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ZDNET, 22 February, 2018 – The Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme comes into effect today, requiring agencies and organisations in Australia that are covered by the Privacy Act to notify individuals whose personal information is involved in a data breach that is likely to result in “serious harm”, as soon as practicable after becoming aware of a breach.

Launching the new legislative direction on Thursday, Australia’s outgoing Information and Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim said the NDB represents a significant boost to privacy governance in Australia. He said the requirements of the NDB scheme, however, are neither exceptional nor unexpected, noting rather that the scheme formalises a long-held expectation of consumers and the Australian community more broadly.

“Meeting privacy obligations and the expectations of the community continues to be essential. Only by demonstrating a commitment to privacy can organisations build and maintain people’s trust and a social licence for innovative uses of data,” he explained.

“The success of an organisation that handles personal information, or a project that handles personal information, depends on trust. People have to trust that their privacy is protected and be confident that personal information will be handled in line with their expectations.

“As a result, privacy today is really about transparency and accountability.”

The NDB scheme uses the phrase “eligible data breaches” to specify that not all breaches require reporting.

In general terms, an eligible data breach refers to the unauthorised access, loss, or disclosure of personal information that could cause serious harm to the individual whose personal information has been compromised.

Examples of a data breach include when a device containing customers’ personal information is lost or stolen, a database containing personal information is hacked, or personal information is mistakenly provided to the wrong person.

An employee browsing sensitive customer records without any legitimate purpose could constitute a data breach as they do not have authorised access to the information in question.

While it is unclear how many notifications the new legislative direction will result in, Pilgrim did say on Thursday his office is yet to receive a notification.

“We don’t know what we’re going to receive by way of notifications, or the current number,” he continued.

“We will see over the coming months whether that number mirrors the experience of the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA), which implemented mandatory data breach notification requirements in January 2016.”

Pilgrim said in the first 100 days of its scheme, the Dutch DPA received 1,000 notifications.

“I am staggering back at the thought,” the commissioner added.

The OAIC has published guidelines on the scheme, which also includes information on how to deal with the aftermath of a breach.

However, as the NDB only applies to those covered by the Privacy Act, intelligence agencies, not-for-profit organisations, small businesses with turnover of less than AU$3 million annually, credit reporting bodies, and political parties are exempt.

“Then there’s another fabulous little part of the Act which says if you collect or disclose information, and in doing so you receive a service benefit or advantage, you can’t claim the small business exemption,” Pilgrim added on Thursday.

“The nature of business, regardless of their turnover, has changed dramatically since 2000 when those provisions came in and it’s really hard to distinguish now about what would constitute a small business, but we do have to ask the question, ‘OK you’ve got a AU$3 million turnover, but are you collecting personal information and are you somehow getting a service or a benefit or advantage.

“My personal view is I think it’s becoming a compliance burden on small to medium enterprises to actually have to ascertain that in the first place, rather than considering why aren’t I just applying good privacy practices in line with the principles and just move on like that.”

There is the option for small and medium-sized enterprises under the Act to voluntarily opt-in to be covered by it. Pilgrim said there has been “quite a few” take up this option over the years.

He said it is best practice for SMEs and those not covered by the NDB scheme to follow the guidelines because, “at the end of the day, I think your customers will respect you for it”.

The federal government finally passed the data breach notification laws at its third attempt in February 2017.

A data breach notification scheme was recommended by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security in February 2015, prior to Australia’s mandatory data-retention laws being implemented.

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(2018), Australia’s Notifiable Data Breaches scheme is now in effect, ZDNet, viewed 22 February 2018, <https://www.zdnet.com/article/australias-notifiable-data-breaches-scheme-is-now-in-effect/>.

COMPUTERWORLD, 12 February, 2018 – NBN CEO Bill Morrow says the company is not yet ready to reveal a timeline for completing work on the hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) portion of its network address performance issues.

NBN in November announced it would halt sales of HFC services for six to nine months until it could “calibrate a number of processes” and deliver higher quality connections using the technology.

Problems with HFC connections have been a “big contributor” to end user frustration with the National Broadband Network, Morrow said today.

“We’re now conducting upgrade work to improve the service quality on HFC and it’s still too early to be specific on timelines for releasing this footprint, but we are progressing quickly and I look forward to updating you shortly,” the CEO told a briefing on NBN’s first half results.

The chief executive said that although NBN had paused sales it had not halted HFC-linked construction work.

“That is continuing at pace and we’re tracking well on declaring premises ready for service,” Morrow said.

“HFC remains an important part of our technology mix and we’re confident it will deliver the experience we all expect,” the CEO said.

It was a “tough call” to pause sales of HFC services but NBN “will not prioritise the speed of the build ahead of customer experience,” he added.

NBN’s chairperson, Dr Ziggy Switkowski, last year said that the pause could potentially result in the company missing its financial targets, at least in the short term.

Morrow said today that although it will have a short-term impact on NBN, he doesn’t believe the pause will have any “longer term implications” for the company’s ability to complete the network rollout by 2020 and meet its financial goals.

Revenue surge

NBN reported $891 million for the six months ending 31 December, up 121 per cent on the prior comparable period.At the end of 2017 the company had close to 3.39 million households and businesses with active services on the new network, out of almost 6.14 million able to order services.

The company reported an EBITDA loss of $1.38 billion for the half; discounting payments to Telstra and Optus to migrate users to the new network the EBITDA loss was $131 million.

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(2018), NBN reports progress but no timeline for HFC fix, Computerworld, viewed 12 February 2018, <https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/633265/nbn-reports-progress-no-timeline-hfc-fix/>.

ZDNET, 11 February, 2018 – The National Broadband Network (NBN) company has revealed that it expects to have 1.1 million additional people on its 50Mbps plan by June as a result of providing this speed for the same access pricing as its 25Mbps service at the end of last year.

According to NBN, in the two months since announcing the promotional pricing, 200,000 premises have already been moved to the 50Mbps plan, with 50,000 of these new service orders and the remaining 150,000 premises upgrading from 25Mbps.

There were only 114,000 end users on the 50Mbps speed tier prior to December, NBN said, adding that this constituted around 3 percent of all new weekly NBN service orders.

Now, about 30 percent of all new weekly NBN orders are for the 50Mbps product.

By June, around 1.6 million end users will be on plans of 50Mbps or 100Mbps, NBN said, which amounts to 35 percent of all users, up from 17 percent in December.

“NBN is very pleased with the initial take-up of the 50Mbps promotional plan by retailers, and we look forward to tens of thousands of end users receiving faster broadband services over the coming months,” an NBN spokesperson told ZDNet.

“The 50Mbps promotional plan is only part of our broader campaign to focus on improving the customer experience on the NBN network as we seek to deliver the best possible experience for end users on the network.”

A majority of users have been on 25Mbps plans since NBN’s launch, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) again affirming that 54.3 percent were on the 25Mbps speed tier as of December 31.

As a result of NBN providing RSPs with a temporary credit for acquiring 50 percent more CVC, and pricing 50Mbps access virtual circuit (AVC) the same as 25Mbps, the ACCC last week announced that retail service providers had increased their purchase of connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) capacity, with a rise of 38 percent in the quarter to December.

According to ACCC chair Rod Sims, the average NBN CVC bought by retailers per user increased from 1.11Mbps to 1.53Mbps, with NBN contracted to supply 5,385Gbps of CVC capacity by the end of December, an increase from 3,452Gbps at the end of September.

“We are pleased to see such a large jump in the CVC acquired by retailers from NBN Co this quarter. With this level of CVC, consumers will have faster broadband speeds and hopefully less congestion during peak evening periods,” Sims said.

“NBN Co’s response to retailers’ concerns about CVC pricing seems to have had an impact on the amount of CVC being acquired, which we believe will benefit consumers through better quality broadband.”

NBN had set up 50Mbps as its flagship speed under its new wholesale pricing in December, also offering discounts on its 100Mbps speed tiers.

Under the changes, NBN’s access and bandwidth charges will also be bundled together across CVC and AVC for the two top-tier plans.

The 50Mbps wholesale bundle will cost retail service providers AU$45 per month — a 27 percent discount — and include 2Mbps of bandwidth, while the 100Mbps wholesale bundle will be reduced by 10 percent to cost AU$65 for 2.5Mbps of included capacity.

According to NBN, the bandwidth being included amounts to “nearly double” the capacity that is currently being purchased by RSPs, with additional capacity available for AU$8 per megabit per second per month — a 40 percent reduction on its previous pricing.

NBN CEO Bill Morrow had previously criticised retailers for cutting corners by focusing on pricing rather than speeds or quality of service after he revealed that the average bit rate per user is around 1Mbps.

RSPs including Vocus, Vodafone, MyRepublic, and Macquarie Telecom had meanwhile argued that the only reason retailers are not offering gigabit speeds to consumers is NBN’s CVC pricing structure.

NBN, however, argued that falling margins and trade-offs between price and quality of broadband services are not only caused by the CVC charge, but mainly by competition.

The ACCC last week also announced that the first speed-monitoring report on fixed-line NBN services is due to be published next month, despite the boxes only just having been provided to the homes taking part.

“We’ll be putting out a monitoring report by the end of March where everybody can see which providers are providing what speeds, and so that will firstly allow consumers to see what’s going on,” ACCC chair Rod Sims told ABC Radio National Breakfast on Friday morning.

“We have just got all the boxes for the first run of people.”

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(2018), NBN expecting 1.2m people on 50Mbps speeds by mid year, ZDNet, viewed 11 February 2018, <https://www.zdnet.com/article/nbn-expecting-1-2m-people-on-50mbps-speeds-by-mid-year/>.

ITNEWS, 21 December, 2017 – NBN retail service providers will need to adhere to a new set of rules outlining how they are to handle migrating customers to the national broadband network from next year.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) today announced its intention to implement new rules that would “significantly improve the consumer experience” in moving to the NBN.

It claimed many telcos weren’t giving customers the right information or acting “quickly and effectively” to resolve migration issues.

ACMA claimed more than 55 percent of all network-related complaints for the three months to June 30 were about faults on the network and broadband speeds, while a further 44 related to connection issues.

The regulator said connection issue complaints took on average up to 28 days to fix, and fault complaints took up to 19 days to resolve.

It also noted the massive increase in complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, with numbers more than doubling this year.

ACMA said industry co-regulator arrangements weren’t working for consumers, and therefore new mandatory rules were required for telcos to “improve their performance”.

The new rules will force telcos to line-test new services after connection to identify faults or other problems early, and to line-test at any time if requested by the user.

They will require telcos to report their complaint numbers quarterly to ACMA – which will be publicly released – so it can monitor changes; to adhere to minimum standards for their complaint-handling processes; and allow for consumers to be reconnected to legacy networks within a certain timeframe if that fallback is needed.

The rules will also outline the minimum information that RSPs must provide before signing customers up to the NBN.

This “consumer information standard” must include “details about the speeds to be delivered, technical limitations such as power outages, the technology on which the service is to be delivered, exit provisions when services are not as advertised and what information will be provided in the event of a network outage”, ACMA said.

ACMA will additionally undertake further research into modem quality, in the expectation of producing either technical standards or a modem performance rating scheme.

The rules will be “immediately and directly enforceable” by ACMA once they come into force on July 1 next year. The agency will start consulting with industry on the changes in early 2018.

Breaching the rules could see RSPs face civil penalties of as much as $10 million.

ACMA made the announcement on order of the federal government, which will provide the agency $8.7 million over three years to support the measures.

Telco industry body the Communications Alliance called the move a “positive” step.

“The transition to the NBN is creating major change for the country, requiring ongoing adaptation throughout the supply chain,” CEO John Stanton said in a statement.

“To the extent that the measures announced will contribute to better coordination of the multi-party supply chain that delivers services to consumers – and therefore improve the overall consumer experience – this will obviously be a positive.”

The Comms Alliance said some RSPs were already undertaking most or all of the activities listed under the ACMA’s proposed rules as a result of existing industry co-regulatory measures.

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(2017), ACMA imposes new rules for NBN migrations, ITNews, viewed 21 December 2017, <https://www.itnews.com.au/news/acma-imposes-new-rules-for-nbn-migrations-480239>.

ITNEWS, 27 November, 2017 – NBN Co is putting a temporary freeze on all new HFC orders and delaying go-live for some of the HFC network as it tries to improve the quality of service for all end users.

The company said it would “temporarily pause all new orders” over its HFC access network.

“This pause will be in effect until incremental field work is undertaken to raise the quality of service for end users,” NBN Co said in a statement.

It also said there would be a “delay of the current rollout timing of new HFC areas” while it undertakes this rectification work, both in the existing footprint and areas not previously declared ready for service.

The delays are currently anticipated to be between six and nine months.

However, NBN Co claimed the halt would not impact its ability to meet its target of delivering the NBN by 2020.

The move is likely to be a source of significant embarrassment for both NBN Co and the government, confirming what many HFC users had been reporting for months.

NBN Co said it would perform “advanced network testing and remediation where needed, wholesale connector replacements, signal amplification calibration, and lead-in work as required”.

Its initial focus is on improving services for the 370,000 users already connected to HFC. The company then plans to work through a backlog of orders and activations it has to delay to allow that work to happen, before resuming with the remaining portion of the HFC rollout.

The company said it would amend information on its rollout map to provide better data on how the freeze and delays will impact those who were anticipating HFC connections.

NBN Co said it was also working with Telstra and Optus to make sure “those who may wait a bit longer to switch to services on the NBN access network will still have access to the same services that they have today”.

The HFC network currently accounts for the largest number of unserviceable connections of any fixed-line technology in the NBN rollout.

NBN Co has been re-architecting parts of the HFC network it had purchased from Telstra and Optus to prevent over-subscription on existing HFC nodes.

Getting HFC right is critical for NBN Co: it is betting on its HFC network to bring in the highest amount of revenue per user of any residential access technology in its portfolio, outstripping even full fibre connections.

It is also important for those that sold their HFC networks to NBN Co.

Telstra said in a financial filing that the delay will have a flow-on effect on “a proportion of the payments to Telstra from NBN Co into future periods”.

The telco also said it would discuss ADSL disconnection obligations with the ACCC and NBN Co “to minimise customer impact during this period”.

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(2017), NBN Co freezes new HFC orders, ITNews, viewed 27 November 2017, <https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-freezes-new-hfc-orders-478516>.

ZDNET, 17 November, 2017 – The Australian government has announced the 52 projects around the nation that will be getting funding under the first round of its AU$50 million Smart Cities and Suburbs Program announced over a year ago.

A total of AU$28.5 million is being allocated across all areas of the country, with every project being co-funded by local governments, universities, and industry. The government also pointed out that 40 percent of the projects are located in regional areas.

“Technology development is moving at a rapid pace in Australia, and harnessing the power of these innovations will set up the future success of our cities,” Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation Angus Taylor said.

“Promoting clever home-grown digital and data solutions that can be replicated in other locations will move Australia into a leadership position, where we can take smart city technologies out to the world.”

The biggest winner under round one was the City of Darwin, which scored a AU$5 million grant in addition to its own AU$5 million co-contribution for the Switching on Darwin project.

It was closely followed by Newcastle City Council in New South Wales, which won AU$4,983,680 alongside its co-contribution of more than AU$10 million for Smart Move Newcastle: Intelligent Mobility, Energy, and Data Networks.

Also winning big was Launceston City Council in Tasmania, which was awarded AU$1.58 million alongside a AU$2,056,800 co-contribution for Launceston City 3D modelling.

In Western Australia, Curtin University was given a AU$2,578,099 grant for its Resilient Energy and Water Systems project in Fremantle, while the City of Perth was given AU$1,314,494 for Smart Cities Collaboration in Perth.

The biggest winner in Queensland was Cairns Regional Council, which gained AU$827,894 for its Reducing Urban Impacts on the Great Barrier Reef project.

Other beneficiaries across NSW were Macquarie University, which was given AU$499,000 for the Smart Transport in Macquarie Park project; Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council got AU$452,168 for Smart Regional City Queanbeyan; the University of Technology Sydney — which has also been working on 5G development — got AU$433,000 for Liveable Neighbourhoods in Lake Macquarie and Sydney City; Australian PV Institute got AU$430,000 for Energy Data for Smart Decision Making across Byron Bay, Bendigo, Ku-ring-gai, Waverly, Banyule, Canterbury, Bankstown, the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Manningham, and Towong; and NOUS Technology got AU$400,000 for Smart Transport in Randwick.

Also in NSW, AU$340,000 was given to the Council of the City of Sydney for Smart Mobility in Sydney; AU$296,943 to University of New South Wales for Smart Community Infrastructure in Sydney; AU$152,500 to Bathurst Regional Council for Community Wi-Fi and Open Data Bathurst; AU$143,125 to Byron Shire Council for Smart Strategic Planning Byron; AU$120,000 to Liverpool City Council for Smart Active Transport Liverpool; AU$115,000 to Council of the Municipality of Woollahra for 3D Technology for Urban Planning in Woollahra; AU$113,657 to Central Coast Council for smart parking on the Central Coast; AU$100,000 to Goldenfields Water County Council for the Goldenfields Water App; and AU$100,000 to University of Sydney for Community Participation in Smart Urban Planning for Logan and Canada Bay.

In Queensland, additional beneficiaries of the grants included Moreton Bay Regional Council, which was given AU$450,000 for Smart Parking in North Lakes, and an additional AU$100,000 for Streamlined Access to Community Services Moreton Bay; V2i was granted AU$333,000 for its Interactive Development Platform in Ipswich; the University of Queensland was given AU$205,000 for Sustainable Urban Growth in Bells Creek; Livingstone Shire Council gained AU$200,000 for the Yeppoon Town Centre Smart Precinct Project; Fraser Coast Regional Council got AU$152,500 for Automated Traffic Management in Fraser Coast; and Rockhampton Regional Council got AU$125,000 for Digital Permits for Disability Parking in Rockhampton.

Other WA areas gaining funding were the City of Joondalup — which has already been deploying smart cities solutions with Telstra — which got AU$867,000 for Smart Monitoring and Management Yellagonga Wetlands; University of Western Australia got AU$500,000 for RailSmart Planning Wanneroo; RAC WA Holdings got AU$490,000 for an automated vehicle trial in Perth; Waardi Limited gained AU$190,000 for Solar Energy Solutions Broome; City of Gosnells got AU$132,781 for Energy Efficient Housing in South Perth; and Shire of Collie was given AU$118,088 for Smart Emergency and Fire Management Collie.

Across Victoria, 11 cities gained funding, including Attentis, which was given AU$731,170 for the Latrobe Valley Sensor Network; City of Greater Geelong was given AU$415,000 for Clever and Creative Geelong; Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology was given AU$400,000 for interactive city management in Melbourne; Moreland City Council got AU$396,900 for 3D City Planning of Moreland Council; and Melbourne City Council gained AU$350,000 for Smart Planning and Design Melbourne.

In Victoria, the government also gave AU$294,820 to Wyndham City Council for Smart Planning in Werribee; AU$225,000 to Maroondah City Council for Smart Redevelopment Victoria; AU$150,000 to Southern Grampians Shire Council for Smart Community Services for the Southern Grampians; AU$120,000 to Connectsus for the City of Yarra Smart Waste Program; AU$118,235 to Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology for Smart Active Transport — Urban Heat Maps for Bendigo; and AU$100,000 to Lendlease Communities (Atherstone) for Smart Transport and Precinct Planning Atherstone.

Six projects in South Australia gained funding: City of Port Adelaide Enfield was given AU$100,000 for Smart Active Transport Port Adelaide; Alexandrina Council won AU$100,000 for Connecting Communities throughout Goolwa, Ashbourne, Strathalbyn, Port Elliot, Langhorne Creek, Milyang, and Mount Compass; and the City of Prospect was given AU$144,900 for its Connected Cities project in City of Prospect, City of Burnside, City of Port Adelaide Enfield, City of Playford, and Campbelltown City Council areas.

Also in SA, Light Regional Council was given AU$159,224 for Smart Tourist Town Kapunda; Mid Murray Council was awarded AU$195,426 for Smart Access to Community Services Mid Murray Region; and Corporation of the City of Unley was given AU$240,000 for Heywood Park Smart City Precinct.

In the Northern Territory, Charles Darwin University scored a AU$251,410 grant for the Smart Ways to Reduce Waste project in Alice Springs.

The only project gaining funding in the Australian Capital Territory was Ecospectral, which will be getting AU$100,000 for the Smart Precinct Woden project.

Round one of the program saw over 170 applications, the government said, with a second funding round opening for applications in the first half of next year.

Global networking giants have also been pushing into smart cities technology, including Huawei’s Intelligent Operation Centre announced earlier this week; Cisco’s smart cities “alliance” with KPMG Australia; and Nokia’s smart cities framework.

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(2017), Australian government funding 52 smart cities projects with AU$28.5m, ZDNet, viewed 17 November 2017, <https://www.zdnet.com/article/australian-government-funding-52-smart-cities-projects-with-au28-5m/>.