Hot Issues
Welcome to the latest current affairs that impact communications consumers.
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Last month we hosted the first-ever ACCAN National Conference and Consumer Summit at the State Library of Victoria. ACCAN would like to thank the 150 delegates who attended for an exciting, inspiring and thought-provoking two days.
Read more: Conference materials now available
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Dr Denise Wood was recently awarded the inaugural Telstra-TJA Christopher Newell Prize for Telecommunications and Disability for her paper titled “Communicating in Virtual Worlds through an Accessible Web 2.0 Solution.”
Dr Wood, a researcher and senior lecturer in the School of Communication, International Studies and Languages at the University of South Australia, undertook the research as part of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council project to improve access to 3D virtual-learning environments and identify the benefits of Web 2.0 and 3D Virtual Worlds such as Second Life for people with disabilities.
Read more: Dr Denise Wood talks to ACCAN about Web 2.0 and 3D virtual worlds
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Peak communications consumer body ACCAN says the findings from the $25 million National Broadband Network (NBN) Implementation Study offers good news for Australians, who could pay prices comparable to today’s retail costs in exchange for higher speed broadband with higher download limits, provided there is vigorous competition in the retail market.
Read more: Study finds Australians could pay less and get more from NBN
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The Australian Communications and Media Authority doesn’t seem to understand the needs of consumers Against the advice of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the ACMA has decided not to implement a default bar on subscription text message services. Instead, the ACMA has sided with industry in a soft-regulatory approach that is just what the revenue hungry and consumer indifferent telecoms companies want. It’s just another decision that casts doubt on whether the ACMA is actually up to the job of protecting consumers.
Read more: ACMA makes a bad call on Mobile Premium Service barring
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It’s only six weeks til entries close for the Telstra-TJA Christopher Newell Prize for Telecommunications and Disability.
Read more: Telstra-TJA Christopher Newell Prize: Entries close 15 Jan 2010
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The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has called for new rules that require consumers to give their consent before receiving any kind of mobile premium service.
Read more: ACCAN supports default barring of MPS
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A new fact sheet "Mobile premium services - Information for consumers" has been developed jointly by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. ---
Read more: Mobile Premium Services - information for consumers
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Last week, ACCAN's Disability Policy Advisor, Wayne Hawkins, presented at the NDIS New World Conference 2015 in Brisbane. The theme for the Conference was: Disability in the 21st century.
The event featured speakers from a range of organisations including Apple, National Disability Services, Ernst and Young and the National Disability Insurance Agency.
Wayne sat on the panel of the Universal Accessibility session, facilitated by Sean Fitzgerald, Director C3 Solutions. Other panellists included James Thurston from G3ictr, Daniel Hubbell from Microsoft and Dr Scott Hollier from Media Access Australia.
Read more: Why is accessible ICT important?
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All across Australia Schoolies celebrations are about to begin for many year 12 students. While travelling for Schoolies, or celebrating at parties, young people will undoubtedly have their smartphones with them along the way.
Below we've put together some tips for young people to ensure they use their smartphones safely.
Avoid risky behaviours
What happens at Schoolies doesn't always stay at Schoolies - especially if it's recorded in an image or video on a smartphone.
Read more: Schoolies, sexting and smartphone safety
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Each year the telecommunications industry recognises an individual for outstanding contributions to telecommunications. Today the Charles Todd medal was awarded to ACCAN's CEO, Teresa Corbin, for her efforts representing consumer interests spanning some 20 years in the industry. As members and supporters of ACCAN know, Teresa's dedication and commitment to ensuring consumers have a voice at the table is second to none, she tirelessly champions affordability, accessibility and availability of communications services for all Australian consumers.
In her speech of thanks, Teresa stressed the importance of addressing consumer interests in the marketplace and noted that the best outcomes were achieved when consumers and industry worked together constructively.
Read more: ACCAN CEO recognised with Charles Todd Medal
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Today on the International Day of People with Disability Vision Australia has launched the Document Accessibility Toolbar (DAT) – a tool that makes it quick and easy to create accessible documents in Microsoft Word.
With funding under the ACCAN Grants Scheme, the DAT was created by accessibility experts from Vision Australia's Digital Access consultancy. The Toolbar adds a simple menu to Microsoft Word with a range of functions to optimise and check a document for accessibility. This means that for Word users creating documents and trying to make them accessible for people with disabilities, a set of dedicated functions will be available in a centralised location to make the process easy. The tool is easy to download and is made to be used by people with limited experience with accessibility.
Read more: Introducing the Document Accessibility Toolbar
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The holidays are a time to celebrate and take a break from work. For some this means visiting family and friends, for others it means getting comfortable on the lounge and binge watching their favourite TV shows.
No matter which streaming service you subscribe to, there are some things you should be aware of before you watch multiple seasons of your favourite shows over the holidays.
Data usage
Depending on the picture quality, streaming services are likely to take a big chunk out of your monthly download limit. Streaming in high definition (HD) can use up to 3GB of data per hour. Standard definition (SD) streaming will use less data, however, the picture quality will not be as good as HD content. Check with your chosen streaming service to see how much data you will use streaming content in HD and SD.
Read more: Tips for online streaming over the holidays
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