Extended public hearings should focus on local initiatives for NBN

The Senate Select Committee on the NBN announced in the media yesterday that public hearings will be extended until 30 March to focus on the part of the draft NBN legislation that will allow NBN Co to operate as a retailer.

Details of the hearings are yet to be released but I have contacted the committee for more information and will report back shortly.

In the meantime, two pressing questions have arisen in the NBN debate: 1) Should Telstra's wholesale and retail businesses be separated? and 2) Should NBN Co be allowed to operate its own wholesale and retail business?

If NBN Co is allowed to operate in the retail sector, we may have witnessed a costly exercise in re-inventing the wheel.

Previous governments were fond of using Telstra as a big policy lever. If political leverage was needed, simply pull the big lever and Telstra did the government's bidding. T3 changed that forever, although the government's 17% share in the telco meant that the policy lever was still within reach - until Sol Trujillo took away the handle, that is.

So is the government's insistence on NBN Co's retail operations simply a way to re-establish the old policy lever?

Maybe. But there might also be some logic to NBN Co entering the retail market. For example, in areas where there is insufficient competition or limited retail services, NBN Co might be able to break long-established pockets of poor service. Palmerston via Gungahlin is a case in point, with NBN Co or TransACT expected to break the service deadlock with the support of Senator Kate Lundy.

On the other hand, we might just be recreating the Australian way of doing communications policy by sticking to the single national solution.

The Coalition are not happy about the proposed break-up of Telstra and there is some merit in extending the public hearings on NBN Co's proposed retail operations.

But separating these two issues is simply wrong.

If Telstra is forced to separate, then NBN Co cannot operate a retail arm. Otherwise, we return to telecommunications business as usual - the reason Australia became a broadband laggard in the first place.

But the public hearings and the focus on NBN Co's proposed retail operations provide an opportunity for local operators to be involved in the NBN. If NBN Co is given the go-ahead for retail operations, there will be little scope for local operators to deliver retail or last-mile services.

Instead of allowing NBN Co to operate in the retail market to fix existing pockets of poor service (like Palmerston via Gungahlin), the government should call for tenders from the private sector and enable community and municipal proposals to be considered.

The public hearings proposed by the Senate Select Committee on the NBN may be the last opportunity for the local element of the network to be developed. But this approach flies in the face of the federal government's desire to re-attach their handle to the old school policy lever.

In short, if NBN Co is given the go-ahead to provide retail services, then we can expect to have a brand-new, $43 billion, re-invented wheel.

Step 2: Solving the Browser-Consistency Dilemma

How do you provide a consistent browser experience?

Firefox Portable has solved one of the biggest dilemmas - not all browsers and machines are the same, and I need to ensure that all students have access to the required tools.

In the past, access to required learning tools was delivered to students on a CD-ROM. For example, Deakin University provided all off-campus students with the Deakin Learning Toolkit:

“Students receive a Deakin Learning Toolkit. This contains basic written material introducing the website, services and support available. They also receive a CD, which gives them the necessary software to become connected and lots of information about support services, how to connect to the web, library resources, faculties and courses. The CD is designed to set up the students with all the necessary resources and information for them to begin their studies.”

Higher bandwidth has overcome most of the distribution challenges of the past. But just try and organise a large group of students to access a particular add-on in a particular browser which must be at a particular version and on a machine with the correct plug-ins and apps installed. Not once has this ever been possible with a 100% success rate in more than a decade of computer lab teaching!

With Firefox Portable, I set up the browser with the add-ons I require students to use. For the media-sharing assignment, I have decided upon the AddThis add-on for Firefox. The choice was based on the ability to restrict the choices of sharing sites in the button to Blogger only. To see the set up, a zip-file containing the full portable browser (as delivered to students) is available here.

With a class of over 60, separated into two computer labs, the first shock was to see the entire class turn up to a workshop which is deemed quasi-compulsory. The next challenge was that every fifth computer did not have java installed, so registering for a Google account required access to a mobile phone to retrieve the SMS code. Surprisingly, most of the students simply entered their phone numbers, retrieved the code, and wetn on with their registration.

By the end of the one-hour workshop, every student had registered a Google account, logged into the blog (I had to mass email the students beforehand and add late enrolments during the class), and posted a comment. Some had even downloaded Firefox Portable and added it to their student desktop (on the roaming profile). Those who had installed Firefox Portable had all attempted the use of the AddThis add-on. In the next workshop, this process will be complete and we should be able to start with the blogging and media-sharing the week after.

Lessons for next time: Ensure everybody has a Google account before arriving and have full written or video-recorded instructions on how to download and install Firefox Portable. Also, check whether the roaming profile is big enough to handle the 35mb required by Firefox.

Blog 'comments' provide Spam Act loophole for Oz spammers

Have you received one of these comments on your blog yet?

"There are many Australians that use wireless broadband as an additional home broadband service, allowing them the convenience of being connected to both the home and office while out and about or when traveling. -- http://www.let.com.au"

Now check out the search engine results here. As you can see, this is clearly a form of spam.

But not according to the Spam Act 2003. I received this response from the ACMA to my query from last week:

The Spam Act 2003 covers unsolicited commercial electronic messages. This includes emails, SMS, MMS and iMS services.

Under the Spam Act, the distinguishing feature is that a commercial electronic message needs to be sent via an Internet carriage service or any other listed carriage service to an address connected with an account of some sort.

In the case of the posting commercial messages on blogs, the blog itself and not an account (such as an email address) is used to receive the message.

Therefore, such postings are not within the scope of the Spam Act.

Obviously it is difficult to keep up to date with spammers and their techniques, and in many ways Australia was a pioneer in introducing legislative protection from spammers.

Nonetheless, the spammers seem to have the upper hand in extra-territorial matters. Interestingly, it has been two telecommunications companies who have posted spam comments on my blog.

While domestic communications networks remain tied to territorial jurisdiction, it would seem that a Wilsonian approach to solving the global spam problem is needed. The ITU has shown some leadership in this role although the international institution views 'appropriate legislation and effective enforcement' as the best means of reducing spam.

But businesses can also play a role. Recently, Microsoft received court approval to shut down the Waledac botnet.

And what of Australian businesses? At the moment, blog comments are not counted as spam and it would be difficult for any domestic government to police. But what about updating the Internet industry code of practice? I will attempt to submit something to the IIA about this issue and will report back later.