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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Quite a lot on
the go, with Queensland again in the news for all the wrong reasons.
Otherwise the
encryption law debate has ramped up again. Given our secure messaging systems
rely on such technologies we need to keep an eye on what is going on
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Premier called upon to halt electronic medical record project
By Lucy Stone
February
14, 2019 — 5.28pm
The
Queensland premier has been questioned in State Parliament on whether she will
halt the rollout of Queensland Health’s integrated electronic medical record.
It
follows relevations about the state’s public health clinicians detailing
serious concerns with the project’s fast-tracked rollout and the consequences
for hospitals including patient safety risks.
Dr
Richard Ashby, the chief executive officer of eHealth Queensland and
responsible for the rollout until late December, resigned two
weeks ago for “personal reasons” after Queensland Health director-general
Michael Walsh referred allegations of an undeclared personal relationship to
the Crime and Corruption Commission.
Health
Minister Steven Miles immediately ordered the halt of a second major eHealth
Queensland digital project, the $200 million patient administration system
replacement.
-----
'We cannot remain silent': Queensland clinicians' fears on electronic medical record
By Lucy Stone
February
13, 2019 — 9.48pm
Clinicians
at Queensland's public hospitals say they “cannot remain silent” in the face of
patient safety risks related to Queensland Health’s integrated electronic
medical record project.
Their
fears have been detailed in letters written by hospital staff, and by peak
health bodies writing on their behalf, to Queensland Health’s director-general
Michael Walsh, to the Health Minister, and to eHealth Queensland’s former chief
executive Richard Ashby.
Patient
safety risk examples given by some clinicians in their correspondence included
difficulties administering medications and medications going missing in the
software.
Health
Minister Steven Miles said Queensland Health consulted "in depth"
with all hospital clinicians before, during and after the rollout of the
integrated electronic medical record at hospitals.
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Electronic medical record costing Queensland hospitals millions
By Lucy Stone
February
11, 2019 — 10.20pm
Queensland’s
public hospitals are dealing with multimillion-dollar blowouts to install an
integrated electronic medical record that clinicians say is flawed and putting
patients at risk.
Many
Hospital and Health Services are floundering under the booming cost of the
health department’s integrated electronic medical record (ieMR) project, while
patients at some public hospitals have been affected by increased elective
surgery wait times.
The
state's Hospital and Health Services are statutory bodies running several
hospitals and community health centres within each region, receiving state,
federal and their own funding.
A
Queensland Health spokesman said many hospitals had spent more than originally
predicted as a result of "increased scope, the emergence of new
technology, and features requested by clinicians".
-----
eHealth Queensland saved AU$1m per year through a better password reset process
35 percent of calls to the IT support service were from the
state's health care providers calling after they forgot their passwords.
The
Queensland health system is comprised of 16 individual health services that are
each their own statutory authority; but they all turn to eHealth Queensland for
IT support.
In
addition to providing tech support for around 100,000 employees, eHealth
Queensland was charged with assisting Australia's first digital hospital, the
Princess Alexandria Hospital. There are now nine advanced digital hospitals in
Queensland.
According
to eHealth Queensland chief customer experience officer Michael Berndt, over
the next six to 12 months, another six hospitals are going to be fully
digitised, with the expectation that around 80 percent of the state's hospital
and health service facilities will be digital over the coming years.
-----
Queensland Health's vaccination reminder app labelled 'useless' by parents
13 February, 2019
A Queensland Health mobile app designed to issue reminders for
childhood vaccinations has been wiping the data entered by parents, prompting complaints
that it is essentially "useless".
Key points:
- About 60 people have complained to Queensland Health about the app wiping data
- Queensland Health has apologised to app users and said it has fixed the problem
- Health Minister Steven Miles said the app shouldn't be solely relied upon for vaccination reminders
The
free VacciDate app was launched in 2014, allowing parents to enter their
child's details and receive reminders on their smartphones and tablets when
immunisations are due.
But
dozens of parents have reported their information has been deleted from the app
and are no longer receiving alerts in the lead-up to scheduled vaccinations.
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SafeScript proves its mettle in first four months
System alerts
pharmacists about thousands of patients at risk
13th February
2019
Victoria’s
SafeScript system appears to be proving its value, with pharmacies and doctors
receiving alerts about more than 7000 patients at risk in the past four months.
The
first phase of the project started in the Western Victorian Primary Health
Network (PHN) in October. Initial department of health data provided to the
Pharmacy Guild show that:
- Overall, SafeScript has picked up 7432 patients at increased risk.
- There have been 4348 alerts to doctors and pharmacists about patients visiting multiple general practices and pharmacies.
- Other alerts involve patients taking high doses or a combination of monitored medicines.
- Pharmacist uptake of the system in the Western Victoria PHN is over double that of doctors (79% versus 35%).
- One in two pharmacists and one in seven doctors are active users of SafeScript. They regularly login and are active on the platform.
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Breakthrough on hospital–GP clinical handover
A major Australian hospital service has moved to reframe discharge
summaries as clinical handovers, following years of advocacy by local GPs.
For the first
time, interns and junior doctors beginning at the Gold Coast Hospital and
Health Service (GCHHS) this year, as well as most senior doctors, were shown a video stressing the need to do a proper
clinical handover to GPs at the time of discharge.
The video asks hospital doctors to ensure a handover answers four key questions, namely what the patient’s diagnosis was, whether there were complications, allergies or alerts, what the medications are at discharge, and what plans are there for further care after discharge.
The ground-breaking move addresses a longstanding GP complaint over very slow or lacking communication from hospitals and has been hailed by many local GPs, including Dr Kat McLean, who last year publically called for change.
The Chair of the GCHHS board, Ian Langdon, told newsGP the move was in the best interest of patients.
‘The board and management have made the determination that a clinical handover at the time of discharge is of paramount importance,' he said.
-----
The video asks hospital doctors to ensure a handover answers four key questions, namely what the patient’s diagnosis was, whether there were complications, allergies or alerts, what the medications are at discharge, and what plans are there for further care after discharge.
The ground-breaking move addresses a longstanding GP complaint over very slow or lacking communication from hospitals and has been hailed by many local GPs, including Dr Kat McLean, who last year publically called for change.
The Chair of the GCHHS board, Ian Langdon, told newsGP the move was in the best interest of patients.
‘The board and management have made the determination that a clinical handover at the time of discharge is of paramount importance,' he said.
-----
RACGP signs marketing deal with overseas software company
The college says
it has entered a three-year contract to 'improve the products GPs use every
day'
12th February
2019
The
RACGP says it is entering a three-year marketing deal with an overseas
company wanting to sell practice software to GPs.
The
move is likely to reignite concerns over the college’s role in setting e-health
standards while financially benefiting through commercial arrangements with
software vendors.
In
a message to its members posted on the closed section of its website last
month, the college said it had entered a three-year marketing agreement to
promote GP software called Hello Health.
So
far, two contracts with Hello Health’s overseas owners Myca and the
college’s commercial arm RACGP Oxygen have been signed off by the
college’s board.
-----
Telstra pins its profit growth hopes on 5G as full-year dividend set to drop
By Chanticleer
Feb 14, 2019 —
10.49am
Telstra's
interim results reveal an industry suffering a squeeze on profit margins from
the growing footprint of the NBN Co's wholesale broadband network and increased
competition in mobiles.
Telstra's
profit margins went backwards in mobile, fixed line and in network application
services, which was once heralded as one of the key businesses of the future at
the country's biggest telco.
Adding
to the pressure on profit was the decline in the average revenue per user in
fixed line retail (minus 3.4 per cent), mobile postpaid (minus 2.4 per cent)
and in mobile broadband.
……
Telstra
health revenue rose 50 per cent which more than offset the decline in revenue
from the sale of Ooyala.
-----
Need to know? Go to #Be Health Aware
MEDIA RELEASE
Tuesday 12 February 2019
The Consumers
Health Forum today launches a new portal, #Be Health Aware,
to help people find the health information they seek.
Modern health
care involves more choice and complexity for consumers and patients than ever,
the CEO of the Consumers Health Forum, Leanne Wells, says.
“That’s why we
have established #Be Health Aware. Whether you need to know more
about what to ask your doctor, patient guides, how to lodge a health complaint,
or health insurance, or how Medicare works, #Be Health Aware offers
information on what to do or where to go,” Ms Wells said.
“The Consumers
Health Forum has developed this new portal for consumers and the community
as part of our advocacy of health literacy as a central element of
consumer-centred health care.
-----
Microsoft pushes multibillion-dollar health AI tech in Australia
By Bo Seo
Updated Feb 11,
2019 — 4.48pm, first published at 4.00pm
Microsoft
will try to capitalise on growing pressure on operating margins and workplace
dissatisfaction in the healthcare sector, as the technology giant looks to
expand its multibillion-dollar healthcare business into Australia.
Peter
Lee, Microsoft's corporate vice-president and former Carnegie Mellon university
professor whom chief executive Satya Nadella charged with the company's
healthcare push in 2017, said the Australian market was "super
interesting" and growing as organisations looked to cloud-based technology
to improve services.
Despite
the government's troubles in encouraging Australians to sign
on to electronic health records, the use of medical data across
practices and disciplines is growing rapidly in Australia.
Last
Friday, at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference
in Orlando, Florida, Microsoft announced new products aimed at communication
capability for collaborative care; cloud-based data systems for the easy exchange
of healthcare information, and artificial intelligence applications to
high-precision medicine.
-----
Microsoft Healthcare Bot brings conversational AI to healthcare
Sunday, 10 February 2019
Microsoft has announced the general availability of the
Microsoft Healthcare Bot in the Azure Marketplace.
The Microsoft Healthcare Bot is a cloud service that powers
conversational AI for healthcare. It’s designed to empower healthcare
organisations to build and deploy compliant, AI-powered virtual health
assistants and chatbots that help them put more information in the hands of
their users, enable self-service, drive better outcomes and reduce costs.
The Healthcare Bot service has several unique aspects:
Out-of-the-box healthcare intelligence including language
models to understand healthcare intents and medical terminology, as well as
content from credible providers with information about conditions, symptoms,
doctors, medications and even a symptom checker.
-----
Computer 'doctor' diagnoses child diseases
An artificial intelligence system designed to diagnose childhood
diseases can recognise symptoms more accurately than many human doctors, a
study has shown.
John von Radowitz
Press Association
February 12, 20192:22pm
An artificial intelligence system designed to diagnose childhood
diseases can recognise symptoms more accurately than many human doctors, a
study has shown.
The
"deep learning" programme, tested in China, assimilated information
from more than 1.4 million electronic health records.
It
was then able to draw on its "experience" to diagnose a broad range
of childhood diseases, with accuracy rates of more than 90% in some cases.
The
system performed better than junior doctors, but not quite as well as more
senior experienced physicians.
-----
To fax or not to fax?
Hafizah Osman | 13 Feb 2019
Faxes have been used to send documents
over phone lines since the mid ‘60s, and while many medical practices have
changed since then, the fax continues on with many health systems still
depending heavily on the technology.
The healthcare industry has begun understanding that fax can
present a clinical risk when dealing with sensitive patient information as the
faxed content can be misplaced or fall into the wrong hands.
Hence, replacing outdated fax machines with secure messaging
systems has been a focus for some in the Australian healthcare industry as
information sent via the latter is sent directly to the receiver.
But there is still resistance in the uptake of secure
messaging even though there is a proliferation of medical referrals in the
industry, requiring the use of secure messaging systems.
-----
Next generation of health informatics leaders: ACHI looking for industry partners
Are you a leader
in the health informatics field? Are you interested in supporting the
development of the future generation of health informatics leaders?
The Australasian
College for Health Informatics (ACHI) Fellowship by Training (FbT) Program is
currently developing partnerships with suitable organisations to place
candidates with a wide range of skills and experiences. We are interested to
hear from any organisation who wants to support and work with the future
leaders of the Australasian health informatics workforce by providing paid
placements in 2019.
The FbT Program was established as a training pathway to ACHI Fellowship.
It is designed to prepare individuals for leadership roles in the health
informatics workforce and address the current demands for experienced and
qualified health informatics specialists from various disciplines. On
completion of the Fellowship Program candidates will hold a PhD academic
qualification, have a portfolio of work, and will be awarded Fellowship by the
Australasian College of Health Informatics
The
four-year (full time) program includes a health informatics research doctoral
program at an Australasian University, a program of supplementary learning
activities and two paid 6-month (full time equivalent) work placements.
-----
National Clinical Terminology Service Connectathon – Expressions of Interest - March 2019
12
February 2019: The Australian Digital Health Agency in collaboration with CSIRO,
are hosting the sixth and seventh technical Connectathons on the National Clinical Terminology Service
(NCTS) including the use of HL7's Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources
(FHIR®). A Connectathon will be held on 18 March in Sydney and repeated on 20 March in
Melbourne – registrations close on 28 February.
Please
note that these are separate 1-day events (9am-5pm AEDT) held in two different
locations.
Connectathons
are practical events designed to help you connect with and use our terminology
services and products such as Ontoserver and Snapper. Experts will be available
to troubleshoot and answer questions. At the end of the day, participants are
encouraged to demonstrate what they achieved and discuss any challenges or
insights they had along the way.
-----
Benchmark Awards 2019 Finalist: Fiona Sparks, Department of Health and Human Services Victoria
Mobilising over 100 projects.
Fiona
Sparks leads the Strategy & Design team of the Business Technology &
Information Management branch at the Victorian Department of Health and Human
Services (DHHS).
Sparks
has been in charge of mobilising over 100 projects whose investment portfolio
reached $130 million this year as part of her leadership of the department’s IT
strategy, planning and budgeting processes.
The
key focus of these projects has been to enable application modernisation and
multi-agency information sharing - both of which had been stymied by the
perceived cost and difficulty of updating systems and procedures.
-----
Technology underpins the clinical genomics movement in Australia
Hafizah Osman | 11 Feb 2019
Traditional ways of patient care need
to be turned on their heads when it comes to implementing clinical genomics.
They now require technology platforms that support data streams, according to
an expert in the field.
Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance Program Manager Kate
Birch, who will be speaking at the upcoming HIMSS19 conference in Orlando, told
HITNA
that the alliance is examining ways to make data support part of a standard
practice.
In doing that, it aims to bring global knowledge to
individual care for Victorians.
“We aim to do it through a few ways: both delivering the
clinical tests where they’re indicated and also making sure that the data is
put in a way that can be used for research in future,” she said.
-----
Defence may reintroduce less-restrictive crypto research permits
Department says it will look at reviving two-step research permits
that allowed a broad range of international cooperation on cryptography
research
A
spokesperson for the Department of Defence says it will consider the
reintroduction of a permit that loosened restrictions on international
collaboration between cryptography researchers.
Under
the Defence
Trade Controls Act, cryptography is a controlled export. In some
circumstances, international research efforts can be classified as exporting a
technology.
Prominent
Australian cryptography researcher Dr Vanessa Teague, an associate professor at
the University of Melbourne, has revealed that Defence declined to renew her permit allowing
her to freely collaborate with researchers in countries that are not the
subject of sanctions
-----
Atlassian fights ‘chokehold’ laws
- February 11, 2019
The Australian start-up ecosystem has banded together to help fix
the government’s so-called anti-encryption bill, a law Atlassian boss Scott
Farquhar says is placing a chokehold on the Australian technology industry.
A host of Australia’s leading technology companies including
Atlassian, Canva, SafetyCulture, Blackbird and Airtree have joined peak body
StartupAUS in signing a letter to the Federal Parliamentary Joint Committee on
Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) calling for the bill’s repeal and making four
recommendations that would drastically reduce the scope of the legislation.
“We want to work with the government to try and improve this,” Mr
Farquhar told The Australian. “This is an issue for our entire industry,
and this legislation is a chokehold on the Australian technology industry. It’s
been very easy to focus all the people that have problems with this bill on the
same solution,
-----
Atlassian leads encryption law revolt as Peter Dutton stands firm
Feb 11, 2019 —
11.00pm
Australian
tech heavyweights led by Atlassian's Scott Farquhar have called for urgent
changes to controversial anti-encryption laws, which he said were already
causing firms to lose international customers and risked choking progress of
the local tech industry.
Home
affairs Minister Peter Dutton, however, claimed the new powers, which were
rushed through with bipartisan support before Parliament rose for the
Christmas break last year, were already helping to fight serious crimes, and
would be largely unchanged.
The
Telecommunications Assistance and Access laws were introduced to enable
authorities to monitor communications of terrorists and dangerous criminals
within encrypted applications, such as WhatsApp and Telegram. However, the
wording of the legislation meant all kinds of businesses were brought under the
requirements to decrypt their data under law enforcement demands.
-----
Australian tech firms seek changes in encryption law
- 12 February 2019
- Written by Sam Varghese
A
number of Australian technology companies, led by the charity StartupAUS, have
called on the Federal Government to make four changes in the encryption law
that was passed last year.
The
changes were sought in a submission made to the review of the legislation —
known as the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and
Access) Act 2018 — that is being conducted by the Parliamentary Joint Committee
on Intelligence and Security. The PJCIS is expected to submit a report to
government by 3 April.
Among
the firms signing on to the submission were Airtree, Atlassian, Blackbird,
Brighte, Culture Amp, Canva, Freelancer, Girl Geek Academy, Safety Culture,
Square Peg Capital, Tech Sydney, WiseTech Global and 99designs.
Under
the law, there are three ways listed by which the authorities can get industry
to aid in gaining access to encrypted material. A technical assistance request
(TAR) allows for voluntary help by a company; in this case, its staff would be
given civil immunity from prosecution.
-----
Labor concedes decryption laws weakened security for internet users
Says change needed to protect "virtually every" smartphone and net user.
Labor
has all but conceded the security of Australians is weaker in the wake of
encryption-busting legislation it helped rush through parliament last year.
The
concession came as the opposition accused the government of reneging on a deal
to consider more changes to the law after it had passed.
Liberal
MP Andrew Hastie, who is also the chair of the joint committee on intelligence
and security that continues to examine the law, provided a statement to
parliament late Tuesday clarifying what little further changes are likely to
even be contemplated.
The
statement came as Senators complained
that the laws were listed for debate on Wednesday morning, with no clarity on
what was even to be debated.
-----
Govt wants encryption bill powers for anti-corruption bodies
- 13 February 2019
- Written by Sam Varghese
The
Federal Government will try to push amendments to the encryption law on
Wednesday to give anti-corruption bodies the right to use its powers, while
Labor will try to get an amendment through to define a systemic weakness.
On
Tuesday, Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, who has been pushing for this
definition for a while, said the government was back-tracking on an agreement
to pass amendments which were drafted after hearings of the Joint Parliamentary
Committee on Security and Intelligence last year.
The
encryption law, officially known as the Telecommunications and Other
Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act 2018), was passed
on 6 December, but just 12 days later, the PJCIS said it would begin a
fresh review.
-----
Parties clash on encryption law
- 12:00AM February 13, 2019
Labor and the Coalition are locked in a fresh fight over new laws
that give authorities greater access to terrorists’ messages sent via encrypted
apps, with the opposition now saying they went too far.
Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus viciously attacked
the laws, saying they did not have enough judicial oversight and were a “fiasco
of lawmaking”.
Mr Dreyfus also said the opposition would refer them to a
parliamentary committee to assess their economic impact on Australian
technology companies.
Intelligence committee chairman, Liberal MP Andrew Hastie, said
the government was set to introduce its changes to the laws today, which would
also hand state anti-corruption bodies access to the powers.
-----
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/aussie-it-firms-cop-customer-trust-hit-as-encryption-laws-bite-519286
Aussie IT firms cop customer trust hit as encryption laws bite
Face 'regular questions' from customers and prospects.
Australian
technology companies are now “regularly fielding questions” from customers
about how encryption-busting laws might impact the products they have installed
and are using, ASX-listed Senetas says.
Worse
still for the tech firms, the laws passed at the end of last year look like
they could have a dulling effect on prospective sales engagements.
Additionally,
foreign competitors not subject to the same onerous rules are now using that as
a point of difference to win over business that might otherwise go to
Australian tech firms, Senetas says.
-----
Encryption powers extend to state bodies
Labor is backing a move to extend powers allowing federal law
enforcement agencies to snoop on encrypted messages to state anti-corruption
bodies.
Matt Coughlan
Australian
Associated Press February 14, 201912:00pm
Controversial encryption-busting powers rushed through parliament
late last year will be extended to federal and state corruption watchdogs.
Legislation
was debated in the Senate on Thursday which paves the way for anti-corruption
bodies to get the same powers as other agencies to compel technical assistance
to access electronic communications.
The
amendments, which are supported by the opposition, will also ensure an
independent review of the bill occurs within 18 months of it passing
parliament.
-----
Senetas asks govt to repeal 'demonstrably flawed' encryption law
- 14 February 2019
- Written by Sam Varghese
Australian
encryption technology company Senetas Corporation has called on the government
to reconsider its encryption law, claiming that it is so demonstrably flawed
that the only practical option is to withdraw it.
In
a submission
to the ongoing inquiry into the law — which was passed
without any amendments in December last year — Senetas chairman Francis
Galbally and chief executive Andrew Wilson proposed a number of changes, in the
event that the government was unwilling to scrap the law altogether.
They
urged the government to reconsider the law "as part of a collaborative
consultation process which takes into account the views of all relevant
stakeholders and persons who may be affected" by the legislation.
-----
Voice activation heralds a new frontier for security
Brian Williams
- 12:00AM February 12, 2019
Voice-activated garbage disposal. Voice-activated smart cars.
Voice-activated vacuum cleaners, light switches, toilets and televisions.
We’re caught in the hype of voice-activated devices.
These gadgets dominated the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show,
showcasing dozens of new applications using artificial-intelligence voice
assistants, with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant remaining popular.
But how easily can sophisticated criminals use a voice print to
duplicate your identity?
In many ways, our voice is more susceptible to hacking than our
face or fingerprint.
-----
Nearly a quarter of NBN users on slowest speeds
- 12 February 2019
- Written by Sam Varghese
Nearly
a quarter of Australians who have connected to the national broadband network
are on the lowest speed plan — 12Mbps down — according to the latest quarterly
Wholesale Market Indicators Report issued by the Australian Competition and
Consumer Commission.
The
total number of consumers on this speed was 1,164,157, the consumer watchdog
said in its report, which noted that almost 4.8 million Australians were now
connected to the NBN, with 56%, or about 2.7 million, using plans that provided
download speeds of 50Mbps and above.
The
number of 50Mbps plans taken up also grew, reaching about 2.3 million by the
end of December 2018, a big change from the 159,000 who were on these plans a
year earlier.
-----
NBN write-down inevitable after 'disastrous' rollout, says ex-boss
By Fergus Hunter
February
9, 2019 — 4.21pm
The
first chief executive of the NBN believes it is inevitable the value of the
network will be slashed, saying tough decisions will be needed to rectify the
"disastrous" rollout of the project.
Mike
Quigley, head of NBN Co under the former Labor government, said the Coalition's
shift to a multi-technology model and away from mass rollout of
fibre-to-the-premises had hurt the potential of the service and would
ultimately cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.
Labor
has indicated it is open to a write-down of the current $50 billion value,
arguing the Coalition’s decisions have reduced the NBN’s value to less than the
construction costs and the economics need to be fixed. If elected in May, the
opposition also wants to boost access to high-speed fibre connections.
-----
ACCAN pushes low-cost broadband plan for poorer Australians
- 12 February 2019
- Written by Sam Varghese
An
organisation that represents telecommunications consumers says political
parties should make a new affordable home broadband product for those on low
incomes a priority ahead of the forthcoming Federal Election.
The
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network said in a statement that
consideration should be given to providing a wholesale broadband concession to
provide those on lower incomes with cheaper broadband connections at home.
ACCAN
said a 50Mbps plan that provided unlimited data should be offered at a
wholesale price of $20 by NBN Co, the company building Australia's national
broadband network.
This
would mean an average price of $30 per month for households who were eligible
to subscribe to this plan - almost half the existing cost.
-----
NBN Co CEO resists price cut pressure
No basis for write-down in value of NBN, Stephen Rue says
Calls
for largescale wholesale price risk the long-term viability of NBN Co,
according to the company’s CEO, Stephen Rue.
Appearing
today before a parliamentary inquiry into NBN Co’s business case, Rue rejected
calls for a “write-down” of the value of the company.
The
term has a “very specific meaning,” the CEO said.
“NBN
Co assesses the carrying value of its assets, applying an annual fair value
assessment in accordance with accounting standards,” Rue told the hearing.
“This looks at the replacement cost of assets and the expected future cashflows
of the business. Based on recent assessments, no impairment issues exist, and
we do not see any basis for a write-down.”
-----
Telco analyst rails against NBN financial model
‘Willy-nilly write off is certainly not what is needed to fix the
problems’
Telco
analyst Paul Budde continues to hit out at one of the most talked about
infrastructure projects in recent times, criticising the current financial
model of the national broadband network and skeptical whether we will get NBN
3.0 right this time.
In
a recent analysis piece and in speaking with CIO, Budde said while NBN co’s current financial model
is not well suited for the next step in broadband deployment, “a willy-nilly
write off is certainly not what is needed to fix the problems.”
Instead,
he said the government needs to do a “national cost benefit statement” to
properly take the national interest into account and put a value on
productivity, innovation and cost savings.
“Before
any serious decisions are taken in relation to the NBN we do need to have all
the financial facts on the table - so far NBN Co have only publicly provided
selected data.”
-----
There's a big obstacle to an NBN write-down - and it's in the billions
By Stephen Bartholomeusz
February
14, 2019 — 12.00am
It
seems clear that, should it win the federal election, Labor is seriously
considering a massive write-down of the value of the national broadband
network. It’s not quite so clear how it could do it.
The
shadow communications minister, Michelle Rowland, has consistently declined to
rule out the write-down that NBN retailers have been calling for with
increasing vehemence.
Only
this week Telstra’s
Andy Penn called for policy changes to the economics of the NBN to lower
its wholesale prices. Telstra and the other major retailers have complained
that they are generating minuscule, if any, margin from reselling NBN capacity
because its wholesale prices are too high.
-----
Business case for 5G still unclear, survey finds
- 15 February 2019
- Written by Sam Varghese
A
survey of chief technology officers who are directly involved with 5G projects
at 46 telcos around the globe indicates that most are still not sure about the
strength for the business case, the management consulting firm McKinsey says.
The
company said survey participants opined that 2019 would be mostly spent on
preparation and planning for the new technology, with 61% of the operators
saying they expected peak rollout between 2020 and 2022.
The
survey
found that while confidence in the technology itself was high, it was unclear
how soon it would lead to new products and services for which people were
willing to fork out money.
Hence,
initially, most of these firms saw enhanced mobile broadband and IoT devices,
rather than fixed wireless access or mission-critical applications, as being
the most used.
-----
Enjoy!
David.
