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?
