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How Good is Your Internet?

IAA members were treated to in depth look into how the ACCC’s broadband monitoring system works during this month’s Life Under Lockdown event. Presentations from the ACCC and their performance testing provider SamKnows explained the rationale and technology used to assess Australia’s broadband network performance.

Sean Riordan, Head of the ACCC’s broadband performance monitoring program, explained that as the economic regulator of the communications sector, the ACCC’s main objective has been to promote the long-term interests of the users of internet services. The monitoring program aimed to promote competition and consumer outcomes by providing transparency on the quality of fixed line broadband services on offer to consumers via different NBN retailers.

The SamKnows system comprises a small ‘white box’ that NBN consumers install on their home networks. It simply measures rates of transfer without interfering with download performance and the company has been working with internet companies to create specific performance tests well beyond simple ping times.

Feedback following the event showed attendees were impressed by the comprehensiveness of the measurement system and its ability to track performance and were interested to see the changes in traffic and advertising, after the monitoring program started.

The event was also live streamed to our Facebook page. If you missed it on the night, it is still available to watch.

Our Life Under Lockdown events are proving popular and we are trying to bring topics that interest members.

Please feel free to circulate our event notices within your organisations, amongst your colleagues and friends we would love more of you to attend. If there are any specific topics you would like covered or speakers you enjoy – get in touch and we will do what we can to schedule.

How Good is our Internet?

Australians are now spending over $4 billion per year on fixed line broadband services. With the internet being such an integral part of everyday life, it is important to be confident in the information available to assist consumers in choosing the plan that best suits.

IAA’s next Life Under Lockdown event, on Tuesday 22 September, “How Good is our Internet?” will be looking at the performance of Australia’s broadband network

Hear from Sean Riordon, head of the ACCC’s broadband performance monitoring program on their approach to measuring performance. The session will include a summary of the regulator’s function, why broadband performance monitoring was adopted, an overview of how it works, and the results they have collected.

The event will also include an in-depth presentation from SamKnows who provide the technology behind the ACCC’s testing program.

IAA to hold first Online Event

IAA is kicking off its online event series with a look at how the internet has been performing during the global pandemic.

Join us for the panel session “Life Under Lockdown: how my network survived the pandemic” where we will discuss how providers have handled the impact of COVID-19.

Date: 23 June
Time: 1700 AEST (1500 AWST)
Location: Zoom (Video Conference)

The news continues to report we are in “unprecedented times” but for the vast majority of people the internet has performed really well through lockdown. Members, however, will know firsthand that a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes to deliver the stability the community has enjoyed when socialising and working from home.

During the panel session we will hear from key industry representatives, Field Solutions Group Chief Technology Officer, David Hooton, Vocus Senior IP Engineer, Brett O’Hara and Aussie Broadband Managing Director, Phillip Britt. Hear their perspectives on the wins, near misses, and issues affecting the Internet through this crisis.

The event will also include some time to catch up with your peers and share a virtual drink.

Details on how to register will be available soon. Keep an eye on our website and Facebook pages for more information.

APRICOT 2020

IAA have fulfilled our hosting duties of APRICOT 2020 and would like to thank everyone who attended the event at Melbourne’s Crown Promenade.

Despite travel restrictions caused by COVID-19, APRICOT 2020 still attracted over 560 people, from 59 economies.

With five days of workshops and over 50 presentation sessions during conference week, the IAA team worked tirelessly to ensure the smooth running of the network. At times during the fortnight, there were over 1000 devices connected to the wi-fi simultaneously.

APRICOT founder and ICANN CTO David Conrad opened the conference with a look back at the last 25 years of the event and a look forward to the future. Other keynote speakers included Professor Mark Gregory from RMIT University’s School of Engineering and ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science’s Associate Professor Hanna Suominen. To listen to these presentations or other sessions from the conference visit APNIC’s Youtube channel

The 3rd APNIC Hackathon took place during APRICOT, with the emphasis being on teamwork and cooperation. The theme for this year’s Hackathon was “Network Tools”. We would like to congratulate IAA’s peering engineer, Nick Pratley, who with his team won this year’s event. Nick’s team was tasked with creating automation modules for router configuration good practice and bogons. Well done Nick!

IAA General Manager Narelle Clark facilitated APRICOT’s Tech Girls social, which brought together 60 women (and a few male participants) to share their stories and experiences in ICT. Whilst the session was not restricted to women, it was a fantastic opportunity for those in attendance to understand they are not alone and have a purpose within the Internet community. Narelle was joined by Noraini Ayop from Microsoft and Merike Kaeo from Double Shot Security who spoke about their careers and how they saw the industry from a female perspective.

The 25th anniversary of APRICOT was celebrated at socials in locations across the city. Storms didn’t deter conference goers attending the opening social at Melbourne Town Hall, sponsored by IAA, where we were treated to a cultural performance by the Djiri Djiri dance group and got up close and personal to a variety of native animals.

The success of APRICOT’s 25 years promoting Internet technology and operations across the Asia Pacific region was marked at a formal dinner at the stunning Plaza Ballroom, with entertainment by local band, Chunky Jam, who got everyone up dancing late into the evening.

To see the official APRICOT 2020 photos click here.

We hope you enjoyed APRICOT 2020 as much as we did and found it a valuable experience. Our sofa was a hit with those at the conference, as were the IAA beanies, thanks to Melbourne’s weather.

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