Here are a few I have come across the last week or so. Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.
General Comment
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Interesting first article. Seems to have been kept pretty quiet – to say the least!
Lots of other stuff – holidays are gone for good!
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My Health Record ‘patchy’ and needs more funding, better direction
After years of development, privacy debates and around $2 billion in funding, Australia’s electronic health record is set for further changes
Sean Parnell Friday February 12, 2021Digital health records had been subject to a slow uptake, with some system clashes and many facilities still using fax machines, until the Federal Government agreed to make the My Health Record (MHR) opt-out instead of opt-in.
Since then, the number of consumers and providers actively using the system has increased, but a newly-released government review has found MHR is yet to live up to expectations.
“A view that has been widely expressed is that MHR has not fully met the promise or the expectation that many held for it,” wrote Professor John McMillan, who conducted the review.
“Two criticisms stand out. The first is that there is limited or uneven content in many MHR records. The second is that there is insufficient involvement in MHR by healthcare providers, both in uploading personal health information to MHR and in accessing a patient’s MHR when providing health care to them. These weaknesses can shake public and practitioner confidence in the utility of MHR and in that way be self-perpetuating.”
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Active ingredient prescribing comes into effect
By Matthew Grant, Monash University
Thursday, 04 February, 2021
Doctors must now prescribe drugs using their chemical name, not brand names. That's good news for patients.
From February 1, when you receive a prescription in Australia, it will list the name of the medication’s active ingredient rather than the brand name. So, for example, instead of receiving a prescription for Ventolin, your script will say “salbutamol”.
This national legislation change, called active ingredient prescribing, is long overdue for Australian health care.
Using the name of the drug — instead of the brand name, of which there are often many — will simplify how we talk about and use medications.
This could have a range of benefits, including fewer medication errors by both doctors and patients.
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Mental health app to help calm stressed classrooms
The commonwealth will invest $2.5m to boost the rollout of an online program at hundreds of regional and rural schools across the nation to help combat a rising number of primary school students suffering from mental illness.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said Smiling Mind’s award-winning app for young people and its associated resources would help equip students with the skills to build resilience and maintain good mental health throughout their lives.
“This program will provide practical training, resources and support in up to 600 schools in regional and remote areas, reaching teachers and students in communities that may not have had access otherwise,” he said.
Teachers at participating schools will be given access to evidence-based professional development workshops and tools to help promote sustainable mental health habits and teach student strategies such as mindfulness in the classroom.
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Tech council working on CARE-IT recommendations
by Sandy Cheu February 10, 2021
The aged care technology council is working with the health department on a roadmap to improve the digital maturity of the aged care industry, a forum has heard.
The Aged Care Industry Information Technology Council was funded by the Department of Health to undertake a three-month project to evaluate the sector’s technology capabilities and readiness.
The Capabilities in Aged and Community Care Readiness an Evaluation of Innovation and Technology (CARE-IT) report, which was made public in November, made nine recommendations to achieve a more sustainable and high-quality industry (read more here).
ACIITC National Home Care Group chair Anne Livingstone said the council has been focused on promoting the report’s recommendations since June when it was handed to the department.
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Apple Watch in hearty approval
It’s taken time, but Apple has finally received Australian medical approval for one of its Apple Watch heart-monitoring functions — more than two years after approval was obtained from the US Food and Drug Administration for the same feature in the US.
The Silicon Valley giant has been facing pressure to have its electrocardiogram (ECG) and irregular rhythm notification features approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia.
Despite Apple Watch being seen as offering medical support in monitoring heart irregularities, Apple had not enabled these functions in Australia because the company had not sought or obtained local clearance.
Finally the first of these, the irregular rhythm notification feature, has been approved.
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SA Health silent on 'frustratingly useless' quarantine app concerns
SA Health has refused to respond to reports of “serious glitches” detected in a home quarantine app for which the State Government has paid $1.1 million to replicate in South Australia, following concerns from interstate users that the app sends false cautions and relies on outdated data.
Stephanie Richards @stephrrichardsInDaily reported yesterday that SA Health had given a $1.1 million contract to Perth-based software company GenVis to develop a new smartphone app that uses facial recognition and GPS tracking technology to monitor people who are ordered to self-quarantine at home.
GenVis is behind Western Australia’s “G2G Now” app, which uses facial recognition and phone location data to check if people in quarantine are at their registered address.
The WA app sends users a push notification to check-in and gives them five minutes to take a photo of themselves, before matching the photo and location with the user’s registered details to ensure that they are complying with their quarantine direction.
While not compulsory in WA, the app is encouraged by the State Government, which claims it “keeps you safe and the rest of the community safe while freeing up more police resources that would otherwise be undertaking more regular physical checks”.
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https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/racgp-calls-for-telehealth-extension-until-long-te
RACGP calls for telehealth extension until long-term solution finalised
While practices grapple with the logistical challenges of the upcoming COVID vaccine rollout, questions remain over the future of telehealth.
10 Feb 2021
It was in November last year that
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced that telehealth would become a
permanent fixture of Australia’s healthcare system.
The scheme’s temporary extension is due to end in March but GPs have still not
received any further detail, even as the deadline draws near.
Given practices are now facing the logistical challenges of the upcoming COVID
vaccine program, the RACGP has called for telehealth to be extended until 30
June while the long-term plan is finalised.
Dr Michael Wright, Chair of the RACGP Expert Committee – Funding and Health
System Reform (REC–FHSR), told newsGP such an extension would give GPs and their
patients some assurance.
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Government moves to secure foothold in data cloud through new Canberra cyber hub
US tech giant Oracle will provide cloud services to all Commonwealth agencies through a central ACT data hub.
The Morrison government could soon secure its foothold in the global data cloud through a new Canberra data centre run by a local tech company using American cyber technology.
US tech giant Oracle will provide cloud services to all Commonwealth agencies through a central ACT data hub run by locally-owned Australian Data Centres, which will house and manage the federal government’s data and ensure it is controlled solely by Australians.
Until recently the government has mostly outsourced its cloud storage offshore. But as tensions grow with China and the number of cyber-attacks from overseas actors grow, the Commonwealth is now looking to keep as much of its data storage onshore as possible.
Oracle Australia and New Zealand managing director Cherie Ryan told The Australian the new centre would provide the Commonwealth with more security and an assurance its data was being controlled by Australian entities.
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Would-be parents given access to IVF predictor, clinic success rates
By Kate Aubusson
February 11, 2021 — 6.57pm
Would-be parents will soon have access to a world-first website that allows them to compare the success rates of Australian IVF clinics and predict their own chance of having a baby.
The ‘Your IVF Success’ website will launch on Monday funded by the federal government in response to growing calls for greater transparency in the sector.
The website’s predictor tool works like a calculator, allowing users to enter their age, the age of their partner, their infertility diagnosis, whether they have previously had children, and any previous IVF treatment to offer an estimate of their chances of success.
Heidi Stevens and her husband Dean experienced a 12-year odyssey of emotional upheaval that cost them in excess of $100,000 before they had two daughters through a Genea IVF clinic in Sydney.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/website-compares-ivf-clinic-success-rates
Website compares IVF clinic success rates
Professor Georgina Chambers of UNSW says the new portal will also offer patients an individualised estimator of their chances of having a baby through IVF
12th February 2021
From Monday, a website created by the University of NSW will provide information on the success rate of all 85 IVF clinics around Australia, as well as offer an individualised patient calculator.
Professor Georgina Chambers, director of the National Perinatal Statistics Unit at University of NSW, says it's not surprising clinics have differing success rates but the website strives to give a fair representation.
"We will present the same information about all clinics in the one place," Professor Chambers says.
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https://medicalrepublic.com.au/tracking-the-impact-of-telepharmacy-during-covid/40142
12 February 2021
Tracking the impact of telepharmacy during COVID
Clinical Communication COVID-19 Pharmacy Telehealth
Telehealth and telepharmacy have seen a surge in use and discussion with the arrival of COVID.
For pharmacists across the country, it has been a challenge while also accelerating the move to digitised services such as electronic prescriptions.
Since April 2020, pharmacists have been able to perform Home Medicine Reviews (HMR), MedsChecks, Diabetes MedsChecks, and Residential Medication Management Reviews (RMMR) via video-conferencing technology or over the phone.
Traditionally, these services are one-on-one consultations between the pharmacist and patient to identify any issues the patient is experiencing while taking medication and ensure that their current medicines are having the desired effect. MedsChecks and Diabetes MedsChecks are typically held at the pharmacy, while HMR and RMMR services involve the pharmacist visiting the patient’s home or the aged care facility they live in.
These changes also included a broadening of the eligibility criteria for telehealth, and the inclusion of two additional follow-up appointments for HMRs and RMMRs.
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https://www.afr.com/technology/singular-health-soars-85pc-on-first-day-of-trade-20210212-p571xu
Singular Health soars 85pc on first day of trade
Yolanda Redrup Reporter
Feb 12, 2021 – 4.12pm
Medical imaging company Singular Health looks set to follow in the footsteps of fellow medtech stock stars Pro Medicus and 4D Medical, with the small cap company surging 85 per cent on its first day of trade.
The business, which sells a subscription-based virtual reality medical imaging tool and is in the process of commercialising a 3D imaging product that can be used on a smartphone or tablet, raised $6 million at 20¢ per share, giving it a market capitalisation of $20 million. On open it leapt as high as 40¢, before sliding back to 37¢ in late trade in Friday.
Speaking to AFR Weekend, Singular Health managing director Thomas Hanly said the raise had been more than three times oversubscribed.
“There’s always been a good market for medtech stories. Gold might come in and out of flavour and lithium is up one day and down the next, but medtech stocks have transcended that,” he said.
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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/551785/Paramedic-develops-mass-casualty-incident-app.htm
Paramedic develops mass casualty incident app
Thursday, 11 February 2021
NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
An electronic patient triage and tracking system for mass casualty incidents has been developed and tested by an intensive care paramedic with experience of the Christchurch earthquakes and mosque shootings.
Dean Brown, chief executive and founder of Triage-Plus, tells eHealthNews.nz that when there is a mass casualty incident, hospitals need to know how many patients are coming, how sick they are and when they will arrive.
The new tool makes that possible by providing a real-time dashboard of information that can be used by any organisation involved in responding to the incident, such as hospitals, ambulance services, civil defence and police.
“It makes the information available to everyone at the same time using simple technology,” he says.
In a mass casualty incident, first responders triage patients and attach a colour coded tag or wrist band to indicate their status. Triage-Plus uses tags with an RFID chip so this information is instantly accessible to those who need it and all patients are geo-tagged so they can be easily located again.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nsw-govt-it-cost-overruns-fall-by-90-percent-in-four-years-560956
NSW govt IT cost overruns fall by 90 percent in four years
By Justin Hendry on Feb 12, 2021 12:55PM
Following introduction of IT project cop.
Average NSW government IT project blowouts are now 93 percent smaller than they were four years ago due in part to a whole-of-government assurance unit set up to end IT failures.
The ICT and digital assurance unit, which sits in the Department of Customer Service, was introduced in late 2016 alongside a strict new IT assurance framework to keep projects in check.
It followed a series of costly overruns on big IT projects like the now-infamous learning management and business reform (LMBR), which eventually came in at $755 million over 12 years.
Under the framework, any project valued at $10 million or more, as well as those deemed of “strategic importance or concern”, is to be reviewed, with sign-off necessary before projects move forward.
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The framework enabling the digital capabilities of nurses and midwives
By Jane Allman
Friday, 12 February, 2021
2020 — Year of the Nurse and Midwife — was intended to be a global celebration of the critical and central role nurses and midwives play in health care. But a global pandemic saw celebration plans put on ice, as Australia’s largest healthcare workforce instead worked tirelessly in gruelling and unprecedented circumstances to fight for the lives of their patients.
Although celebratory plans were shelved, the value of nurses and midwives in our communities was brought into sharp focus — perhaps even more so than ever before. Frontline healthcare professionals, nurses and midwives have and are playing a leading role in Australia’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nurses and midwives have been using technology to care for their patients for many years, but with the recent rapid expansion of technology in health care, the focus is on empowering nurses and midwives to lead the digital transformation of the health system.
The National Nursing and Midwifery Digital Health Capability Framework — developed by nurses and midwives in collaboration with the Australian Digital Health Agency, the Australasian Institute of Digital Health, and peak nursing bodies and leaders — helps nurses and midwives assess their digital capabilities and pursue professional development if needed.
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https://digitalhealth.org.au/blog/institute-welcomes-digital-health-capability-framework/
Institute welcomes digital health capability framework
12 February, 2021
The
National Nursing and Midwifery Digital Health Capability Framework is
positively welcomed by the Australasian Institute of Digital Health’s Nursing
and Midwifery Community of Practice.
The framework provides:
- a transparent vison for nurses and midwives, of the skills expected of them during the delivery of care using digital health technologies and maximising data driven decision making
- an understanding for nursing and midwifery management and executives, of how the workforce, resources, and scopes of practice need to be structured in a digitised environment to foster best practice and support health outcomes
- the necessary tools and common language for nursing and midwifery leaders, to support a culture of technology acceptance and innovation awareness and empower the workforce to develop the key capabilities required for 21st century practice
- the key graduate attributes for nursing and midwifery education providers, to competently and confidently demonstrate in a digitised clinical setting
- clarity in career planning toward nursing and midwifery informatics roles, for those nurses and midwives who wish to evolve and participate in within their organisations
- a conceptual framework for nursing and midwifery researchers, which directs critical thinking and continuous quality improvement activities for individual practitioners, healthcare organisations, and the professions
- visible and agile nurse and midwife commitment to their patient and client, which is agile and responsive to the changing landscape of healthcare.
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Deloitte revealed as first systems integrator for new myGov platform
By Justin Hendry on Feb 11, 2021 1:21PM
Joins three-strong vendor panel.
Deloitte has been named the first systems integrator on a multi-vendor panel arrangement that will be used to develop the next stage of the government’s Facebook-inspired son-of-myGov platform.
The digital arm of the consulting giant, Deloitte Digital, was appointed to the panel alongside two other system integrators (SIs) in late 2020, with initial integration work now underway.
It comes nine months after the Digital Transformation Agency went looking for system integrators to deliver ‘horizon two’ of the government digital experience platform (GOVDXP).
Horizon two will involve developing an integration layer that sits over Services Australia’s existing myGov system and its services, including for Centrelink and Medicare.
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QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Singtel caught up in Accellion breach
By Ry Crozier on Feb 11, 2021 1:52PM
Working to establish files accessed.
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and Singtel are the latest large organisations to fall victim to the Accellion data breach.
QIMR Berghofer said in a statement that about 4 percent of data held on the file-sharing system - or 620MB in total - appeared to have been accessed by an unknown party on Christmas Day.
It used Accellion “to receive and share data from clinical trials of anti-malarial drugs” though it said no personally-identifiable information was in the documents on the system.
“These clinical trials are conducted with healthy volunteers,” QIMR Berghofer said.
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Hacker tries to dump chemical into Florida city’s water
· AFP
A hacker broke into a Florida city’s water supply and pushed levels of a potentially dangerous chemical up 100-fold.
The hack was quickly reversed, but it underscored the threat of cyberattacks to US infrastructure, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said.
A computer operator for the Oldsmar water treatment system in Tampa noticed someone remotely accessing the plant’s controls, he said.
The operator watched the mouse pointer move between various functions for several minutes before opening the controls for adding sodium hydroxide to the water. The chemical, also used in drain cleaners, is added in very small amounts to control acidity and remove metals from drinking water.
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Friday, 12 February 2021 10:04
‘Romance baiting’ lures victims as dating scams rise, warns ACCC
Losses by Australians to dating and romance scams are expected to be much higher this year as scammers turn to a new technique - romance baiting - using dating apps to lure victims into investment scams, according to the consumer watchdog, the ACCC.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s warning follows a record-breaking $37 million lost to Scamwatch last year for dating and romance scams.In 2020, there were also 7,314 reports to the ACCC of investment scams with losses over $66 million.
According to the ACCC, the new technique of romance baiting involves scammers meeting people on dating apps and then moving the conversation to an encrypted chat site.
After a few weeks of developing a relationship, the scammer will begin asking about the victim’s finances and encourage them to participate in an investment opportunity, the ACCC warns.
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https://www.itwire.com/security/phishing-still-a-problem,-says-proofpoint.html
Monday, 08 February 2021 21:06
Phishing still a problem, says Proofpoint
Security company Proofpoint's seventh annual State of the Phish report reveals that nearly three-quarters (74%) of surveyed infosec professionals in Australia said their organisations faced broad-based phishing attacks in 2020.
In addition to phishing, ransomware is still another significant problem with two-thirds of Australian survey respondents saying their organisations were affected.
User training – or the lack of it – could be part of the problem.
While 80% of Australian survey respondents said their workforce shifted to working from home in 2020, only 32% said they trained users on safe remote working.
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https://www.miragenews.com/safer-internet-day-2021-start-chat-about-online-511433/
February 9, 2021 8:03 am AEDT
Safer Internet Day 2021 – ‘Start chat about online safety’
Australian Digital Health Agency
On Safer Internet Day, Tuesday 9 February, the Australian Digital Health Agency encourages you to “start the chat about managing your digital footprint”.
By sharing your experiences and encouraging online awareness you can protect your family, workplace and community from cyber threats – for example reporting suspicious online activity or taking the six steps for simple digital self-defence.
Agency Chief Information Security Officer Anthony Kitzelmann encourages everyone to get involved.
/Public Release. This material comes from the originating organization and may be of a point-in-time nature, edited for clarity, style and length. View in full here.
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Safer Internet Day 2021 - ‘Start the chat about online safety’
Published 9 February 2021
On Safer Internet Day, Tuesday 9 February, the Australian Digital Health Agency encourages you to “start the chat about managing your digital footprint”.
By sharing your experiences and encouraging online awareness you can protect your family, workplace and community from cyber threats – for example reporting suspicious online activity or taking the six steps for simple digital self-defence.
Agency Chief Information Security Officer Anthony Kitzelmann encourages everyone to get involved.
“Just as you keep your physical assets like your home, car and wallet secure, the same diligence is required for your online assets and identity. Remember that being cyber secure is not just a job for experts. It’s something we all need to work at as we go about our daily lives.”
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Breakthrough surgical robotic system breaks out in Australia
Tuesday, 09 February, 2021
Sydney’s Macquarie University Hospital is reported to be the first facility in Australia to adopt breakthrough, minimally invasive robotic surgical technology.
The Versius Surgical Robotic System is listed on the Australian Register for Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) for use in gynaecological, urologic and general surgery laparoscopic procedures. Being modular and versatile, the system can be quickly moved between operating rooms, allowing surgeons and hospitals to maximise the number of procedures the system can perform. Once in the operating theatre, Versius can be set up within 15 min.
Macquarie University Hospital CEO Walter Kmet said, “We continually invest in state-of-the art technology to improve patient outcomes. This is a very exciting development for Macquarie University Hospital. Our team are the first in Australia and among a number of pioneering sites in the world to offer this new, innovative type of robotic surgery.”
Brought to Australia by LifeHealthcare, the Versius Surgical Robotic System, developed by CMR Surgical, was designed using feedback from surgeons and surgical teams to address some of the major barriers to minimally invasive surgery, including limited range of movement and challenging ergonomics.
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/nbn-pauses-weekly-numbers-due-to-new-hfc-connection-stop/
NBN pauses weekly numbers due to new HFC connection stop
Global chipset supply chain issues somehow restrict the ability to release stats in Australia.
By Chris Duckett | February 12, 2021 -- 04:59 GMT (15:59 AEDT) | Topic: Networking
The company responsible for the National Broadband Network has said it will be reviewing its generally reliable weekly release of rollout statistics, as it pinned the blame on the recent HFC pause.
"The Weekly Progress Report (Build) is currently being reviewed by NBN Co for any impacts of the global equipment and component shortage on the NBN HFC network. Publishing of the next Weekly Progress Report (Build) will resume as soon as possible," the company said in an update on its report page.
Curiously, the report does not break down its numbers by technology -- only whether a connection is fixed brownfields, fixed greenfields, satellite, or wireless.
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/nbn-aims-up-at-first-positive-full-year-ebitda-after-25-revenue-bump/
NBN aims up at first positive full-year EBITDA after 25% revenue bump
Company also announced the next 100,000 fibre-to-the-node premises that are set to have the network in their street upgraded.
By Chris Duckett | February 9, 2021 -- 22:32 GMT (09:32 AEDT) | Topic: Networking
The company responsible for the National Broadband Network (NBN) has dispensed with its previous earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) games as it gears up to report positive earnings at year end after a solid first half.
For the six months to the end of 2020, NBN reported a 25% increase in revenue to AU$2.26 billion, which it said was thanks to 660,000 premises joining the network and increased demand for higher speed plans. Revenue from business customers was also up by a quarter compared to this time last year, and was reported as AU$397 million. Average revenue per residential user remained flat over the past year at AU$45 each month.
On the EBITDA front, the company reported AU$424 million, a AU$1.1 billion turnaround on the AU$663 million EBITDA loss reported last year, and included AU$809 billion in payments to Telstra and Optus as users switch onto the government-owned network. Those payments had previously been excluded as NBN paraded an "adjusted EBITDA" figure as its headline number.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/telstra-renews-calls-to-rein-in-nbn-prices-560941
Telstra renews calls to rein in NBN prices
By Ry Crozier on Feb 11, 2021 1:18PM
As income and net profit fall for the first half.
Telstra has renewed calls to rein in the steady march of NBN prices upwards, saying wholesale prices in the back half of this decade could eclipse current retail prices.
CEO Andrew Penn told the telco’s half-year results that NBN Co’s stated goals to increase average revenue per user (ARPU) would only increase retailers’ costs, which at some point would be passed on in the form of higher prices - unless something was to change.
He said the constant threat of higher prices in the NBN business created “an element of headwind”, on top of the “headwind” that Telstra has reported over the past few years attributed to the migration to the NBN.
“If NBN ARPUs continue to increase in line with the pricing structure, consumers will have to pay more. That is the bottom line,” Penn said.
“In fact, if you model it out to the second half of this decade, and they continue to use the same structure, wholesale prices will be higher than current retail prices, so that’s obviously not sustainable.
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Data-hungry customers lift NBN earnings
NBN Co has lifted its pre-tax earnings by more than $1bn year-on-year, a turnaround driven by data-hungry customers in lockdown purchasing higher speed connections and by falling payments to Optus and Telstra.
On Wednesday NBN Co, which recently declared “mission accomplished” on its network build, posted total revenue of $2.26bn for the six months to end-December and pre-tax earnings of $424m for the half, up from a loss of $663m from a year earlier.
The network’s bottom line losses for the year narrowed to $2.11bn for the December half, from $2.82bn previously.
The company has been forced to hit pause on new hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) connections however due to a global supply chain issue that the company said could last for months.
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NBN Co's Technology Choice online quote generator priced 43,000 upgrades in a fortnight
By Ry Crozier on Feb 10, 2021 8:05PM
Astronomical response rate revealed.
NBN Co’s instant online quote tool for its user-pays Technology Choice program spat out over 43,000 quotes in two weeks, 14 times more than were issued in the nearly six years prior.
The numbers put into perspective the viral effect that the online quoting tool had when it was soft-launched on November 30 last year.
The tool was reported to have been temporarily suspended on December 13, though it is understood that NBN Co stopped using it even earlier on December 5. The tool resumed again on February 1 this year.
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NBN Co names more FTTN cities and towns in path for fibre upgrade
By Ry Crozier on Feb 10, 2021 8:48AM
Assuming those customers order higher-speed services.
NBN Co has unveiled the second group of suburbs and towns that are currently served with fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) but will now be partially overbuilt with fibre.
The release of the so-called “second tranche” coincides with NBN Co’s half-year results, and covers about 100,000 premises.
They are named as:
- Western Australia: Girrawheen, Kingsley, Wanneroo, Canning Vale, Jandakot South
- South Australia: Elizabeth, Gepps Cross, Sailsbury, Golden Grove
- Victoria: Deer Park, Sydenham, Berwick South, Cranbourne, Narre Warren
- NSW: Campbelltown, Elderslie, Narellan, Maitland, Singleton, Tarro, New Lambton, Bathurst, Orange
- Queensland: Albany Creek, Ashgrove, Bald Hills, Ferny Hills, Townsville, Robina, Burleigh Heads
The first tranche, named in October last year, also covered about 100,000 premises.
The upgrades are being conducted under a $2.9 billion program announced by NBN Co last year.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-pays-3-billion-of-its-195-billion-government-loan-560876
NBN Co pays $3 billion of its $19.5 billion government loan
By Ry Crozier on Feb 10, 2021 12:25PM
Using privately-sourced debt.
NBN Co has started to pay down the $19.5 billion it was loaned by the government back in 2016 to complete the rollout, using a mix of privately-sourced debt funding.
The company talked up its financial position and debt-sourcing acumen at its half-year results today, repeating several times that it is “in the top ranks of Australian corporate borrowers”.
It sourced a combined $10.1 billion in calendar year 2020, comprising $6.1 billion from banks in May last year and “additional facilities of $4 billion during the six months to 31 December 2020, including $1.6 billion in Australian Medium Term Notes (AMTN).”
It used $3 billion of this total debt funding - “the full proceeds of the AMTN and $1.4 billion bank debt drawdowns” - to start paying off the $19.5 billion government loan it received in November 2016 to complete the rollout, after running out of equity.
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https://www.afr.com/companies/telecommunications/nbn-books-billion-dollar-turnaround-20210209-p570xc
NBN books billion dollar turnaround
Lucas Baird Reporter
Feb 10, 2021 – 9.23am
NBN Co turned its earnings around by more than a billion dollars in the half year to December 31, helped by rapidly shrinking legacy payments to Telstra and Optus.
The government owned national broadband network company booked $424 million of earnings after so-called subscriber costs in the six months to December 31, compared to a $663 million shortfall in the corresponding prior period.
The company paid $809 million to the nation’s two largest telecoms companies in the period, compared to $1.44 billion in the first half of the 2020 financial year. NBN Co said the subscriber costs – payments for the disconnection of their existing broadband services to migrate customers to the NBN – would keep decreasing.
More than 660,000 customers moved to the NBN during the period.
Revenue was up 25 per cent on the corresponding prior period to $2.26 billion, but average revenue per user remained stuck at $45.
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Monday, 08 February 2021 10:18
NBN Co's HFC product is a dog's breakfast, claims Tasmanian RSP
One of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's contributions to the national broadband network, the HFC network, has been termed a dog's breakfast by a retail service provider.
Damian Ivereigh, the chief executive of the Launceston-based RSP Launtel, said in a blog post that HFC was the worst product that the NBN Co was selling, far worse that fixed wireless, with the latter technology having had some of its congestion issues fixed recently.
At the start of February, the NBN Co said it would stop providing new connections on the HFC network from 2 February onwards due to an acute shortage of network termination devices.
This is not the first time that the HFC service has been hit by issues that have delayed the rollout of new connections.
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As Australia opens the door to 5G, it’s time to keep the threats out
SEAN DUCA
It seems like a distant memory that we were still using dial-up modems only twenty years ago while the maximum file size was a mere 2.8 megabytes on our trusty floppy disks.
Even as early as 2005, only 16.8 per cent of the globe was connected to the internet, making it hard to keep pace with the 15.2 million terabytes that Australians are now downloading each year, especially as COVID-19 has shifted our lifestyles and communications increasingly online.
That’s why it’s important to recognise that 5G isn’t coming, it’s already here – Australian telcos have been rolling out 5G network infrastructure since 2019 in a ’blink and you’ll miss it’ update that promises to bring unprecedented network speeds to our data-hungry nation.
5G speeds are predicted to be a speed-shattering twenty times faster than 4G LTE, and as the Australian Government declares 2021 ‘the year of 5G’ with the first auction of the millimetre wave spectrum in April 2021, access to a network with speeds as high as twenty gigabytes per second is not some distant, utopian future, it’s mere months away. To put this into perspective, that is the equivalent of a 19.5-hour plane ride from Sydney to New York now taking a meagre 58 minutes.
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Three robotic spacecraft set to arrive at Mars this month
By Marcia Dunn
February 8, 2021 — 7.22am
Cape Canaveral: After hurtling hundreds of millions of miles through space since last northern summer, three robotic explorers are ready to hit the brakes at Mars.
The stakes — and anxiety — are sky high.
The United Arab Emirates’ orbiter reaches Mars on Tuesday, followed less than 24 hours later by China’s orbiter-rover combo. NASA’s rover, the cosmic caboose, will arrive on the scene a week later, on February 18, to collect rocks for return to Earth — a key step in determining whether life ever existed at Mars.
Both the UAE and China are newcomers at Mars, where more than half of Earth’s emissaries have failed. China’s first Mars mission, a joint effort with Russia in 2011, never made it past Earth’s orbit.
“We are quite excited as engineers and scientists, at the same time quite stressed and happy, worried, scared,” said Omran Sharaf, project manager for the UAE.
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Enjoy!
David.
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