"Providers [of Cloud services] in Australia can be telecommunications related companies or they can be independent software related companies, so we end up with some real discrepancies with what is proposed in Schedule 2 in that if a telecommunications company wants to package up some Cloud computing with some telecommunications services it is providing it appears to get caught up in Schedule 2 but a purely software house apparently wouldn't," he said.
"Likewise these services can be supplied directly from overseas, but if we want to be involved and make it easier for our customers by putting together a total package of services then we seem to get caught up with additional notification required by this process."
According to, Optus manager, regulatory compliance and safeguards, Michael Elsegood, a danger in the bill was that definitions, especially that of a "system change" were far too broad.
"A system change, under the very expansive definition of what constitutes a telecommunications service and telecommunications system under the TIA Act, a system change could be something as simple as a Cloud computing service being repackaged for targeting small to medium business customers," he said.
"Or it could be as extensive as a wholesale change to shift a major in-house computing application from being hosted in Australia to overseas."