THE federal government has unveiled its interim data centre facilities and services panel, comprising five companies.

TELSTRA'S consumer boss David Moffatt has resigned after almost a decade with the company.

(Telecompaper) The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) has unveiled details of the mobile rate cuts. The regulator earlier announced it planned to lower mobile phone and mobile internet fees but has now unveiled details, the JoongAng Daily writes. The fee reductions differ for each operator but the fee cuts all mostly benefit consumers with monthly fees exceeding KRW 50,000. SK Telecom will lower mobile fees by changing its billing to every two seconds, instead of the current ten-second billing practice. SKT, as well as rival KT, will also cut its activation fees by as much as up to 20 percent. The new billing practice will begin in March 2010. All three operators (SKT, KT, and LG Telecom) will reduce the basic rate for prepaid services by up to 25 percent and also lower charges for long-term customers. Furthermore, mobile data fees will be lowered by as much as 88 percent.

What's Happening to Our Girls? (Paperback) 12 used and new from $9.39 Customer Rating: First tagged "internet" by fairy-whispers Customer tags: girls, internet, consumerism, bullying, teen, marketing, tweens, risky behaviour, parenting, peer pressure, sexuality, drinking

AT&T claims Google violates regulations by blocking calls to some rural communities.

(Telecompaper) A consortium has bought 50 percent plus one share in Iran's state telecommunications company TCI for the equivalent of around USD 7.8 billion, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reports, citing an official of Iran's Privatisation Organisation. The agency said two Iranian consortia were competing for the stake in Telecommunication Company of Iran and Etemad Mobin won, buying each share for IRR 3,409. The official IRNA news agency said Etemad Mobin belongs to the cooperative foundation of the republican Guards. Mehdi Aghdaie, deputy director of the Privatisation Organisation, said the stake sold in the telecommunications company amounted to around 10 percent of the stock market's total value. According to Reuters, the gradual sale of TCI, which provides all of Iran's landlines, is part of a wider drive to speed up the sale of state-owned companies, though not in the upstream oil and gas industry which will remain in government hands. Shares representing 5 percent of the co

(Telecompaper) Orange UK confirmed that it will start selling Apple's iPhone in the UK. Currently O2 has the exclusive contract to offer the iPhone in the UK, but its contract is nearing an end. Orange said it will start selling the iPhone 3G and 3GS later this year. Orange offers the iPhone in a total 28 countries worldwide. The UK operator said it started a pre-registration site for customers interested in the iPhone; the operator will release pricing details at a later date. O2 said in a statement that its relationship with Apple will continue after the two-year exclusivity period. The operator said it already had over 1 million iPhone customers.

(Telecompaper) Twitter has closed a round of funding with a group of investment firms, the company said on its blog. Insight Venture Partners, T. Rowe Price, Institutional Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Morgan Stanley, took part in the funding round. Twitter did not disclose how much the company raised. Earlier media reports, citing unnamed sources familiar with the deal, said the company raised around USD 100 million, in a deal valuing the messaging company at USD 1 billion.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc said on Monday that downloads from its iTunes applications store had passed 2 billion and that it now has more than 85,000 apps available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Norwegian browser maker Opera urged European Union antitrust regulators on Monday not to rush to close its antitrust case against Microsoft before ensuring a level playing field among browsers.