If litigation funding is obtained successfully, you will be asked to enter into a litigation funding agreement with the funder.”

Ultimately, the firm noted the entire process could take between 12 to 24 months to achieve a result.

VHA has previously indicated it was aware of the potential lawsuit. “The most important thing we can do is to remain focused on improving our customers’ experience of our network, and keep working with our customers, individually, to understand their experience, resolve it and make it up to them,” a spokesperson said late last month.

“There’s no higher priority than making sure customers are happy with their service and I am very sorry that some have not been happy recently. We are also in contact with the ACCC and other consumer groups to advise them of what we are doing to improve network performance and service to our customers, and are keeping our customers across changes through our website.”

Source http://delimiter.com.au/2011/01/05/9000-get-on-the-vodafone-class-action-bus/

The federal government has sent a clear message on media classification: it wants a big rethink.

As a row over access to violent video games continues, the government on Tuesday made two major announcements on the appointment of a new deputy director of classification and senior classifier.

Lesley O'Brien has been appointed deputy director and Greg Scott will be the senior classifier, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said.

Mr O'Connor also announced five new appointments to general positions on the board, describing the changes as a process of renewal.

"From early next year, the classification board will undergo a period of renewal," Mr O'Connor said in a statement.

"Refreshing the board is a healthy thing for classification decision-making in this country."

The other major news on the classification front came from Attorney-General Robert McClelland.

Mr McClelland has ordered a year-long review of the classification system to be run by the law reform commission.

The draft terms of reference for the review suggest the classification categories themselves may be changed.

The review is set to look at a host of issues including the impact of classifications on the community and the government's desire for a strong content and distribution industry.

Mr O'Connor said that when the classification scheme began, content and the way it was delivered to consumers were relatively static.

"Today, films can be watched in a cinema, on DVD, on TV or downloaded," he said.

"Many video games include significant film segments to tell stories, and some films have interactive content."

Comments on the terms of reference will be taken until January 28, with a full report from the commission due on December 9 next year.

The announcements come amidst a long and, at times, loud debate about the introduction of an R18+ classification for video games that are banned from Australian stores but are widely available elsewhere.

This month, the nation's attorneys-general decided to draw up guidelines for the possible creation of an R18+ classification, a decision which angered many family and Christian groups.

Source http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/r18-just-one-piece-of-puzzle-20101221-193pc.html

Apple has overtaken Nokia for the first time to become the number one smartphone vendor in Australia.

The iPhone-maker now accounts for 36.5 per cent of the smartphone market, eclipsing Nokia's 30.5 per cent share, according to analyst firm IDC's Q3 Mobile Device Tracker, released today.

But Google's Android platform is growing even faster than Appe's iOS with a 21 per cent share, up from 7.1 per cent in Q2 and only 2.1 per cent in Q1.

IDC Australia telecommunications analyst Mark Novosel predicted in May that Apple would knock Nokia off its perch as the number one smartphone maker this year. Today, he said Apple would enjoy a solid run into next year but could soon be overtaken by Android.

"It's looking like next year it's going to be close between Android and Apple but I would be inclined to say that Apple will keep its lead, although we have been under pretty much every quarter with our Android forecast so anything really is possible at this stage," he said in a phone interview.

"Given the way that it is growing, this time next year Android could be number one. It really depends how next year will pan out."

The figures represent a significant fall from grace for Nokia, which is still the top mobile maker overall with a 37.6 per cent share but has struggled to compete in the high-end smartphone space. Its latest offering, the N8, has been panned by reviewers due to the lacklustre Symbian operating system.

"Nokia remained at the top of the smartphone market since 2002, when it unseated Palm to become the highest selling smartphone vendor in Australia," Novosel said.

"Nokia's dominance was seemingly unstoppable. However, three years after launching, Apple has done what once seemed impossible."

IDC's figures cover sales up until the end of September. Novosel compiled them based on primary research and interviews with vendors, carriers, retailers and distributors.

Australian smartphone shipments rose 67 per cent year-on-year and more than 60 per cent of new mobiles sold are smartphones.

Novosel said Android's solid growth could be attributed largely to high-end smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S and HTC Desire.

Other, newer, Android phones such as the HTC Desire HD were not covered by the Q3 figures but Novosel expected it to continue to drive Android's growth. He said Android was also entering the mid-range and low-end prepaid market, which would lift its numbers significantly.

"2011 will be a critical year in the Australian market, Android will continue its strong upward trend, with Apple's iOS leading the charge," Novosel said.

"Nokia must fast-track the development of its high-end Meego-powered smartphones, in order to regain market share and avoid being overtaken by Android."

Nokia Australia spokeswoman Tracy Postill said she would not comment on "third-party numbers" due to differences in methodologies and the quality of the analysis and data collection tools used. She said there were also discrepancies in how "smartphone" is defined.

Source http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/apple-pips-nokia-to-become-no1-smartphone-maker-in-australia-20101207-18nci.html

Former Prime Minister John Howard, the man who oversaw the privatisation of Telstra in the late 1990s, has claimed that the passing of legislation ensuring the company's structural separation isn't big reform.

After almost 12 months of debate, the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2010 passed its final hurdle yesterday. The legislation will allow for the structural separation of Telstra and pave the way for the roll-out of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

When Telstra was privatised by the Howard Government in the 1990s and early 2000s, the government at the time did not opt to separate the company's retail from wholesale, meaning Telstra owned the networks providing access to itself and its competitors. Seeking equitable access to the copper network, Telstra's competitors have spent the past decade locked in regulatory battles with the telco giant.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has hailed the retail and wholesale separation as the "holy grail of micro-economic reform in the telecommunications sector" and as a move that corrects the "mistakes of the past". However, Howard disagrees with that assessment.

"It's been trumpeted as a huge reform. It's nothing of the kind. I mean, that's what they said about the mining tax. [Treasurer] Wayne Swan, with his 40 per cent super tax on the mining industry, said this was the greatest tax reform for decades. I mean, the thing was a disaster," Howard told Lateline last night.

The former Prime Minister disagreed with the assessment that Prime Minister Julia Gillard's ability to pass the legislation in a minority government showed her strong negotiation skills.

"Let's face it, [Greens MP] Adam Bandt and [Independent MP Andrew] Wilkie were always going to support the Labor Party," he said. "So, I don't think that was a vindication of her negotiating skills. I think it was an inevitable consequence of the personal chemistry and political beliefs of the people involved."

Howard also expressed his support for the Coalition's criticisms of the NBN project.

"I think the Coalition position on broadband is absolutely right. I mean, it's an enormous waste of money, it's an unnecessary regulation, because in many parts of Australia they're contemplating forcing people to take it unless they definitely say no, they won't have it. And I think that's a very authoritarian regulatory way of approaching something like this."

Despite the Coalition's calls for further scrutiny on the NBN, yesterday's Essential polling release revealed that 54 per cent of Coalition voters believe it is important for Australia to build the NBN. A total of 69 per cent of Australians are in favour of the project.

Source http://www.zdnet.com.au/telstra-split-no-big-deal-howard-339307613.htm

A type of West Australian parrot has been found to be a distinct species from its eastern counterpart and needs special protection as one of the world's rarest birds, scientists say.

Only about 110 of the western ground parrots are known to survive in the wild.

An Australian research team used DNA from museum specimens up to 160 years old to reveal that populations of the parrots in eastern and western Australia were distinct from each other.

The team, led by Australian Wildlife Conservancy's Stephen Murphy, has concluded that the western populations should be recognised as a new species, Pezoporus flaviventris.

Dr Murphy said the western ground parrot had declined rapidly in the last 20 years and there were only about 110 birds surviving in the wild, most of them in one national park.

It was now critically endangered and one of the world's rarest birds, he said.

Allan Burbidge of WA's Department of Environment and Conservation said a single wildfire through the national park or an influx of introduced predators, such as cats, could rapidly push the species to extinction.

"There is now an urgent need to prevent further population declines and to establish insurance populations into parts of the former range," he said in a statement.

Director of CSIRO's Australian National Wildlife Collection, Leo Joseph, said that even after 200 years of study, scientists were still recognising new species of birds in Australia.

The team's findings have been published this month in the international conservation research journal Conservation Genetics.

Source http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/scientists-identify-new-wa-parrot-species-20101123-185ht.html