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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The media is just swamped with COVID-19 related material and it has been necessary to look carefully for other little nuggets. I found a few and a few interesting angles. For some reason there is more NBN material than usual. The must be worried about something! Enjoy!
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myGov set for Facebook-like overhaul
Citizens to get single view of government.
A Facebook-like digital services platform that promises to give citizens a single view of their interactions with the federal government will be developed for Services Australia.
The new platform is expected to ultimately replace the government’s much-maligned existing online services portal myGov.
myGov was launched in 2013 to provide a single access point for citizens to access a range of Services from the then Department of Human Services and the Australian Tax Office.
While the portal has amassed more than 15 million user accounts since then, there remains “no single platform” that citizens can use to access all online government services and information.
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DTA goes to market for help with upping myGov capabilities
The Digital Transformation Agency wants to enhance the myGov platform to provide simple, smart, and personalised services to customers.
The federal government, which is looking to deliver a myGov update platform, is on the hunt for a systems integrator with hosting and software partnerships to help with its delivery.
As explained by the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA), the myGov update platform would operate as an extension to, and in parallel with, myGov.
"It will improve the way people and businesses to interact with government information and services," it said.
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16 March 2020
First purpose-designed virtual GP conference announced
Global chronic care education group, Optimum Patient Care, has announced a fully virtual conference on May 9 for GPs which will look at the big respiratory issues facing the sector, including COVID-19, the new asthma guidelines and bushfires.
You can register now for FREE HERE
As the sector scrambles to get organised ahead of what is forecast to be months of crisis management for GPs and the hospital sector, Optimum Patient Care (OPC), has announced that its capital city event tour on the big issues in respiratory has been retooled to be a fully virtual offering, including a live webinar on May 9.
This will be followed by a series of interactive opportunities for registered GPs, over a longer period in order not to take too much time on any one occasion. The event will feature all the same high level keynotes, and some interactive sessions with these keynotes.
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New telehealth items expanded to allow coronavirus screening
The temporary items have already been updated but the RACGP says they are still too many restrictions
16th March 2020
The Federal Government has tweaked the new telehealth items so GPs are able to triage patients suspected of being infected with coronavirus.
Items for video or phone consultations were unveiled on Friday morning under emergency measures to deal with the outbreak.
The main idea is to shift more care online, particularly for “more susceptible” patients such as the elderly, those with chronic conditions, those who are immunocompromised and pregnant women.
However, both the AMA and RACGP immediately raised concerns that the wording of the new items prevented GPs from claiming for consults with other patient groups who had yet to be diagnosed with the virus or formally quarantined.
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Cyberattack hits US health department amid coronavirus - Bloomberg
Prompting response from the National Security Council.
The US Department of Health and Human Services, a key part of the federal response to the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak, was hit by a cyberattack on Sunday night, prompting a response from the National Security Council, Bloomberg said on Monday.
Multiple hacking incidents appeared aimed at slowing down the department's systems, Bloomberg reported, citing three people familiar with the matter.
The cyberattack prompted the NSC at the White House to push out an overnight tweet after U.S. officials realized there had been an intrusion and that false information was circulating about the coronavirus response, Bloomberg reported.
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Telehealth assists infection control
Friday, 13 March, 2020
Temporary Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and Department of Veterans’ Affairs items announced by the Australian Government are allowing doctors, nurses and mental health professionals to deliver services via telehealth during the COVID-19 crisis. The six-month measure is part of the government’s plan to address the pandemic, allowing eligible Australians to access essential health services from their home while in quarantine or self-isolation. It is hoped that the strategy will reduce the risk of viral exposure to vulnerable members of the community.
Who is eligible for telehealth services?
People in isolation or quarantine for COVID-19 can see any eligible health provider through new telehealth items. Patients in vulnerable groups can additionally see a health provider via telehealth for a non-COVID-19 matter if they have seen that provider face to face at least once in the previous 12 months.
Australians eligible for the items include those who are isolating themselves at home and those who meet the national triage protocol criteria for suspected COVID-19 infection. People aged over 70 years; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders aged over 50 years; those with chronic health conditions or who are immunocompromised; and parents with new babies and people who are pregnant are also eligible.
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Real-time Health Atlas to target healthcare hotspots
Visualising service gaps to deliver better outcomes.
Australia’s Digital Health Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) has begun developing a real-time geospatial analytics tool illustrating the links between supply and demand in different geographies.
The three-year, $2 million Health Atlas project is a collaboration between the CRC, the University of Canberra’s Health Research Institute and US healthcare technology and analytics providers HMS.
While it won’t be ready in time to deal with the current COVID-19 crisis, the Atlas will map out the social and and built environment contexts in which healthcare consumers live and how those factors shape their lifestyles, health, and their access to healthcare that meets their needs.
CRC chief executive, Dr Victor Pantano, said having this data available in real-time is critical to determining where health services - especially scarce resources - should be located to deliver the best outcomes for patients.
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Australian opportunities in Indonesia's digital health ecosystem
Monday, 16 March, 2020
According to research conducted by MTPConnect and Asialink Business, Australian businesses should be seizing opportunities emerging from Indonesia’s booming digital health ecosystem, partnering with Indonesia on innovative solutions to meet the country’s rising health needs.
Representing the second phase in a major collaboration between MTPConnect and Asialink Business to assist the Australian medtech and pharmaceuticals sector to enter and expand export opportunities into Asian markets, the research provides unique insights for businesses seeking to understand the size and nature of Indonesia’s digital health sector and navigate the commercial opportunities.
Developed by the Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals Growth Centre, MTPConnect and Asialink Business, the analysis focuses on areas for partnership and collaboration in Indonesia, with tailored strategies to suit Indonesian healthcare customers reported as a key to success.
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Joint media release - 16 March 2020
Major geospatial mapping project to help target care to health hotspots
An innovative international project will use cutting-edge geospatial mapping to better target health services to those who need them most, enabling health providers and funders to understand clearly the social and built environmental contexts in which people live, how these and other factors shape their lifestyles and impact on their health, and the availability and accessibility of healthcare suited to their needs.
The three-year, $2 million project to develop a comprehensive, real-time Health Atlas is a collaboration between Australia’s Digital Health Co-operative Research Centre (Digital Health CRC), HMS of the USA, and the University of Canberra’s Health Research Institute.
CEO of the Digital Health CRC, Dr Victor Pantano, said: “This project has real potential to help deliver better access to care for millions of people across the USA, Australia and other countries.”
“Understanding where people live, what social and built environment factors impact on their health, and where they access health services, is critical in determining where health services should be located and where scarce healthcare resources are most effectively allocated.”
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The three-year, $2 million project to develop a comprehensive, real-time Health Atlas is a collaboration between Australia’s Digital Health Co-operative Research Centre (Digital Health CRC), HMS of the USA, and the University of Canberra’s Health Research Institute.
CEO of the Digital Health CRC, Dr Victor Pantano, said: “This project has real potential to help deliver better access to care for millions of people across the USA, Australia and other countries.”
“Understanding where people live, what social and built environment factors impact on their health, and where they access health services, is critical in determining where health services should be located and where scarce healthcare resources are most effectively allocated.”
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Shareholder Update: 16 March 2020
Dear fellow shareholders,
I wanted to provide you with an update on developments across our business, to provide an overview of my recent trip to UK and to give some of our current opinions relating to COVID-19.
Go-live for Miya Platform at two ACT campuses
Today we made a joint media release with ACT Health indicating that the Miya Platform has gone live at two ACT Health campuses – Canberra Hospital and The University of Canberra Hospital – covering more than 600 beds. As the first implementation of the entire Alcidion platform comprising Miya Precision, Patientrack and Smartpage to go-live, the completion of its roll-out across these two sites represents an important milestone in this five-year agreement.
We have a longstanding and productive relationship with ACT Health, which is an important reference site for our whole platform. We are delighted to be progressing our collaborative engagement to improve clinical workflows and patient outcomes. This full deployment of Miya Precision provides ACT Health with access to real-time information that will directly contribute to improved patient care.
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I wanted to provide you with an update on developments across our business, to provide an overview of my recent trip to UK and to give some of our current opinions relating to COVID-19.
Go-live for Miya Platform at two ACT campuses
Today we made a joint media release with ACT Health indicating that the Miya Platform has gone live at two ACT Health campuses – Canberra Hospital and The University of Canberra Hospital – covering more than 600 beds. As the first implementation of the entire Alcidion platform comprising Miya Precision, Patientrack and Smartpage to go-live, the completion of its roll-out across these two sites represents an important milestone in this five-year agreement.
We have a longstanding and productive relationship with ACT Health, which is an important reference site for our whole platform. We are delighted to be progressing our collaborative engagement to improve clinical workflows and patient outcomes. This full deployment of Miya Precision provides ACT Health with access to real-time information that will directly contribute to improved patient care.
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AI to ID cardiac arrests on 000 calls
Friday, 14 February, 2020
Ambulance Victoria will receive $1.71 million from the state government’s Safer Care Victoria Innovation Fund for two projects set to improve emergency response care.
The Artificial Intelligence in Cardiac Arrest project will receive $1.36 million to help ESTA triple zero operators identify signs of cardiac arrest over the phone, which is estimated to save an additional 185 lives each year.
The artificial intelligence technology runs in the background of incoming emergency calls, picking up on key words, language and sound patterns of the caller that indicate the patient is having a cardiac arrest.
If the system recognises signs of a cardiac arrest, it alerts the ESTA triple zero call-taker to dispatch a high-priority ambulance and talk bystanders through CPR or defibrillation. Ambulance Victoria will be working with Monash University to develop the technology.
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Wearable medical sensors set for a major sensitivity boost
Monday, 09 March, 2020
Russian researchers have described a way to increase the sensitivity of biological detectors (biosensors) to the point where they can be used in mobile and wearable devices, as outlined in the journal Sensors.
A biosensor is an electrochemical device that determines the composition of biological fluids in real time. Blood glucose meters used by diabetic patients may well be the only mass-market biosensing devices in use today, but futurologists say household appliances will soon be able to analyse sweat, saliva, aqueous humour and other bodily fluids to identify a person, make medical tests, diagnose disease or continuously monitor the health of an individual and make optimal diet suggestions accordingly.
Until recently such applications were not seriously considered, because the available devices were not sensitive enough and were prohibitively expensive for the consumer market. Now, a research team led by the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) Center for Photonics and 2D Materials has proposed a radically new biosensor design that could increase detector sensitivity many times over and offer a similarly impressive reduction in price.
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6 March 2020
Coronavirus makes social media platform call for GPs
The RACGP is closing its once much-vaunted social media platform ShareGP, while the independently GP moderated GPs Down Under Facebook group is literally going viral during the COVID-19 crisis.
When a crisis causes the tide to go out, some parts of a system become exposed for what they really are. In the case of social media communication, the RACGP social media play, ShareGP, by the College’s own admission, has no users.
New management at the College has made the decision to be transparent with their members, admit to the failing, and shut it down to prevent any potential further losses to the College.
That the College is shutting down during the coronavirus crisis is probably sensible in a communication sense as well, as it lessens the options, but the recommendation for other social media sites for some reason does not include any non-College entitites, such as GPs Down Under.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/asia-pacific/act-health-goes-live-miya-precision-two-hospitals
ACT Health goes live with Miya Precision at two hospitals
This implementation complements the existing use of Alcidion’s Patientrack solution and is the first step in a five-year agreement.
By Dean Koh
March 18, 2020 11:04 PM
Healthcare software solutions provider Alcidion announced that ACT Health, the public health agency of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), recently went live with Miya Precision at two campuses – Canberra Hospital and The University of Canberra Hospital.
Miya Precision is a health analytics tool powered by AI. The graphical dashboard will ensure clinicians are aware of the current patient and bed status, improving communication and visibility of patient flow across the health service to streamline the patient stay. Miya Precision leverages the capability FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) to overcome interoperability challenges, source relevant data and create clinical events.
This implementation complements the existing use of Alcidion’s Patientrack solution and is the first step in a five-year agreement.
Alcidion is also currently working with ACT Health to deploy a COVID-19 flag on their Journey boards so they can immediately see where they may have patients that need isolated care and where the suspected cases may be. ACT had its third confirmed case of COVID-19 as of 18 March, according to a report by the Canberra Times.
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Friday, 20 March 2020 11:25
ACCC issues warning on COVID-19 scams
Scammers in Australia are adapting existing technology to play on people’s fears around coronavirus and selling products claiming to prevent or cure the virus, according to consumer watchdog the ACCC.
Since 1 January 2020, the ACCC’s Scamwatch service has received 94 reports of scams about coronavirus, and warns figures are starting to climb.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Deputy Chair Delia Rickard has issued a warning that Scamwatch has received multiple reports of phishing scams sent via email or text message that claim to be providing official information on coronavirus but are attempts to try and obtain personal data.
“Unfortunately, scammers are using the uncertainty around COVID-19, or coronavirus, to take advantage of people,” Rickard said.
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Telehealth gets $20 million injection
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
The Government is pumping $20 million into increasing telehealth capacity for general practice and community providers as part of its COVID-19 response.
An increasing number of general practices are already enabling the technology to provide virtual consultations as a way of managing workload and preventing face-to-face contact with patients where it is not necessary.
The funding is part of a wider package of $500 million to strengthen New Zealand’s health services to fight and contain COVID-19.
Another $20 million will go into Healthline to hire more doctors and nurses to provide clinical advice over the phone, as the telephone service is currently handling more than 5000 calls a day.
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HL7, #FHIR, and Covid-19
A few people have asked me what HL7 is doing about the Covid-19 pandemic.
The short answer is: not much right now.
Every health system in the world right now is in emergency mode (or will be very shortly). There’s every reason not to lay down new infrastructure – and what HL7 does is help build the build infrastructure that supports the healthcare system. So most of HL7s volunteers are off, urgently making use of their existing infrastructure, or building new solutions in zero time using the standards we’ve already developed – we’ve been building the infrastructure a long time.
Actually, there’s quite a few of those being pressed into service in new ways of doing things:
- FHIR (of course, lots of new ways of doing things emerging)
- CDS Hooks (survelliance, helping clinicians keep up with super fast changing information)
- eCR – Electronic Case Reporting – this pandemic is exactly what this is for
- v2 / CCDA – background health data exchange – more critical than ever
- Quality Reporting – as more robust statistics is build, this will be part of it
We – the people working on standards – wish that the standards had got more penetration into the system than they have. We could be solving the problems we now face quicker and more effectively. But we’ll do the best with what we’ve got.
I’ve asked HL7 members to comment on the things they’re doing below (but honestly, they probably won’t have time – I’m getting this blog post out in a hurry between builds).
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ATO sets myGovID live ahead of AUSkey retirement
Digital identity app moves out of public beta after nine months.
The federal government’s myGovID digital identity credentialing app has finally moved out of public beta, as preparations to mothball the AUSkey authentication solution enter the final phase.
The new opt-in credential was quietly set live by the Australian Taxation Office earlier this week, nine months after it progressed to the public beta stage of testing.
myGovID, which is now available on most iOS and Android devices, allows citizens to create a digital identity that can be used to log into an expanding range federal and state government services.
It works the same as the 100 point ID check, verifying identity documents like passports, driver’s licences and Medicare cards using the Document Verification Service and Face Verification Service.
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ACCC probe a privacy wake-up call
Whatever your industry, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t say that customer data is important for business. Yet few are realising its full potential – or properly managing the reputational risk it presents.
In our experience-driven economy, data is the most important ingredient for crafting deeply personalised experiences and delighting customers. Yet the companies most notorious for enabling this – including digital platforms Facebook and Google – are in the spotlight after an official inquiry was launched by the ACCC. The inquiry will examine how these platforms gather information about consumers and use it to target them with highly personalised advertising online.
Many marketers may worry these developments present a Catch-22 for their work. How can businesses meet these competing demands for more personalisation and more privacy?
As a starting point, it’s safe to assume a few things. Managing customer data will become an increasingly critical trust point in any business relationship and doing so effectively will only get harder the longer you leave it. Yet the rewards for businesses that get it right will far outweigh the difficulties in doing so – and it’s best to start early than risk getting caught out.
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Toll Group 'returns to normal' after Mailto ransomware attack
Brings full track and trace back online.
Toll Group has re-enabled track and trace on deliveries and brought its core services back online again, more than six weeks after being infected by a variant of the Mailto ransomware.
The logistics giant said on Wednesday afternoon that its recovery involved a coordinated effort between multiple parties, in part to provide assurance that it had eradicated the malware.
“Our core services have returned to normal for the majority of our customers across Toll’s global network following the cyber attack on January 31,” Toll Group said.
“Before bringing applications back online, we implemented important measures to satisfy ourselves that our systems have been cleansed of the Mailto ransomware.
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The Australasian Institute of Digital Health is deferring its conference programme until later in the year as a response to COVID-19
Australia’s largest digital health and health informatics scientific conference HIC 2020 will be the pinnacle of a combined digital health series in Brisbane from 17 to 21 October 2020.
The Nursing Informatics international congress (NI2020), which was to be held in conjunction with HIC in July, will be postponed and held alongside the international medical informatics congress MedInfo 2021, to be held in Sydney 21-25 August 2021.
The Australian Telehealth Conference (ATC2020), due to be held in Melbourne from 29-30 April, will also move to the combined digital health event series in Brisbane in October. Speakers, delegates and sponsors are being contacted to advise them of the new arrangements.
The series will also feature Health Data Analytics 2020, 17-18 October, rounding out the events with a technical health data program.
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SkyMesh, Activ8me NBN satellite users offered 'relief' data each week
While further concessions pursued behind-the-scenes.
Retailers for NBN Co’s Sky Muster satellite service will soon provide weekly “relief” blocks of extra data and are lobbying NBN Co for deeper concessions.
SkyMesh will offer customers “on normal Sky Muster plans” a 10GB “relief data block” every Monday for the next three months, starting March 23.
The company also said it will upgrade “our network by around 40 percent to help avoid congestion”, indicating it is likely to use the full extent of an NBN concession announced this week offering an up to 40 percent bandwidth boost above a retailer’s February usage.
Activ8me also announced it will give users 5GB of extra data a week for free, also starting March 23, with the offer running over four weeks.
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NBN to skip TCP/IP overprovisioning for 1Gbps plans
Other plans to receive up to 15% overhead to cater for higher layers of TCP/IP stack.
Users of Australia's government-owned national broadband wholesaler are set to receive up to 15% extra layer 2 capacity so that the tests the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) run at layer 7 can match the speeds claimed by internet service providers (ISPs).
In a test agreement [PDF] that appeared earlier this week, NBN described how it was going to allocate overhead for its new 100/20, 250/25, and 1000/50Mbps speed tiers.
The company has given its 500 to 1000Mbps plan the name of Home Ultrafast, 250/25Mbps is Home Superfast, and Home Fast is the label for 100/20Mbps. On copper-based fibre-to-the-node (FttN), fibre-to-the-basement (FttB), and fibre-to-the-curb (FttC) plans, NBN is going to use a range of between 25 to 100Mbps, and 5 to 20Mbps.
"For Home Fast and Home Superfast, NBN network management policers will provide an additional 15% overhead allowance to the AVC TC-4 downstream PIR at layer 2," the company said.
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Aussies face life in the NBN slow lane
By Adam Turner
March 20, 2020 — 7.30am
Belong is the latest Australian telco to stop selling 100Mbps NBN plans to homes connected via Fibre to the Home or Basement, as those technologies are struggling to keep pace due to their heavy reliance on old infrastructure.
With the bulk of the NBN rollout due to be completed by July, around 40 per cent of Australian premises will connect to the nationwide broadband network via Fibre to the Node (FttN or Basement (FttB). FttN relies on the copper phone lines to cover the last few hundred metres to homes, while FttB runs fibre into the basement of large buildings and then relies on the building's internal copper wiring to reach each dwelling.
"A number of our customers on FttN and FttB do not have connections that are capable of achieving 100Mbps," said a Belong spokesperson.
"It is often the case that customers that sign up to these plans will be subsequently notified that they cannot achieve top speed and end up downgrading to a lower plan or leaving."
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Friday, 20 March 2020 01:40
Internet infrastructure under strain as Covid-19 hits
Internet infrastructure has experienced significant growth in demand and is being strained due to the increased amount of people confined to their home because of the coronavirus pandemic, consequently working and shopping remotely due to the enforced precautionary measures, according to a new report.
According to London-headquartered hosting provider Heficed, the sheer amount of users is putting the Internet under stain and, as a result, e-commerce has been booming as many stores remain shut due to safety policies.
Additionally, there has been a notable increase in subscription-based digital services, as out-of-home entertainment is no longer a viable option, says Heficed, noting that Internet service providers are extending data caps to meet the newfound reliance on the network, however, some experts express uncertainty concerning internet infrastructure’s ability to keep up with the rapidly growing demand.
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NBN Co to suspend half-price internet for 'first timers' offer
Internet providers had other priorities.
NBN Co is set to suspend its offer of half-price internet for a year for long-term holdouts to its network, citing bad timing as the cause.
The network builder revealed the offer just before Christmas last year as a way to encourage “first timers” in the fixed line footprint that had resisted connecting to the NBN for over 700 days to try it out.
The offer was expected to run for the first six months of 2020, and could have boosted NBN Co’s reportable take-up numbers in time for the completion of the volume build mid-year.
But it appears retail service providers (RSPs) had too many other competing priorities in the period, leading NBN Co to stop the offer 2.5 months early and try again next year.
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NBN Co's fair value estimated at just $8.7 billion
Parliamentary Budget Office scrutinises 'alternative funding' arrangements.
NBN Co has been estimated by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) to have a fair value - or saleable value - of just $8.7 billion at the end of June 2019, a bit less than one-third of the equity the government put into it.
The eye-opening statistic was today released in a report on the rise in “alternative funding” of government policies in a bid to understand how the government’s investments impacted the overall health of its balance sheet.
The PBO is investigating the issue of alternative funding because it is becoming increasingly popular among governments to get major projects and policies rolling but doesn't always sit directly on a government's budget books - an area the PBO has a strong interest in under its remit to bring transparency to spending and fiscal measures.
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NBN Co boosts retail broadband capacity as more people work online
NBN Co said on Wednesday it would freeze its charges and provide extra bandwidth to retail providers for three months in response to increased demand stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government-run company late on Wednesday said it would boost its CVC (connectivity virtual circuit) program, allowing retailers like Telstra and Aussie Broadband to order up to 40 per cent extra capacity for their customers over the next three months but pay at February rates.
“The (40 per cent) is equivalent to the higher end of increased data bandwidth requirements that we have seen in countries such as Italy, which have mandated work-from-home arrangements,” NBN boss Stephen Rue said.
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NBN freezing charges to help coronavirus affected customers
The NBN has agreed to freeze its capacity charges for three months to help phone companies deliver better broadband service plans to customers amid the coronavirus.
Telstra and others were seeking the concession which makes it easier for them to offer good deals to customers.
The move underlines the efforts to help business and consumers stay afloat during the crisis.
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NBN boosts bandwidth to help telcos meet consumer demand
By Zoe Samios and Fergus Hunter
March 18, 2020 — 6.39pm
The national broadband network will provide more bandwidth to telco providers free of charge to help them meet the increasing consumer demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
NBN Co chief executive Stephen Rue said the company had been in talks with retail service providers about the ways they could help Australians work from home, and decided a 40 per cent increase in capacity without additional cost was the best way to move forward.
"We are closely following events unfolding in other parts of the world and we have taken decisive action to incrementally offer pricing relief for up to 40 per cent more capacity," Mr Rue said. "This is equivalent to the higher end of increased data bandwidth requirements that we have seen in countries such as Italy, which have mandated work from home arrangements."
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Tuesday, 17 March 2020 05:39
COVID-19: NBN Co says it has contingency plans to meet increased usage
The organisation building Australia's national broadband network says it is well advanced with contingency plans to cope with increased usage of the network as Australians are forced to work from home due to the coronavirus outbreak.
In a statement on Monday evening, the NBN Co said its data scientists and network engineers had been looking at data consumption patterns in other countries which had been badly hit by the virus, officially known as COVID-19.
The company said it had requested retailers to place forward orders for capacity or CVC as usual and it would increase the CVC as needed to meet the demand.
The statement said on Saturday, 14 March, network traffic was up by more than 5% on the previous Saturday as many Australians spent more time at home. "NBN Co will continue to monitor and augment the network as quickly as possible to meet potential demand surges," it said.
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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/unprecedented-demand-for-nbn/news-story/753610eb604595b878cd8880739d4618
NBN needs ‘urgent fix’
Communications minister Paul Fletcher has convened a meeting of Australia's telcos and internet providers, with industry groups arguing that improvements to the NBN need to be fast-tracked for it to cope with demand from the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Fletcher held a phone hook-up on Monday between Australia's telco CEOs and stakeholders to discuss the industry's response to coronavirus, with participants including NBN Co, Telstra, Optus, Nokia, TPG, Vodafone, Vocus and more sharing their network and workforce plans.
Also on the call was regional health and communications minister Mark Coulton and department secretary Simon Atkinson, who discussed how to best manage Australia's telco networks given the increased demand.
“While increased numbers of people working from home can be expected to change the usage of data and traffic profile across residential services, we have world-class telecommunications networks that are resilient and capable of accommodating new and changing requirements," Mr Fletcher said in a statement.
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NBN Co offers up to 40 percent bandwidth boost to internet providers
To ease any network strain caused by people isolating at home.
NBN Co will ease any temporary burden on internet providers in the next few months caused by an anticipated upswell in people working from home by waiving charges for up to 40 percent extra bandwidth.
From Monday, retail service providers will be able to access the extra bandwidth on an “as required” basis.
What this should mean for end users is no noticeable change to the performance of their internet services, even if they wind up being used a whole lot more.
NBN Co sells bandwidth in the form of CVC - connectivity virtual circuit. This is a fee for offloading traffic from the NBN to the service provider’s network.
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NBN Co rebrands 'up to gigabit' as Ultrafast, defined as "500Mbps to ~1Gbps"
Also confirms overhead margin on 100Mbps and 250Mbps services.
NBN Co has widened its definition of an “up to gigabit” service to between 500Mbps and 990Mbps on the downlink as it continues to progress the product towards launch.
The company has also revealed how it plans to brand the highly asymmetric broadband tiers it agreed to introduce as part of its wholesale pricing review last year.
It will rebrand 100/20Mbps (and the 25-100/5-20Mbps product for copper-based services) as ‘Home Fast’; 250/25Mbps as ‘Home Superfast’; and “up to gigabit” as ‘Home Ultrafast’.
The new gigabit service tier was always described as an “up to” product, and NBN Co has slowly refined what the range of speeds in that tier would be.
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NBN urged to intervene as pandemic tests broadband connections
By Fergus Hunter, Zoe Samios and Rachel Eddie
March 16, 2020 — 6.22pm
The national broadband network is facing calls to temporarily slash wholesale prices to help telcos meet surging consumer demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
With people working from home and spending time in isolation under nationwide social-distancing strategies, the NBN's residential network and legacy ADSL networks are confronting a spike in demand for data. Internet providers expect to see an impact on connection speeds.
As part of the wholesale prices providers pay to connect to the NBN, there is a connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) charge that covers the bandwidth companies make available to customers. The more bandwidth they buy, the more capacity there is in their network during peak times.
Labor communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland said increased demand during the national coronavirus response could lead to "congested speeds or higher wholesale costs for retail providers" and called for the government-owned NBN Co to consider relief.
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The NBN is about to get its biggest test. Things could get ugly
We are about to see how costly the government's decision to scrimp on the NBN could be, as business relies on staff being able to work from home. It could get ugly.
Mar 16, 2020 – 4.27pm
Copper, it's turning out, is a very 21st-century element.
The humble element #29 on the periodic table, listed way behind things you've never heard of, like #21 (scandium ) and #23 (vanadium); the metal which traditionally is handed to people who come only third in sporting events – and, even then, it needs to be alloyed with the element #50 (tin), because no one ever wanted to win a copper medal – copper is finally getting the recognition it deserves, in large part due to the damage done by that disastrous coupling of elements #6 (carbon) and #8 (oxygen).
As BHP will tell you every time you turn on your copper-powered TV set, copper is at the heart of the shift away from fossil fuels. It's 100 per cent recyclable, holds a remarkable 95 per cent of its value second hand (which is why it's in such demand on the black market), and an electric car has four times as much of it as a 20th-century car that relies on petrol and spews #6 and #8 out of its exhaust pipe.
All the other elements must be turning green with envy.
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Monday, 16 March 2020 14:48
Labor calls for telcos to get capacity relief if NBN becomes congested
The Labor Party has called for retail telecommunications providers to be considered for temporary capacity charge relief, in the event NBN speeds become congested as COVID19 leads more employees and children to use the internet from home.
The call comes from Labor’s Shadow Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland who says if COVID19 social distancing measures, such as teleworking and school closures, result in increased peak traffic demand over the NBN, it could lead to congested speeds or higher wholesale costs for retail providers.
“At present, retail providers must purchase Connectivity Virtual Circuit (CVC) capacity from the NBN to support their peak hour traffic demands, in addition to an access price for the network,” says Rowland.
Rowland says the NBN already supports significant peak hour data consumption, and for the time being, the capacity purchased by retail providers appears to be appropriate to meet these demands.
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NBN Co faces price flex test as more people work from home
Says its network will cope, but usage costs might be tested.
NBN Co is facing pressure from some quarters to act in anticipation of a large number of Australians that could wind up working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The company presently makes changes to its pricing almost exclusively using temporary discounts and waivers, meaning it has a mechanism whereby temporary price relief could be made.
At present, however, the need for action is unclear.
There are certainly indications of increased bandwidth consumption around certain products important to remote work, such as videoconferencing.
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NBN, telcos prepare for 'unprecedented' demand
Mar 15, 2020 – 9.31pm
The national broadband network is preparing for the biggest test in its 10-year history, as the COVID-19 crisis forces millions of Australians to work from home and increase their use of streaming services.
NBN Co said it had already seen a rise in demand during both working hours and the peak evening usage period, and was anticipating this to reach "unprecedented" levels as the virus spread. Telstra warned customers increased traffic could lead to slower-than-usual services.
The expected surge in demand has prompted Communications Minister Paul Fletcher to summon NBN Co, Telstra, Optus and other telcos to a roundtable today, where executives will share information and prepare the network. The meeting will focus on what lessons can be learnt from countries such as Italy, which has already gone into lockdown in response to the virus.
Many Australian businesses, including Telstra and Vodafone, have told all employees to work from home. Some schools and universities have already closed their doors, and others are expected to follow, with classes and lectures conducted online by video link.
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https://itwire.com/open-sauce/nbn-will-face-stern-test-as-employees-are-forced-to-work-remotely.html
Author's Opinion
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of iTWire.
Sunday, 15 March 2020 19:54
NBN will face stern test as employees are forced to work remotely
Australia's national broadband network is likely to come under an increasing load from Monday onwards as many of the nation's workers are forced to work from home due to the coronavirus outbreak.
For the first time, the fact that the Internet is an utility just like water, gas and electricity will be driven home, with force, as we go from just one peak period of use to continuous demand right through the day and night.
How will the nation cope? If anything, it will be a moment of truth. Having worked from home for nearly four years, one is fully aware of the pluses and minuses, and the issues that one can face when getting work done over what is at best an erratic network.
One has yet to see any statement from the good people who run this network, those who man the ramparts at the NBN Co. Nor has there been even a peep from the head of the country's communications portfolio, Paul Fletcher, about the extent to which the network can accept and carry this load. But then that is not surprising seeing as the Coalition Government is playing catch-up all the time and trying desperately to seem in touch, when it is far behind.
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Enjoy!
David.
