IAA Newsletters
One of our staff members caught up with Michael Malone while hiking on the El Camino de Santiago in Europe! Michael was one of the owners of iiNet when the Association was formed and was one of the significant contributors of hardware and expertise that helped build WA-IX. He recounted what connectivity and the market were like back in the early days of the Internet in Australia and described WA-IX as a cooperative effort more than a profitable venture.
When asked about initial discussions regarding the exchange, Michael recalled that many WA techs had been talking about it as a peering point for a long time, and everyone knew it would be a good thing. One sticking point was the actual physical location, as the closest organisation would pay less to connect to the IX. He said the most obvious place was in the city as Wantree, OIS, and iiNet were all there, but others like Omen and DialIX were in the suburbs. After much going around, the QV1 location was finally agreed upon!
Michael recalled that people like Michael O’Reilly, PRK and Patrick from iiNet; Mark and Mick from Omen; Roger Yerramesetti from Wantree; David Luyer at UWA and many others rolled up their sleeves to set up WA-IX. They all volunteered their time to build and maintain the new IX. He also explained that once the IX was built, it became an essential service because the core ISPs and universities were already connected and given that it was mutually beneficial, it was even more compelling for others to join it – pretty much the definition of a network effect.
Michael explained that the IX survived because of good decisions at the beginning, many of which were really just good luck and the power of engineering consensus. The uptake of it increased because of goodwill, the good it did for the community and approaching those who were not connected and asking them, “why not?”. Initially, they ran a couple of conferences that brought people into the same room, which seemed to help, too.
Michael hopes to see the Association properly funded and continues to bring the Internet engineering community together – to make decisions based on what’s good for the connected community. He would also like to see a place of learning where members can get together and exchange war stories in a fun and casual setting.
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Another month has passed and work on the new portal continues. We’re not far from launch with final internal testing kicking off this month – we want to make sure it’s smooth, user friendly and looks fabulous! Over the next month, keep an eye out on our social media channels for sneak previews of the interface and what you can look forward to.
Closer to the cutover time, you will receive communications from us via email to ensure your transition onto the new portal is as easy as possible. If you haven’t already, please ensure that your details are up to date, so you receive all the information you need.
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Back in 1995, a group of Internet enthusiasts rallied together to advocate for the interests of the Internet community in Western Australia. Two years on, they made one of the most unlikely moves for competitors to make and collaborated on a project that would not only help each others’ businesses, but helped everyone’s customers and improved Australia’s Internet – they formed WA-IX. It was described as a laudable show of cooperation as iiNet, Wantree, and Omen first connected on the exchange: built from donated hardware and put together by the hands of volunteers. At the time, the cost of domestic traffic sent and received was $1.46 PER MEGABYTE and definitely far too costly to be sustainable for many businesses.
Not only did WA-IX make connectivity more affordable, but it also helped to fund the good works of the Association. WAIA was formed to be a representative voice of the Internet community and was run by volunteers; however, it did incur ongoing operational costs. With the combination of genuine care for the Internet community, users, and its members, WAIA (now known as IAA) has continued to grow and provides the longest-running peering network in Australia.
Part of the ongoing success of WA-IX can be attributed to the fact that it stood alone and no longer ran on the goodwill of volunteers. As the first employee of WA-IX, Peering Engineer Gavin Tweedie recounted that before he was employed, to get access to the POP in QV1, you had to rely on your fellow competitor at another company to show up with the key! An exchange was also conducive to competition by lowering operational costs, which kept the cost of connectivity down for end users.
Our association was built and continues to operate on goodwill as we continue to work for the Internet community and Australia’s Internet more broadly. Although peering is not as widely adopted in Australia as it is in other parts of the globe, it is definitely integral to its success. Cheers to 25 years of good connectivity, and may there be many more years of it to come!
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The UK Government’s response to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was released earlier this month following consultation regarding the UK’s response to the EU GDPR. Carrying hefty fines, GDPR regulates the data processing activities of businesses in an effort to protect the data and privacy of consumers and apply to all Europeans whether they reside in the EU or not.
Here in Australia, the Attorney-General’s review of the Privacy Act 1988 is still ongoing, tackling issues of privacy and data protection. The discussion paper framing consultation for the review heavily referred to the UK Information Commissioner’s guidance and it is likely that the AG Office will be following the development of the UK Data Reform Bill and whether it passes through Parliament.
IAA responded to the Privacy Act review, emphasising the need for a balanced privacy regime that protects the privacy of individuals in a reasonable, and legitimate manner while not disproportionately burdening industry. Read our full response.
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The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) released its report on the Department of Home Affairs’ administration and regulation of critical infrastructure protection policies on 21 June 2022, and we’d have to say their assessment isn’t particularly positive. The report made seven recommendations, identifying improvements needed in the Department’s engagement of stakeholders, risk assessments and reporting obligations, performance measurement, and compliance management.
Regulation of critical infrastructure has been a great focus for the Department in recent years with ‘critical infrastructure’ expanded to include more sectors, and they have been granted greater powers, even including direct intervention with an entity’s systems in certain circumstances.
IAA has been actively involved in the consultation process for the implementation of critical infrastructure legislation. In our submissions, we consistently called for greater meaningful stakeholder engagement, including sector specific consultation. We also raised concerns that the implementation of the new powers and obligations was premature, and required greater review and thorough analysis to ensure the legislative reforms would ensure real benefits and outcomes.
ANAO has since found the Department to lack an engagement strategy, and that despite sector specific strategies being developed prior to legislative reforms, “these strategies were discontinued before the reform engagement had concluded.”
In addition, the Department’s performance measure was found inadequate, due to the measure not establishing targets supported by a verifiable method, not free from bias, and lacking detail on how performance against the standards contribute to achieving their purpose.
The Department has accepted all seven recommendations to address the issues raised by the audit.
Telecommunications is one of the sectors newly captured as critical infrastructure as of 2021. In addition to the critical infrastructure legislation, telecommunications is also regulated through the Telecommunication Sector Security Reforms (TSSR) as part of the Telecommunications Act 1997. As such, while the Systems of National Significance declaration power and enhanced cyber security obligations apply to the telecommunications sector under the critical infrastructure legislation, the Department of Communications is developing specific rules and obligations for the telecommunications sector. The sector can also anticipate a review into the TSSR later this year.
IAA will continue to participate in consultation with government to ensure the implementation of rules for the telecommunications sector that are measured, effective and fit for purpose.
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On 1 June, Communications Compliance Ltd (CommCom)opened the TCP Code compliance attestation page. Currently live, 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 of their compliance with the Code.
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.
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This last month I’ve enjoyed a brief holiday, and in my absence the team have been just brilliant! Racks have been rearranged, submissions lodged, and our new portal has a shiny new layout. We’ve even cracked a new traffic milestone over the last week, so now 900Gbps is the new normal across the exchanges. Well done everyone, it looks like the IXes are delivering what you want.
We also quietly observed the 25 year anniversary of WA-IX, and notice has gone out for a bigger birthday party later this year alongside our AGM. I hope we can get a good number of you along, as this will make up for the party we couldn’t have in 2020 to mark the 25th of WAIA itself! It has been great to see the preparation taking shape and we have some lovely messages already to hand from colleagues and friends around the world.
One of the exciting pieces of reading during my holiday was the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report on the Dept of Home Affairs. I’d have to say it is one of the more critical – even scathing – reports I’ve read for a while. Statements such as “The department’s administration and regulation of critical infrastructure protection policy was partly effective” and “The department’s performance framework as it related to critical infrastructure was not adequate” echo our own observations and it would seem the department has a lot of work to do before the system becomes useful to any of us. Thankfully, they have accepted ANAO’s recommendations, but call me cynical, I await the implementation.
The team also released two great research reports we commissioned that examine the value of our services and look at the impact we have on the internet ecosystem and the Australian market generally. I trust you enjoy the reading, and take as much pride in the contribution of your association as we do.
All the best
Narelle
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The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) closed consultation for its 5-year independent review on 15 May. The consultation was primarily focused on its ability to meet the Australian ‘benchmarks for Industry Based Customer Dispute Resolution’, as well as other issues including its revised terms of reference, governance and authorising environment and engagement and outreach activities. In preparation for our submission, IAA’s policy team consulted with various industry representatives. The feedback we received from our members has highlighted concerns with the TIO’s management of consumer complaints, which seems to point to inherent issues with TIO’s cost structure and complaints escalation model.
We establish from the outset that IAA recognises the value of the TIO and the fundamental role it plays in the industry. The TIO is an industry-based ombudsman with the charter to provide an independent and external dispute resolution service, giving consumers an avenue to raise complaints about their telecommunications provider, free of charge. Carriers and eligible carriage service providers are required by legislation to join the TIO scheme.
The TIO reported it received 301,396 complaints in 2020-21. It is proud to announce that 90% of these were resolved at the referral stage. The ‘referral’ stage is the lowest level of complaints handling where the TIO allows the provider to directly resolve a customer complaint. If the dispute is unresolved at this stage, it will be escalated to the ‘agreement’ level where the complaint is handled through dispute resolution methods such as conciliation, and investigation. In cases where the consumer and provider cannot come to an agreement, the next stage involves the complaint being resolved by a preliminary view or decisions by the TIO.
However, it should be noted that providers face greater costs as the complaints are escalated to higher levels. This has often resulted in cases where a provider will concede and provide the complainant with some compensation, even when the provider is not at fault. Some of our members have reported instances where even the TIO has acknowledged that the customer is in the wrong, but has advised the provider to give the customer some compensation anyway, as the costs for escalating the dispute to the next stage will be higher than the compensation amount. This points to inherent problems with the costs and complaints handling structure through which the TIO operates.
Another issue that became glaring is that the TIO is often failing to follow its own terms of reference. Clause 2.20 of the TIO’s terms of reference provide that the TIO “…will only consider a complaint after the member has had a reasonable opportunity to consider the issues.” However, while resources promoting the TIO and their complaints webpages note that customers must first directly contact the provider, there is no mention that they must also give the provider an opportunity to consider the issue or respond. Even the TIO’s online complaint submission form does not include the requirement of allowing the provider an opportunity to consider the complaint directly, without the involvement of the TIO.
A joint submission by consumer advocacy groups has also highlighted inefficiencies with the TIO’s complaints handling mechanisms. Making 19 recommendations to improve the operation of the TIO, some of these points seem to be harmonious with the concerns raised by industry.
For example, the joint submission calls for a differentiation to be made between simple complaints that can be resolved in a substantially shorter period (5 working days instead of 10). However, as noted in IAA’s submission, a large number of the complaints resolved via referral are disputes which should not have been dealt with by the TIO at all. If the requirement that a provider is given a genuine opportunity to respond is adhered to, the TIO would likely see a significant drop in dispute cases, resulting in a much more efficient process for everyone involved.
Recommendation 3 of the joint submission also outlines that the TIO should ensure its intake processes thoroughly assess the root cause of the complaint. This is a concern similarly raised by industry where it seems the TIO often fails to understand the underlying cause of the problem. In our submission, we raised the TIO’s lack of knowledgeable triage which has resulted in a large number of complaints being raised against the incorrect provider. This has especially been the case where retail providers are being blamed for issues that lie with the wholesale providers.
The coalition of consumer representative bodies has also called for an expansion of the TIO’s public reporting. Industry has similarly called for greater transparency and in-depth reporting. IAA noted the lack of clarity in the TIO’s 2020-21 Annual Report, particularly in relation to the TIO’s costs and revenue allocation. Given the overall decrease in the number of complaints made from previous periods to 2020-21, the increase in costs and expenses of the TIO in this same period should be explained.
However, it is worth noting that the data requested by the consumer advocacy groups include the technology types, geographical location, and the TIO members involved in the complaints. While IAA supports the call for greater transparency and detail in the TIO’s reporting in general, we disagree that the providers involved in TIO complaints should be publicised. Especially under current circumstances where it seems providers are being involved in disputes that either should not be dealt with by the TIO or concerns other providers entirely, this sort of ‘name and shame’ tactic seems particularly unfair.
IAA, our members, and the telco industry recognise the value of an industry ombudsman. We acknowledge its necessity for the functioning of a healthy and thriving sector and wish to see consumers having an appropriate and effective mechanism through which they can bring genuine complaints. However, it is clear there are inherent issues that require some major improvements if the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman is going to succeed in this role.
Read IAA’s full submission.