Networking

Image: Chris Duckett/ZDNet
What a decade of useless and wasteful argument that was.
After years and years of ridiculous claims — such as those made by then-Shadow Communications Minister cum Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2011 that there was no evidence end users would receive any benefit from getting access to broadband speeds higher than those available under ADSL2+ technology, or that 1Gbps was a marketing gimmick — NBN will now embark on upgrading its network.
The end goal of the upgrade will be to ensure that for a cost of AU$4.5 billion, 75% of NBN’s fixed-line network will be able to access 1Gbps speeds by the end of 2023. The money for the project will be sourced from private debt markets.
Seven years too late: The missing piece from the Coalition’s NBN plan 
Part of the money, up to AU$700 million, will be used to take fibre to businesses and create fibre zones around Australia, with another AU$300 already allocated to fibre upgrades alongside state governments and local councils.
That leaves AU$3.5 billion for residential upgrades under today’s announcement.
“Under this investment program, in areas currently served by FttN, all existing fibre infrastructure already built to nodes will be incorporated,” shareholder NBN ministers Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said in a statement.
“There will then be a further investment to take fibre deeper into neighbourhoods, through building local fibre networks that run along street frontages.”
Speaking later at a press conference, Fletcher said two million homes serviced by fibre-to-the-node (FttN) would be upgraded to a full-fibre connection.
Similar to the business fibre program, the upgrades will be on-demand, with hybrid-fibre coaxial (HFC), and fibre-to-the-curb (FttC) connections to also get upgrades of existing infrastructure to hit the 1Gbps target. 
“From the outset, the plan set out in our 2013 Strategic Review was to get the network rolled out as quickly as possible — and then deliver upgrades when there was demand for them. We’ve steadily delivered on our plan for seven years; the further investment announced today is exactly what our plan envisaged,” Minister Fletcher said in a statement, presumably forgetting the prior decade’s politicking.
“This is the right time for this network upgrade. There is a long term trend of broadband demand growth — with a very significant spike this year as COVID-19 has changed the way we use the internet.”
The ministers said the upgrade program would create 25,000 jobs across the country over two years.
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Microsoft is introducing on Sept. 22 what it’s calling an Azure-hosted “fully managed communications platform” in public preview form. These Azure Communication Services (ACS) are the same video calling, chat, and SMS text messaging services that Microsoft uses to power its own Teams service. 
Also: Microsoft Azure: A cheat sheet TechRepublic
Microsoft’s contention is its own customers and partners want an easy way to add these kinds of communications services to their own applications in an easy way. Company officials say these kinds of services are even more important because of the need for remote connectivity as a result of the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Using ACS, customers, and partners can add these communication services to their mobile apps, desktop apps, and web sites “with just a few lines of code,” officials said as part of the announcement timed with the first day of the company’s virtual Ignite 2020 IT Pro conference. (There are application programming interfaces and software development kits involved from a development standpoint.) The services are designed to work on any platform/any device. 
Credit: Microsoft
Microsoft officials stressed that ACS is already a proven, globally available solution, as evidenced by its use in Teams.Microsoft’s own Dynamics ERP/CRM team is going to be using ACS to add communications services as an option for its Dynamics 365 Customer Service service. Microsoft is planning to make available a private preview of the ACS capabilities for that app starting sometime in October. Microsoft’s pitch is the combination of ACS and Dynamics 365 Customer Service will enable users to bring capabilities like voice to Dynamics in five steps, compared to the many steps it takes to combine AWS Connect and Salesforce CRM. 
Must read:
The first services available to customers are voice and video calling and chat. SMS/texting integration is coming sometime in October. And “Phone Numbers” — meaning communications scenarios with telephony capabilities for inbound/outbound calling — is on the docket for October, as well. Officials said that the Phone Numbers service will “soon” integrate with existing on-premises equipment and carrier networks with SIP.

More Microsoft Ignite More

Image: NBN
The company responsible for the National Broadband Network (NBN) announced on Tuesday it was spending 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.
NBN added that when it connects a business within a zone to fibre, it will not charge the business for the act, and if the business signs a 3-year deal, NBN will not charge the internet service provider.  
“Enterprise Ethernet is NBN Co’s fastest symmetrical wholesale product and premium-grade business offering. It has options for prioritised traffic, high capacity, and symmetrical upload and download wholesale speeds from 10Mbps to close to 1Gbps, as well as enhanced 24/7 support through the business NBN operations centre with a dedicated team located in Australia,” the company said in a statement.
Of the 240 zones to be created, 85 will be regional centres, while another 14 will be allocated “specifically to underpin existing health precincts”.
An initial 130 zones were released on Tuesday, with 61 in the regional centres and 11 in health precincts.
“Having helped level the playing field for residential internet services with the rollout of the NBN network, we are now turning our attention to accessibility for our premium-grade business services, helping businesses in regional areas access the benefits of competition, enhanced broadband support services, and better wholesale NBN prices for the digital services they need to succeed,” NBN CEO Stephen Rue said.
“For the first time, any business in an NBN business fibre zone can get the same premium-grade services and the same wholesale prices as those in the centre of our biggest cities.”
The company has also set aside AU$50 million to “work with local councils and state and territory governments” across three years to extend its business-service footprint outside the designated zones.
Within NSW metro, the initial fibre zones will be in Botany, Gosford, Lake Haven — Wyong, Lane Cove, Mosman, Neutral Bay, Parramatta, Randwick, Marrickville, Double Bay — Rose Bay, and an amorphous Central Coast zone.
In regional NSW, the zones will be created in Albury / Lavington, Armidale, Ballina, Batemans Bay, Bathurst, Charlestown, Coffs Harbour, Corrimal — Austinmer, Dubbo, Goulburn, Lismore, Maitland, Mudgee, Newcastle CBD, Nowra, Orange, Port Kembla — Warrawong, Port Macquarie, Tamworth, Taree, Wagga Wagga, Wollongong, and Shoalhaven.
For Victorian metro, the zones are Berwick South, Box Hill, Clayton, Collingwood, Dandenong, Mornington, Springvale — Noble Park, Burwood, Chadstone — Oakleigh, Caulfield — Carnegie, St Kilda — Elsternwick, Blackburn — Mitcham, and Richmond — Hawthorn.
Elsewhere in Victoria, the zones are Ararat, Ballarat, Bendigo, Echuca, Geelong, Horsham, Mildura, Shepparton, Wangaratta, Warrnambool, Wodonga, and Morwell — Traralgon.
Around Brisbane, the zones are in Annerley, Archerfield, Coorparoo, Darra – Richlands, Eagle Farm, Mount Gravatt, Stafford — Alderley, Tingalpa, Morningside — Lytton, and Indooroopilly — Toowong.
For the rest of Queensland, Bundaberg, Caloundra, Gladstone, Gympie, Mackay, Maroochydore, Maryborough, Rockhampton, Southport, Toowoomba, Townsville area, Wurtulla — Birtinya, and Cairns — Port Douglas will have fibre zones.
Tasmania will have zones in Burnie, Devonport, Hobart, and Launceston.
Over in Perth, the zones are Balcatta, Bassendean, Canning Vale — Riverton, Fremantle, Henderson, Malaga, Mandurah, Midland — Guildford, O’Connor — Murdoch, Osborne Park Industrial, Rockingham, Subiaco — Nedlands — Shenton Park, Wangara, South Perth, Bibra Lake — Coogee, Applecross — Melville, and Belmont — Cannington.
For the rest of WA, there will be four zones across Albany, Bunbury, Busselton, and Geraldton.
While in Adelaide, the zones will be Edinburgh, Hawthorn — Malvern, Hindmarsh, Lonsdale, Melrose Park, Mount Barker, Norwood, Port Adelaide — Gepps Cross, Prospect area, Richmond, Toorak Gardens, Unley — Parkside, Woodville Park, and Willunga.
Outside of South Australian metro area, Mount Gambier is the sole business fibre zone.
Canberra gets zones in Belconnen, Canberra CBD, Deakin, and Phillip, while NBN has allocated a zone called Queanbeyan – Hume to an area dubbed “ACT regional”.
The Northern Territory gets three zones in Darwin, Palmerston, and Casuarina.
When the zones scheme is completed, it is expected 90% of businesses within the NBN footprint will be able to have a fibre connection.
“This initiative will create more jobs as we combat the impact of COVID-19 on our economy and employment across our country. The construction of the business fibre zones will deliver up to 6,000 new jobs by 2021-22, including more engineers, project managers, and construction crew,” Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said.
“It will also boost the productivity of businesses within each of the 240 business fibre zones.”
As for Labor, Shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland criticised the decision.
“After spending AU$51 billion on a second-rate network, and a decade critising Labor, it turns out fibre was better all along,” Rowland said.
“Today confirms the Liberals don’t have a clue when it comes to technology or economics. Their only motivation is the politics of the moment and Australians have lost out.”
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Back in my childhood hometown in Calhoun County, West Virginia, my high school friend Bill Bailey says his DSL connection gives him an “average speed of 27Kbps.” That’s Kilobits per second. He might do better with a modem. It’s not just him. Tens of millions of Americans who live in the country can only dream of having broadband. The answer to their internet dreams may lie in the skies above them, with SpaceX Starlink satellites.

SpaceX has applied for the Federal Communication Commission’s up-to $16 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). This is a plan to bring broadband — with download speeds of at least 25Mbps — to six million homes and businesses, which currently have no broadband. As part of its presentation, Starlink showed internet performance tests with download speeds of between 102Mbps to 103Mbps, upload speeds of 40.5Mbps to not quite 42Mbps, and a latency of 18 milliseconds to 19 milliseconds. That’s much better than conventional satellite internet, comparable to low-end cable internet, and far beyond what most rural internet users can get.
Other independent third-party tests are showing lower performance numbers. Users posting to TestMy.Net are showing an average download speed of 37.04Mbps, with a top speed of 91.04Mbps. Other tests show a top download number of 103Mbps, an upload speed of 41.99Mbps, and a latency of 18 milliseconds. That’s still much better broadband than many rural users have been seeing.
Of course, the Linux-powered Starlink satellites are still in beta. And, with about 775 Starlink satellites now in orbit, the service is far short of its initial goal of 12,000 satellites. SpaceX has applied to the FCC to launch 30,000 Starlink satellites. According to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX needs about 400 Starlink satellites to provide “minor” coverage and 800 for “moderate” coverage.
Pent-up demand for Starlink’s fast Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) internet is also increasing. SpaceX recently applied for an FCC license to roll out five million ‘UFO on a stick’ end-user terminals over its original request for a million terminals. This came after 700,000 US residents signed up to be updated about the service’s availability. 
It’s not just broadband-hungry individuals who want Starlink services. Rural governments, such as the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM), are also looking to the sky for broadband. “We know today our citizens require greater connectivity than 50/10 megabits per second,” said FONOM president Danny Whalen in a recent press release. And, “FONOM believes that the Starlink program is our best option.”
So, why aren’t we seeing more beta testers or even an early release program? The answer is there aren’t enough terminals in the production pipeline. A close reading of the SpaceX FCC request to modify the Starlink satellite constellation orbits reveals SpaceX is “on track to produce thousands of consumer user terminals per month, heading toward high-rate production.” If they’re on track to produce thousands, that implies they’re now only producing hundreds of terminals per month. 
This theory is further supported by a search for SpaceX Starlink job openings. This LinkedIn search revealed that the company is actively looking for “talented production associates to help establish a new manufacturing and test processes and eventually ramp to full-scale production for the user terminal.” The company is also looking “for skilled and well-rounded maintenance technicians to help ensure high productivity and reliability of our high volume Starlink User Terminal manufacturing facility.” SpaceX is also seeking “manufacturing engineers to spearhead the development of millions of consumer-facing devices that will sit in our customers’ homes.”
Put it all together and what I see is that, while Starlink satellites are capable of delivering the broadband goods, it will still be months more before enough SpaceX’s CA-based factory can meet the demand for first hundreds of thousands and eventually millions of terminals. 
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Image: Supplied
Ericsson announced on Friday that it has acquired Cradlepoint in a deal that values the enterprise at $1.1 billion.
The Swedish carrier equipment manufacturer said Cradlepoint had SEK1.2 billion in sales for 2019, which is approximately $137 million, with a margin of 61%.
After dragging Ericsson’s margins down by 1% in 2021 and 2022, it is expected the deal will start to make a contribution to operating cash-flow in 2022.
Cradlepoint and its over 650 staff will be a standalone subsidiary of Ericsson, and remain headquartered in Boise, Idaho with offices in Silicon Valley, the UK, and Australia. It will be part of Ericsson’s business area technologies and new businesses segment.
The company describes itself as providing “cloud-delivered wireless edge solutions for branch, mobile, and IoT networks”. Cradlepoint has over 20,000 customers, 1,500 channel partners, and over 1 million SaaS subscriptions.
“Ericsson is uniquely positioned to build on Cradlepoint’s leadership position in wireless edge and the wireless WAN market,” CEO Börje Ekholm said.
“Combining the scale of our market access and established relationships with the world’s biggest mobile operators we are making a strong investment to support our customers to grow in this exciting market.”
In a call, Ekholm said Cradlepoint is currently focused on the US market, but that the subsidiary has significant potential outside America.
On the other side of the planet, and the weekend, Indian giant HCL entered into a scheme on Monday to acquire the shares of Australian IT services vendor DWS for a valuation of AU$162 million. This deal will also be cash funded, and should the deal get the proper approvals, it will be implemented on December 8.
At the end of June, DWS had 770 full time equivalent staff.
For its full year results posted in August, DWS reported a 2.7% increase in revenue to AU$168 million, with reported EBITDA down AU$1.45 million to AU$20.5 million, and net profit down by AU$2.8 million to AU$7.5 million.
DWS said COVID-19 had an impact on its results, with its Symplicit business receiving AU$400,000 in JobKeeper payments and applying for rent relief on its Sydney and Melbourne offices.
“DWS has grown revenue and underlying EBITDA with growth in federal government and state government client work greater than reductions in banking and finance and IT&C client work,” it said.
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The default login option for agents used by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is vulnerable to a code replay attack, security researchers Ben Frengley and Vanessa Teague said.
Writing in a blog post, the pair described that an attacker could use a malicious login form to capture user details, which the attacker could then use to login into other accounts held by the myGovID user.
The nub of the attack is that when a myGovID user attempts to login into a site, they are asked to input a four-digit code into the myGovID smartphone app to verify the login — no passwords are used, and the only identifying piece of information is an email address.
If the attacker can capture an email address, that can be used by the attacker to log into another myGovID service and replay the generated code to the user to enter into the myGovID app. Once the code is entered, the user will believe they are logged into a proper site, while the attacker can simultaneously log into their account elsewhere.
The user is not alerted to the other login taking place.
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“This attack is detectable by a diligent user who understands the protocol well enough to know that they should only accept 4-digit codes from mygovid.gov.au (and knows how to check for TLS),” the pair wrote.
“However we believe that there are very few users in this category, because it is a counter-intuitive protocol designed to reverse the information flow relative to what users are accustomed to.”
The suggested short term mitigation from the researchers is to inform users about what site is requesting a login, and for the long term, the pair recommended ditching the framework altogether.
“In the long run, the [Trusted Digital Identity Framework] and all its current implementations should be deprecated and replaced with an open standard such as OpenID Connect or a protocol modelled on that of a nation with an existing secure public key infrastructure such as Belgium or Estonia,” they wrote.
“The implementation and design documentation should be openly available to the Australian public to allow for the identification and responsible disclosure of other vulnerabilities.
“We have no reason to believe that this is the only, or the worst, vulnerability in this system. Its complex nature and the desire to hide information makes enforcing and validating correct, secure behaviour close to impossible.”
For users, the pair recommended they do not use myGovID unless unavoidable, and in that case, to ensure they only receive codes from the mygovid.gov.au site.
“This unlikely to work in practice for most users, who will struggle to recognise a secure website with the right URL,” they said.
The pair said they informed the Australian Signals Directorate of the issue on August 19, and were told on Friday by the ATO that “they did not intend to change the protocol, at which point we immediately informed them that we would make a warning to users public”.
In October, the Digital Transformation Agency said almost 7,000 Australians had created a myGovID.
Also on Monday morning, the ATO announced it has signed a three-year, AU$11.4 million deal with Vocus for managed network services.
“The contract will see Vocus provide up to 230 services across 80 ATO sites, on its fully separated secure network,” Vocus said.
“The types of services include IP WAN, internet and data centre connectivity for all existing and future ATO sites.”
The contract has three potential two-year extensions.
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Image: NBN
Aussie Broadband has seen strong demand with around 5.5% of its customer base jumping onto the 1Gbps plans the ISP began to offer in May.
“In our view, much stronger [demand] than we actually anticipated in those plans,” Britt told the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network on Friday morning.
“We think it could get to 10% within a couple of years.”
As it currently stands though, NBN is only offering its 500-1000Mbps plans on 18% of its network, which consists of all its fibre to the premises footprint, and an initial 7% of the HFC network.
“We can provide it on some parts of the HFC network, it’s roughly 9% of the HFC footprint today, and NBN has committed to increasing that footprint further,” Britt said.
“We believe in time, it might be available to the fibre to the curb footprint as well, the technology certainly supports it, it’s something that NBN needs to enable.
“So if that all flowed through, then probably about 50% of the footprint in total would be able to get those sorts of speeds.”
Britt said there was pent-up demand in HFC areas for gigabit speeds, but users were waiting for a capable connection.
The Aussie Broadband chief added that there are “very few people that actually need that kind of speed”.
“It’s one of those things. If it’s available, and I’ve got the income to support it — because I mean that ultrafast plan is AU$150 a month sort of thing — then I’ll want it and I have it. And when they do an update, they might use it and they’ll use it for like a download [that] might take 10 minutes or something like that, instead of taking two hours on another type of service, and they want that,” he said.
“I guess I’m in that category as well; I traditionally live in a fixed wireless area, but I have a link to a neighbouring estate that has a mate that’s got fibre to the premises, and so I get my ultrafast via an extension.”
At the other end of the market, Britt said he could definitely see 5G starting to eat the lower end.
“I absolutely do think that 5G will have an impact at the lower end of the market, so people with a lower usage, may be less than 100 gig … but I think at the more family to high end of the market parties, 5G is not really a solution that will play out in that regard,” he said.
Returning to a familiar complaint in the form of the CVC, Britt once again called for NBN to charge only for access, not capacity.
“I guess the artificial constraints around CVC were probably relevant 10 years ago when it was dreamed up, but I think it’s time we moved on from that,” he said.
On the topic of NBN in the enterprise market, Aussie Broadband is not as critical as fellow telco Vocus has previously been.
“The thing to consider is that NBN has an obligation to provide basic level services to that building, and that building might have lots of large businesses, but it might also have the coffee shop, and the Subway, and whatever else is there, NBN has to provide a basic TC4 service to that,” he said.
“For me, if you’re going to have to service those small businesses anyway, then you might as well run the fibre in, and if that opens up enterprise opportunities, well that’s a nice bonus.
“I don’t see that it’s a misuse of taxpayers money like what Vocus does. I see it that they have to provide the service to others in the building anyway, and then if I’ve put up in a seventh option in the building, well, then that’s a bonus.”
At the start of the year, NBN said it would retreat from the practice of directly signing up enterprise customers, following criticism from the likes of Vocus, and would instead need retailers to have a direct relationship with enterprises.
However, Britt sees a third way involving a panel of retailers.
“I think where [NBN] operates today is probably about right. Where it was operating six months ago, perhaps was going too far in terms of constructing deals and things like that,” the Aussie Broadband chief said.
“I think where we would like to probably see it get to is obviously some very, very large customers want to deal directly with NBN, but I think it probably needs to move to more [of] an arrangement where if these large providers do want to construct a deal with NBN but then there’s a panel of providers that can work with them, and essentially tender for the work, as opposed to every provider trying to construct the direct deal with that company separately.”
Aussie Broadband is currently in the process of heading towards its AU$40 million initial public offering (IPO), and earlier in the week offered its customers a chance to purchase between 2,000 and 10,000 shares each, valued at AU$1 per share, for a potential total customer stake of AU$10 million.
The company is selling between 30 million to 40 million shares in the IPO, which would give the ISP market capitalisation of between AU$180 million to AU$190 million, and an enterprise value of approximately AU$150 million. Following the IPO, the current shareholders in the company would have a total stake of around 78.7% to 83.1% depending on how many shares are sold.
In fiscal terms, Aussie Broadband has been able to grow its revenue from AU$49.3 million in FY18 to AU$190.5 million in FY20, and forecasts it will record AU$338 million in the coming year. In statutory terms, the company has not posted a net profit since at least FY17.
The company said it did not intend to pay dividends to shareholders, and would instead be investing the money back into the business. Of the money raised, between AU$20 million to AU$26.5 million would be used to build out Aussie Broadband’s own fibre optic backhaul network, AU$7 million to AU$10 million will be set aside for working capital, and around AU$3 million to AU$3.5 million will be used on costs associated with the IPO.
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Qualcomm, Ericsson, and US Cellular have revealed what is thought to be the first extended-range 5G NR mmWave data call.

Performed on a commercial network, the call paves the way for 5G applications in rural areas for both businesses and consumers by extending the service possibilities of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) installations.
Taking place over a 5km distance in Janesville, Wisconsin, the call was made by applying extended-range software to Ericsson hardware, including the AIR5121 and Baseband 6630, together with 5G-enabled customer premises equipment containing a Qualcomm X55 5G modem and a QTM527 mmWave antenna module.
The companies were able to establish speeds of over 100 Mbps. According to Qualcomm, the “milestone” call will help “bridge the digital divide” — as it shows that 5G can enable rapid speeds across areas traditionally neglected when it comes to broadband, including rural and remote locations. 
See also: Qualcomm brings 5G to Always On, Always Connected PCs with debut of Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2
At a time when many of us are working from home and organizations ranging from healthcare providers to schools have been forced to rely on internet connectivity to operate, FWA utilizing 5G mmWave technology could solve connectivity issues faced by consumers and businesses alike. 
“This achievement redefines the perception of 5G mmWave spectrum as an urban- or high-density-only deployment technology and offers new opportunities to use current infrastructure for broader 5G coverage,” Qualcomm says. 
The company added that the milestone also opens the door to new FWA use cases, such as tackling the “last mile.” This issue, faced by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) worldwide, relates to the slowdown of internet connections from central connectivity points to consumer devices due to location and traffic, which can result in performance downgrades experienced by customers. 
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“This major milestone of using mmWave for an extended-range 5G data transfer is paving the way to implement fixed broadband services for broad coverage in urban, suburban, and rural environments,” commented Alejandro Holcman, senior vice president of engineering at Qualcomm. “With the introduction of the Qualcomm QTM527 mmWave antenna module as part of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System, we are empowering operators and OEMs to offer high-performance, extended-range multi-gigabit 5G broadband to their customers.”
TechRepublic: Verizon pairing Real Time Kinematics with 5G for precise location services, road safety, and IoT
The US chipmaker has poured millions of dollars into the research and development of 5G, and in recent months, has released 5G-enabled processor designs suitable for smartphones and laptops.
The Snapdragon 865 and 865 Plus chips are aimed at premium 5G smartphones, whereas the Snapdragon 690 has been designed for mid-range devices. Earlier this month, Qualcomm debuted the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2, a 5G processor for Always On, Always Connected PCs. 
According to Gartner, worldwide 5G network infrastructure market revenue will reach $8.1 billion, despite the disruption caused by COVID-19. 
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