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Telecommunications – What's New
The telecommunications industry is moving at a rapid pace, with many changes and new technologies occurring!Listed below are information that we have put together that come from various sources such as CTN News and other news & information sources. People are welcome to contact the DTAN Project Officer by email with any other news that you feel would benefit our website readers. Hot topics on the CTN Website: WebWatch launched amid moves to improve website accessibilityThe Australian Human Rights Commission has, this week, added a publicly available WebWatch list on its website where government websites that post material that is inaccessible to people with disabilities will be named as they come to the Commission's attention. << More See also: Graeme Innes sounds frustrated. Active in the disability field for 30 years, the nation's Disability Discrimination Commissioner knows all about governments failing to practice what they preach when it comes to moving the disabled off welfare and into work. << More Issue 34 of ACMA's newsletter, ACMAsphereHighlights include ACMA research that shows the substitution of mobile services for fixed-line services is now a growing trend in Australia, and the release of new online and telecommunications consumer advice. << More Nick Minchin replaces Billson in shadow comms roleShadow Defence minister Nick Minchin has bumped out Bruce Billson as the shadow spokesperson for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy after Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull's announced his frontbench purge today. << More Hot topics on the CTN Website : ACCC and ACMA release Mobile Premium Services GuideOn the 22nd August, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Communications and Media Authority published a guide titled "Your consumer rights: Mobile phone premium services". The two page guide explains in a simple and easy to understand language how to aviod the pitfalls of Mobile Premium Services. See www.ctn.org.au/content.cfm or See also: Mobile premium services have been available since 2004 but there has never been adequate protection of consumer interests. Consumers are increasingly subject to scams and sharp marketing practices for mobile premium services. TIO flags campaign to encourage telcos to improve serviceThe Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, Deirdre O'Donnell, announced this week a new approach and campaign to encourage telecommunications companies to improve their customer service to deal with a rapidly rising level of complaints. << More Social networking - staying safe online guidelinesThe Australian Communications and Media Authority has today released Social networking - staying safe online, a new fact sheet published in support of the Federal Privacy Commission's Privacy Awareness Week. << More End discriminatory access to public documentsDisability Discrimination Commissioner, Graeme Innes, today called upon government departments and agencies to improve their adherence to government standards and legislation that requires them to provide equal access to public information for people with disability. << More See also: CTN's "Accessible Broadband for All Australian's" report makes a number of recommendations to ensure government information is provided in accessible formats. << More Issue 33 of ACMA's newsletter, ACMAsphere, is now availableThere is a focus on consumer consultation in the August issue, with a wrap-up of the successful 2008 ACMA/Communications Alliance Communications Consumer Dialogue and profiles of the four new industry professionals to join the Consumer Consultative Forum. Other highlights include the appointment of new ACMA Members and ongoing initiatives to help community broadcasters comply with their licence conditions. << More No quick fix on broadband for regionsAustralians living in metropolitan areas may be logging on to the internet using the Government's $4.7 billion national broadband network as early as next April, although regional users will not be so lucky. << More National Relay Service outreach services contract extendedThe Australian Government has extended its contract with WestWood Spice to deliver outreach services for the National Relay Service (NRS) until June 30 2011, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, announced today. << More For the deaf: real instant messaging...and maybe for everybody else as wellA new task force has been formed to develop and promote real-time text messaging; where each character is displayed to the recipient as it is typed in. The task force is focused primarily on technology to help the hearing impaired, but real time messaging could be taken up enthusiastically by others. << More Broadband users watch more internet video than TVPeople with broadband internet access spend more time on the net than they do watching television, a survey has found. << More Telecommunications Consumer Protections Industry CodeThe Australian Communications and Media Authority has registered a new Telecommunications Consumer Protections Industry Code, developed by Communications Alliance, that consolidates consumer protections contained in six existing codes. << More Draft guidelines to enhance Australian BroadbandGuarantee Draft guidelines to improve the Australian Broadband Guarantee were today released by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy. << More ACCC proposes to oversee access to Telstra exchange facilitiesThe Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today published a draft record keeping rule it proposes to issue requiring Telstra to keep records and give reports to the ACCC relating to access to Telstra exchange facilities. << More Effective use of digital communications and media increasingly important for participation in Australian society, research findsAppropriate skills and confidence in using new communications and media services are increasingly important for participation in all aspects of Australian society according to research released today by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. << More Review of Australia's Consumer Policy Framework - Final ReportThe inquiry report, Review of Australia's Consumer Policy Framework, was released in two volumes on 8 May 2008. Volume 1 contains the Terms of Reference for the inquiry, Key Points, Summary and Recommendations, and Volume 2 contains the chapters and appendices. << More Telecomms industry needs reformConsumer protection in the telecommunications industry falls short of good practice. << More Mobiles challenge fixed line phones as the main form of communications for household consumersA report released today by the Australian Communications and Media Authority shows that 90 per cent of household consumers have both a fixed line phone and mobile phone, with nearly half (45 per cent) preferring to use mobiles as their main voice communications. << More Mother carries baby 10km in bid to save lifeA pay-phone will be installed at a remote Territory community - a week after the death of a baby whose family was forced to walk 10km to get her medical treatment. << More VoIP emergency call failure's first fatality?18 month old Canadian Elijah Luck may have the unfortunate distinction of being the first person to die because a VoIP phone service used to make an emergency call failed to deliver the caller's correct address. Without a foolproof system, which is years away, the same thing is likely to happen again. << More A stronger voice for consumersThe Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, welcomes the commitment from consumer representatives to establish a peak telecommunications body representing the diversity of consumer interests. << More Access to electronic media under reviewThe Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, today announced the release of a discussion paper, as part of an investigation into the accessibility of electronic media for people with a hearing or vision impairment. << More Real-time Instant Messaging – working NOWby Barry Dingle (email: btdingle@gmail.com,AIM r-t IM: far4511) TTYs have been used for many years to provide a real-time text service in the telephone network. The Internet provides opportunities to provide better communication services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people amongst themselves and with the millions of hearing people as well. Many Deaf and Hard of Hearing people are using text services such as SMS, email and Instant Messaging (IM). These are message-based services – with text being sent as a message or a sentence. However, 'conversations' – like people have with TTYs or when speaking on the phone – are more difficult with these technologies. A text service called Text-over-IP (or ToIP) is being developed that is very similar to VoIP and can work easily with it. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_over_IP ) A Mobile version of ToIP is undergoing trials at the moment (January 2008). This sends text characters immediately they are typed. This is called real-time text. Another real-time text service has just been developed and is available for use NOW by anyone with a computer. It uses Instant Messaging that is used by millions of people today but with an added feature that allows people who are communicating to see the text being typed by the other person immediately. You see each character as it is entered – and you can see the corrections when a typo is corrected – and the other person can also text back at the same time if they want to interrupt. It is much more 'conversational'. The Real-time Text IM service (we will call it rt-IM) as been developed by the large AOL Instant Messaging people (AIM) so it immediately becomes available to many millions of people. It was developed with the assistance of some Deaf communications experts in the USA. Anyone who has used IM will find rt-IM extremely easy to use. All you do is download the latest version of the computer 'client' – a fancy name for some software that goes in your computer – that will give you access to AIM and its real-time IM capability. It is available from http://beta.aol.com/projects.php?project=aim6 which also explains the new real-time IM service. (A paper that provides additional information about how to get connected to this service is available in PDF below). Mac and Mobile versions of this service have not been provided yet. Download How to set up Real-time Text with AIM Instant Messaging document (16KB). Consumer rights and mobile phone handsetsThe new fact sheet, Your consumer rights: Mobile phone handsets issued by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission explains what consumers can do when they are having problems with their mobile phone handset. See also: The Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) has released a fact sheet of advice to assist consumers who have faulty mobile phone handsets. |