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This week
IN THE NEWS: Optus CEO resigns, Sue Salthouse Memorial Lecture approaches, and Scams Awareness Week begins
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Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin this week announced her resignation, only one business day after appearing in front of a snap Senate inquiry into the widespread network outage of November 8. Rosmarin noted that the decision was taken after “some personal reflection”, and the decision was “in the best interest of Optus moving forward”. Michael Venter, previously Optus CFO, will serve as interim CEO while the company conducts a ‘global search’ for the next full-timer. [ABC]
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ACCAN is delighted to again host the 2023 Sue Salthouse Memorial Lecture. This year's online keynote address will be delivered by Emma Bennison, Chief Innovation Officer at Life Without Barriers. The event honours Sue Salthouse and her unfailing commitment to disability advocacy and human rights, celebrating the huge contributions she made to improving the accessibility of telecommunications for people with disability in Australia. This event will provide Auslan interpretation and Closed Captions. [ACCAN, via Humanitix]
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The Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend is enormously popular for online shopping. As Australians prepare to spend more online, scammers are constantly developing new ways to catch us out. It is vital that consumers know how to spot a scam, and when one is found, know where to report it. For simple and handy information and guides, visit the Scams Awareness Week page linked above. This year’s theme is impersonation scams, where fraudsters impersonate family members, the government, banks or companies. [Scamwatch]
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The next round of the ACCAN Independent Grants Program is set to open January 30, 2024 and close at the end of February. We encourage all interested applicants to get in touch with project ideas at grants@accan.org.au and receive feedback before applying. Further information will be provided via the ACCAN website, social media channels and email communications. [ACCAN].
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The Guardian is covering an open letter written by victims of bank impersonation scams who argue that their financial institutions should compensate funds they have lost through scams. Those affected argue in the letter that banks (having the ability and resources) should do more to protect their customers from sophisticated scams before losses are incurred, and that the government should introduce regulations similar to the UK where banks have mandated reimbursement for scam victims. [The Guardian]
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In the wake of the Optus outage and in preparation for future emergencies and natural disasters, discussions are ongoing about the feasibility of a data roaming scheme, whereby customers experiencing network failure could roam on the networks of other providers. In a submission to the Optus inquiry, Telstra has argued that ‘massive changes and investment’ would be required for such a fallback to be feasible in the event of a nationwide outage such as that experienced by Optus. The ACCC, which submitted that network roaming should be implemented for natural disaster and other emergency situations, have not assessed whether such a scheme is viable for national outages. [The Guardian]
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>Minister Rowland has announced a major consultation with industry and the community to determine the delivery of a modern and fit-for-purpose Universal Service Obligation (USO). The USO is the legal underpinning of voice landline services in Australia, and is important for communications in regional, rural and remote Australia. ACCAN will have more to say on the USO in due course, and will be meeting with members and stakeholders regarding the consultation over the coming months. Please get in contact with us (info@accan.org.au) if you have pressing initial views on the matter. [Minister Rowland]<
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Telstra announced it will invest $24 million to improve the connectivity and infrastructure of Western Australia’s Pilbara region in the next financial year. The telco is set to build 165km of additional fibre to support connectivity and network resiliency for mining and clean energy operations in northwest Australia. [ARNNET]
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The ABC is reporting that over $42 million will be spent in coming years on assisting Pacific nations identify and combat online threats, including supplying cyber experts to help remove vulnerabilities. The government is reportedly concerned about the unpreparedness of Pacific nations to deal with cyber-attacks from both state actors and criminal organisations, and sees tangible assistance as a means of shoring up national ties with regional neighbours. [ABC]
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The ACMA has allocated spectrum in remote areas of Australia between 31 companies, ITWire reports. The new licenses are expected to support broadband services in remote communities, with health, safety and economic use cases. The 3.4-4.0GHz band is used for 5G mobile service, private wireless networks and enterprise telecoms services. [ITWire]
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If you are Deaf, or have a hearing impairment or speech impairment, you can contact us on 02 9288 4000 through your preferred National Relay Service call number or access point.
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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 information contained in or attached to this message is intended only for the people it is addressed to. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, disclosure or copying of this information is unauthorised and prohibited. This information may be confidential or subject to legal privilege. If you receive this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the e-mail and any attachments. The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network does not warrant that the information in this e-mail or any attachments are free from any viruses, defects, errors, interception or interference.
The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network's representation of residential and other consumers' interests in relation to telecommunications issues is supported by the Commonwealth through the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.
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