- Business Telephone Review
- Conferencing
- Data Cabling
- Electrical Installations
- Electrical Services
- Featured Articles
- Featured Videos
- Fibre Optic
- Headsets / Headphones
- IT Services
- National Broadband Network
- News
- Phone System Review
- Satellite Installations
- Security System
- Server Racks
- Technology
- Telecommunications
- Telephone Services
- Telephone Systems
- Uncategorized
The sky’s no limit for NewSat
Robert Gottliebsen, Management Insights
Our Management Insights interview with the chief operating officer of NewSat, Michael Hewins, is an inspiration to all those who believe small companies can succeed in the current environment if they have the right technology.
Incredible as it may seem, the low-cap Australian-listed NewSat provides the satellite communications for the US land forces in Afghanistan.
The Australian army believes that it is better to use satellites linked to China for its Afghanistan military satellite communications.
NewSat operates satellite teleports out of Adelaide and Perth and its services have been so successful in coordinating the US Afghanistan land forces that the US military wants NewSat to go the next step and extend its satellite operation from simply operating satellite communication to owning a satellite or satellites.
Remember this is a company whose shares are at 0.7 cents and has a tiny capitalisation, although it is profitable. But with the right technology, and the US military behind you, anything is possible.
And that’s why American satellite expert Michael Hewins has come to Australia to join NewSat chief executive Adrian Ballintine – to give NewSat the management clout to take the next step.
Satellite spots are not easy to obtain and NewSat has bought seven of them.
Future Fund pares its $350m stake in Telstra
THE Future Fund has accelerated its departure from the Telstra share registry, selling another $350 million worth of the stock this month.
The fund offloaded 1 per cent of the stock from February 7 to February 24, to bring its stake in Telstra down from 6.8 per cent to 5.6 per cent. In the past year alone, it has sold more than $2 billion worth of Telstra shares.
Once the Future Fund’s holding in Telstra goes below the 5 per cent mark, it will cease to be a substantial shareholder and will no longer have to publicly declare its stake.
In the past, the fund has used its substantial holding in Telstra to voice its concerns on the company’s performance and effect changes within the telco’s board room. Future Fund chair David Murray’s public criticisms of Telstra peaked last November, when the fund voted against all resolutions at the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
Mr Murray has also used the fund’s stake in Telstra to complain about the lack of publicly available detail on the telco’s $13.8bn deal to participate in the government’s National Broadband Network.
NASA officials say they are not concerned about space shuttle Discovery, despite it being hit by debris at launch
NASA officials maintain they are not concerned about space shuttle Discovery, despite video showing it being hit by chunks of debris this morning.
Discovery launched this morning at around 7.30am (Queensland time) on an 11-day mission to the International Space Station, delivering parts, equipment and the first humanoid robot to be taken to the station, which will act as its first permanent resident.
The last few moments before launch were fraught with anxiety as NASA engineers raced to fix a glitch that temporarily paralysed some ground computers, but it wasn’t enough to delay the mission further.
Space shuttle Discovery blasts off on its last mission
Space shuttle Discovery lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on its final space mission. Picture: AP
IT’S the beginning of the end for NASA’s space shuttle program.
Space shuttle Discovery blasted off on its final journey into space today as the US winds down what has been a central part of its space program for three decades.
NASA’s most journeyed shuttle launched at 4.53 pm (8.53am AEDT) on an 11-day trip to the International Space Station (ISS).
DPS forced to defend network reliability
Forced “password upgrade” behind latest Parliamentary computer glitch.
The Department of Parliamentary Services had defended the reliability of its IT network, despite conceding there were five “major incidents” in the past year that caused system downtime.
One of the issues reportedly involved an urgent forced reset of passwords during the height of the Queensland floods that caused log-in issues for parliamentarians working remotely.
Assistant secretary David Kenny blamed the “password upgrade” on “some security issues” experienced on the parliamentary network.
“It was considered necessary to react to security concerns we had on the network at the time,” he said, without going into details.
“The way it was done – and it was a surprise to me as well – had unintended consequences for people using the network remotely.
“They [users] had to go and find an electorate office and physically plug into the network to make the [password] change.