Card payments company Square is set to roll out Square Loans in Australia, a program designed to help small businesses grow by giving them quick and simple access to funds.

Telstra has plans to invest more than $160 million on 600 mobile network projects in Victoria during the 2018-19 financial year, with the aim of eliminating black spots, improving data speeds and capacity.

The first grid scale battery in Victoria has been officially commissioned in Ballarat as part of the Victorian Government’s $50 million energy storage initiative in partnership with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

Vodafone Hutchison Austra;oa has completed a successful trial of a self-install mobile coverage solution — the Vodafone Regional Coverage Hub — which is designed to deliver 4G voice and data services in locations across Australia where commercial networks are not traditionally deployed, or where coverage is patchy or unavailable.

Telstra will begin working next month on the provision of mobile coverage in the Geelong rail tunnel, the company said in a statement today. A critical part of the work is expected to be completed by the end of June.

Mobile coverage on Victoria's five busiest regional rail lines is expected to improve with the government's Regional Rail Connectivity Project being accelerated.

NBN Co is boosting fixed wireless broadband speeds on the national broadband network to 100 Mbps.

Internet Australia chief executive Laurie Patton thinks Mitch Fifield, the Minister for Communications, missed an opportunity while election campaigning in his hometown of Ballarat last week to engage with the city’s burgeoning digital and ICT community.

UXC Consulting has acted as technical advisor to the Victorian government for the procurement and design of its VicFreeWiFi network.

Ballarat’s Federation College has been chosen as the second pilot site for an IBM-supported school-industry partnership to help students enter the workforce job-ready.

iiNet will build what it says is Australia’s largest free public wireless network, for Melbourne, Ballarat and Bendigo.

The City of Perth has taken on a team of international and local IBM experts as part of a $50 million IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant program.

The planned expansion of the University of Ballarat Technology Park is proceeding with IBM's announcement of an Asia Pacific Centre of Excellence for Software Testing that will employ another 150 people.

If you've travelled from a major Australian airport, you've probably seen or used a Qantas smartcard-based check-in pillar. But do you know where the technology was developed?

A major expansion of the University of Ballarat Technology Park - which has IBM as an anchor tenant - is planned.

Want to show your fellow Aussies that you have more dollars than sense? Then you'll be in the running to buy the FACEBK and PAYPAL number plates from Tai Tran, a Ballarat-based web-savant wanting a pretty penny for stamped car plates of metal.

At the 13th Australian national Linux conference that begins in Ballarat on Monday, all presentation material has to be suitable for people aged 12 and above.

The 13th Australian national Linux conference, which begins next week in Ballarat, will be a bit short on original presentations as the organisers have decided to have a "best of" selection for most of the final day.

Independent security professional Jacob Applebaum has been announced as the fourth and final keynote speaker for the 13th Australian national Linux conference which is being held in Ballarat from January 16 to 20.

Every year, the Australian national Linux conference tries to have one local speaker among those who present the keynotes.