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This week
IN THE NEWS: ACCANect 2022 Conference Theme, Australians losing more money to investment scams, and more.
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ACCAN Annual Conference Theme for 2022 is ‘Better Basics’
This year at our ACCANect Annual Conference, it’s all about getting the basics right for consumers. We’ll be chatting to representatives from government and industry about what they’re doing to ensure communications technologies are trusted, inclusive, accessible and available for all. ACCANect 2022 will take place virtually on the 14th of September. Stay tuned for more information. [ACCAN]
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Australians lost over $205 million to scams between 1 January and 1 May, a 166 per cent increase compared to the same period last year, according to new data from Scamwatch. The true losses to scams are likely to be much higher, as our research shows that only around 13 per cent of people report their losses to Scamwatch. [ACCC]
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Increasingly frequent phone and internet outages plaguing the remote Central Australian community of Ampilatwatja have left residents without a way to contact the local health clinic and police in emergencies. About 350 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs, Ampilatwatja is one of dozens of communities in the region that experience regular telecommunication outages that can take up to several weeks to resolve. [ABC]
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The ACMA and New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs will share information and enforcement efforts to combat spam and scams in the two countries. The regulators announced today that they’ve signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to “further promote strategic engagement, facilitate information sharing and enhance compliance and enforcement outcomes.” For ACCAN’s guide to spotting scam and spam text messages, click here. [iTNews]
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Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has announced the Liberal and National coalition frontbench. Shadowing Michelle Rowland will be Geelong-based Senator Sarah Henderson. Bridget McKenzie will shadow the Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development portfolio, and Paul Fletcher will shadow Science and the Arts, the Digital Economy and Government Services. [7News]
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The ACMA has welcomed the commencement of the first review into the voluntary Australian Code of Practice for Disinformation and Misinformation. DIGI has also released its first annual report on the operation of the code. The ACMA proposed a number of changes to the code and associated reporting requirements in its first oversight report. These included moving from opt-in to opt-out code provisions, expanding the definition of harm, and including private group messaging services within the scope of the code. [ACMA]
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NBN Co is inviting customers living and working in around 160,000 premises currently served by Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia to upgrade to Fibre to the Premises (FTTP). This is the first in a series of tranches that will extend eligibility to approximately 115,000 additional premises per month in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia, to make almost one million premises currently served by FTTC able to access nbn Home Ultrafast by the end of this year. [iTWire]
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The Australian Federal Police and Monash University want to create an “ethically-sourced” database of images that can train artificial intelligence algorithms to detect child exploitation. The photos will be used to “recognise the presence of children in ‘safe’ situations, to help identify ‘unsafe’ situations and potentially flag child exploitation material”, the AFP and Monash University said. [iTNews]
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Nearly a year after it took a 25 percent stake in broadband retailer More, the Commonwealth Bank is using NBN services as a sweetener to lure customers. CBA will offer pre-approved home loan customers three years of free NBN services, which it said in a statement could save eligible customers more than $2700. [iTNews]
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Investors wanting to get their hands on stocks of SpaceX’s satellite megaconstellation will have to wait a bit longer. CEO Elon Musk recently told employees that he’s not likely to make SpaceX’s Starlink public for another three to four years, CNBC reports. [Gizmodo]
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Although we take care to direct subscribers to sites with accurate and reliable content, we advise that ACCAN is not responsible for the content within external sites and has no control over the views, services or information contained therein. Information contained on external sites may not necessarily reflect ACCAN's policy, standards or beliefs.
The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network's representation of residential and other consumers' interests in relation to telecommunications issues is made possible by funding provided by the Commonwealth of Australia under section 593 of the Telecommunications Act 1997. This funding is recovered from charges on telecommunications carriers.
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