Networking

Amaysim Australia and Lycamobile have each paid a total of AU$126,000 in penalties after the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) issued the mobile service providers with infringement notices for alleged false or misleading representations about their mobile phone plans.
The consumer watchdog alleges that each business separately advertised on social media that their mobile phone plans were offering “unlimited” data to consumers on social media, when in fact each of their plans had a maximum data allowance. For those plans, if customers exceeded those capped amounts, they would be subject to additional charges, according to the ACCC.
The ACCC alleges the messaging on the ads were a breach of Australian Consumer Law and likely misled consumers.
“Consumers who saw the word ‘unlimited’ in the advertisements without any explanation of the limits of the plans were likely to expect they would not be charged additional fees for mobile data, no matter how much data they used,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said.
“The telco industry has been previously put on notice that their advertisements must be clear and transparent, and must not contain claims like ‘unlimited’ without a clear and prominent disclosure of any qualification or exception which applies to the offer.”
This is not the first time the companies have landed in hot water with the ACCC for misleading conduct.
The ACCC took legal action against Amaysim two years ago on claims that the company made false and misleading ads about discounts on the company’s energy brand, Click Energy. At the time, the ACCC described Click Energy’s advertising as being “among the worst practices” it had seen in retail electricity.
Lycamobile has also been fined previously for failing to comply with the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code.
In 2018, the ACCC warned Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone about using the word “unlimited” in their advertising to promote mobile data plans.
Meanwhile, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has issued a statement of expectations to the ACCC “so that the government can clearly set out its priorities and perspectives, for the independent regulator to take account of as it goes about its work” around how it deals with NBN wholesale prices, business market competition, and spectrum.
The statement, according to Fletcher, addresses the federal government’s “preference” toward wanting the ACCC to make changes to the NBN’s special access undertaking. He also encouraged “sustainable investment, domestic, and international competitiveness, national security, access to services and the efficient deployment of new networks and technologies” in the statement.
See also: Bravo ACCC: Telstra begins flogging NBN overprovisioning as 15% speed boost
The ACCC will now be “expected” to provide a statement of intent in response to the federal government’s statement of expectation within the next three months, Fletcher said.
Elsewhere on Thursday, Optus tested the speed of its 5G network on a live network in Sydney, and boasted that it managed to deliver download speeds of over 2.5Gbps on a Samsung Galaxy S20 5G device.
The Australian telco said it worked with Ericsson and Samsung as part of the test, which used mid-band spectrum and 5G carrier aggregation.
The test comes ahead of Optus’ plan to launch a further 150 5G sites by November in selected areas across Sydney and Melbourne.
“As they roll out, these new ultra-high-speed sites will provide a real speed boost to Optus customers with capable 5G handsets and 5G SIM,” Optus managing director networks Lambo Kanagaratnam, said.
“The speeds we have achieved today are a real taste of what we are capable of delivering to Optus 5G Mobile customers in the coming months as we progressively roll out 5G ultra-high-speed sites in Sydney and Melbourne.”
In addition, the telco announced that from next month, it plans to make 100Mhz of 3500Mhz mid-band spectrum available to 5G Home Internet customers in selected areas of Sydney and Melbourne. It touted that those currently experiencing average download speeds of 214Mbps would receive a 60% boost on average speeds.
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Communications Alliance and Energy Networks Australia (ENA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to improve the way the two sectors collaborate and share knowledge when responding to emergency situations.
Under the MoU, the pair have agreed to improve the safety of communities by mitigating risks caused by telecommunications or power outages during emergencies, as well as the sustainability of telecommunications and power supply services to communities affected by emergencies to support their recovery.
The MoU also sets out that the two sectors will collaborate and coordinate on preparing telecommunications and electricity networks and infrastructure for responding to emergencies at local, regional, and state level.
A report prepared by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in May found that during the peak period of the Black Summer bushfires, most telecommunication outages were due to power failures rather than direct fire damage to communication assets.
The report found that during the period from 19 December 2019 to 31 January 2020, only 3% of tower outages were due to fire damage, and of the 1,390 total facilities that were impacted by the fires outages, only 1% of incidents were a direct result of fire damage.
See also: Twitter bots and trolls promote conspiracy theories about Australian bushfires  
Similar findings were disclosed by the company responsible for deploying the National Broadband Network (NBN) across Australia. In June, NBN revealed in response to Senate Estimates Question on Notice that bushfires impacted 1% of all NBN services.
“12% (or 6,367 services) of all services impacted were directly impacted by fire over the duration of the bushfires,” the company said at the time.
“The remaining services were impacted by power outages as a result of the bushfires.”
The federal government has previously announced it would spend AU$37.1 million to improve the resiliency of the nation’s telco infrastructure in the wake of the Black Summer bushfires.
The funds will be allocated towards upgrading battery backup power at mobile base stations; purchasing portable temporary connectivity, such as cells on wheels, mobile exchanges on wheels, and NBN Sky Muster trucks; installing 2,000 NBN satellite services at rural and country fire service depots and designated evacuation centres; and on an information program over the next two bushfire seasons to promote “practical information and advice for communities and businesses about how to keep connected during emergencies”.
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The Native American Hoh Tribe in western Washington state has become one of the first groups to gain access to SpaceX’s emerging Starlink satellite broadband service. 
Details of the Hoh Tribe’s access to Starlink, via Ars Technica, were revealed in a recently released video by the Washington State Department that showcases the Washington State Broadband Office’s efforts to deliver universal broadband access by 2024, in line with a law passed last year.

Networking

“It seemed like out of nowhere SpaceX just came up and catapulted us into the 21st century,” said Melvinjohn Ashue, the vice chair for the Hoh Indian tribe.
SEE: Guide to Becoming a Digital Transformation Champion (TechRepublic Premium)
Washington state is one of the few areas in the US that SpaceX Starlink broadband has coverage from just over 700 satellites currently in orbit. 
SpaceX’s private Starlink beta kicked off in July and its first known tester was Washington state military’s emergency-management unit, which began using seven Starlink end-user terminals in early August as part of its response to rebuild fire-ravaged parts of the state. Washington’s first responders deployed the terminals to residents in Malden, Washington. 
Russ Elliott, director of the recently established Washington State Broadband Office, said the Hoh Tribe contacted his organization at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and explained the difficulties they had connecting to the internet. 
“They definitely had very limited internet and they were very nervous about the future,” he said. 
According to Ashue, the tribe has struggled for nearly a decade to bring reliable internet to the reservation, which is located 23 miles south of Forks, a small town in Washington. 
“We’re very remote. The past eight years I feel like we’ve been paddling upriver with a spoon and almost getting nowhere with getting internet to the reservation,” he said. 
The broadband office introduced Starlink to the tribe and, according to Elliott, SpaceX felt “compelled” to assist. 
“Our youth are able to do education online, participate in videos. Telehealth is no longer going to be an issue,” said Ashue. 
Elliott’s office is aiming to deliver all businesses and residences broadband download speeds of 25Mbps and upload speeds of at least 3Mbps by 2024. By 2028, it wants to ensure residents and businesses have access to at least one broadband provider that can deliver 150Mbps symmetrical speeds. The office is also in the process of mapping internet speeds across the state.
Elliott recently told Geekwire that in his role at the office before COVID he was “the wallflower at the prom”, but during COVID broadband and his office became the “prom king”. 
SEE: Managing AI and ML in the enterprise 2020: Tech leaders increase project development and implementation (TechRepublic Premium)
More residents in Washington and other areas in northern US could get access to Starlink services in the near future. After last week’s launch of 60 more Starlink satellites, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said it was ready to roll out a “fairly wide public beta” in northern US and hopefully southern Canada.  
SpaceX recently revealed internet performance tests showing it was capable of download speeds of between 102Mbps to 103Mbps, upload speeds of about 40.5Mbps, and a latency of 18 milliseconds to 19 milliseconds. 
Starlink user speed tests posted to TestMy.Net show an average download speed of 37.04Mbps, with a top speed of 91.04Mbps. Other tests show a top download number of 103Mbps, upload speeds of 41.99Mbps, and a latency of 18 milliseconds.
[embedded content]
This video showcases the Washington State Broadband Office’s efforts to deliver universal broadband access by 2024. Source: YouTube
More on Elon Musk’s SpaceX and internet-beaming satellites  More

The company responsible for the National Broadband Network (NBN) and the CSIRO announced on Tuesday that the data arm of the latter, Data61, will examine the former’s traffic data.
The initial project, which is to be a baseline for future measurements of digital maturity and resilience, will examine aggregated and de-identified NBN traffic data to look into how connectivity was used during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The project will assess how businesses and households across different regions, industries, and occupations moved their activities online as COVID-19 hit, and how this activity evolved as the pandemic, and associated restrictions, tracked over subsequent months,” the pair said.
“This could highlight the relative success of industries in adopting technology, adapting to an evolving work environment, and provide a perspective on productivity under COVID-19.”
Potential projects to follow were flagged as relating to energy, privacy and cybersecurity, the use of automation in agriculture, and digital health.
See also: Team Australia: CSIRO’s multimillion-dollar post-coronavirus plan
“The world is an increasingly connected place, and so much of our research in areas ranging from robotics to healthcare is now predicated on being able to share and compute data via broadband networks,” CSIRO chief Dr Larry Marshall said.
“This collaborative agreement facilitates the generation of new insights into how we are adopting digital technologies, to help solve meaningful issues and shape the future in many areas of society. Working with NBN Co, together we can deliver a unique national outcome.”
In last week’s federal Budget, the CSIRO received AU$459 million over four years to address the impacts of COVID-19, and to continue with its “essential scientific research”.
At the same time, the government allocated AU$2 billion for additional research and development tax incentives, once again saying the move was to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic.
“Research and development, the adoption of digital technology, and affordable and reliable energy will be critical to Australia’s future economic prosperity,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said during his Budget speech.
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In a previous piece, I discussed Amazon’s difficulty trying to convince its customers to buy new Alexa-powered smart speakers every year when the devices’ core functionality and capabilities haven’t changed — and whether we should be truly “owning” them in the first place.

I haven’t upgraded my devices since I purchased the first Generation 1 Echos in March of 2014 when the device premiered exclusively for Amazon Prime and invited customers. I currently own three, one in my bedroom, one in my office, and a Generation 1 Echo Dot in my main bathroom. We also have a Sonos Beam in our living room, which has some, but not all, Alexa capabilities.
For the most part, these devices work just fine. Amazon rolls out updates to the firmware continually and changes its cloud service and Alexa smartphone apps annually that introduce new functionality.
Also: Best smart speakers in 2020: Bose, Google, Apple, Amazon, Sonos, and more 
Speakers don’t go bad, as the basic loudspeaker hardware can last decades. The embedded microprocessor hardware in the original Echo is solid-state. The logic board is designed to function for a very long time, so short of the product taking an unexpected power surge, it would be highly unusual for it to break or have a catastrophic malfunction. Assuming Amazon continues to allow its first-generation products to use the Alexa cloud service to stay “smart” rather than become abandonware, they should and can remain useful for years to come.
But as I write this, it is the day before Prime Day 2020, the celebration of Amazon mass consumerism. Where many good deals, presumably on Amazon’s own devices, can be had. And this year’s Amazon Echo, Generation 4, has a new feature previous models have not had — a Machine Learning (ML) chip, the AZ1 Neural Edge processor.
Now, there’s no indication yet that the Gen 4 will be discounted on Prime Day — the current deal is if you buy two, you get $30 off the original price if you use the ECHO2PK code at checkout. That’s not a bad deal, especially if you are a new Echo customer. Still, I think Amazon needs to do better, especially on Prime Day and for their early adopters hanging on with Generation 1 devices.
But what does this AZ1 Neural Edge chip in the Gen 4 do for me if I were to decommission my old Echos? Well, as Amazon has demonstrated, it allows part of the processing from their cloud service that powers Alexa to run directly on the device itself, improving query response time. I have not seen a real-life demonstration of this, so right now, I’m just taking it on Amazon’s word that it means Alexa will be faster.
I can see how it might be useful in environments with limited connectivity, such as connecting Alexa to your car on a congested or spotty 4G network, as with the Echo Auto that is currently on sale for Prime Day. The Echo Auto doesn’t have the Amazon AZ1; it uses an Intel digital signal processor (DSP) with an “Inference Engine,” an ML deep learning chip of Intel’s design created for edge network applications.
Also: What is edge computing? Here’s why the edge matters and where it’s headed 

A promise of improved response time when my home broadband is degraded is not enough to convince me to spend $170 on two new Echos even with a discount code. $125, maybe. What I want to see is Amazon providing some actual innovation with the machine learning chip itself. 
There’s a lot of things you can do with machine learning and audio processing, which quite frankly, we haven’t scratched the surface of yet. Voice patterns, in particular, how emotion is sensed, may be useful for understanding stress. 
The company recently introduced Alexa Guard Plus, a premium service due to launch at the end of this year. Among the features it has is activity sound detection, which presumably, includes noises that might be sounds of distress and things like windows breaking. The company has not yet said whether that specific feature requires Echo devices with the AZ1 chip or if it will work with legacy devices.
When applied to voice and audio processing, machine learning may have other applications we don’t know about yet. Indeed, it might help Alexa to know about a request’s urgency or to know if you are annoyed with her responses. 
But so far, I am not seeing the “killer app” for Amazon’s neural edge processing chip. Show me something cool, something I need, Alexa. Because I’m just not seeing that compelling reason to upgrade yet.
Are you upgrading your older Amazon Echo devices for Generation 4 with the AZ1 for promises of machine learning apps that haven’t arisen yet? Talk Back and Let Me Know. More

In a previous piece, I discussed Amazon’s difficulty trying to convince its customers to buy new Alexa-powered smart speakers every year when the devices’ core functionality and capabilities haven’t changed — and whether we should be truly “owning” them in the first place.

I haven’t upgraded my devices since I purchased the first Generation 1 Echos in March of 2014 when the device premiered exclusively for Amazon Prime and invited customers. I currently own three, one in my bedroom, one in my office, and a Generation 1 Echo Dot in my main bathroom. We also have a Sonos Beam in our living room, which has some, but not all, Alexa capabilities.
For the most part, these devices work just fine. Amazon rolls out updates to the firmware continually and changes its cloud service and Alexa smartphone apps annually that introduce new functionality.
Also: Best smart speakers in 2020: Bose, Google, Apple, Amazon, Sonos, and more 
Speakers don’t go bad, as the basic loudspeaker hardware can last decades. The embedded microprocessor hardware in the original Echo is solid-state. The logic board is designed to function for a very long time, so short of the product taking an unexpected power surge, it would be highly unusual for it to break or have a catastrophic malfunction. Assuming Amazon continues to allow its first-generation products to use the Alexa cloud service to stay “smart” rather than become abandonware, they should and can remain useful for years to come.
But as I write this, it is the day before Prime Day 2020, the celebration of Amazon mass consumerism. Where many good deals, presumably on Amazon’s own devices, can be had. And this year’s Amazon Echo, Generation 4, has a new feature previous models have not had — a Machine Learning (ML) chip, the AZ1 Neural Edge processor.
Now, there’s no indication yet that the Gen 4 will be discounted on Prime Day — the current deal is if you buy two, you get $30 off the original price if you use the ECHO2PK code at checkout. That’s not a bad deal, especially if you are a new Echo customer. Still, I think Amazon needs to do better, especially on Prime Day and for their early adopters hanging on with Generation 1 devices.
But what does this AZ1 Neural Edge chip in the Gen 4 do for me if I were to decommission my old Echos? Well, as Amazon has demonstrated, it allows part of the processing from their cloud service that powers Alexa to run directly on the device itself, improving query response time. I have not seen a real-life demonstration of this, so right now, I’m just taking it on Amazon’s word that it means Alexa will be faster.
I can see how it might be useful in environments with limited connectivity, such as connecting Alexa to your car on a congested or spotty 4G network, as with the Echo Auto that is currently on sale for Prime Day. The Echo Auto doesn’t have the Amazon AZ1; it uses an Intel digital signal processor (DSP) with an “Inference Engine,” an ML deep learning chip of Intel’s design created for edge network applications.
Also: What is edge computing? Here’s why the edge matters and where it’s headed 
A promise of improved response time when my home broadband is degraded is not enough to convince me to spend $170 on two new Echos even with a discount code. $125, maybe. What I want to see is Amazon providing some actual innovation with the machine learning chip itself. 
There’s a lot of things you can do with machine learning and audio processing, which quite frankly, we haven’t scratched the surface of yet. Voice patterns, in particular, how emotion is sensed, may be useful for understanding stress. 
The company recently introduced Alexa Guard Plus, a premium service due to launch at the end of this year. Among the features it has is activity sound detection, which presumably, includes noises that might be sounds of distress and things like windows breaking. The company has not yet said whether that specific feature requires Echo devices with the AZ1 chip or if it will work with legacy devices.
When applied to voice and audio processing, machine learning may have other applications we don’t know about yet. Indeed, it might help Alexa to know about a request’s urgency or to know if you are annoyed with her responses. 
But so far, I am not seeing the “killer app” for Amazon’s neural edge processing chip. Show me something cool, something I need, Alexa. Because I’m just not seeing that compelling reason to upgrade yet.
Are you upgrading your older Amazon Echo devices for Generation 4 with the AZ1 for promises of machine learning apps that haven’t arisen yet? Talk Back and Let Me Know. More

New Zealand telco Spark and Australian IoT network builder National Narrowband Network Co (NNNCo) announced an agreement on Monday that will allow LoRaWAN users to deploy on either side of the Tasman and roam on the other side of the ditch.
In order to implement the roaming arrangement, NNNCo’s enterprise platform, N2N-DL, has been integrated into Spark’s network core.
“Data from devices on the Spark NZ network will feed into N2N-DL giving customers access to data on a single platform from devices enrolled in either country,” the pair said.
“Spark can also do the same for customers with devices enrolled on the NNNCo network in Australia.”
One of the first customers of the network will be Parkable, a New Zealand parking app that is looking to expand in Australia.
“As the economy continues to be shaped by COVID-19, we could expect to see more partnerships like this; where carriers and partners work together to enable the deployment and scaling of IoT solutions across markets,” Spark IoT lead Tony Agar said.
Elsewhere on Monday morning, Australian telco Optus announced it was opening up its 5G network for its wholesale customers.
The telco said it has 900 5G sites across the country, but has yet to deploy any cells in Tasmania or Northern Territory.
Spintel is the first mobile virtual network operator to jump onboard.
Not to be left out, Australian incumbent telco Telstra said on Monday its network has hit 41% population coverage.
“Our 5G now covers an area that more than twelve million Australians live, work or pass through on a daily basis, giving them access to a superfast network at a time when connectivity’s never been more important and when there’ll be more 5G devices to choose from than ever,” Telstra group executive for networks & IT Nikos Katinakis said.
“We’ve recently announced our intention to roll out Telstra 5G to 75 per cent of the Australian population by the end of June 2021, which will expand our network to even more suburban and regional areas.”
Telstra recently hit 2,000 5G sites across the country.
“We’re a long way ahead of our competitors because we’re investing more, we’ve got the technology leadership and we want to extend that lead because Australia needs 5G,” Katinakis added.
Last month, Telstra unveiled its invite-only 5G fixed wireless service.
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More consumers are expected to experience hardship in paying their National Broadband Network (NBN) bills as Australia’s telcos look to eventually turn off the tap for financial support, a Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) representative told a Senate committee on Friday.
Standing before the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network on Friday, TIO Judi Jones said the financial support given by government and industry had stalled any potential uptick of complaints that the agency expected from consumers.
“We’ve waited to see an increase in complaints about hardship and problems paying a bill — we think that will come, but by the end of the year it wasn’t showing up as a particular issue. It was starting to rise but it actually dropped off as an important issue in the pandemic because of financial support,” Jones said.
“We are anticipating, as government and providers wind back support measures, we’ll see more hardship issues for residential and small business consumers,” Jones said. 
She noted, however, that there has been a 1,500% increase of consumer complaints during the most recent quarter in the category of being unable to contact internet providers when experiencing connection issues.
The latest report by the TIO, released in July, had revealed there was a direct correlation between the coronavirus pandemic, and the complaints it received between March and June 2020. 
The TIO’s systemic investigation report uncovered that there was an increase in complaints from mid-March by consumers about not being able to contact their providers. By early April, the average number of daily complaints by consumers being unable to reach their providers peaked at 130.
“What we did see in their complaints that came to us was the impact was more important for consumers, so not having a working internet service impacted not just watching Netflix in the evening when you were home,” Jones told the committee. 
“It has impacted your kid’s ability to learn, and your ability to be able to continue to be employed by working from home, or for small businesses without pivoting to have a completely online interaction with the consumers.”
The proportion of fault and connection complaints from small businesses also increased from 14% to 15.7% quarter-over-quarter in relation to total fault and connection complaints for services delivered over the NBN in the most recent quarter, Jones said.
When asked by committee chair Tony Pasin whether the amount of fault and connection complaints from small businesses was disproportionate to those made by residential consumers, Jones was hesitant to provide a clear answer, noting small business customers do not necessarily use a small business account.
She explained that small businesses operating from home could potentially use a residential account and that there was not enough information on samples and operations. 
“It has been challenging for small businesses and indeed for residential consumers when their network is not performing, whether there is a degradation of the copper meaning that it is not receiving the optical services, or citizens are not receiving service that they can see as available in other areas,” she said.
Jones also said the proportion of unresolved and escalated complaints had increased, which reflected an emerging picture of complexity. 
As the NBN rollout moves into its later stages, the TIO expects to continue to see more complaints about connections that have been postponed due to their complexity. 
“Complex connections often take additional time to complete and may require a specific skillset, removal of other infrastructure, liaison with external parties such as strata management, or a fix that falls outside the scope of a standard installation,” TIO wrote in its submission to the committee.
Facing this increased complexity, TIO said it has formed specialist teams to handle these escalated complaints and continued to work closely with phone and internet providers to understand the barriers to resolving these issues, and how to prevent the issues from occurring. 
Last month, NBN announced its plan to spend AU$700 million to create 240 “business fibre zones” that will cover 700,000 business premises. Being part of a zone will allow businesses to get a full fibre Enterprise Ethernet connection, as well as reduced rates and connection fees.
Two days later, it announced that 2 million premises on fibre to the node would have the opportunity to move to full fibre, but only an additional 400,000 are expected to take it up by the end of the fiscal year 2024. However, NBN users that live or work within multi-dwelling units are not included as part of the upgrade.
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