::Welcome to August's edition of Communicate

:: New Members

Communications Alliance is pleased to welcome the following new members:

DgiT
www.dgit.biz
DGiT was formed initially with staff from the core of the former RequestDSL development team following the acquisition of RequestDSL by PowerTel Ltd in Frebruary 2004. In 2000, RequestDSL was Australia's first CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) and renowned successful start-up Telecommunications carrier. 

Internet Sheriff Technology Ltd
www.isheriff.com
Internet Sheriff Technology Ltd was founded in 1999 to meet the growing need for emerging enterprise content security threats. Internet Sheriff Technology responded by developing a multi-layered defence line of security measures with their unique and patented Content Classification Engine delivering superior real time protection, reliability and extensive scalability.

Back to top

:: USO Greenfields Forum
By Anne Hurley, CEO, Communications Alliance

Communications Alliance hosted an industry forum in Sydney on 16 August, to discuss the application of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) in greenfield areas e.g. new housing estates and property developments.

Attendees came from across Australia to hear an impressive range of presentations with:

• a scene setting briefing by DCITA on the recently released consultation paper on the review of the USO,
• an international perspective from CECG Consulting on the European Directive on universal service and options for an industry response,
• the perspective of the USO provider, Telstra; and
• a state government view by Multimedia Victoria,

plus a provider panel with representatives from three operators of networks in new developments, namely IP Systems, PIVIT and TransAct.

The forum highlighted many aspects of the USO in Greenfield sites, including:

• The impact of alternate technologies e.g. increasing mobile phone use as payphone use decreases over time.
• The contrast between the applicability of the USO (i.e. focused on voice telephony) and current service offerings that bundle voice and data.
• The importance of getting the funding model right in order to get the best arrangements for costing the USO.
• The need to have clear responsibilities for customers, developers, local governments, etc.
• The need in each development to be clear about who pays for the network assets and who owns the network assets.
• The level of access to provide to alternate providers, and whether or not a provider should be obliged to seek access.
• How to balance local interest (e.g. in a new estate) with national interest (e.g. ensuring equitable access for all).

The Forum coincided with the release of the DCITA Review Discussion Paper.  Communications Alliance will be working to Develop a response..

Back to top

:: Communications Consumer Dialogue
By Margaret Fleming, Program Manager, Communications Alliance

A highly successful inaugural Communications Consumer Dialogue, jointly hosted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and Communications Alliance, was held on 22 August 2007. The day focussed on new and emerging technologies, associated consumer benefits and how Australia will achieve equitable access in the area of emerging technologies.

The dialogue consisted of three highly interactive panel sessions with a keynote address from Louise Sylvan, of the ACCC, setting a broad context for the day. Louise introduced the term “confusopoly” to the dialogue, which was quoted often through the day, and points to consumer information overload, which is of particular relevance to the telecommunications area for a lot of people.

Louise put “a shot across the bow of ISPs” by noting that the ACCC is looking at ISPs who use traffic prioritisation tools in relation to peer to peer downloads, discriminating between different types of traffic. Acknowledging that ISPs are free to deprioritise and there may be very good technical reasons for doing so, for instance, to protect time sensitive applications like VOIP, the issue is that it may not be disclosed to consumers.

Mark Pesce spoke on the impact of networks, emphasising that they are a fundamental enabling technology which allow people to empower themselves to improve their own ability to make money and keep informed. The new San Francisco Wi-Fi community was noted by Mark as an example of a transformational peer to peer or “mesh network”.  Started by www.meraki.net, frustrated consumers have organised themselves by creating their own free public broadband wireless network. Mark shared a quote from William Gibson, that the future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed.

Michael McLeod spoke of the importance of connectivity and mobility; of interactive, community based applications.

Laurel Papworth spoke of the opportunity for the consumer to start to co create with companies themselves – in essence offering companies the opportunity to find additional products and services and provide consumers with what they are really interested in and what they really want to see.  Laurel spoke about how social networks support people with disabilities or indeed anyone with any kind of question - about how to bring plans, tips and tricks together on how to use and interface with technology for people who are disabled.

Tim Noonan spoke of inclusive design, how it has to be something people are committed to; of the need to work out ways of educating industry to appreciate that by increasing the design and the scope of the design they will increase the market. Legislation is not the only solution.

Graeme Innes spoke of the need for technologies to be built that cater for the needs of everyone, not just for the needs of people who can see a screen or hear an audio output. Technologies should be built that are interoperable, or are diverse enough to cater for the needs of all Australians, not just those without a disability.

Graeme raised the importance of partnerships - people sitting around the table from industry, from disability organisations, in some cases from government, talking to one another and working to find solutions.

Christopher Newell introduced the concept of disabilism in the same way that we have acknowledged sexism and racism, noting that he believes we live in a fundamentally disablist society.

Teresa Corbin spoke about how CTN operates on the principles of access, affordability and availability, and of the need to address the underlying equity issue. Teresa emphasised that consumers do want to be involved and participate but that they are continually faced with many challenges because the industry, the government and the consumer movement all speak a very different language and it is very difficult to get to a point where consumers can be fully empowered.

Chris Cheah spoke of the 3 stages of consumers:

• Stage one consumers who are still basically very comfortable with the world of the early '90s and earlier, someone who is happy with their telephone, happy with their television and that's all they really want. They don't necessarily like change.
• Stage two consumers are the ones dealing with the world as it exists now. A whole raft of new services, a whole raft of new devices and people are struggling to understand them and how do they work, how do they get benefit out of them and what are my issues today.
• Stage three kind of consumer tends to be technology leaders and they are the ones turning around to regulators saying that they are a bunch of dinosaurs, - haven't you got it yet? The world has changed, paradigms have shifted, and why haven't you moved to the new world yet? 

A challenge for the regulator is dealing with all three sets of expectations and the regulatory structure which has embedded in it requirements which go with each stage.

Other points noted by Chris include:

• The fact that consumers don't care about most information you throw at them until they have a problem.
• Whether we should have general economy wide solutions or industry specific ones.
• He sees ACMA playing more of a facilitating role as much as a regulatory role going forward.

Overall, the interactive event was extremely successful, well represented and attended.  Communications Alliance looks forward to the next Consumer Dialogue in 2008.   

Back to top

:: Why should I care about Quality of Service in networks?
By James Duck, Project Manager, Communications Alliance

Communications Alliance has been laying the groundwork to differentiate between competing applications on IP networks.  So what exactly is this and why does it matter?

Communications Alliance has been facilitating important industry activity so that different applications (e.g. email, web browsing, voice, video) in Australia can be combined on a single communications link with priority for the delay sensitive ones (e.g. voice and video).  This is analogous to having an express or overtaking lane on the ‘information superhighway’.

A simple alternative might be to build a bigger ‘pipe’ (analogous to more lanes on the highway) so that there’s no blockage for the flow of bits and bytes.  However this has the drawback of extra cost to build the extra lanes which might be used rarely (also referred to as overdimensioning), or just shifting the roadblock.

Based on calculations in the Working Committee addressing the topic, a residential user without priority for voice packets would require about a six fold increase in data rate on their access link for a single voice service (compared to a link with priority), and a higher increase for a video service.

So introducing priority in networks can mean more efficient use of communications links, which can help contain operational costs, which ultimately can help keep costs down for end users.

The first step to achieve this is the completion of the guideline on quality of service for operators of IP networks.  This builds on international recommendations and provides a basis for consistent treatment across different networks of IP packets that require priority routing.

Note that the intent of the proposed changes is that all voice packets get treated equally, all video packets get treated equally, etc.

The Working Committee is finalising the guideline, contact Communications Alliance if you wish to be notified when the guideline is published.

Back to top

:: New Guide for VoIP Service Providers
By Mike Johns, Project Manager, Communications Alliance

Communications Alliance has recently launched a new guide aimed at VoIP service providers to assist current and prospective customers in better understanding VoIP and its associated services. The need to understand the Australian telecommunications industry, the needs of customers and the local regulatory environment is paramount for VoIP providers.

Communications Alliance regularly gathers together suppliers, providers and other industry representatives to consider opportunities for industry responses to issues as they arise in emerging services including VoIP. Areas of interest include Quality of Service (QoS), VoIP service descriptions, location information, numbering and fault handling/restoration.

Our ‘So you want a VoIP phone service?’ Communications Alliance Customer Booklet, published last year, was directed to the users of VoIP services. The Service Provider Guide now goes one step further by providing assistance to VoIP Service Providers in understanding the types of responses to customers’ questions. Together, the Customer Booklet and the Guide provide a single, comprehensive map to navigate the VoIP landscape.

The Service Provider Guide covers the following areas:

• Service features and applications - telephone line provisioning, service features, business needs, access for people with disabilities
• Telephone Numbers - phone number provisioning, making calls, emergency access, phone number displays, number directories and assistance
• Broadband services
• VoIP services
• Customer premises - configuration, quality, availability / power supply, general safety and privacy/security issues
• Faults
• Customer service
• Billing - service charges, contracts and billing
• Consumer protection issues

The Guide has been developed as a ‘live document’, and will include regular updates to reflect the ongoing and ever changing developments and issues within the VoIP industry.

Soft copies of the Guide and Customer Booklet are available to download at http://www.commsalliance.com.au/Activities/ngn_voip .
Hard copies of the Customer Booklet are available on request.

Back to top

:: Industry Participants Specialising in Mobile Premium Services Present to the TIO
By Jeni Floyd, Compliance Manager, Communications Alliance

In June 2007, members of Communications Alliance’s Mobile Premium Services Industry Scheme Management Group (MPSI SMG) travelled to Melbourne to provide a training package to staff at the Office of the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO).  The training package covered a wide range of information about mobile premium services which is a relatively new, dynamic and rapidly expanding industry in Australia.

Members of the MPSI Management Group consist of industry representatives from the mobile carrier and content service provider industry.  The event was extremely successful and was one of the first times where key stakeholders had the opportunity to engage directly with the TIO who is the ‘escalated complaints handling body’ under the MPSI Scheme.

The training package included the provision of a mobile premium services acronym, abbreviation and commonly used word list, plus an overview about:

1. What are Mobile Premium Services
2. Introduction to the Industry
3. Overview of Premium Services
4. Different Types of Premium Content
5. Premium Service Number Range
6. Premium Service Billing
7. Regulation of Premium Services
8. Self-Regulatory Scheme
9. MPSI Scheme Overview
10. MPSIS Guideline
11. Complaint Handling
12. Supply Chain
13. Industry Sizing
14. Nature of Relationships
15. Role of Communications Alliance

The presentation closed by providing participants with the opportunity to ask questions of the industry players who specialise in mobile premium services and products.

“The presentation that Communications Alliance delivered to the TIO management team was extremely informative.  It clearly set out the relationship between mobile carriers, content service providers and content providers, providing the team with valuable information that they were confident would assist in handling the complaints being received by the TIO”, said TIO, Ms Deirdre O’Donnell.

Communications Alliance is the body nominated by the MPSI Scheme to undertake the role and functions of Scheme Custodian.  In its role as Scheme Custodian, Communications Alliance manages and facilitates the policy and administrative related duties associated with the Scheme, including maintaining a list of MPSI Scheme members.  Extensive industry information about mobile premium services and the regulatory framework can be found from Communications Alliance’s website at www.commsalliance.com.au/Activities/mobile_premium_services/information_for_industry_members .

Copies of the presentation provided to the TIO can be requested by contacting Communications Alliance.

Communications Alliance would like to thank all the staff at the TIO who attended the training session, which included the Ombudsman, Ms Deirdre O’Donnell and Deputy Ombudsman, Mr Simon Cleary, as well as the TIO management team, policy team and workgroup coordinators.

Back to top

:: Events Calendar

Events

• Breakfast with Senator Coonan: 31 August 2007, Sydney – MEMBERS ONLY
• Members Cocktail Party: 30 October 2007, Melbourne – MEMBERS ONLY

 Codes/Guidelines published in August 2007

• Unconditioned Local Loop Service – Fault Management Industry Guideline: ACIF G572:2007

Back to top

:: About Communications Alliance

Communications Alliance was formed to provide a unified voice for the Australian communications industry and to lead it into the next generation of converging networks, technologies and services.

Communications Alliance offers a forum for the industry to make coherent and constructive contributions to policy development and debate.

By providing leadership on new trends and directions, Communications Alliance fulfils a vital unifying role on behalf of the industry and its members, particularly in areas of competition, innovation and industry development.

The prime mission of Communications Alliance is to promote the growth of the Australian communications industry and the protection of consumer interests by fostering the highest standards of business ethics and behaviour through industry self-governance.

Back to top