IT enrolments drop further; Cisco sells Linksys to Belkin; ACCC pursues TPG

Australia’s IT skills shortage appeared to deepen last week, with new figures showing a drop in enrolment share between 2010 and 2011, and a staggering drop in IT course enrolment share since 2001.

The Grattan Institute - an “independent think tank dedicated to developing high-quality public policy for Australia’s future” that’s partly funded by the government - last week released its annual assessment of Australian higher education.

According to the Grattan report, information technology enrolments accounted for only 4% of all enrolments in 2011 - down from 2010’s figure of 4.2% and less than half of 2011’s figure of 8.7%.

Simon Kaplan, skills and industry transformation director at NICTA, said universities could turn the trend around by adopting a new approach to attracting students. He pointed to a Queensland program called Group X that has had some success in increasing IT enrolments in the state.

“Twenty years ago you just had to stand on a street corner and say ‘We teach computing’ and everybody would come … Now we have to stand together or we will get closed down,” he said.

Belkin snaps up Linksys

Consumer electronics manufacturer Belkin last week announced it had reached an agreement to acquire Cisco’s Home Networking Business Unit - most notably, the Linksys brand.

Belkin said it intends to “maintain the Linksys brand and will offer support for Linksys products”. Belkin will also honour all valid warranties for “current and future Linksys products”.

Cisco’s sale of Linksys is seen by many as part of a wider shift away from consumer markets.

ACCC chases TPG

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is again pursuing TPG for what the consumer watchdog considers misleading advertising. The ACCC is petitioning the High Court to overrule a previous Full Court decision that said most of TPG’s advertising of its Unlimited ADSL2+ service was not misleading.

In the initial proceedings brought by the ACCC against TPG in 2010, the trial judge ruled that certain TPG ads gave the impression that the ISP’s Unlimited ADSL2+ service cost only $29.99 a month, when in fact the service relied on a bundled home phone line which cost another $30 a month.

The judge said certain ads were also misleading because they suggested the service had no set-up charge, when in fact customers had to pay a set-up fee of either $79.95 or $129.95.

The judge ordered TPG to pay $2 million in penalties.

TPG appealed the decision in the Full Court, which granted the appeal in part in December 2012. The court ruled that only some of TPG’s ads were misleading, that a reasonable consumer would have known that such services are typically bundled and that setup-charges are often applied.

The Full Court also reduced TPG’s fine to $500,000.

Now, the ACCC is seeking “special leave to appeal to the High Court in relation to the Full Court’s findings on both liability and penalty”, meaning it wants the advertisements in question recognised as misleading, and it wants the fine returned to $2 million.

Image credit ©iStockphoto.com/Daniel Laflor