The awards are the brainchild of Robin Eckermann, the speaker at the society's annual lecture, the Charles Todd Oration, and are being sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent, Water for Rivers, Multimedia Victoria, Eckermann and Greg Crew.

Specifically, the $8000 Eckermann-TJA Prize will be awarded to "the best paper offered to the Telecommunications Journal of Australia on the theme of applying broadband telecommunications to deliver significant benefits to environmental sustainability." The same paper can also received the $2000 prize.

Entries will be judged on the extent to which they either: demonstrate the benefits that an existing use of broadband technology is delivering in terms of environmental sustainability; or propose innovative new uses of broadband technology that could deliver significant benefits in terms of environmental sustainability. For the purposes of the awards, broadband is an always on service delivering at least 256kbs in both directions.

Entries are due by 14 September 2007. Details here.