AUSTRALIA'S peak internet industry group which represents Telstra and Optus has thrown its weight behind iiNet's Federal Court bid to fend off a major copyright lawsuit.

(Telecompaper) Korea's telecommunications regulator will ask operators to decrease their marketing costs to ensure lower rates for consumers. The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) plans to ask the mobile operators to provide lower rates. The companies are heavily subsidising subscribers in a bid to win market share. The government may have to take a more active role in the telecommunications industry, the Korea Times reports citing KCC official Shin Yong-seop. On average, marketing expenses for the company's major operators went up by 28 percent year-on-year. The KCC is looking at a number of ways to force the operators to lower their rates, such as banning handset subsidies, boosting the number of prepaid options, and allowing MVNOs on the market. SK Telecom, KT and LG Telecom said strong government intervention will hurt their profits and drag down the country's telecommunications industry.

(Telecompaper) Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom have agreed to merge their UK mobile operations in a 50-50 joint venture. The move will create the UK's largest mobile operator, with 28.4 million customers and 37 percent of the market, based on end-2008 figures. The combination is expected to lead to better network coverage, a broader distribution network and a stronger competitive position versus the previous market leaders Vodafone and O2. Synergies from the deal are estimated at over GBP 3.5 billion, with annual operating cost savings of GBP 445 million from 2014. To achieve these synergies, the joint venture expects extra costs of GBP 600-800 million over the period 2010-14, for integration work such as decommissioning mobile sites, rationalising the network of retail stores and workforce reductions. Capex savings are estimated at GBP 620 million over the period 2010-14, plus GBP 100 million per year thereafter. Orange UK CEO Tom Alexander will head up the new venture, while T-Mo

(Telecompaper) Nokia has introduced a LTE-capable internet modem, based on its own LTE technology. The Nokia Internet Modem RD-3 is available for use in LTE technology development together with network vendors, measurement equipment manufacturers and operators. The Nokia Internet Modem RD-3 supports interoperability with GSM/EDGE and WCDMA/HSPA. The RD-3 also supports multiple LTE frequency bands, making it suitable for operator deployment across many different countries and regions.

Quocirca's Bob Tarzey surveys the datacentre market - and points out why they're better for the environment than you may think The awesome scale of today's datacentres can only be appreciated by touring them. Their huge halls house rack upon rack of equipment and feature seemingly endless corridors, spotless cleanliness, fortress-like physical security and resilience to power failure - all managed by just a handful of employees. They will not fail to impress.

(Telecompaper) The telecommunications sector in Mexico climbed 11 percent during the second quarter, the Telecommunications Sector Production Index (ITEL) shows. This is the lowest growth registered by this sector over the last seven years, reflecting the current global economic recession and the decline of the national economy. The 11 percent growth is 27 percentage points lower than the growth level registered in the year-earlier period. The mobile customer base in Mexico rose by 9.7 percent versus the year-earlier quarter, to 77.8 million users, equalling around 72.3 lines per 100 inhabitants, according to the report by Mexican regulator Cofetel. The fixed telephony segment rose by 2.4 percent year-on-year. However, Mexico shed 137,000 fixed lines between April and June, reaching around 20.52 million lines at end-June. The national long-distance traffic, measured in minutes, decreased by 2 percent during the quarter. The international long-distance traffic dropped by 11.8 in the qua

(Telecompaper) AOL has appointed Brad Garlinghouse its new president of internet and mobile communications, as part of the portal's global efforts to expand the reach of its e-mail and instant messaging services. Garlinghouse will also head AOL's Silicon Valley operations from its Mountain View campus and serve as the West Coast lead for AOL Ventures, the company's venture capital arm headed globally by Jon Brod. Garlinghouse was most recently at Silver Lake Partners as an in-house senior advisor. Prior to Silver Lake, Garlinghouse spent nearly six years at Yahoo!. Garlinghouse will report directly to AOL's chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong.

(Telecompaper) The global broadband market grew by 12.9 million lines in the second quarter, to reach a total 445 million at the end of June, according to figures from Point Topic for the Broadband World Forum. Net additions were strongest in south and east Asia, which grew by 4.5 million lines to a total base of 105.4 million. Western Europe remained the largest region with 109.7 million users, up by 1.8 million from March. Eastern Europe showed the strongest growth in percentage terms, up 4.55 percent from Q1 to 25.1 million broadband connections, while on an annual basis, Latin America had the strongest increase, up 31.4 percent from June 2008 to a total 29.3 million lines. On a country basis, China remains the largest with 93.6 million broadband users, followed by the US at 86.2 million and Japan with 31.1 million. Europe is the biggest market for IPTV, which grew 51 percent in the year to June there to 13.6 million subscribers. This is led by France, with 7 million IPTV users, as

PUBLIC submissions on a controversial plan to adopt Medicare-based numbers as healthcare identifiers will be made public after all.

A consortium of Linux software makers, including IBM and Red Hat, is set to acquire 22 patents previously owned by Microsoft.