Well, that was quite a month! Covid has once again thrown a massive spanner into our planning. We had to arrange remote hands for the relocation of RS2 in Melbourne, our SGM had a token presence on site, and events are being madly rescheduled all over the place. The IAA team have been fabulous, with half of us in lockdown and the other half sending us all vital supplies of masks. We soldier on…

Luckily also for us in NSW, the State government has confirmed our staff fit the definition of ‘essential workers’ so should we have the situation where switches need emergency attention that remote hands and remote access cannot give, we are able to attend. Our rearrangement effort on VIC-IX with the imminent removal of 55 King St is progressing well, with new links in train and the route server relocated this week. As promised, we will be keeping the site operating until the power goes off. Other upgrades are still taking place, including a ring upgrade on VIC-IX, however some longer term projects are suffering compound delays. At least the intercapital and other upgrades we completed last year have ensured we have capacity to meet the latest upsurge in demand due to the lockdowns.

Unfortunately, the Sydney lockdown has pushed AusNOG out until December, meaning our associated events, including our AGM, will be rescheduled as well. Let’s just hope that means we have even better end of year celebrations! We’ll certainly need it by then.

Lockdowns haven’t stopped the seeming endless supply of regulatory proposals from government, however! Our regulatory effort is proceeding well – we’ve submitted on NBN regulation to the ACCC and are arguing for an updated regulatory approach that removes CVC charges and brings the multi-technology mix under the same regulation as fibre to the premises. This should mean clear accountabilities for NBN Co for performance and connection times, for example. We’re also participating in the Dept of Home Affairs consultation about improving the standards of cybersecurity across the community. The irony of this effort when compared with their previous legislation that actually mandates weaker security is not lost on us!

I’m also still catching up with members wherever I can via Zoom. If you want to catch up over any burning topics, feel free to drop me a line via ceo@intenernet.asn.au

And finally, on the topic of member meetings, I must extend a genuine thank you to all who participated and voted in this week’s SGM. The board and I genuinely thank all members for their confidence in us as we take the organisation to its next phase of maturity. We will now proceed to registration with ASIC and the inevitable paperwork to transfer over to a company limited by guarantee and regulated under the Australian Corporations Act. All our existing contracts and agreements remain in place, so there will be no disruption to services.

Stay safe everyone

Narelle Clark, CEO

First of all I must extend a huge thank you to all the members who took the time and effort to read through all the papers and material associated with our proposal to convert to a company limited by guarantee. We’ve gone through quite a process to consult, check and review mountains of paperwork to ensure that we have a solid basis for the transition and a constitution that can serve us well into the future. Now that we’ve been through this process, we’re keen to put the new constitution to members for approval and the Special General Meeting to set the mechanics of transition in motion has been formally called. I hope to see you there on the Wednesday 28 July.

This has also been quite the month for internet regulation. Luckily, we held our From Encryption to Take Downs: Internet Regulation Update earlier this month to get us all fired up! The ACCC has recently started a review of the NBN Standard Access Undertaking, and we have been invited to participate. This is meant to be a short circuit to improve the regulatory environment and bring all the fibre-to-the-node (also known as MTM) technologies under the same regulation as the original fibre-to-the-premises. NBN Co has proposed a number of regulated pricing changes, none of which – sadly – guarantee a net price decrease. We will be seeking more member input as the process evolves. Please feel free tell me what you think!

We’ve also started participating in the code development for the newly passed Online Safety Bill. This bill requires a range of processes to ensure certain offensive content is promptly removed, but there are a range of definitional problems and potential process proliferation, not to mention the possibility of duplicating all the existing complaints and other take down procedures. There’s also talk of having to have a string of codes for each part of the internet. Again, if members have thoughts on how to make this a practical, useful system, please get in touch.

The team in NSW also started settling into our new office in North Sydney. Of course, the latest Covid outbreak has us working at home again, but we’re thoroughly enjoying sharing the space and the ease of problem solving when everyone’s in the same room! Members should come by if they’re ever in North Sydney. We are hoping to schedule an office warming as soon as we can, too.

All the best,

Narelle Clark

This month we’ve seen a few developments in the regulatory space that have us wondering about the future. We expect to see a new Online Safety Act pass in early June and with it will come the obligation to have a number of Codes in place to govern how we as an industry react to online content deemed harmful. This will apply to all types of content, similar to that in the past for content deemed harmful to children. On the upside, it is good that we have received an invitation from the eSafety Commissioner to participate in the Code development, so we will be arguing the case for workable Codes where we can. This also means we should be able to assist members in getting the right processes in place once the regulation comes into place.

We’ve also been contacted by the ACCC to participate in its upcoming industry roundtable discussion on future NBN regulation. Members should let me know what your hot topics are for this one! Rest assured we will be raising CVC charging, barriers to becoming RSPs, visibility of performance and installation issues. Any others you want me to raise, please don’t hesitate to be in touch.

It’s good to see that the round of firmware upgrades have been completed too! Meaning all our core switches are now 100Gbps capable and those pesky software issues are resolved. We still need to upgrade our smaller switches, so those members still on 1Gbps ports will see a round of short outages to bring that software up to date. It’s all for a good cause.

Like many of you also, we have received notice that the old Primus DC at 55 King St Melbourne is closing. We are currently rearranging our fibres in the Melbourne ring to ensure our high standards of redundancy and diversity are maintained, and we will be relocating RS2 to another site. Our plan is to keep our gear operating until pretty much the lights go out there, however, as we know you will need things in service as long as possible. Stay tuned for the specific dates.

Our governance update is also proceeding well, and we published a draft Constitution last week. Members are invited to comment on the proposed Constitution by sending me an email with your thoughts by 3 June 2021. As ever the plan is published on our website.

All the best

Narelle Clark