After a lengthy build up, it’s a relief to say we held our AGM for FY19-20 on 27 October, and with our first ever published Annual Report. I would like to thank all members who attended and hope you enjoyed the format. I would personally like to thank the staff and Board members who put so much into the event, and in all the effort over the year. Especially my thanks go to Nathan Brookfield who is stepping down from the Board after five years’ service.

The rest of the month has contained our usual member catch ups, and meetings with politicians, including the Minister for Communications. We’re expecting to meet with NBN Co soon, so please send your feedback in. We’ve also got more on the way in the form of extra network, caches and content. Also, don’t forget our end of year embargo, so get your orders in now.

Happy reading,

Narelle Clark

This month we announced our guest speaker for the AGM, looked at how good our internet is and welcomed the new 100G Facebook cache.

Read the full newsletter here.

We have had an exciting and challenging month this month with numerous projects and events. Our RPKI activation went completely smoothly, so now we can all be smug that our routing is as clean as can be. We also welcomed Sean Riordan from the ACCC with SamKnows for a lively session on broadband performance measurement at our latest Life Under Lockdown online event, and I presented at APNIC 50 giving a recap of the Australian ISP industry’s survival tactics during the pandemic. I’ve continued to meet with members on an individual basis, and also added some politicians and other stakeholders this month.

Our strong stance on the resumption of CVC charging has paid off, with NBN Co announcing it would extend the discount. We will continue with this advocacy, and I have raised it directly with the Minister for Communications. I also raised other issues including the challenges our members see in NBN onboarding – if you have experienced difficulty with the onboarding process, please get in touch as we will be following up on this issue further with both the Minister and NBN Co.

Unfortunately, we did have to postpone the AGM to make sure that we are squeaky clean in our approach to enabling voting. Your voice is genuinely important, so we thought it best to withdraw the special resolutions. The delay also means we will be able to have a guest speaker, and I am proud to announce that Jari Arkko, former head of the IETF, and current member of the IAB and Ericsson Research, will be talking about the evolution of the internet and hopefully will include some fun observations about his adventures with IoT.

Nick and the team have also completed some more upgrades, so you should be enjoying faster, more reliable route services. Well done team!

This month our newsletter celebrates a major switch upgrade, announces voting is open for the board elections and looks at our next Life Under Lockdown event.

Read the full newsletter here.

It’s been a little quieter around here over the last month, as it’s been head down, tail up ploughing through the upgrades (well done Nick and Aaron) and preparing for our AGM in just over a week’s time. I participated in a panel as part of APNIC’s Networking from Home Oceania event and will be part of the line up next month for APNIC 50 giving a recap of the Australian ISP industry’s survival tactics during the pandemic. I’m also gradually getting to meet with many of our corporate members, and your feedback led to our taking a strong stand in the media on the upcoming CVC charge resumption by NBN Co.

The team have also made great progress implementing RPKI – if you’ve received an email saying your routes include invalids, please make the changes or liaise with us to help. It’s important we keep the routing table as clean as possible.

Speaking of the AGM, I hope you will take the time to vote on the changes to our Rules, and for the board election. A strong and active board is essential to our governance and are frequently our go to team for strategic advice. If you haven’t received your ballot email – do be in touch!