ICT jobs among most the advertised in Australia in July
Job ads in information and communications technology (ICT) were among the top three industries across Victoria, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory in July 2021. According to data from jobs portal Seek, ICT jobs were the most advertised jobs in ACT and NSW, and third in Victoria.
ICT jobs not only topped these states and territories but represented the top three industries with the most jobs on Seek nationally. But June had already been a strong month, with July showing only a 0.8% increase in ICT job ads against the previous month.
Roles for developers and programmers, software engineers, help desk and IT support, and programme and project management were among the most advertised ones.
Applications open for course on cybersecurity R&D opportunities
Small and medium business can apply for a free 10-week course on R&D opportunities in cybersecurity. There are 25 spots for the program, which will be delivered by CSIRO and Practera. Registrations close on 30 August 2021.
The course is open to those who are interested in investigating new R&D opportunities or are in the early stages of engaging with a research organisation on a new project. Participant organisations will be connected to innovation facilitators and mentors, researchers, and industry experts from across the cybersecurity sector. The goal is to develop actionable business plans and strategies.
Australian government sets limit for upcoming low-band 5G spectrum auction
Allocation limits to the amount of low-band spectrum (850MHz and 900MHz bands) that mobile network operators can acquire in Australia’s upcoming 5G spectrum auction have been announced by the minister for communications, urban infrastructure, cities, and the arts, Paul Fletcher.
For metropolitan and more populated regions, bidders will be limited to acquiring a total of 82MHz of sub-1GHz spectrum, to prevent any bidder from hold more than 40% of low-band spectrum.
For less populated and remote areas, a higher limit of 92MHz or 45% of low-band spectrum has been set.
There is also a requirement for ACMA to set aside spectrum in the 900MHz band for Optus and TPG Telecom. According to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s consultation, “the allocation of the 900MHz band could potentially affect the ability of Optus and TPG to continue to operate services on their 3G networks, and therefore their ability to effectively compete in the mobile services market in the short term. It does not appear that Telstra faces similar issues, as it predominantly uses the 850MHz band, rather than the 900MHz band, to deliver 3G services.”
The auction is planned for the end of 2021, likely to be in late November or early December.
Tanium comes to Oz
The endpoint security and management vendor Tanium is now available via local data centres in Australia, as well as in Canada, the UK, and Brazil. These supplement data centres in the US, Germany, and Japan. The new local data centres should allow for better compliance with local data-storage laws and improve performance due to shorter communications distances.