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Call for Nominations – Public Policy Advisory Panel

IAA is excited to announce the formation of the IAA Public Policy Advisory Panel (PPAP). We are seeking applications from interested members with diverse experience across the Internet sector bringing industry knowledge and expertise to inform IAA’s policy positions and provide advice on Internet regulation. Whether you’re in the regulatory section of your organisation or have experience and a keen interest in Internet policy, we need your help to make Internet regulation better!

The PPAP will consist of 5 to 10 members, who will advise and make recommendations on IAA policy positions.

It’s important we get a range of viewpoints from right across our membership. We are looking for a Panel that will provide a diverse perspective: ranging from B2C or B2B ISPs, content providers, ISPs operating in regional locations, and Internet policy or governance experts from organizations ranging from small to large. Your real world, on the ground experience dealing with the realities of how the regulation hits your work will be invaluable.

Once chosen (and approved by the IAA Board), panellists will serve annual terms for up to three years and act in a voluntary capacity. We expect the PPAP will meet up to four times per year and participate in vibrant discussion.

If you are interested in having a say in the formation of the policy positions IAA takes, please submit an application through our website.

Applications close 28 February 2022, 5:00pm AEDT.

Open Submissions

Privacy Act Review | Attorney General’s Department | 10 January 2021

The AGD is consulting on proposals for reform and questions on the Privacy Act 1988 Discussion Paper. This will focus on aspects including on the scope and application of the Privacy Act, whether a statutory tort should be introduced for privacy invasions, the effectiveness of enforcement powers and mechanisms under the Privacy Act and the feasibility of an independent certification scheme to monitor compliance.

Superfast Broadband Access Service Access (SBAS) Determination Inquiry Discussion Paper | ACCC | 10 December 2021

The ACCC is in the process of confirming a final access determination for SBAS, following which a provider needs to ensure access to a declared service on the request of an access seeker. The inquiry will consult on price and non-price terms and conditions of access to the service, whether the Regional Broadband Levy should be absorbed by SBAS providers or passed onto RSPs and users and whether network providers should disclose network service quality and reliability indicators to RSPs. It also inquires about exemptions from the access determination applying to small scale operators (with less than 12,000 end users) and competition-based exemptions.

Consumer Data Right – Telecommunications Draft Designation Instrument | Treasury | 13 December 2021

The Treasury is seeking feedback on the Draft Designation, which outlines the datasets and data holders to be covered by the CDR.

Telecommunications Service Provider (Customer Identity Verification) (CIV) Determination 2021 | ACMA | 15 December

The CIV Determination imposes carriage service providers (CSPs) to introduce two-factor authentication for all customer interactions at high-risk of fraud. Although Communications Alliance released a Code covering similar ground earlier, this Determination is more specific on definitions (of high-risk interaction) and the process for identity verification. It also requires CSPs to collect information to show their compliance.

Recent Submissions

NBN SIO Record Keeping Rules | ACCC

IAA responded to the ACCC’s Proposed Changes to the NBN Services in Operation Record Keeping and Reporting Rules (NBN SIO RKR) Consultation Paper. We conveyed our support for the publishing of high-level CVC overage and utilisation data, but opposed the publication of data disaggregated by access seekers as this should be considered confidential information. We also supported reporting metrics include NBN Co performance against service levels and performance objectives.

Basic Online Safety Expectations (BOSE) | Department of Communications

In collaboration with 10 associations, IAA made a submission to the Basic Online Safety Expectations. Here, we raised our concerns about the extensive and vague nature of the scope of services discussed, which in its current form could incorporate website, app or communication services accessible to Australian users. We also raised the potential impact BOSE could have on over-cautious censorship and surveillance.

Advocacy Corner

Policy News

The Critical Infrastructure Bill 2020 passed both House of Representatives and the Senate last week. The legislation expands the number of sectors classified as critical infrastructure, including the communications and data storage and processing sector. It also enforces mandatory reporting requirements and provides Home Affairs with the ability to issue information gathering, intervention and action direction requests.

In August, IAA responded to the Treasury’s Consumer Data Rights (CDR) Sectoral Assessment for telecommunications, where we argued the CDR could add to existing compliance requirements for ISPs and inhibit competition within the sector. Last week, the Treasury released their Sectoral Assessment wherein they recommend the telco sector be designated for the CDR. Now, the Treasury is finalising the classes of information and who is required to share it as a data holder to be covered by the CDR. They have recommended that carriers and CSPs be designated as data holders who should provide access to generic and publicly available product data, product data that relates to particular products used by consumers and basic consumers and account data.

NetThing – Round Table

Have you heard about NetThing? We are excited to announce that we will be facilitating a round table focusing on Internet as an Essential Service and how this classification would affect the rules and regulation for broadband Internet services.  

We plan to explore what classifying the Internet as an essential service would entail and its broader implications for digital inclusion, minimum service level requirements and digital infrastructure investment. We will moderate a discussion incorporating the perspectives of consumers, civil society, regulators and the various players right across the internet industry.  

Our participants include representatives of the ACCC, Communications Alliance, Legal Aid NSW, Infrastructure Australia, Arnotts as well as consumers and service providers from right across the spectrum. 

This event should be both insightful and incredibly useful if the rules for service change!   

Register now if you would like to attend our round table or any other events NetThing has to offer. 

Policy Updates

October’s Advocacy Corner Update

The Federal government is continuing to ramp up its program of legislation aiming to control the perceived and real threats from the online world. We’ve written about our participation in the defamation workshops, but just recently it has become clear that the government would like to see defamation regulated the same way as it wants to regulate more obviously dangerous material, ie through the eSafety Commissioner and alongside the Online Safety Act. 

There are some very real risks we see with this approach: it is not clear where the liability and responsibility for defamatory material will lie, nor even whether this can be efficiently or effectively implemented. It became increasingly clear throughout the workshops that while it was accepted that straight carriage service providers won’t be liable (as “mere conduits”) other services usually included in an internet access service such as DNS, email, and web hosting, where ISPs have no effective part in the publication of material, may well have liability. Rest assured, we are doing our darndest to reinforce the fact that making a domain name available via the DNS is not an act of defamation, but unfortunately there are no guarantees that legislators won’t do something really stupid. They seem to find it difficult to separate certain large social media platforms from “the Internet” and are increasingly keen to enforce takedowns further and further down the technology and infrastructure stack. 

An amended Critical Infrastructure Bill through the House of Representatives last week. Introduced as part of the PJCIS’ report on the Critical Infrastructure Bill, this legislation will see the introduction of a new mandatory notification scheme for cyber incidents. It will also provide Home Affairs with the power to issue information gathering, intervention and action direction requests. Part II of the Bill, which will focus on risk management plans and the declaration of Systems of National Significance (SoNS), is expected to face further consultation with industry. 

Communications Alliance released a new code C666:2021 Existing Customer Authentication, which provides an improved framework to authenticate the identity of customers making transactions involving their telecommunications service. So new rules there for people to apply when gaining or transferring customers. 

Submissions

Recent Submissions

In October, we made submissions to: 

 

Open Submissions

Reporting of Telstra delivery of voice services | Department of Communications 

The Department of Communications has proposed that Telstra should improve their reporting of their voice services delivery in regional areas and provide quarterly reports to ACMA and Department of Communications relating to service quality and delivery. 

Record Keeping Rules Consultations | ACCC 

The ACCC is consulting on changes to the Record Keeping Rules for Telecommunications Infrastructure Assets. The Record Keeping Rules requires specific carriers to report on their core network and customer access network infrastructure to help the ACCC analyse competition within the telecommunications market.  The ACCC is seeking to update their list of record-keepers and introduce new reporting requirements for end-user equipment and mobile infrastructure.  

The ACCC is also seeking to amend the NBN Record Keeping Rules, including introducing reporting for enterprise ethernet services and businesses satellite services. They will also gather additional data on CVC capacity and utilisation data and ask NBN Co to report on performance against service standard commitments set out in the Wholesale Broadband Agreement. The latter agreement is still open to review, despite some members reporting they felt pressured to sign version five already. 

Recent Submission

IAA submitted to Home Affairs Strengthening Australia’s cyber security regulations and incentives paper. In our submission, we highlighted the complexity of existing cybersecurity legislation, especially for smaller ISPs to navigate. We commented on suggested mechanisms which could promote the uptake of cybersecurity, including minimum standards for personal information and health checks for small businesses. We called on Home Affairs to collaboratively engage with relevant industry stakeholders throughout the process of drafting cybersecurity regulation or processes.

IAA supported the extension of the Wholesale ADSL to 20 June 2024 in our recent submission to the ACCC. We raised the point that WADSL as continues to be prominent in rural, regional and remote areas, it needs to be provisioned for.

We also expressed our perspective on ACMA’s Statement of Expectations (SoE) for the Telecommunications Industry with regards to vulnerable consumers. We extended our support to the SoE, however, highlighted that for smaller ISPs, some objectives and examples regarding financial hardship and customer service would be difficult to meet because of resource constraints.

The ACCC published updated Non-Discrimination Guidelines for the telecommunications sector, a process we responded to in June. In the new Guidelines, the ACCC will assess whether NBN Co or access providers have acted in a discriminatory manner by conducting an explicit or implicit discrimination test. A quick summary of how this process will work is available here.

 

Open Submissions

September’s Advocacy Corner Update

Submissions that may be of interest to members include:

Review of Criminal Code Amendment (Sharing of Violent Abhorrent Violent Material) (AVM) Act 2019 | 15 October 2021 

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement is enquiring into the effectivity of the AVM Act 2019, which was passed following the Christchurch terrorist attack. The AVM Act enforces that internet, hosting or content services proactively need to communicate to law enforcement that abhorrent violent material is accessible on their networks and work to ensure it is inaccessible in Australia. This inquiry will specifically focus on whether the AVM Act has helped reduce the misuse of online platforms, whether the powers given to the eSafety Commissioner and the federal police are appropriate and consider the definition of ‘violent abhorrent material.’ 

Telstra Migration Plan | 21 October 2021 

Telstra submitted a proposed variation to the ACCC adjusting the plan for the shutdown of legacy copper services occurring as part of the migration to NBN. Changes include amendments to the management disconnection arrangements in unit common areas, to differentiate between private and public payphones, to expand Telstra’s authority for reconnecting copper or hybrid fibre coaxial services if required and to extend for managed disconnections for premises not serviceable by NBN yet. After submissions close, the ACCC will make a decision on the proposed changes offered by Telstra.   

If you have any comments or would like to find additional information about the above, please email us at policy@internet.asn.au

 

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