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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Again a COVID-19 dominated week with the plans for electronically supported contract tracing receiving a lot of coverage.
Lots od discussion on the impact of telehealth and just how e-prescribing will actually go when it starts in just 6-8 weeks!
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SMS delivers faster COVID-19 results in NSW
In a NSW first, patients can opt-in to receive their COVID-19 pathology results via text message.
NSW Health Pathology’s secure automated SMS solution will see the average notification period for results halved, plus ease the pressure on busy hospital and laboratory staff.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said more than 142,000 people had been tested and cleared, making it one of the highest testing rates in the world, and helping to stop the spread of the virus.
“We are able to test 5,000 patients per day, and while testing for COVID-19 only takes 6 to 8 hours from arrival of the sample at one of our specialist labs, the sheer volume has meant we haven’t been able to get results to patients quickly,” Ms Berejiklian said.
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NSW builds automated SMS system to deliver negative COVID-19 results
Teams up with AWS, Microsoft and Deloitte.
NSW Health will automate the delivery of COVID-19 pathology results to patients who test negative using an SMS system developed with Amazon Web Services, Deloitte and Microsoft.
Premier Gladys Berejilkian announced the new opt-in SMS notification service on Tuesday to halve the notification period for results and ease pressure on hospital and pathology staff.
“We are able to test 5000 patients per day, and while testing for COVID-19 only takes six to eight hours from the arrival of the sample at one of our specialist labs, the sheer volume has meant we haven’t been able to get results to patients quickly,” she said.
“Using our new statewide SMS notification solution, patients who register will receive an automated SMS test result within six hours of the completion of the laboratory test.”
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Wednesday, 15 April 2020 09:42
Human-fronted contact tracing essential: Singapore COVID-19 app lead
The leader of the team that developed TraceTogether, a Singapore Government app for tracing coronavirus contacts, has cautioned that any app using technology alone for a contact tracing system would be of no use unless those in charge of it were working with public health authorities right from the start.
The news that Google and Apple will pool their technology talent to develop technology that will do contact tracing has led to claims that it would help countries to lift lockdowns that have been imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19.
But Jason Bay, the product lead for TraceTogether, an app that Singapore open-sourced last month, warned against such expectations.
He said with all the excitement that surrounded the use of tech for contact tracing, he felt compelled to republish a portion of the policy brief and white paper that accompanied the open-sourcing of the app.
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Contact tracing app expected in weeks
Denham Sadler
Senior Reporter
Senior Reporter
15 April 2020
A Bluetooth-based contact tracing app is being developed through the federal Digital Transformation Agency and will be launched within weeks by the federal government.
Media organisations were provided details on the plan on Tuesday night, just days after Apple and Google announced they had teamed up to provide an open framework for public health authorities to launch contact tracing apps.
The media drops end weeks of speculation over the government’s plans around technology-based contact tracing, but will raise serious privacy concerns and questions over whether the government will be able to convince enough people to use the service for it to be effective.
The Digital Transformation Agency is coordinating the development of the app and is understood to be working with the private sector to build it. The agency recently launched a recruiting blitz for a “key digital product” which will be a “national citizen facing digital platform”.
It also awarded a two-month, $136,000 contract to marketing firm 89 Degrees East at the last month for “communication and engagement strategy”.
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Govt paid $2m for COVID info app
Denham Sadler
Senior Reporter
Senior Reporter
15 April 2020
The federal government paid a local mobile-first digital services company nearly $2 million to build its official COVID-19 information app.
Canberra-based tech firm Delv was contracted by the Digital Transformation Agency to build the Coronavirus Australia app, an official source of information on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in early March. It developed and launched the app within a two-week period.
Delv was the only company to be invited to apply for the project, which was listed on the DTA’s digital marketplace.
The tender for the app development, published online this week, revealed Delv would be paid $1.848 million for the six-month contract. The company is expected to continue to release updates and improve the app across the six-month timeframe. The tender has an option for a six-month extension.
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Coronavirus: Apple, Google detail COVID-19 plans
Apple and Google have detailed their ambitious joint plans for so-called contact-tracing apps, which will record when users come into contact and warn them if they were nearby someone later diagnosed as positive for COVID-19.
The rare collaboration between the tech giants, first announced last week, could cover most of the world's smartphones and be a crucial tool for the Australian government – and governments worldwide – to stop the COVID-19 spread.
The new tie-up raises privacy concerns however, given Australia's competition watchdog is already taking on Google in court for how it's handled user location data in the past.
Spokesmen for both Apple and Google told The Australian in a briefing the tech will strictly require users to opt-in, and that privacy will be paramount.
The contact tracing functionality, which will be available from mid-May, uses Bluetooth, which is commonly used to connect headphones and other accessories, to send and receive anonymous signals from a users' smartphone to people nearby.
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AHPRA threat looms over telehealth consults
Health department officials say doctors could be reported if they put patients at risk.
14th April 2020
GPs could be reported to AHPRA if they switch to telehealth without creating arrangements for their patients to be seen in-person when clinically necessary.
Last week, the Department of Health stressed that under Medicare, GPs offering phone and video consultations were required to ensure face-to-face care to any patient who needs it — even if they were unable to provide the care themselves.
The rule has not been spelled out in the MBS item descriptors since the new telehealth items were introduced last month but it has been flagged by Professor Michael Kidd in a webinar for GPs last week.
“If you're using telehealth item numbers, you must have in place the ability for your patients to have a face-to-face consultation if this is required,” the deputy chief medical officer said.
“This is a requirement of using the telehealth numbers.”
The warning comes amid a mass uptake of the new items.
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Rise of 'corporate telehealth' a threat to patient care, warns RACGP president
Dr Harry Nespolon says he fears for a 'new Edelsten' era unless MBS rules are tightened up
17th April 2020
The RACGP wants doctors banned from the new telehealth items unless their practice is open at least four hours a day for face-to-face consults.
The items have already been claimed more than 3.7 million times since their introduction last month.
But there is growing concern over the rise of telehealth corporates cashing in on Medicare-funded phone and video consults, while leaving the “hard patients” to regular GPs.
“The reality is you cannot safely have every consultation over the phone or via video software and provide adequate care to your patients,” said RACGP president Dr Harry Nespolon.
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Startups spruik privacy smarts in race for telehealth bonanza
By Emma Koehn
April 13, 2020 — 1.12pm
Australian software startups are gearing up to lure GPs and allied health professionals away from hosting online consultations on Zoom and Skype, pitching their platforms as safer alternatives.
“Healthcare practices must do their due diligence to ensure they’re using a telehealth platform that meets patient privacy and security standards,” chief executive of video platform Coviu, Dr Silvia Pfeiffer, said.
While the use of video conferencing services like Zoom has skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic, legal experts have raised concerns about the privacy risks posed by these services.
"Certain legacy teleconferencing platforms do not use end-to-end encryption, which is critical when dealing with sensitive patient data," Dr Pfeiffer said.
End-to-end encryption allows only the sender and the receiver of a message access to the data by using security keys that are only available to them.
Demand from healthcare professionals and patients for such software is booming in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the federal government continuing to consult with the industry, including the Australian Medical Association and Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, on best practice.
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ResApp to launch SleepCheck, an at-home sleep apnea screening app
Dean Koh | 15 Apr 2020
Brisbane-based ResApp, which creates smartphone apps for the diagnosis and management of respiratory diseases, announced its plans to launch SleepCheck, an at-home obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) screening app. The company said it plans to launch SleepCheck for iOS on the App Store in the United Kingdom and Australia in the second quarter of this calendar year, with availability in additional countries and an Android version to follow.
HOW IT WORKS
To be used directly by consumers, SleepCheck is a smartphone app which uses clinically accurate algorithms to assess a person’s risk of OSA by analyzing their breathing and snoring sounds during sleep. The app requires no accessories or hardware other than the user’s smartphone.
In a 238 patient clinical study, ResApp’s algorithms correctly identified patients with OSA with sensitivities of 85% (mild OSA), 83% (moderate OSA) and 83% (severe OSA), and specificities of 73%, 80% and 90% when compared to an American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) Type II sleep study (full, but unattended polysomnography) performed simultaneously in the patient’s home.
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Top telehealth company says it's safe from AHPRA threat
Doctors on Demand says its GPs will refer patients for face-to-face care when necessary
15th April 2020
A company offering video consults to patients anywhere in Australia says it has no concern its doctors could be reported to AHPRA, despite officials insisting all patients need the option of face-to-face care if necessary.
Since February, Doctors on Demand has been advertising its services through the HealthEngine app where patients have been able to purchase a $60 video consult with one of its 25 GPs.
Having seen patient appointments triple, within a week Doctors on Demand will start offering bulk-billed consults funded through the new telehealth items.
However, the Department of Health is warning all doctors now performing telehealth consults that under Medicare they must also be able to offer face-to-face consults when clinically necessary, regardless of whether they provide that care themselves.
And it says its officials will conduct "compliance activities" with the option of referring practitioners to AHPRA if they are failing to ensure the "safe treatment" of patients.
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/australia-looks-to-go-harder-with-use-of-covid-19-contact-tracing-app/
Australia looks to 'go harder' with use of COVID-19 contact tracing app
It is eyeing Singapore's TraceTogether app that documents the interactions of individuals via Bluetooth.
Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy has said the country has been looking closely at what Singapore has done to prevent the further spread of COVID-19, including some of the technologies that the city-state has been put in place.
Murphy told a New Zealand parliamentary hearing that Australia is "very keen" to use Singapore's coronavirus contact-tracing app, TraceTogether.
"We've actually got the code from Singapore, we're very keen to use it and use it perhaps even more extensively than Singapore," he said.
"Obviously there's a conversation to have with the community about the acceptability of it, but we think that idea of the TraceTogether app is a really excellent one, if you've programmed it properly and got the right community buy-in, and so we're actively looking at that as part of a measure that might be used to perhaps consider some relaxation of measures."
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Coronavirus: Scott Morrison pushes ahead on mobile phone tracing app
Scott Morrison has warned Australians that they may need to endure more invasions of their privacy to beat the coronavirus, as he ramps up the case for a COVID-19 mobile phone tracing app that registers a user’s close physical contact with other users’ mobile phones.
The Prime Minister pushed back on a proposal from Google and Apple to use bluetooth technologies without registering users’ phone numbers, saying the Singapore-style app under consideration by the government would more robustly protect the privacy of citizens.
Work is still being done on the privacy implications of the technology-led plan to broaden contact tracing and continue to flatten the COVID-19 curve, but Mr Morrison said it would be necessary to collect personal data before we could end the current lockdown.
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Morrison refuses to 'be drawn' on making contact tracing app compulsory
In the event that voluntary take-up isn't high enough.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison rang alarm bells Friday morning when he refused to "be drawn" into commenting on whether the Government would consider making its planned contact tracing app “compulsory” if voluntary take-up fell short.
Speaking on Triple M Hobart radio, Morrison was pressed on the Government’s plans for getting the app onto people’s phones.
“For this to work, we need a lot of people to download this app,” he said.
“Now, in Australia, my preference - my very strong preference - is that we do it this way, with Australians [downloading] it by permission.
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ASD vetting code on Australia’s future COVID trace app
Privacy impact assessment almost complete.
Government services minister Stuart Robert says Australia’s future COVID-19 contract tracing app is being developed with “very strong cyber assistance” now being provided by national security agencies, as questions around the vague detail of the software continue to swirl.
Despite a raft of preparatory scene setting and selective backgrounding, key specifics of how the health surveillance software operate remain an open question as the government tests the waters for public acceptance.
Robert on Thursday sought to reassure the public that the app, which was unofficially announced earlier on Tuesday after weeks of talk, would only exchange mobile phone numbers in “highly encrypted form”.
“[The app is] in the final stages of a Privacy Impact Assessment, with very strong cyber security assistance with Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Australian Signals Directorate,” he told FiveAA Adelaide.
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Potential data breaches make up 14% of Commonwealth incidents reported to ACSC
ACSC responded to 427 cyber incidents against Commonwealth entities in 2019, with 65% of them being self-reported.
The first installation of a new report into Canberra's cyber readiness has been tabled, with The Commonwealth Cyber Security Posture in 2019 prepared by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD).
During the last year, the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) responded to 427 cyber incidents against Commonwealth entities, 65% of which were self-reported, and the rest were picked up through ACSC investigations, reports from third parties, and analysis of a variety of classified and open-source material, the report said.
Breaking down the incidents, the report said 36% were sighting reports and indications of compromise; 18% were sparked by malicious emails; 14% were classed as data exposure, theft, or leak; a further 14% were due to network scanning or brute force attacks; 8% involved a potentially compromised system; 3% were classed as denial of service; and 7% were placed in the other category.
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NSW coronavirus database tracks cases down postcode-by-postcode
Offers glimpse of path to normality.
Policymakers keenly aware of residents and businesses itching to return to normal can now better understand the local impacts of coronavirus and begin plotting the path to recovery thanks to a new tie up between NSW Health and the University of Sydney.
A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the university have worked with NSW Health to develop a searchable public database that breaks down COVID-19 cases on a postcode-by-postcode basis.
Linking data from the outbreak to postcodes allows users to overlay other datasets that will be necessary in developing comprehensive, targeted strategies to overcome the pandemic said Adam Kmaradt-Scott, an associate professor with Sydney University’s School of Social and Political Sciences and government adviser on pandemic strategy.
“This database is unique in that it combines NSW Health data with ABS data on, for example, the age and the socio-economic status of people within different postcodes,” he said.
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New database to predict which Sydney suburbs could have restrictions eased
By Kate Aubusson
April 15, 2020 — 4.50pm
A new database could be the key to determining in which suburbs the NSW government could relax its social distancing measures and where to exercise greater control to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The interactive dashboard created by University of Sydney researchers combines NSW Health and ABS data to identify the neighbourhoods most vulnerable to outbreaks: postcodes with a high proportion of people aged over 60, and socio-economically disadvantaged families.
Led by Associate Professor Adam Kamradt-Scott, Associate Professor Eleanor Bruce and Associate Professor Adam Dunn, the database aims to identify populations who might be at greater risk in the event of more widespread community transmission.
It could also help the state government determine when and where to ease some social distancing measures by pinpointing postcodes that had not recorded recent, sustained community transmissions, pandemic adviser to state and federal governments Associate Professor Kamradt-Scott said.
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Reducing social isolation with health technology
We helped Telstra Health to address social isolation amongst elderly and disabled people.
A few years ago, Paper Giant worked with Telstra Health to design and conduct a research project with elderly and disabled care receivers living in regional Queensland, to help inform the design and development of new digital products to combat depression that arises from social isolation.
We had a particular focus on what role technology plays — or could play — in alleviating social isolation.
Through the project, we interviewed a range of elderly and disabled people in different living situations through regional and remote Queensland.
In conversations about their healthcare, their technology use, their families and their lives, we uncovered insights regarding technology & accessibility, the importance of the moments of transition in care (especially health ‘milestones’) in affecting social isolation, and the importance of feeling independent whatever the current living situation.
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Online wills set to soar
A new start-up has launched to help the 50 per cent of Australians who don’t have a will, with Willed.com.au offering what it says is the easiest way to create a legal will online, particularly for over-65s.
Willed, which has gone live this month, can help Australians create a will in under 20 minutes and founder Aaron Zellman told The Australian that digital wills are fast growing in popularity in overseas markets, and that it’s his mission is to help Australians think about what comes next and become more organised.
Mr Zellman said working with a lawyer to prepare a will can cost up to $3,000, and not having one in place can cost loved ones thousands more in fees and administration.
Willed charges a flat rate of $159 per will.
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Thursday, 16 April 2020 16:29
UNSW reveals 'hot qubits' breakthrough
Researchers led by a University of New South Wales professor have achieved a proof-of-concept of a new approach to building quantum computers.
Most quantum computer designs only work at fractions of a degree above absolute zero, an environment that is very expensive to achieve and maintain.
Researchers led by Professor Andrew Dzurak at UNSW Sydney have developed a way of producing 'hot qubits' – quantum devices that operate at 1.5 Kelvin.
"Our new results open a path from experimental devices to affordable quantum computers for real world business and government applications," said Professor Dzurak.
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GPs drive huge increase in ePrescribing
Wednesday, 15 April 2020
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
The number of general practices using the New Zealand Electronic Prescription Service has leapt to 600 as GPs switch to delivering virtual care for their patients.
Figures supplied to eHealthNews.nz from the Ministry of Health show that just 16 percent, or 159 practices, were using NZePS in March 2019. This had risen to 41 percent by March 2020 and then 60 percent (more than 600 in total) as of 13 April 2020.
The number of pharmacies using the service has also risen from 78 percent in March 2019 to 97 percent now.
The Director General of Health waived the need for a physical signature on barcoded prescriptions generated from systems integrated with the NZePS in November 2018.
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'Help cure COVID-19 in your sleep'
Australians are being urged to download an app to help find a cure for COVID-19, with Vodafone-backed app DreamLab harnessing unused smartphone compute power to help crunch medical research.
The Australian-born iOS and Android app, first released five years ago, is now being repurposed to help fight the coronavirus, and downloads are up 700 per cent in one week.
DreamLab takes the collective power of the individual users' smartphones, which otherwise lay dormant overnight, and uses them to solve research problems from Imperial College London, which are processed using an algorithm. The results are then sent back to researchers for analysis.
Alyssa Lane, the head of Vodafone Foundation Australia and Dreamlab's creator, told The Australian that just 100,000 users would have the combined power of a supercomputer that would crunch data that would take a decade using a standard desktop computer.
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How one Davies winner used closed loop eMM to take aim at adverse events
St. Stephen's Hospital, based in Hervey Bay, Queensland, one of the first HIMSS Stage 7 hospitals in Australia, used barcoding, CPOE and change management strategies to boost its patient safety.
By Mike Miliard
April 13, 2020 12:08 PM
The goal is a simple one, but an elusive one, as hospitals all over the world well understand: "Ensure the right drug and dose is given to the right patient by the correct route," said Joanne Hayden, clinical informatics pharmacist at St. Stephen's Hospital.
So, in a bid to improve its medication administration processes and better ensure patient safety, St. Stephens, based in Hervey Bay, Queensland, turned to health information technology, Hayden explained in a recent HIMSS20 Digital presentation.
Specifically, the hospital – which won a HIMSS Davies Award this past October and is also one of the first two HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 validated hospitals in Australia – set its sights on closed-loop electronic medication management technology and processes.
The goal was to decrease variance in the medication process across the hospital, and improve workflows for its staff along the way, said Hayden. By also broadening its use of computerized physician order-entry and bar code-medication administration, St. Stephen’s has enabled a "significant" decrease in adverse drug events and medication omissions.
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Govt spends $1m on COVID-19 AI
Free online platform helps doctors diagnose the disease.
By Casey Tonkin on Apr 14 2020 12:36 PM
The government is putting $1 million toward an AI project that helps doctors learn how to spot signs of COVID-19 in lung scans.
Health Minister, Greg Hunt, said the extra funding will “transform the treatment and management of patients with severe coronavirus”.
The money will be drawn from the Medical Research Future Fund and is going to the developers of a free online AI-powered COVID-19 training platform called CovED which has been built by a team led by Sydney start-up DetectED-X.
Users of CovED can complete short training modules that teach them how to properly identify coronavirus in CT scans of the lungs.
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MEDIA RELEASE
14 APRIL 2020
Telehealth provider drops fees on ALL services
Leading national medical website, Qoctor, announces today that its service will now be bulk billed in a dramatic shift from a private to no-cost service.
The company, who made national headlines five years ago offering $20 sick notes online as Dr Sicknote, has lobbied to get telemedicine recognised as a viable, affordable and easy way to access GP services since its inception.
The quick, online doctor has pivoted and extended its services which now provides GP consults, prescriptions and medication online, after the Federal Government announced that GPs would be able to bulk bill all phone and video patient consultations.
Qoctor can now bulk bill anyone with a Medicare card for Medical Certificates and repeat prescriptions. Its repeat prescription service has expanded to offer the majority of PBS prescriptions and customers can opt for a prescription or medicine to be sent to their home or local pharmacy.
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'If in doubt, log out': Doctors alert to video security concerns
By Emma Koehn
April 17, 2020 — 12.00am
Doctors are alert to possible security concerns around video telehealth platforms as security experts warn data breaches are likely in the new era of digital healthcare.
"Skype and other video software options such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Zoom and Tox are convenient and provide an easy way to conduct telephone and video consultations," chief executive of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Dr Harry Nespolon said.
"There is currently no evidence to suggest the video consultation platforms are unsuitable for clinical use. However, it’s vital to note that free versions of some applications may not meet applicable laws for security and privacy...GPs need to make sure that their chosen telecommunications solution meets their clinical requirements and satisfies privacy laws."
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GE Healthcare and Microsoft partner to help hospitals fight COVID-19
Together they have developed remote data monitoring technology.
By Aimee Chanthadavong | April 17, 2020 -- 00:44 GMT (10:44 AEST) | Topic: Coronavirus: Business and technology in a pandemic
GE Healthcare and Microsoft have joined forces to deploy remote data monitoring technology to help hospitals track numerous COVID-19 intensive care unit ventilated patients simultaneously and identify early warning signs of patients at risk of deterioration.
Designed to supplement existing monitoring devices in patients' rooms, the Mural Virtual Care Solution uses Microsoft Azure to provides near real-time data from ventilators, patient monitoring systems, electronic medical records, labs, and other systems from multiple patients to clinicians.
In addition, GE Healthcare said Mural can be customised to provide hospitals with data and calculations based on their care protocols to help identify if patients need intervention. This includes ventilation and lung injury management for patients on extended mechanical ventilation support.
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Australian NBN peak total upstream traffic barely lifts over 1Tbps
Little to separate peak throughput during the day and evening.
Whereas the downstream traffic profile on Australia's National Broadband Network has retained an identifiable evening busy period, for the upstream profile, it is much less so.
In stats released on Friday, NBN said peak upstream throughput across the three time periods it measures -- business hours from 8am to 5pm, early evening hours from 5pm to 8pm, and evening busy hours from 8pm to 11pm -- are all sitting in a band between 1.06Tbps and 1.02Tbps.
Since pre-coronavirus times in February, peak upstream traffic during the post 8pm period has increased 38% to 1.06Tbps as of Good Friday; early evening upstream peaked at 1.05Tbps on the same day, a jump of 54% against February; and peak business hour upstream speeds topped out at 1.02Tbps last week, an increase of 104%.
The company conducts its comparisons on Friday and acknowledged its profile was more akin to a weekend. Although it was not significantly different on the upstream side, for downstream, the profile had a much lower post 8pm bump.
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Friday, 17 April 2020 10:02
NBN Co offers $150m to help low-income families, SMBs during lockdown
The NBN Co, the company rolling out Australia's broadband network, has created a $150 million fund to help low-income families with home schooling and small and medium-sized businesses and households who face financial issues during the coronavirus lockdown.
The help will be channelled through Internet service providers, the company said in a statement, adding that it followed a short period of consultation with more than 50 providers, the government and the consumer group Australian Communications Consumer Action Network.
About a third of this amount will go to providers to help low-income families who do not have an NBN connection. These families would be identified through the Department of Education and schools in each state.
Some of the funding will go to help provide higher speeds for telehealth providers, better service, and prioritised connections and fault resolution.
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NBN Co to temporarily cut internet costs for low-income families
As part of $150m “relief” package.
NBN Co will temporarily waive wholesale costs for low-income families with school-aged children and other customers suffering financial hardship under a $150 million scheme.
The scheme, announced by the Government on Friday morning, is being targeted as financial relief for internet users that are the hardest hit by COVID-19 related closures.
It comprises three $50 million tranches.
Two of the tranches cover low-income households: the delineation between them is based on whether the family has an existing NBN connection or not.
The first $50 million tranche is specifically for unconnected low-income families with school-aged children and is meant to help them “access the internet for educational purposes”.
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NBN announces $150m package for low-income households and struggling businesses
By Fergus Hunter
April 17, 2020 — 10.58am
NBN Co has announced a $150 million relief package designed to get low-income households connected so their children can study online and support struggling customers and businesses.
With the country turning to online education, remote work and tele-health during the COVID-19 crisis, community organisations have been calling for help for vulnerable Australians without internet connections.
A $50 million centrepiece of the package will waive a $37 wholesale charge on basic 25Mbps internet plans to allow telcos on the national broadband network to lower their prices between April and September.
"This is intended to help make education accessible to all Australian students who are home schooling in response to social distancing measures," Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said.
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Telstra pushes for a full breakdown of NBN Co's costs
To expose the existence of any cross-subsidies.
Telstra wants NBN Co to break down its costs “by technology type and customer type”, a move that would expose the presence of any cross-subsidies between internet products.
The telco indicated in a letter [pdf] dated March 6 - but only published last week - that a detailed financial breakdown was needed to allay industry concerns around NBN Co’s enterprise market play and the way NBN Co finances the regional portion of the network.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said in December last year that additional “reporting and transparency requirements” may be imposed on NBN Co to address cross-subsidisation concerns.
These concerns primarily relate to whether NBN Co is undercutting existing commercial operators in the enterprise and government markets using a cross-subsidy from its residential network.
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Tuesday, 14 April 2020 00:00
COVID 19 crisis pushes up NBN data demand as online work grows with home self-isolation
The COVID-19 crisis has seen data demand during daytime business hours continue to grow on the National Broadband Network as more Australians self-isolate and shift their work, education and entertainment needs online, according to operators of the network, NBN Co.
For the week from Monday 30 March to Sunday 5 April, peak download throughput (the measure of data flowing through the NBN access network during daytime business hours, increased by 24% to 9.6 terabits per second (Tbps) compared to the last week of February, which NBN measures as its normal pre-COVID-19 baseline.
“As more Australians work and study from home, we are starting to see network demand settle into a new range where network usage remains at higher levels throughout the day, compared to what we were seeing before self-isolation and social distancing measures were implemented,” said Brad Whitcomb, Chief Customer Officer – Residential at NBN Co.
“However, while the peak throughput recorded in the daytime business hours continues to grow, it still remains well below the peak throughput recorded in the busy evening period when the data throughput on the main wholesale service is at its highest. These peaks also remain well within nbn’s core capacity capability.”
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Vodafone chief flags co-investment option to upgrade NBN FTTN users to full fibre
As merged TPG-Vodafone entity takes keen interest.
The merged Vodafone-TPG entity is hoping to have a hand in bringing full fibre connections to more Australians, potentially via a co-investment arrangement with NBN Co.
Speaking at the virtual CommsDay Summit earlier this week, current Vodafone Australia CEO Iñaki Berroeta said full fibre “is key to Australia’s telecommunications future”.
However, he noted up to 40 percent of premises on the NBN are in the fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) footprint, and indicated a merged Vodafone-TPG was keen to play a role in upgrading those users.
“Australia’s digital future depends on having many more fibre connections and freeing ourselves from copper delivery of broadband,” Berroeta said.
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Enjoy!
David.
