Australians with disability are harnessing gadgets, apps and websites to improve their lives but many are potentially missing out on the digital revolution because some app developers and manufacturers are failing to accommodate the needs of people with disability and older consumers.

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network has called on mobile providers such as Telstra and Vodafone to end the rort in exorbitant excess mobile data charges by introducing reasonable hard caps.

ACCAN is delighted to announce the full speaker program for M-Enabling Australasia 2013 being held on August 14-15 in Sydney. A wealth of local and international experts on accessibility and mobile technologies will feature at the conference, which will highlight why people with disability and older people have been missing out on the mobile revolution and how this can be fixed.

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Peak telecommunications consumer body ACCAN is calling on the federal government to ban Telstra's $36 a year Silent Line fee, which landline customers currently have to pay if they want to keep their phone number private.

ACCAN congratulates Dr Will Tibben and Gunela Astbrink, winners of this year's 2013 Telstra-TJA Christopher Newell prize for their paper 'The Role of Public Procurement in Accessibility to ICT'. The annual prize is awarded to the best paper offered for publication to the Telecommunications Journal of Australia (TJA) that demonstrates the benefits of telecommunications for people with disability.

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Peak telecommunications consumer body ACCAN is calling on the ACCC to take action on apps that advertise as free but aggressively encourage or require in-app purchases to keep playing.

Many organisations are building very large collections of information about their consumers — shopping habits, locations, web browsing history, telephone and energy usage, traffic, weather, stock market information, and so on. "Big data" refers to these large collections of data.

The mobile phone is arguably more important than the fixed phone line for personal and business communications in regional and remote Australia, but users without reliable mobile coverage are missing out on this communications revolution. ACCAN has advocated strongly on this issue for a number of years and believes that the Australian Government has a vital role to play in improving mobile coverage in regional and remote Australia.

Registrations are now open for the M-Enabling Australasia 2013 conference and showcase being held in Sydney on 14th and 15th August. This international event will feature a stellar line up of speakers and showcase new products and services that enable people with disability and older people to make the most of mobile technologies.

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ACCAN argued that work on NBN performance standards is urgently required at the NBN Joint Committee hearing on Friday 19th April in Sydney. The NBN Joint Committee comes together every six months to inquire into the NBN rollout and is comprised of 16 parliamentary members including Rob Oakeshott MP, Malcolm Turnbull MP and Senator Scott Ludlam, among others.

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In ACCAN's submission to the latest NBN Joint Parliamentary Committee hearings, we outlined our engagement on various issues relating to the NBN including the importance of quality voice services and service reporting.

Most Australian consumers must currently pay a monthly fee of $2.93 or more for a “Silent Line” to make sure that their phone number will not be published in the White Pages. The fee effectively charges people for their privacy and is a particular problem for low-income consumers and victims of crime, harassment or violence. While Telstra has recently proposed an exemption to the Silent Line for customers facing security threats, ACCAN's position remains that the fee should be removed for all consumers.