Every quarter the ACCC releases a report on the services operating over the NBN wholesale network. The report provides some interesting insights into the NBN, here are some that we find useful.

Number of services

The report shows that over 2.5 million premises are connected to the NBN as at June 2017.

Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) is the primary technology used. The number of services over both Fibre to the Node (FTTN) and Hybrid Fibre-Coaxial (HFC) technologies are increasing at a fast rate. The graph below charts the number of services for each quarter by access technology.

 Figure 1: Number of services by access technology¹

Read more: nbn market report

Getting remote communities connected can be difficult due to the tyranny of distance. Recently we’ve heard some great stories about retail service providers, infrastructure providers and other organisations that are helping to connect Indigenous consumers in some of the most remote parts of Australia. In this article we’ll look at some of the ways this is being achieved.

Satellite broadband provider, Activ8me, is working with the Australian Government to improve access to telecommunications services in remote Indigenous communities.

Read more: Connecting remote Indigenous communities

Have you registered for the ACCANect Conference yet? There’s only two weeks left to get your ticket.

It’s being held at the Aerial UTS Function Centre in Sydney on Wednesday 20 September – Thursday 21 September, 2017.

Read more: The ACCANect Conference is fast approaching

In June we were very excited to sign a new funding contract with the Department of Communications and the Arts. The new contract ensures that ACCAN will continue to represent consumers in the telecommunications industry for the next five years.

When the contract was signed, ACCAN CEO, Teresa Corbin said: “The recent ACCAN review highlighted the strong support for the work ACCAN does and many stakeholders reinforced the need for a united consumer voice in the telecommunications industry.

“A big thank you must go to ACCAN’s supporters including members, volunteers and industry representatives for their ongoing commitment to ensuring we remain a relevant and effective organisation.”

Read more: Five years of ACCAN consumer wins

In the past five years, a total of $1,256,055.86 has been awarded to universities, research organisations, community groups and not for profit organisations to help consumers navigate the telecommunications and technology landscape.

The ACCAN Grants Scheme has funded 31 different projects since 2012, examining emerging technologies like 3D printing, through to more serious consumer issues, such as technology facilitated stalking and abuse.

Read more: In the field – ACCAN Grants Scheme 2012-17

Have you noticed how more and more everyday items are now connected to the internet?

While we used to have ordinary watches that told us the time and the date, we now have smartwatches that track our fitness, alert us about emails and more.

Read more: Explore the connected world at ACCANect 2017

With the Federal Election campaign now over, ACCAN congratulates Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield and Senator the Hon Fiona Nash who continue in their roles as Minister for Communications and Minister for Regional Communications respectively for the Turnbull Government. The Federal Member for Greenway, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP and the Federal Member for Throsby – Stephen Jones take up the roles of Shadow Minister for Communications and Shadow Minister for Regional Communications respectively.

We are pleased that during their campaigns both the Coalition and Labor made announcements of an additional $60 million in funding for a third round of the Mobile Black Spots Programme. This is vital as mobile coverage and competition in rural areas continues to be is a key issue for many consumers.

In the lead up to the election, ACCAN called for the parties to focus on five communications consumer priorities and we asked them a series of questions based on these priorities. We covered announcements from the Coalition, Labor and the Australian Greens on NBN policy, digital literacy and accessibility. While we didn’t receive specific answers to our questions, some of these were answered by the announcements from the parties during the campaign.

Read more: ACCAN Federal Election wrap up

In the lead up to the 2016 Federal Election, the Coalition, Labor Party and Australian Greens have made announcements regarding various communications policies. We’ve summarised these below, for your information.

As we previously reported, both Labor and the Coalition have committed $60 million funding for another round of the Mobile Black Spot Programme.

Read more: Update on Election policies

Your place in the connected world
ACCANect 2017
20-21 September, Sydney

Digital technology has transformed consumer experiences around the world. Everything will be connected: devices, houses, transport, food production, health and government services. The “always connected” world raises big questions.

Join us at ACCANect 2017 and help shape the future for connected consumers.

Read more: ACCAN conference announcement

In April, some members of the Regional, Rural and Remote Communications Coalition had their say on issues relating to the NBN rollout at public hearings in front of the Joint Parliamentary Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network.

This blog summarises the issues highlighted by AgForce Queensland, Better Internet for Rural, Regional & Remote Australia (BIRRR) and ACCAN at these hearings. Transcripts for the hearings and submissions to the Committee are available online.

Read more: Bush Coalition members outline NBN concerns

The CEOs of ACCAN, the South Australian Council of Social Services (SACOSS), and Financial Counsellors Australia (FCA) have sent a joint letter to the major political parties calling for an urgent review of the Centrelink Telephone Allowance (CTA). See below for a link to download the letter that was sent to the political parties.

The letter is accompanied by a preliminary data briefing report by ACCAN and SACOSS on the adequacy of the CTA, based on a survey of 523 low-income Australians. The survey found that many low-income consumers are struggling to pay their telecommunications costs, and that the CTA is not adequate to alleviate this financial difficulty. As a result, the report recommends that all parties and candidates in the Federal Election:

Read more: Calling for a review of the Centrelink Telephone Allowance

ACCAN has written to the major political parties (the Liberal Party, the Australian Labor Party, the Nationals and Australian Greens) to raise awareness of the need for politicians and government agencies to ensure that all of their online video content is accurately captioned. See below for a copy of this letter.

YouTube has a function that auto-captions videos uploaded to the site, but these captions are often inaccurate. Videos that are uploaded to Facebook often have no captions.

One in 6 Australians suffer from hearing loss; that’s 1 in 6 consumers who are not able to access online videos due to unreadable captions or a lack of captions. Access to information is especially important during the lead up to the 2016 Election. If videos are not properly captioned then many consumers will miss out on important information.

Read more: Online videos need to be properly captioned