4 August 2025 - Internet Association of Australia

From the CEO’s desk – August 2025

So here we are into the new financial year, and it’s out with the old and in with the new. We’ve got fantastic new content services being switched on shortly, with Microsoft caches coming online across the country; we’ve issued end of sale notices for 1Gbps ports at several locations, flagged the closure of Host Networks in Queensland, and QV1 is finally done and dusted. It really was sad to see the end of the QV1 era, but the cost to operate it versus the revenue wasn’t really paying off for Members. I was not thrilled going through all that debris, either! Talk about telco archaeology. I haven’t seen some of those transceivers since possibly the 90s! They seemed to have bred in there like electronic cockroaches, too.

We’ve had a load of fun catching up with everyone celebrating our 30 Years of Peers anniversary. Our next get togethers are likely to be on the regulatory front as we work with the Telco Together Foundation to put together material to help everyone comply with the new Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Standard that aims to assist customers in that situation. Keep an eye out for those sessions. Given many of our Members have under 30,000 subscribers they can use the procedures and policies developed by an industry association, unlike the larger organisations who will have to undertake their own consultation and develop tailored procedures. Smaller providers are now regularly reporting to us that our regulatory templates are a huge help, and their first port of call when thinking compliance. Glad to be of service!

On the network front, Matt and Aaron have been retiring those old Extreme 670 switches in preparation for a national upgrade to EVPN, but there is a truckload of testing to complete first. We are also using this to do a few other rearrangements and consolidations meaning we are likely to turn on 400Gbps ports in Melbourne soon and upgrade that core sooner rather than later. I rather suspect we’ll need it with the new content coming your way!

On the staffing front, we recently welcomed Kaitlin to the finance team (while Felicity enjoys the company of her newest family member) and Joshua as a network engineer. We also said goodbye to Board Member David Hooton, who stepped down due to increasing work commitments. Our sincere thanks to David for his outstanding contribution. We’re pleased to share that Emma Mondy, a participant in our mentoring program, has stepped up to fill the vacancy.

The AGM date has been set for 29 October via Zoom, so the team are now in a reflective mood compiling all our achievements for the annual report. I look forward to sharing all that and more with you then.

Happy peering!

Narelle

Question from the desk

Each newsletter, I will pose a question to Members, because your perspective is important. Please email me with your thoughts and opinions. Over to you:

How useful do you find our regulatory templates?

Newsletters

Microsoft Connected Caches are going live!

We’re expanding our CDN offering! Next Tuesday, 12 August 2025, Microsoft Connected Caches (MCC) are going live on our exchanges in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth via AS10084.

This will bring Microsoft content such as OS updates, games, applications, and static assets even closer to your users. MCC delivers content not available via AS8075.

During our testing in a single exchange we saw cache traffic egress over 20-40Gbps, so we expect members to see notable traffic spikes during Microsoft’s weekly release schedule each Wednesday (AU time)

MCC is by default opt-in, so we recommend checking your port sizing to avoid congestion. If you need time out to upgrade, opt-out BGP communities are available – see our CDN policy control communities page for details.

Questions? Reach out to us at peering@internet.asn.au.

News, Newsletters, Technical

QV gone

WA-IX’s first ever PoP in QV1 is no more. IAA has left the building. In March this year, our longest-running Point of Presence and the birthplace of WA-IX, was decommissioned.

Closing a legacy site is never easy, and QV1 didn’t go quietly. The final tidy-up was a mammoth task and a true archaeological dig through decades of networking relics and general detritus.

In the deepest recesses we found layer upon layer of history and horror. There were coiled-up cables dating back decades, disused gear long since replaced, and a truly shocking quantity of general tech junk. Old scrap, torn packaging, a Krone block, empty Krone logbooks, and even a GBIC to Ethernet module that sparked a wave of nostalgia. There were also the less savoury finds. An empty tuna can. A long-forgotten yoghurt tub. We didn’t check the expiry dates. We didn’t want to know. Somewhere in there may still be an AUI adapter from a Cisco 2511 (and the lost treasure of the Sierra Madre), but we chose to stop digging.

Thanks to a solid team effort, the site is now restored to its former condition. Perhaps event better.

As we shared earlier in the year, QV1’s age and constraints meant it could no longer keep up with the standards we set for our infrastructure. While it will always be part of our history, we need to evolve to meet the expectations of Members and the demands of modern networks.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the clean-up, the decommissioning, and the memories.

As one of the team put it:
“I’ve been looking forward to this day since the first argument about whether we should keep it. That was at least two UPS and one air con upgrade ago.”

QV1, you were something. But your reign is over.

Newsletters, Technical

IAA AGM 2025 – Save the date

Attention IAA Members! Please save the date for IAA’s Annual General Meeting

Date:
Wednesday, 29 October 2025

Time:
Perth 10:30am AWST
Darwin 12:00pm ACST
Brisbane 12:30pm AEST
Adelaide 1:00pm ACDT
Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart 1:30pm AEDT

Location:
Via Zoom

We will share the official notifications, nominations, reports, and registrations soon.

We hope you can join us!

Events, Newsletters, Upcoming Events

IAA End of Year Events 2025

Registrations are now open for our End of Year Events 2025!

We’re wrapping up the year with something a little different: a bowling Tournament of Peers. Held across Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide, which exchange will knock down the competition to become IAA’s bowling champions?

We invite you to an evening of tenpin bowling, good food, and great company. Whether you’re in it for the strikes or just here to give it a go, this event is for everyone. It’s all about connection and a bit of fun to close out the year.

Each event will feature casual team bowling, prizes, and scores that feed into a national leaderboard.

Bragging rights are on the line for your local IX.

Registrations now open!

Melbourne – IAA End of Year Event
Date: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Time: 5:30pm to 9:00pm AEDT
Venue: Strike Melbourne Central | Shop 305 | Level 3 | 211 La Trobe Street | Melbourne

Sydney – IAA End of Year Event
Date: Wednesday, 19 November 2025
Time: 5:30pm to 9:00pm AEDT
Venue: Strike Darling Harbour | King Street Wharf | 22 The Promenade | Sydney

Adelaide – IAA End of Year Event
Date: Tuesday, 25 November 2025
Time: 5:30pm to 9:00pm ACDT
Venue: Strike Rundle Place | Level 1 | 77–91 Rundle Mall | Adelaide

Brisbane – IAA End of Year Event
Date: Wednesday, 3 December 2025
Time: 5:30pm to 9:00pm AEST
Venue: Strike Brisbane City | Level 1 | Wintergarden | Queen Street | Brisbane

By RSVPing for this event, you are agreeing to comply with IAA’s Code of Conduct – Events.

Events, Newsletters, Upcoming Events

IAA Convergent 2025 – Celebrating 30 Years of Peers!

This year’s IAA Convergent series has taken us across the country, raising a glass to 30 Years of Peers with our incredible community.

Since our last newsletter, we’ve shared gin and ping pong in Adelaide, toured a rum distillery in Sydney, sipped whisky under chandeliers in Brisbane, and indulged in bacon/whisky pairings in Perth. Each stop brought its own flavour, but the real highlight was the people. Thank you to everyone who came along to celebrate with us!

We’re already dreaming up what IAA Convergent 2026 will look like. Until then, enjoy a few snapshots from the road.

Events, Newsletters

IAASysters – Onwards to Melbourne

Now, we’re turning our thoughts to Melbourne, and once again we’ve been blown away by the calibre of applicants. We look forward to seeing this year’s successful participants in September!

Interested in sponsoring this powerful initiative?

Shout out to our current sponsors, who help make this event possible:

Events, Newsletters

IAA’s CEO, Narelle Clark, wins CommsDay Award

In case you missed it, Narelle Clark was recently inducted into the CommsDay Hall of Fame during a special ceremony at the CommsDay Summit, held in Sydney this June.

Surrounded by industry peers in the grand ballroom of the historic Fullerton Hotel, Narelle was recognised for her outstanding contributions to Australia’s internet and telecommunications sector.

With a career spanning more than 30 years across policy, infrastructure, research, advocacy, and leadership, she has played a key role in shaping the digital landscape, championing consumer rights, and advancing critical network infrastructure.

As CEO of the Internet Association of Australia, she continues to be a passionate and effective voice for a fairer, trustworthy, and resilient internet. A huge congratulations to Narelle on this well-earned recognition!

Events, Newsletters

Advocacy Corner: May – August 2025

Parliament has resumed following the recent federal election, and we hold our breath for what the returning government has in store for the telco sector. Consultations have already started to ramp up again after a brief lull during the caretaker period. We are hopeful that ambitious reforms being undertaken by the Treasury into Australia’s overall economy will bring about improvements to the policy settings that dictate telco investment and operations. You can read more in our submission below.

A number of new regulatory obligations kicked off in late June and early July such as the DFSV Standard, and new complaints handling processes. IAA has made legal templates available on the IAA Member Portal as well as an explainer article to help you understand your obligations so make sure to check these out!

We are also working on organising to consult on behalf of Members to develop DFSV policy and training material, and will update Members when we have more details. In the meantime, you can read more about the new DFSV Standard in this article.

In September, IAA will be hosting a joint-panel session with auDA on ‘Multistakeholder ways to improve trust in Australia’s digital ecosystem’ at the auIGF 2025. The auIGF is a great event that facilitates multistakeholder discussions on policy issues related to the internet in Australia, and globally. We highly recommend you to register and check out the full program. The event will be in Adelaide from 23-24 September, but you can also attend virtually. We will also provide more details about our session shortly, so stay tuned.

As always, please get in touch to share any thoughts on any of the open consultations below and/or previous submissions as we really appreciate your feedback.