No.19 Tech Hotspots 2008

, Australia

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What's so special about Sydney?
As well as being the state capital of New South Wales, Sydney is Australia's commercial hub, with many financial institutions based in the compact Central Business District and others located on the north shore of the harbour.

With a temperate seaboard climate giving the city a feel somewhere between London and San Francisco, Sydney is also home to the HQs of three-quarters of the tech companies in Australia.

One local tech company of note is Tenix Group, which specialises mainly in military deals but also has a presence in the security and outsourcing services markets.

Sydney prides itself on a state-of-the-art communications infrastructure. Australia has a 96 per cent penetration rate in mobile phone take-up. Major service providers Sing-Tel Optus, Vodafone and Hutchison are all headquartered in Sydney.

Hotspots judge Jo Best confirms that Sydney, along with the rest of Australia, is well served for communications. "In the comms field, Australia is actually pretty hot. There's set to be a massive fibre-to-the-node rollout, WiMax is being deployed too and by next year Australia will have the fastest mobile network around."

Key tech companies Global companies with a presence include BenQ, CSC, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle-Peoplesoft, SAP, Samsung, SingTel Optus, Sophos and Sun Microsystems.

Key institutions The University of Technology, Sydney, is attended by 32,000 students. The IT faculty claims to be a leader in research in human-computer systems and visual information processing.

One of the four National ICT Australia research labs is based in Sydney. The organisation has just received funding from the New South Wales government of $25m.

Local salaries The standard of living in Sydney is comparable, if not more expensive in some areas, with northern hemisphere Western cities. $56,000 per year is the going rate for a software engineer.

Famous faces Carlo Salteri, co-founder of Tenix is worth $1bn, according to Forbes.

Population 4.3 million.

iPod cost $175 Source: CommSec, Apple.

Time zone GMT +10 hours.

Voltage and plugs 240V. Type I three-pin plug.

How to get there Fly in to Kingsford Smith International Airport, which lays claim to being the first airport in the world to run regular commercial flights.

Watch out for The Opera House is a familiar icon all over the world but it still manages to impress in real life, as does the harbour bridge, nicknamed 'the coathanger' by Sydneysiders.

Places to stay, eat or drink The W Hotel in a converted Woolloomooloo wool warehouse is reputed to be the hip place to stay. For dining, a good start is the Rocks district in the shadow of the harbour bridge.

What you might not know Prisoners in Sydney will next month take part in a trial scheme to let them use encrypted webcam communications to hold conferences with their lawyers.