Bourke will be home to a satellite ground station to help it get on-board the National Broadband Network (NBN) – but it’s going to have to wait three years until it is operational.

The rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) is happening "with the determination and velocity of an arthritic snail", says opposition communications spokesman, Malcolm Turnbull.

The wave started last year when Time Warner Cable, the telecommunications company serving much of the Eastern United States, spent $230 million to purchase NaviSite, a provider of cloud services for businesses.

Beijing has criticised Canberra for "obstructing" the operations of Chinese firms in Australia after telecoms giant Huawei was banned from bidding for a big broadband project on security grounds.

Federal Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, who is overseeing the government's $36 billion National Broadband Network (NBN) project, has received an award from a New York-based think tank.

The federal government has begun spruiking its Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), a communications advocacy body due to begin operations on 1 July.

Accenture CIO Frank Modruson is surrounded by IT experts, but the part-time firefighter still finds time to think about new approaches to collaboration.

"I have a bad habit. I love cracking practical jokes on my team. Just the other day, while I was at an airport waiting to board a flight to Mumbai, I logged on to the public Wi-Fi network, tunneled through VPN into our enterprise network. I used the VoIP softphone on my laptop to dial out to one of my team members. Not expecting me in the office, but seeing the call routing from my extension, rattled my team members. I, indeed, had a mighty laugh at their expense," he smiles.