The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties is holding a public hearing into matters including further liberalising international trade in IT products, which the committee said could reduce prices for local consumers. [ + ]

Vodafone has upgraded 84 cell sites across Canberra to increase the capacity of its 4G network fourfold and boost speeds by up to six times. [ + ]

Samsung Australia, Deakin University and Unisono will jointly explore opportunities for applying technology including IoT, analytics and AI in the assisted living segment. [ + ]

The federal government has announced an expression of interest (EOI) process for the provision of the Triple Zero emergency call service. [ + ]

Amid mounting tensions between Russia and the US, the government's Lower House is mounting a Bill that would require the use of open source software over proprietary Oracle, Microsoft and IBM platforms. [ + ]

The majority of Australian business leaders have already experienced digital disruption, and 88% fear disruption from digital start-ups. [ + ]

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has agreed to work with global standards body GS1 and GS1 China to standardise product information on its platforms. [ + ]

The finalists of the international C40 Cities Awards have been announced, with the CitySwitch Green Office program entry from Sydney and Melbourne making the list. [ + ]

The head of Innovation and Science Australia has called for greater collaboration between Australian businesses and publicly funded research institutions. [ + ]

Telstra has completed a long-running program to modernise its IT systems to ensure compliance with its undertakings to structurally separate the company's wholesale and retail operations. [ + ]

Australian transport agencies are under-utilising the big data collected from GPS devices and smartphone apps, as well as losing an opportunity to transform network planning, according to global transport expert Terry Bills. [ + ]

Autonomous farm vehicles could help create skilled jobs in the agriculture sector and help Australian farmers overcome labour shortages costing the industry over $150m per year. [ + ]

Microsoft has brought together more than 5000 computer scientists and engineers to form an AI research group dedicated to furthering the company's goal of democratising the technology. [ + ]

Under a new partnership, with Redback Technologies, EnergyAustralia will promote the Redback Generation 2 smart hybrid solar inverter system to its 1.7 million customers around Australia. [ + ]

After years of bleeding market share to Android and iOS, BlackBerry has decided to stop producing its own devices, concentrating instead on licensing its brand and developing enterprise software. [ + ]