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With Prime Minister Julia Gillard calling a federal election for Saturday August 21st there are some key technology issues that will effect you and both the major parties have differing opinions. Here are the big topics that will shape Australia's future IT and communications.

1. National Broadband Network

One of Labor's promises at the 2007 election was to build a national broadband network and bring Australia's communications in line with other technology advanced countries. At the time, details were thin and we only knew that it would consist of connecting fibre optics to "communication nodes" in neighbourhoods.

Going into the 2010 election, the plan has since been revised and we now know that the NBN will offer fibre optic, capable of up to 100 megabits per second, to ~96% of Australian households, businesses, schools and universities. The remaining ~4% will be covered by next generation satellite and 4G wireless.

Phase 1 of the NBN went live in Tasmania at the start of July with the first customers being hooked up to their choice of several ISP's participating in the trial. Phase 2 is currently in build and several mainland sites have been chosen to participate in the trial which should commence by the end of the year.

Labor has said it is committed to rolling out the NBN at a cost to taxpayers of $43 Billion over the next 8 years. The plan was recently strengthened with a non-binding $11 Billion deal with Telstra for exclusive access to Telstra's ducts for laying new fibre and the handover of laying all new fibre in greenfield estates starting 1st January 2011. Essentially the deal is the beginning of the end for Telstra Wholesale and its obligations under the universal services obligation which will in effect be handed to a new division under the NBN Co.

The Coalition has been a staunch opponent to the NBN and Tony Abbott has publicly announced that if elected they will halt the NBN and instead revive the Howard government's communication fund. At the 2007 election the Coalition's plan was to fund the upgrading of nearly every exchange in Australia with the help of Optus and Elders (OPEL) to enable better competition for regional areas.

It's still not entirely clear what the Coalition is bringing to the table at this election but it certainly is clear that if they're elected they will immediately down tools on the NBN.

UPDATE: Since writing this article it has come to light that the Coalition is planning to revive the $1.9 Billion OPEL contract and fund a further continuation of installing fibre optic backhaul into known blackspots currently without any competitive wholesale connections. The Coalition also plans to give more discretionary powers to the ACCC to resolve disputes. (Source: The Australian)

2. Mandatory Internet Filtering

The Internet Filter has been a serious source of contention amongst tech circles since it was announced by the Labor government at the 2007 election. At the time the filter was to consist of two parts, a mandatory component that would block child pornography and an opt-in/opt-out "Clean Feed" that consumers could choose to subscribe to. The Clean Feed was to block anything unsanitary for children's eyes.

Since the 2007 election, the Labor government has pushed forward with a new form of filter proposal, one that would block all Refused Classification material. This new proposal has drawn extensive criticism and has since been put on hold pending a review until after the election, should Labor be returned to power. (Source: DBCDE Website)

The Coalition remains divided on internet filtering with the former Howard government having set up a program offering free filters to any Australian home for free. Labor dismantled this program calling it a failure.

The National Party recently voted to oppose the filter saying it had been inundated with complaints from constituents. (Source: APC Mag) In Cairns on Sunday 18th July, Joe Hockey let slip that the Liberal party's position on the filter was one that they could not support. Whether this is true or was just banter to a question asked by the member of the public is yet to be determined. (Source: No Australian Net Filtering Blog) 

Warren Entsch, the Liberal party candidate for Leichardt has publicly condemned the internet filter and says he is opposed to any form of internet censorship. To date, Mr Entsch appears to be the first Liberal party member who has gone on public record opposing the filter. (Source: Cairns Blog)

The Greens have publicly opposed the net filter from the very beginning arguing that net censorship should never be enforced on a free society and will block any move by Labor in the senate should it be introduced as legislation. (Source: Greens Official Website)

3. Telstra

Still an ongoing issue is the discussion on whether to separate Telstra, either structurally or operationally. The Labor party has said they're in favour of separating Telstra in one way or another to encourage competition, but as it stands with the latest deal on the NBN it may not be required any more. (Source: News.com.au)

The Coalition has said they're reviewing the discussion but stopped short at saying anything that effects the shareholders in a negative way could not be supported by the party. (Source: Liberal.org) It was of course the Howard government who privatised Telstra and it appears the Coalition would rather distance themselves from the issue as much as possible.

You'd be mistaken for thinking that the iPhone is the be all and end all to smart phone technology with the amount of media attention it receives. While it is a very nice piece of hardware there is a major competitor nipping at its heels. Google's Android mobile operating system has been making tracks in recent times since being released in 2007 to developers.

Android is an open operating system and as such any mobile manufacturer can use it on their devices should they choose to. HTC, Motorola, LG and Sony Ericsson have taken up the call and have developed some unique handsets to cater to the functionality of the Android operating system. This is a very distinct contrast between Apple's iOS mobile operating system and Android as Apple does not allow any other manufacturer to use their proprietary system.

Last week I picked up my first Android based smartphone, the Telstra HTC Desire. After hearing nothing but good reports about it, I caught up with a friend who had acquired one and asked if I could check it out. I played around with it for about an hour and I was instantly sold. While I loved my iPhone, I believed it was time to move on to greener pastures. Apple's closed system meant that iPhone users were at the behest of Apple to fix problems or release new features. Apple's application store was also very tightly controlled, meaning that if apps did not meet Apple's strict and sometimes undocumented rules they were often rejected without any real reason.

I admire Steve Jobs as a business man, he runs a very successful company, but his arrogance towards what his customers want versus what he ultimately decides we need just didn't wash over well with me. Apple was built upon values that characterised its uniqueness to think differently, a value that many of its long time fans bought into and propelled the company to what it is today. Apple was the poster child, the underdog, battling against the supreme overlord of IBM and Microsoft back in the late 80's and 90's. Some say that Apple has since morphed itself into the very thing it was battling and now controls everything to an extent that makes it just as uncompetitive as its adversaries of the past.

So with that being said, here's my initial thoughts on the Android operating system, the pros and cons and the challenges facing someone coming from Apple's iPhone iOS.

Initially I was a little perplexed by the user interface of the Android OS, it appeared a little clunkier to use than Apple's refined interface but I soon realised that the near infinite amount of ways you can customise the home screen and side screens made it far superior to what Apple offered. For starters, all the installed programs are listed under a menu, so if you didn't want that application icon showing on the screen, you didn't have to have it there. This was in stark contrast to Apple, which places and icon for every installed application on the home screens, including system tools, regardless of whether you use them or not.

Other functionality also included the ability to use widgets on a home screen, this feature is nice for when you don't particularly need to open an application but would like it to continue running in the background. There are a plethora of widgets for just about every application and each is as customisable as the next, allowing the user the ability to change how they want their phone to look and feel. For instance, if you don't use email on your phone you can simply hide it away and put up a Facebook widget to quickly access your news and friend feeds.

Being an open operating system, the customisations to built in applications are almost limitless. I didn't quite care much for HTC's SMS messaging application and instead installed ChompSMS to take care of the SMS functions. ChompSMS displays messages almost identical to the way iPhone's SMS application does, with the added bonus of a widget for quick access on one of the home screens.

I also installed an alternate web browser called Dolphin that offered more functionality than HTC's browser. I've since learned that Mozilla is developing an Android based version of Firefox called Fennec. I had a quick look at it, but due to it still being in Alpha release it was extremely buggy and used an incredible amount of system resources just to run. I'll keep my eye on this one for future developments.

There are a few tiny cons of the HTC Desire and Android. The first thing I find myself doing after having used the iPhone for a few years is pressing the optical trackball a lot as it is positioned in the same place as the home button on the iPhone. It's a little annoying, although I'm getting used to it, pressing the lock button at the top of the phone to engage the screen when it has gone to sleep. Ordinarily I would just press the home button on the iPhone to wake the screen up but none of the front buttons do this on the Desire.

The other challenge of the Desire is that it leaves all the applications running in the background once you've opened them. It wasn't immediately clear how to actually close them once you're done but thankfully there is a third party application called Advanced Task Killer that does a good job of closing applications when you're done with them.

Because Android handles SMS's and emails as notifications, there is no way to distinguish between the two when they come in with a unique sound tone. This is something I hope they'll fix in later revisions as I like having different tones for email and SMS to signify what type of message has just been received.

The iPhone4 has now pretty much matched most of the other specifications, both the HTC Desire and the iPhone4 have a 5-megapixel camera capable of focusing, zoom and video recording. They also both now have an LED flash for taking pictures in low light or dark. The Desire does not have a forward facing camera, whereas the iPhone4 does, this is something I hope HTC will add in the next release of the Desire. There are already several HTC models that do have a forward facing camera already.

Other benefits of the HTC Desire is that its memory is upgradeable with an SD card supporting up to 32GB. It comes with a 2GB SD card as standard. It also has a removable battery, something the iPhone lacks. It's also far easier to transfer files to and from the Desire, simply plug into a PC with the USB cable supplied and the phone appears as another drive under My Computer. No longer are you confined to using iTunes, which in my opinion is a piece of software I'd rather not be using.

Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the switch so far and I'm looking forward to what the future will bring in the smartphone space. The competition between the mobile manufacturers and software developers can only lead to more innovation and better devices for everyone and that's a good thing.

UPDATE: I mentioned in the article that there was no way of changing the SMS and email tones to differentiate from each other. I've since learned that this problem seems to be confined to the HTC Desire as the mail application is different from other Android models. I've found an alternate mail program called K-9 Mail that offered a little more flexibility in changing settings. As a result I now have a different tone for the SMS's and emails and a few more little features that have come in handy. Yet another tick in the positive column for Android and my HTC Desire.

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) this week put the controversial mandatory internet filter on hold, with the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, saying a review was needed to see if the scheme "reflects current community standards". With an election looming, Labor would appears to be quietly distancing itself from the filter in order to garner votes from the IT industry with its National Broadband Network plans.

The Internet filter has been a serious source of contention amongst the tech savvy community and child welfare groups who are both at odds over the proposal. The proposed filter as it currently stands would block refused classification (RC) material. Under Australian classification laws, RC-rated material includes child sex abuse content, bestiality, sexual violence including rape, and the detailed instruction of crime or drug use.

A list of RC material is currently held by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) who have come under increased criticism after the list was leaked and was found to contain websites that had nothing to do with illegal material whatsoever. Most famously was a Queensland dentist office and school tuckshop website. The lack of independent oversight into the ACMA black list has drawn the most criticism with many saying that unless an independent panel monitors the list or it is released publicly, how are any of us to know that websites can't mistakenly be blacklisted at any time without due process.

Recently, Telstra, Optus and Primus have agreed to voluntarily filter their customers internet connections against the current ACMA blacklist. ISP's Internode, iiNet and Vodafone/Hutchinson Australia have publicly denounced any such move.

Internode general manager of Regulatory & Corporate Affairs, John Lindsay, said the ISP would not comply and that ACMA's blacklist had been thoroughly discredited.

iiNet chief executive, Michael Malone, said his company would wait to see the detail of the proposal. "I am a long time supporter of opt-in, or even opt-out. Still not keen on a blanket mandatory filter though. On the plus side, I'm very happy to see the scope limited to child porn (for now), and to see notice to website owners, an appeals process, and regular review."

Mr Malone's comments reciprocate throughout most of the tech community who have continually lobbied the government to limit the scope to child porn or abuse websites, as is done voluntarily in other western democracies by ISP's in the UK for instance. No one in their right mind supports this kind of abhorrent content but it is continually used as a scapegoat to push the entire RC filter as a whole.

The problem with RC material is that there are areas that are not so black and white but are shades of grey. For instance, detailed instruction of drug use is currently illegal, however most in the community would agree that those with drug problems should be able to access information on how to safely inject should they do so or where to find help. YouTube videos portraying such content would come under the scope of RC related material.

Another area of grey is video gaming. As it stands, Australia is the only western country in the world without an R18 classification for games. Anything that does not meet our MA15+ rating is refused classification. Discussion of these games, video trailers and game play would be deemed illegal under the filter even though these games are completely legal in nearly every other industrialised country.

There are also many myths surrounding the proposed filter and misinformation being spread by religious groups like the Australian Christian Lobby do nothing to help the Open Internet cause. One such myth is that the filter will protect children which is completely ludicrous. The filter as it stands will not block legal pornography, peer to peer networks or do anything to combat the rise in cyber bullying or stalking.

Proponents to the filter continue to spread lies and deception and give the public a false sense of security that this filter is the be all and end all to protecting kids online. Opponents have always held the view that the best form of protection is to install computer based filtering and monitor your child's usage by placing the computer in an open area in the house and not in their bedroom.

More recently at the Cyber Safety Committee meeting, industry experts came out in unison urging the government to dump the filter and instead spend the money on more Australian Federal Police "Internet Officers" and give them more power to work with international agencies to fight the problem head on.

For more information on the Internet Filter head over to Open Internet and voice your concerns to your local member of Parliament. Also get involved in the discussion on Twitter by using the #openinternet and #nocleanfeed hash tags when commenting about the filter.

Telstra has undergone a series of transformations in recent times and appears to be listening to consumers. The shock announcement today that Telstra would trial Naked DSL services for the first time is the latest in a string of trials by the company.

Earlier this year Telstra was reporting for the first time in its history that it was losing more customers to competitors than it was signing up. This was unheard of for the number 1 telco and brought smiles to the faces of it's competitors who had shown strong take up of Naked DSL services and better bundling deals.

The first announcement was a trialling of a new ADSL2+ bundle. The 25GB plan at ADSL2+ speeds for $49.95 is a limited time offer. This generated a lot of buzz on the Whirlpool Broadband Forums where it was commented by various ISP representatives that this offer was actually being sold for less than Telstra Wholesales the ADSL2+ products to other ISP's.

Competitors were quick to point out that the plan on face value looked good but had a lot of negatives. For starters, it locked you into a 24 month contract and if you changed plans during the 24 months you wouldn't be able to go back to it. It also metered quota in both directions, making it poor value for those who may upload a considerable amount of data.

Around the same time Telstra also announced that it was in talks with several ISP's to open up a trial of its Fibre Optic network in the Melbourne suburb of Point Cook. Telstra's "Smart Communities" have been a source of contention for residents living in estates where Telstra has laid Fibre Optic cables. It meant that residents were only able to source Internet and Phone services from Telstra's "Velocity" plan range. The trial was welcomed by the competition and ISP's Internode, Exetel and Dodo jumped at the chance to offer services during the trial with the hope that it may mean these services will be wholesaled in the future in all Telstra Smart Communities.

The next announcement last month was the release of new mobile plans including generous new included data for smart phones like Apple's iPhone and Google's range of Android handsets. The new plans also offered considerably better cap values for calls than the existing line up which hadn't been updated in several years.

Shortly following the release of the new mobile plans, Telstra also released details of it's iPad exclusive data plans. Again offering very generous recharge values and playing on their coverage advantage, many iPad owners bundled their iPad with a Telstra iPad data pack.

Yesterday, Telstra again shocked the market by releasing some very enticing high end ADSL2+ plans with large download caps, bundled phone and bundling of their new T-Box, a high definition set top box that streams TV and movies direct to your lounge room.

With all of these changes it goes to show that Telstra appears to be distancing itself from the era of Sol Trujillo, synonymous with high prices, terrible customer service and the fall of the company's stock price.

Whether or not Telstra is becoming more genuine is yet to be seen or whether these changes are a smoke screen to prevent the company from selling into the National Broadband Network. The Rudd Labor government appears to still be in talks with Telstra about how its points of interconnect would be used in the NBN.

These changes are certainly a welcome relief to many who are stuck in areas only serviced by Telstra and I'm sure we'll see more to come.