IAA Newsletters
A few months back, one of our staff members caught up with Gavin Tweedie, IAA/WAIA’s first ever employee! Gavin was WA-IX’s Peering Engineer from 2000-2006, before moving to iiNet as a Network Engineer for eight years. His latest role is with Megaport as the Product Manager of Interconnection.
Gavin first became involved with WA-IX as a member of WAIA during his time working for Netway. He saw the role of a Technical Manager being advertised and approached the Committee to find out more. Attending University at the time, completing a Computer Science degree and feeling as though he wasn’t learning much, Gavin wanted to get out and start working. Everything went well with the Committee; he secured the Technical Manager role, and the rest is history!
When asked what he thought WA-IX has achieved for Australia’s internet, his response was “that it still exists”. Gavin explained that in the early 2000s, there were a number of state-based exchanges, and WA-IX was the one that survived. He attributes its success to a few things: a tight-knit community, large enough to require staff, that it fostered friendly competition, advocacy, and distance. A tight-knit community meant that the IX had adequate community support. As the IX grew, you no longer had to rely on the goodwill of your competitors to help you out (in the earlier days, WA-IX ran on volunteers that often worked for competing organisations). However, working with others that worked for competing organisations helped to foster a friendly competitive environment and encouraged community cooperation. The advocacy efforts have continued to build a lot of goodwill for the Association in the industry, and lastly, distance. As we all know, the wholesale costs for transit in the earlier days were a function of how far away you were from the content you wanted to access. The Association’s value was even higher, saving members money, and we now have exchanges thriving in almost every capital city.
Gavin hopes to see WA-IX continue to do what it’s doing and not lose its focus on technical services or its WA roots. He also hopes to see the continuation of the Association’s support of important industry-specific events such as APRICOT.
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Under a new carrier licence condition and determination for eligible CSPs, telcos must provide the CISC with operational information in relation to their telecommunications assets, so it can be included in a register by 7 October 2022. Where an entity other than a carrier or eligible CSP holds a direct interest of at least 10% or a controlling stake in an asset, information about the interest and control in the asset must also be reported.
An ‘asset’ is defined to be a tangible asset owned or operated by a carrier/eligible carriage service provider and is used to supply a carriage service. It does not refer to equipment on customers’ premises. According to industry de-briefs, an asset can be thought of by way of an analogy – the entire car as opposed to the individual components that make up the motor vehicle.
Please visit the CISC website for further information.
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We’re back at AusNOG again this year with quite a few of our team attending, including some new faces for the booth to greet you all. We’ve got a new funky 90’s themed give away t-shirt, so be sure to stop by and say hello. We always enjoy catching up with members.
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NBN Co is now working on the revised Standard Access Undertaking after withdrawing its previous SAU, which was met with industry-wide criticism in late July.
Its discussion paper released earlier this month is a lot more promising and includes a number of changes that which industry has been largely supportive of, notwithstanding remaining concerns on issues such as potential price rises, transparency surrounding NBN Co’s costs, and industry’s expectations for service standards commensurate to capex and thus increase in prices for RSPs.
The ACCC held an industry forum from 18-19 August to which IAA and various other industry representatives were invited. The forum allowed for open and frank discussions and was a great chance for industry to address remaining issues.
NBN Co hopes to release its revised SAU in late October. Submissions for its discussion paper outlining its proposed changes are due on 2 September.
Check out IAA’s media release in response to NBN Co’s SAU withdrawal in July, highlighting our position.
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The recent activation of the Telecommunications Sector Security Instruments on 7 July came as a surprise to the public policy team. The unexpected commencement of new obligations took up much of our attention this month, attending industry debriefs and preparing material to assist members with compliance. We have also continued consulting with members to prepare our submission on the NBN Co Standard Access Undertaking (SAU).
Recent Submissions:
Proposed NBN Co SAU Variation | ACCC
Given the recent change in government, our submission addressed this as an opportunity to reassess NBN Co’s reason for existence and argued that the proposed SAU variation should be considered in this light. We emphasised the purpose of NBN Co is to provide high-quality, reliable and accessible broadband, rather than NBN Co’s seeming focus of not mere cost recovery but going beyond to make even more revenue. Thus, we recommended the ACCC not accept the proposed variation on the grounds that it does not promote the long-term interests of the end user, as well as negatively affecting RSPs.
Proposed Fees for Service 2022-23 | ACMA
We noted the significant increase in costs for a carrier licence application as well as charges for the telecommunications sector and requested further explanation and breakdown to justify any increase in ACMA’s fees.
Open Submissions:
Incorporating QR codes into the telecommunications labelling arrangements | 19 August 2022
ACMA is proposing to amend the Telecommunications Labelling Notice to include QR codes to align labelling requirements with those under the Radiocommunications Act. This is to provide consistency and flexibility for suppliers in the Australian market and enable suppliers to comply with the requirements.
ACMA has also identified three telecommunications technical standards that relate to outdated technology, or withdrawn industry standards, which they are also proposing to be repealed.
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Late last week, professional members received a Professional Member Benefits survey. This survey is designed to help us improve your membership experience by enabling us to identify the member benefits that you want and need.
As a member-run association, we put our members at the heart of what we do. To help us make your association better, please complete the survey before it closes on Friday, 5 August 2022, 5:00pm AWST/7:00pm AEST. Don’t forget that all members who complete the survey will go into the draw to win an IAA swag bag.
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This year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held in October and is planned to be slightly different to past years as the meeting is set to coincide with WA-IX’s 25th Birthday celebration. Official communications will start coming out in August, so please keep an eye on your emails, Facebook and LinkedIn to keep up to date with what’s happening.
This is also a good time to remind everyone to make sure you have updated your voting contacts! Please also check in with your organisation’s voting contact to ensure they receive all the important communications: if they have unsubscribed from our emails, your organisation might miss out on your voting instructions!
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A quick reminder to members to submit your annual attestation of your compliance with the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code. Communications Compliance (CommCom) recently opened the TCP Code compliance attestation page for entries. Lodgements are due on 1 September 2022, and Carriage Service Providers who provide telecommunications services to consumers (as defined in the Code) are required to submit an annual attestation.
CommCom is an independent body responsible for overseeing the conduct of the Code Compliance Framework outlined in Chapter 10 of the TCP Code that also promotes compliance with the Code through industry guidance and educational initiatives.