back to article Australia's future tech news headlines ... for 2016!

Today's the last day The Reg's Australian crew will bother showing up for work until the new year, making it the ideal opportunity to offer some insights into the future of the nation's IT industries and policies. We did it last year and reckon the results weren't horrid, so let's have another go, shall we? Data retention …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    my 2c worth

    Two LA IT company probably go to SE Asian country. Singapore or Phillipines is my bet

    TLA IT company will have a big Federal government win that will raise eyebrows.

    Broadband costs will rise significantly as bit barns for snoopers need to be paid for. To offset costs, government agencies and quangoes will be allowed to data mine hunting for those that offend them.

    Public/private collaborations will be suggested to fund said bitbarns and datamining, ie, data will be held offshore to reduce costs as others have suggested.

    IT spend by consumers and business will continue to fall.

    By end of 2015 a half serious suggestion will be made by thinktank that outsourcing Federal government entirely to a reputable management company would be more efficient.

    1. Persona non grata

      Re: my 2c worth

      "By end of 2015 a half serious suggestion will be made by thinktank that outsourcing Federal government entirely to a reputable management company would be more efficient."

      Isn't this already the current model by stealth? And hasn't it already proven far, far less cost effective?

      Unless of course you're a member of one of those big 4 consulting companies, as most of our senior public servants either have been or will be again.

  3. DiViDeD

    Grumpy Old Man Mode ON

    Huh! El Reg Southern were lucky to even have beer glasses to peer into. After crowbarring my wallet open and donating the requisite (very) small consideration, I've yet to see the promised beer tankard. Unless of course some pimply youth from Aussie Customs is currently supping his alcopop from it.

    Bad show I say.

    I realise there are those who would say that involvement in the whole glorious LOHAN project and the gratitude of the shed boffins should be enough reward but, hey, I'm mercenary. What can I say?

  4. Denarius
    FAIL

    One hopes that Cloud first is not the security disaster of the year

    What's the betting some-one unknowledgeable, therefore an expert, will insist data of value to identity thieves will go into a cloud solution for a big department to save 20c. Since access will be hard for the experts, there will be little security, thus enabling most of the country to be Pawned. This will be used as the excuse for more ineffective holding of irrelevant emails and conversations in the unholy name of security. I can think of a prime candidate with a shiny new headkicker minister but since this is a police state I cant say which in case an arbitrary set of rulez is borken.

    1. P. Lee
      Happy

      Re: One hopes that Cloud first is not the security disaster of the year

      Apparently playstation network and xbox live are having problems (BBC).

      Why would you ever want to play offline, eh, Elite: Dangerous?

      Maybe some tech news site should report on it.

      Oi, big vendors... have a torrent tracker for content - if you're willing to supply bandwidth, you can join a torrent network of other sharers. That might help your capacity issues and its a proper cloud, not just a couple of load-balanced servers.

  5. -tim
    Facepalm

    Microsoft is still cashing in on the XP

    I can see a story like this:

    At $200 per machine for XP support, Microsoft is continuing to offer support for the next 5 years. Less popular products such as Win 3.1 and DOS 5 are also being supported for about double the price.

  6. Sanctimonious Prick
    Black Helicopters

    In 2016...

    We'll see FTA digital TV cancelled/switched off - everyone will be streaming content (think i've said that before).

    Foxtel will no longer be a company - "Foxtel" will be a term used to describe Telstra.

    NBN Co. goes tittsup, hence the above.

    VPN licenses will only be issued by the Government, to approved entities only. Any other use of any non-Government-approved VPN made illegal.

    Sneaker-net explodes at the local drinking hole, and flea markets.

    :D

  7. jjcoolaus

    TPG will be the buyer, and competition is not foxtel's worst enemy

    TPG or IINet would be the natural buyer IMO for the FTTP. TPG already have it's own rollout and iinet have no aversion to buying up ISPs in the past. Both have a lot of cash. Perhaps they could make a joint venture and buy it together?

    Both charge significantly less for Internet than Telstra does, so the competition watchdog will be loving it.

    Meanwhile, competition is not the worst enemy of foxtel. Access is. All the other streaming services allow any android tablet or smartphone to tap into the same account, but Foxtel/Presto only allow this on a handful of devices.

    There are 2 other realities holding back any foxtel demise:

    1) foxtel have all the sports rights in Australia - well all the rights that most Australians care about anyway, and they have successfully bribed Cricket Australia and AFL to limit the streaming bitrate in apps and Cricket won't show international matches at all. AFL is limited to 600kbps at 480p.

    2) Telstra have loads of cash and a huge marketing budget to push foxtel hard and offer big discounts on contracts just before Netflix & Stan hit the market.

    1. Persona non grata

      Re: TPG will be the buyer, and competition is not foxtel's worst enemy

      "...limit the streaming bitrate in apps and Cricket won't show international matches at all. "

      So I wasn't just watching the Aus-Ind test on my android phone and my iPad in HD then? Funny because I could have sworn I did. And later this year I'll be watching the ashes in exactly the same way.

      AFL will cut the cord at some point and do what MLB in the US has done and go with a well priced subscription model. The product already pays for the production and filming costs and vertically integrating it makes far more sense.

      Sport on pay TV will go the same way as the old 'rivers of gold' that the classified ads were for traditional newspapers. Foxtel is screwed long term and it couldn't happen to a nicer company.

      Next I'm predicting that Ruperts anti-aging treatments go horribly wrong and he's transformed into a walking arsehole... Whoops that's an observation not a prediction.

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