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ACCAN has made a submission to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) 2016 stakeholder consultation on "Access to the Internet for persons with disabilities and specific needs". Drawing from the ongoing work and research we undertake to promote full participation of people with disability in our increasingly connected society, we have made a number of specific recommendations on how access to the internet can be increased for people with disability.
Read more: Access to the internet for persons with disabilities and specific needs
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A recent Disability Discrimination complaint lodged with the Australian Human Rights Commission against the former Communications Minister, now Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull was resolved last month with the Office of the Prime Minister committing to ensure all its future videos will now be accurately captioned prior to posting to the web.
The conciliated outcome with the Prime Minister's Office ensures that people who rely on captions will now have the same real-time access to information as the rest of the community.
Read more: Great outcome for consumers who rely on captions
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In 2014 the Vertigan panel made 53 recommendations on regulatory and market structure matters. The proposed legislation addresses recommendations made in relation to improvements in the access regime and nbn's authorised conduct. ACCAN expressed concern over three parts of the legislation.
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Dr Paul Paterson is the Chief Economist of the Bureau of Communications Research (BCR), an independent economic and statistical research unit within the Department of Communications and the Arts. We interviewed Dr Paterson to get some insights into his work in the communications industry and the scope of the BCR.
Dr Paterson, you have worked as an economist in the communications sector for over 20 years, what would you say is the biggest development in that time?
Yes, a long time with huge changes. In this time I have worked as an economic consultant, a regulator and as a senior executive in both the public and private sectors, in Australia and overseas. During this time I've seen many impressive developments in the comms sector, including the:
Read more: BCR Chief Economist, Dr Paul Paterson
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Residents of the Northern Illawarra area in New South Wales have been experiencing poor broadband services for some time. With a population of about 20,000, there are around 7,100 households in the area.
Despite being less than 55 kilometres from the centre of Sydney, a large number of the residents have access to broadband that is little better than dial up services. Some have no ADSL connection at all.
Frustrated by the lack of services, residents in the area have started a Facebook page – 2508+ Disconnected – to band together so they have a stronger voice to let telcos, ISPs and relevant stakeholders know about the lack of quality services available in the area. The 2508+ Disconnected group is an ACCAN organisational member.
Read more: Battling for better broadband
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ACCAN has contributed to the Department of Communications and the Arts review of the Captioning Regulatory Framework. The review proposes a number of deregulation options for caption compliance reporting; emergency warning captioning reporting and related issues. ACCAN has reiterated our long-standing position that broadcaster compliance reporting is essential for consumer protection. ACCAN has opposed removing compliance reporting, called for increased requirements for captioning of emergency warning broadcasts as well as calling for increased captioning across all free-to-air channels.
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ACCAN has today released the 2016 ACCAN Grants Guidelines ahead of the Scheme's opening on Monday 8th February, 2016. The Scheme will be accepting applications for five weeks: from 8th February until 15th March, 2016 (please note the earlier closing round this year, due to an earlier Easter).
The ACCAN Grants Scheme funds projects that work towards a telecommunications market that is fair and inclusive for all – a market which is available, accessible and affordable. Projects focus on developing research, representation, or educational tools that address issues for telecommunications consumers in Australia.
If you have a great idea for a project which relates to a systemic and ongoing issue faced by phone or internet consumers, get in touch with us to chat about project ideas. The best applications are those that have consulted with ACCAN and have a thorough understanding of the work we do and the current policy issues we engage with.
Read more: 2016 Grants Scheme Guidelines released today
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New obligations on telecommunication infrastructure providers are proposed by the Department of Communications and the Arts. This is part of the policy for telecommunications services in new development. The obligations would ensure that new developments, not served by nbn or Telstra, would be served by a network which meets set standards. Furthermore information on the network would need to be made available via an online map for property buyers and developers to use.
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Google and ACCAN partnered again in 2015 to offer a paid internship opportunity with ACCAN. Applicants were invited to submit a brief proposal outlining a research project on an emerging communications consumer issue.
The winner was recent law graduate, Alexander Vulkanovski, who tackled the hot topic of the Internet of Things. "Home, Tweet Home": Implications of the Connected Home, Human and Habitat on Australian Consumers is a first-class piece of research by a talented up-and-coming lawyer.
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The Government has announced delays to the start date of cost information and usage notifications for mobile resellers. The international mobile roaming warnings were due to begin in May 2016, but have been pushed back until 2018.
Read more: International roaming usage notifications delayed
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Telstra's major mobile network failure this week reminds us just how important it is to have a backup plan for our telecommunications.
As we rely more heavily on telecommunications to do business, it is important to develop a Business Continuity Plan for future loss of services. You need a plan for all your services: mobile, landline, broadband and any systems that rely on telecommunications networks such as EFTPOS terminals and security monitoring. You could be faced with a complete telecommunications outage from a natural disaster or another partial outage like the Telstra one that we experienced on 9 February, 2016.
Read more: Preparing small businesses for a telecommunications outage
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There are many factors that affect the performance of broadband services that could inform consumer decision making, as shown in the ACCC broadband performance monitoring trial. At the same time, broadband literacy amongst consumers is low. This short survey sought to understand the basis on which consumers decide on broadband products, and provide insight into what information is useful in future decision making.