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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An interesting week with the ADHA pushing out the usual propaganda in bulk as usual.
Again we have seen cyber-security cause some news, with new plans and more leaks.
Additionally the place and continued use of telehealth was in the news, and the cause of considerable discussion.
We are also seeing some work on trying to get some Standards identification, management and support underway after a major hiatus under the ADHA.
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Medtech courses to bridge digital health skills gap
Ronald Mizen Reporter
Jul 20, 2020 – 12.01am
On the back of strong demand for e-health services during the coronavirus pandemic, RMIT Online has launched three new courses designed to upskill healthcare workers in technology-driven care.
The move comes after research from the Australia Digital Health Agency released last week showed 90 per cent of specialists were looking to use medtech in patient care, including apps and online self-service.
Agency chief executive Bettina McMahon said the coronavirus pandemic had led to a change in attitude among healthcare workers towards the value of technology in healthcare.
"This new research shows we can expect digital health to remain a feature of healthcare into the future, now consumers and healthcare professionals have experienced the convenience and benefits," Ms McMahon said.
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https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/mbs-telehealth-reform-extended-to-medical-deputisi
MBS telehealth reform extended to medical deputising services
Patients will be able to access bulk-billed telehealth consultations through approved medical deputising services, but under tight restrictions.
Medical deputising services will now have access to the MBS telehealth items, as an extension of a patient’s regular practice.
20 Jul 2020
Approved medical deputising services (AMDSs) will only have access
to the COVID-19 telehealth items under the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) if
they have a formal agreement in place with a general practice to provide
services to its patients.
And patients will only be eligible to obtain a service through an AMDS if the
practice has provided, or arranged, at least one service for the patient in the
past 12 months.
The AMDS will be providing services for and on behalf of the patient’s usual
general practice.
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http://medicalrepublic.com.au/new-funding-hints-at-telehealth-extension/32028
23 July 2020
New funding hints at telehealth extension
Posted by Francine Crimmins
Bulk-billed telehealth consults are to receive a second boost of more than $600 million, the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has announced in today’s economic update.
Mr Frydenberg said the additional telehealth funding of $619.1 million would ensure continued access to essential health services by supporting GP bulk-billing.
GPs were also promised $54.8 million to to provide face-to-face medical services.
The additional funding for 2020-21 – which falls to zero over the two-year forward estimates period projected in the statement – follows the government’s tightening of eligibility criteria earlier this month for patients seeking bulk-billed telehealth consults.
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WA’s acceleration towards digital health: ten years of reforms in ten days
Dean Koh | 20 Jul 2020
In the first episode of HIMSS Australia Digital Dialogue Series hosted by Tim Kelsey, Senior Vice President, HIMSS Analytics International, guest speakers Prof Peter Sprivulis, Chief Clinical Information Officer, Western Australian Department of Health Service, Adj. A/Prof Learne Durrington, Chief Executive Officer, Western Australian Primary Health Alliance, Giles Nunis, Partner, Deloitte Consulting Pty Ltd and Paul Lancaster Alliance Manager, Commvault discussed Western Australia (WA)’s rapid acceleration towards digital health due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and early steps in the WA Health Digital Strategy 2020-2030.
Key lessons learnt in digital health from COVID-19 pandemic
“At one level, what (COVID-19) has provided us is a rapid accelerator of our digital strategy. If you look at the important elements of our digital strategy, two of the three principal drivers of the strategy is to improve customer relationship management and increase adoption of telehealth,” said Prof Sprivulis.
“What we have seen in terms of our contact tracing solution in Australia, is that contract tracing is really the ‘pointy end’ of customer relationship management when it comes to COVID-19. We went through a very rapid process of implementing a Salesforce-based solution for our contact tracing, which has been quite successful, allowing us to keep tabs on those not only in quarantine, but those who were self-isolating and following up with other contacts to help contain the spread in the community,” he added.
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https://ajp.com.au/news/first-e-script-dispensed-in-south-australia/
First e-script dispensed in South Australia
E-scripts are officially rolling out in the state and, meanwhile, amendments to emergency response legislation have recognised the importance of keeping pharmacy staff safe
TerryWhite Chemmart Old Reynella has become the first pharmacy in South Australia to dispense an electronic prescriptions with Minfos.
TWC Old Reynella is a pilot pharmacy for the new Minfos e-prescription dispense workflow, which was launched on 3 June.
The token-based e-script was prescribed by local doctor Dr Danny Byrne.
Chris Tsamandanis, pharmacist owner of TWC Old Reynella, is excited to be the first South Australian pharmacy to enter the digital age of dispensing in pharmacy.
“I was surprised at how incredibly streamlined the whole process was,” said Mr Tsamandanis.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/second-it-contractor-charged-over-landmark-white-data-breach-550606
Second IT contractor charged over LandMark White data breach
By Justin Hendry on Jul 17, 2020 4:37PM
As investigations continue.
A second IT contractor has been charged in relation to two data breach incidents that wiped $50 million from the property valuation company formerly known as LandMark White last year.
Detectives from the cybercrime squad arrested a 39-year-old Arncliffe man on Friday as part of an ongoing investigation into the alleged breaches against the company now known as Acumentis.
The man, who is a software contractor, has been charged with unauthorised impairment of electronic communication, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment.
The second arrest comes nine months after Stephen Grant, 49, was charged for allegedly accessing Acumentis database without authorisation while employed as an IT contractor.
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https://itwire.com/security/nsw-detectives-charge-second-man-over-landmark-white-data-theft.html
Saturday, 18 July 2020 05:00
NSW detectives charge second man over Landmark White data theft
Detectives from the NSW Police Force Cyber Crime squad have charged a second man in connection with the data breach at property valuation firm Landmark White.
In a statement issued on Friday, the police said detectives had last year established what was called Strike Force Vide to investigate the matter.
The Landmark White breach was reported on 13 February last year. The first arrest was made on 2 October.
Landmark said at the time that it had become aware through a corporate partner, CoreLogic, "that a dataset containing property valuation and some personal contact information had been disclosed".
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https://itwire.com/apps/twitter-says-attackers-used-social-engineering-to-gain-access.html
Sunday, 19 July 2020 08:03
Twitter says attackers used social engineering to gain access
Social media company Twitter says it believes miscreants, who were behind a recent scam that attacked several well-known accounts, had targeted its employees through a social engineering scheme and manipulated them into carrying out certain actions and leaking confidential information.
In a blog post issued on Saturday Pacific time and summarising the situation as on Friday evening, the attackers had managed to manipulate a small number of employees and used their credentials to gain access to the company's internal systems and also bypassing the protection afforded by two-factor authentication.
"As of now, we know that they accessed tools only available to our internal support teams to target 130 Twitter accounts," the company said.
"For 45 of those accounts, the attackers were able to initiate a password reset, log in to the account, and send Tweets. We are continuing our forensic review of all of the accounts to confirm all actions that may have been taken.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/wa-health-traces-data-leak-to-third-party-pager-service-550679
WA Health traces data leak to third-party pager service
By Ry Crozier on Jul 21, 2020 7:06AM
Suspends use while investigation underway.
WA Health has suspended its use of a third-party paging service after information communicated over the service was found on a public-facing website.
The leak was first reported by 9News last night, which said that both “sensitive” and “confidential” information communicated between personnel from a number of agencies was contained on the website.
The website uploading the text of communications had been set up by an unknown party, 9News reported.
9News said the information included communications between doctors about suspected COVID-19 cases, and from “a child protection officer concerned about a young person in a group home.”
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/doctors-horrified-over-medical-records-breach
Doctors horrified over medical records' breach
The WA Government has apologised for the incident that involved the hacking of a pager service that the Department of Health has used for at least 12 years
21st July 2020
By AAP
WA's Premier Mark McGowan has apologised after sensitive medical records and other government communications were posted online, allegedly by a teenage boy who intercepted them from an unencrypted paging service.
The data include the phone numbers and addresses of people in coronavirus quarantine, as well as transcripts of conversations involving paramedics, Department of Justice employees and school teachers, Nine News reports.
WA Police have taken down the website involved and identified the culprit as a 15-year-old boy.
It is not yet clear whether the culprit will face criminal charges.
The breach has been linked to a third-party pager service, operated by Vodafone, that has been used by the Department of Health for at least 12 years.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/wa-health-data-published-by-teen-to-public-facing-site-550704
WA health data published by teen to public-facing site
By Ry Crozier on Jul 21, 2020 3:14PM
Gleaned from a pager system.
A “person under the age of 16” is the owner of the website that published the contents of pager communications among WA Health staff and other authorities, it has been revealed.
Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan said police had visited the individual and managed to have the site shut down.
The site contained “sensitive” and “confidential” information about suspected COVID-19 and child protection cases, among others.
The data was gleaned from a third-party operated pager service, the use of which was suspended late on Monday after the data leak became apparent.
“The individual who has published this information, that person was discovered and police have intervened there,” McGowan told a press conference.
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Monday, 20 July 2020 13:40
Australia among countries most targeted by ‘significant’ cyber attacks, as cyber crime costs global economy US$6 trillion
The prevalence and severity of cyber attacks are increasing at an alarming rate every year, so much so, that statistics estimate that cybercrime will cost the global economy a colossal $6 trillion per year by 2021 - with Australia among the countries most targeted by significant cyber attacks, according to analysis by one software firm.
Password management and authentication solution vendor Specops Software - which analysed the latest data from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and estimates by Cybersecurity Ventures - ranks Australia in sixth place of countries across the world which have experienced the most cyber attacks classified as significant.
“Australia is in sixth place with 16 momentous cyber attacks
recorded. The most recent compromise was announced last month (June 2020) by
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who said Australia’s government agencies and
essential businesses/services were being targeted by large-scale sophisticated
cyber attacks,” Specops says.
Specops Software defines significant cyber attacks as cyber attacks on a
country’s government agencies, defense and high-tech companies, or economic
crimes with losses equating to more than a million dollars.
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Tuesday, 21 July 2020 16:16
Panel offers 60 recommendations to guide development of cyber security strategy
The Federal Government's Industry Advisory Panel, set up to advise on Australia's 2020 Cyber Security Strategy, has offered 60 recommendations to bolster the countries defences.
The recommendations are centred around five key areas, the IAP said in a statement:
Deterrence: The government has been urged to establish clear consequences for those targeting businesses and Australians.
Prevention: Should include initiatives to help businesses and Australians remain safer online.
Detection: Development of a mechanism between industry and government for real-time sharing of threat information, beginning with critical infrastructure operators.
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Thursday, 23 July 2020 17:59
Industry leaders unanimous in praise for cyber security panel recommendations
Attempts to compromise Australian corporate and government networks are inevitable, the managing director of Blackberry Spark ANZ, Jason Duerden, says, adding that while this cannot be prevented they can be contained and protected against by applying a risk mitigation approach to cyber security.
He was commenting on the release of recommendations on Tuesday by the Federal Government's Industry Advisory Panel on the country's next cyber security strategy.
Duerden said the Australian Government has been showing signs of moving towards this mindset by applying the globally recognised NIST and Mitre ATT&CK frameworks – both outlined by the Australian Cyber Security Centre.
He said the appetite existed for rapid change and rapid adoption of new approaches to risk management in cyber, but appetite was not always coupled with the structure for implementation.
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https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/cyber-war-puts-heat-on-telcos-20200721-p55e4m
Cyber war puts heat on telcos
Stopping cyber threats before they reach their intended targets is increasingly happening in the telco pipes. Telstra's leadership will put pressure on others to lift their game.
Jul 22, 2020 – 9.54am
Australian telecommunications companies will be under increasing competitive pressure to invest in systems that stop cyber attacks before they hit their customers.
That's the obvious conclusion from comments made by Telstra chief executive Andy Penn following the release of a report containing 60 recommendations for improving Australia's cyber security.
The report was released on Tuesday by a cyber security advisory panel, which was chaired by Penn. It was established last year by the federal government to provide strategic advice on Australia’s 2020 Cyber Security Strategy.
Apart from Penn, the panel includes Tesla chairman Robyn Denholm, Vocus chairman Bob Mansfield, local CEO Northrop Grumman Chris Keeble, NBN Co's chief security officer, Darren Kane and Kirstjen Nielsen, formerly US Secretary of Homeland Security in the Trump administration.
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$18.8 million to supercharge digital health technologies
The Australian Government is investing $18.8 million to supercharge the discovery of better treatments for cancer, epilepsy, stroke, paralysis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, brain injuries, back pain and chronic middle ear disease.
The
Hon Greg Hunt MP
Minister for Health
Media event date: 19 July 2020
Date published: 20 July 2020
The Morrison Government is investing $18.8 million to supercharge the discovery of better treatments for cancer, epilepsy, stroke, paralysis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, brain injuries, back pain and chronic middle ear disease.
Under round three of our Government’s $45 million BioMedTech Horizons (BMTH) program, 21 very promising projects will receive funding to help unlock some of the key health challenges of our times.
Successful applicants will use the funding to develop medical devices–including wearable devices–telehealth and telemedicine, and digitally-enabled personalised medicine.
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Australian government fronts up $19 million for digital health tech development
Elsewhere, RMIT Online and the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre have announced a suite of digital health short courses.
By Aimee Chanthadavong | July 20, 2020 -- 02:44 GMT (12:44 AEST) | Topic: Innovation
The federal government has announced it will be handing over a total of AU$18.8 million to fund the development of 21 new biomedical and medical technology projects.
The funding is part of round three of the government's AU$45 million BioMedTech Horizons program, an initiative designed to support the development of health technologies.
"Successful applicants will use the funding to develop medical devices -- including wearable devices -- telehealth and telemedicine, and digitally-enabled personalised medicine," Minister for Health Greg Hunt said.
"Our government is supporting Australia's world-class biomedical and medical technology sector for the benefit of all Australians, while creating new jobs, growing expertise and building sustainable export markets."
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Digital health micro-credentials to keep workforce up to speed
Tuesday, 21 July, 2020
Three digital health courses will be delivered by RMIT Online and the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) to provide the skills required to match the fast-moving pace of technology in health care and ensure Australia’s hospitals and health workforce can continue to deliver high-quality care in new and improved ways.
Each online course will be a blend of learning and coaching by industry mentors, taking six weeks to complete — allowing participants to make an immediate impact in their own workplace and more broadly.
The Technology Enabled Care course will equip clinicians working closely with patients to understand, assess and integrate new technologies and services into their practice safely, to improve preventative health outcomes where access to services is limited.
The Healthcare Design course will equip design thinkers and leaders in health care and social services with the capacity to reimagine and design prototypes of new digitally enabled healthcare services that incorporate good healthcare design principles.
The Digital Health Strategy and Change course will prepare clinical and professional healthcare leaders to innovatively and digitally enable transformations within their organisation.
The courses will be fully credentialed by RMIT University.
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https://itwire.com/listed-tech/opyl-works-to-improve-clinical-trials.html
Tuesday, 21 July 2020 16:47
Opyl works to improve clinical trials
ASX-listed Opyl has a two-pronged approach to applying AI to healthcare.
One aspect of Opyl's business is about improving recruitment for clinical trials by mining social media.
"People reveal a lot on social media," Opyl CEO Michelle Gallaher told iTWire.
"Patients are digitally savvy" and congregate in online groups, especially when suffering from rare diseases.
Capturing the collective voice of such groups allows Opyl to identify patterns such as likely compliance and non-compliance with trial procedures, and areas where patients want to participate in trials but are unaware that they are happening in their city, leading to improved recruitment.
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NHS Lanarkshire to deploy Patientrack across entire board
Highlights:
- NHS Lanarkshire to deploy Patientrack to all three Lanarkshire hospitals and into the community setting, covering approximately 1,250 beds
- $1.52M total value to be recognised over five years to 2025
- NHS Lanarkshire is the second NHS Scotland Health Board to implement the Alcidion Patientrack solution
Melbourne, Australia - Alcidion Group Limited
(ASX: ALC) has signed an enterprise agreement with NHS Lanarkshire for a
five-year term, enabling the health board to deploy Alcidion’s Patientrack
electronic bedside monitoring system across its entire regional health network.
The total value of the new contract is £848k ($1.52M) over five years, to
2025.
NHS Lanarkshire is the third largest health board in Scotland, serving a
population of 655,000 across rural and urban communities. The health board
employs approximately 12,000 staff working in communities, health centres,
clinics and offices and at three district general hospitals – University
Hospital Hairmyres, University Hospital Monklands and University Hospital
Wishaw. Under the agreement, NHS Lanarkshire will deploy Patientrack across all
three acute hospitals, as well as into its community hospitals, covering
approximately 1,250 beds in total.
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Respiri (ASX:RSH) signs merchant agreement with Zip Co (ASX:Z1P) subsidiary
ASX:RSH MCAP $94.49M
Jessica De Freitas Markets Reporter
jessica.defreitas@themarketherald.com.au
20 July 2020 14:00
- Respiri (RSH) has signed a merchant services agreement with buy now, pay later giant Zip Co's (Z1P) subsidiary, Zip Money Payments
- As more businesses in Australia's pharmacy industry are providing buy now, pay later services, Respiri thought it was time to do the same
- The e-Health company considers the latest agreement important in providing flexible payments options for people to access its wheezo device
- This agreement follows an international sales agreement with Cipla Australia
- Company shares are up 13.8 per cent and are trading for 16.5 cents each
Respiri (RSH) has signed a merchant services agreement with buy now, pay later giant Zip Co's (Z1P) subsidiary, Zip Money Payments.
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Could your Fitbit or Apple Watch detect early COVID-19 symptoms?
Aleksandra Michalska
Jul 24, 2020 – 4.41am
New York | Fitbit and other wearable devices typically linked to exercise are being studied as ways to identify people who are potentially infected with COVID-19 before symptoms appear, when they can unknowingly spread the disease.
Changes in heart rate, respiratory rate, and other biometrics measured constantly by the devices may flag the early stages of virus infection, so an otherwise healthy-looking person knows to self-isolate and seek a COVID-19 diagnostic test, researchers say.
"When you get ill, even before you know it, your body starts changing, your heart rate goes up," said Professor Michael Snyder of Stanford University School of Medicine.
Stanford researchers are among several groups examining whether wearable fitness devices such as the Fitbit or Apple Watch can provide an early warning. Snyder’s team enrolled 5000 people in the study and studied historical smartwatch data from 31 users who tested positive for COVID-19.
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Data breach of free VPN providers exposes details of millions of users
By Fiona Willan
July 20, 2020 — 2.13pm
The personal details of millions of users of free Virtual Private Network providers, which aim to protect the privacy of internet users by hiding their identities, have potentially been exposed in a data breach exposing an estimated 1 billion online records.
vpnMentor cybersecurity researchers claim they found an unsecured server shared by several VPNs, software designed to protect users, and say it could potentially affect more than 20 million users.
In a report provided to Nine News, the researchers say the server was "completely open and accessible, exposing private user data for everyone to see".
It claims the affected apps include UFO VPN, Fast VPN, Free VPN, Super VPN, Flash VPN, Secure VPN and Rabbit VPN.
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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/518213/Is-primary-care-locking-in-the-digital-gains-of-Covid-19.htm
Is primary care locking in the digital gains of Covid-19?
Tuesday, 21 July 2020
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
Ninety percent of general
practices have returned to seeing the majority of patients in person, a new
survey shows.
When the country moved to Alert level four in late March, GPs were asked to do a virtual consult with every patient before seeing any in person. This
dramatic shift to using telehealth saw some practices conduct almost all of
their consultations over the phone or via video during lockdown.
By early June, half of practices had returned to seeing the majority of
patients in person, but by the end of the month that had risen to 90
percent.
The figures are the results of a series of national surveys conducted by Auckland University asking general
practices about their experience with Covid-19 and its aftermath, attracting
between 150-170 respondents each time.
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Wednesday, 22 July 2020 11:06
Government impersonation scams on the rise, warns ACCC’s Scamwatch
Over $1.26 million has been lost by Australians to government impersonation scams, according to a new report from the ACCC’s Scamwatch service.
The competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission warned it received more that 7100 reports made to Scamwatch so far this year and “in reality, losses are likely to be far greater”.
The ACCC says there has been an increase in scams reported during tax time such as text messages claiming to be from myGov or from agencies claiming to help victims gain early access to their superannuation.
“Scammers are increasingly taking advantage of the financial difficulties and uncertainty generated from the COVID-19 pandemic to trick unsuspecting Australians,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.
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Wednesday, 22 July 2020 10:56
Government establishes Broadband Advisory Council to ‘maximise’ economic upside, increased digital connectivity
The Australian Government has established an Australian Broadband Advisory Council to provide it with advice on maximising the “economic upside” of increased digital connectivity for Australian businesses and consumers.
The Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, Paul Fletcher says the Council will provide advice to Government on:
- ways the NBN and 5G can boost Australia’s economic output
- opportunities to increase the use of the NBN, 5G and other broadband networks in business
- financial and cultural/behavioural barriers to using the NBN and 5G, and cost effective strategies to reduce such limitations, and
· potential implementation, communication and outreach strategies.
Minister Fletcher said Deena Shiff has been appointed Chair of the Council and will be joined by six other eminent Australians with significant digital, technology and business expertise – Dr Bronte Adams AM, Martin Haese, Scott Lorson, Jan Müller, Georgina Somerset AM and Zareh Nalbandian.
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Morrison establishes broadband council
The Morrison government has extended the JobKeeper program and is now turning its focus to the country’s broadband network, establishing a seven-person advisory council to advise the government on how the NBN and 5G can help boost Australia’s economic output and lift the country out of recession.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said the new council is expected to meet three times per year until 2022, and will examine how the country’s broadband infrastructure and 5G networks could be better utilised.
The most recent statistics from NBN Co show more than 4 million Australian premises have not connected to the network, despite being ‘ready to connect’.
The Australian Broadband Advisory Council will be chaired by Appen non-executive director and former Telstra executive Deena Shiff, who will join Bronte Adams, Martin Haese, Scott Lorson, Jan Müller, Georgina Somerset and Animal Logic CEO Zareh Nalbandian.
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NBN extends CVC holiday until September 19, claiming AU$80 million in relief so far
That's one way to avoid predictions of a data and speed crunch in mid-August.
The National Broadband Network (NBN) has once again extended its 40% capacity boost at no charge for retailers, this time pushing it out to September 19.
The company responsible for deploying the NBN across Australia this time said the offer would be withdrawn after the new extension ends. Satellite users will recieve their 45GB boost until September 30.
"The additional capacity offers have resulted in NBN Co providing almost AU$80 million so far in financial relief credit to participating internet retailers to help support increased levels of data use during COVID-19," the NBN said.
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NBN extends free COVID capacity
4.10pm 24 July, 2020
NBN Co said it is extending its pricing relief for retailers, offering up to 40 per cent extra capacity until mid-September after facing pressure from providers including Telstra.
The government-owned company said on Friday it had already given almost $80 million worth of capacity to internet providers to date, in a bid to help them cope with extra demand stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
It will now extend that offer until September 19, giving providers four extra weeks of extra free bandwidth.
“This is the right thing to do,“ NBN Co chief customer officer Brad Whitcomb said.
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Monday, 20 July 2020 06:23
Selling NBN Co as a monopoly would be the definition of insanity, says network guru
Selling the NBN Co to a private entity as a monopoly would be the worst way to ensure that the network is upgraded, a network expert says, adding that if the definition of insanity is to do the same thing repeatedly and expect different results, the privatising NBN Co as a monopoly would definitely qualify.
Gary McLaren, former chief technology officer of NBN Co, offered this view after he was invited by iTWire to give his opinion on the future of the NBN. iTWire has been running a series of articles on this topic since the middle of June, with renowned telco analyst Paul Budde, TransACT builder Robin Eckermann, Labor NBN adviser Rod Tucker and RMIT network expert Mark Gregory offering their takes on how they think things should pan out.
McLaren said selling NBN Co as a monopoly would bring about the same result as was seen when Telstra was privatised. "After much to-ing and fro-ing the rent-seeking monopolists would only invest in upgrades if the government provided the funding (remember Sol Trujillo's regular trips to Canberra?). It would be the worst of all possible outcomes," he said.
And reasoning on from this, he said if Australia could not craft a path out of its fixed broadband monopoly dilemma, then the best solution would be to keep NBN Co as a state-owned company. "Better to have the government accountable for the cost and profits rather than let Australian private sector establish yet another private monopoly," he commented.
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NBN valuation under review as $51 billion network enters new era
By Fergus Hunter and Zoe Samios
July 20, 2020 — 12.00am
The federal government has commissioned a review of the National Broadband Network's valuation, prompting speculation about privatisation plans for the $51 billion asset.
Consulting firm Ernst & Young has been appointed to examine how the network is valued as the NBN Co enters a new phase of ongoing maintenance and upgrades ahead of an eventual sale.
The NBN's book value is $51 billion based on the rollout cost, funded by $29.5 billion in government investment, a $19.5 billion government loan, and private debt.
Telecommunications industry figures and credit ratings agency S&P have said a write-down of the network's value is inevitable. The Parliamentary Budget Office recently said the most recent fair value estimate of NBN Co, as of June 2019, was $8.7 billion.
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Enjoy!
David.
