Tomw Communications Pty Ltd - Media Release
Telcos Wasted Billions on Bandwidth
20 October 2000, Oxford, UK – Telecommunications carriers who invested billions of dollars in next-generation high bandwidth wireless licences have wasted their money, according to Internet consultant Tom Worthington. A Visiting Fellow in the Department of Computer Science at the Australian National University, Mr. Worthington made the comments during a presentation at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory today.
Spinoffs from research into making the web accessible to the disabled will also make current WAP phones quickly obsolete, Worthington claimed:
A new generation of smart wireless web devices will provide a good service using the existing mobile phone bandwidth. This will delay for years the need for the additional spectrum which carriers have paid high prices for.
Worthington was one of the expert witnesses who gave evidence to the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) on problems for the blind in using the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) web site. In August 2000 the IBM produced web site was found to be, to a significant extent, inaccessible to the blind.
Tom Worthington will be talking on e-publishing issues at the Australian Library and Information Association 6th Biennial Conference in Canberra, next week on his return to Australia. During two weeks in Europe he has visited IT policy makers and researchers, including the Information Society Division UNESCO in Paris. In 1999 Tom Worthington was elected a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society for his contribution to the development of public Internet policy.
ENDS
The web version of this media release has links to documents mentioned and is available at: http://www.tomw.net.au/media/20001020.html
Media Enquires:
Tom Worthington FACS, Email: tom.worthington@tomw.net.au Tel: 0419 496 150 International: +61 419 496 150
TomW Communications Pty Ltd, PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia
E-mail: tomw.communications@tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150 A.C.N. 088 714 309
See also:
Olympic Failure: A Case for Making the Web Accessible, Seminar, 4pm Friday, 20 October 2000, Oxford University Computing Laboratory, UK
REASONS FOR DECISION of THE HON WILLIAM CARTER QC, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 24 August 2000 (on-line Monday 28 August 2000)
The Network Becomes the Library: The need for Supportability, for ALIA2000, Australian Library and Information Association 6th Biennial Conference, Canberra, 25 October 2000
London to Paris By Eurostar to the Information Society Division UNESCO, 19 October 2000