Telstra led the pack with three CommsDay Edison Awards, announced yesterday at CommsDay Summit 2020.

Group director Kim Krough Andersen accepted awards for best cloud provider, best IOT provider and best mobile operator.

Optus won two awards, for best marketing initiative for the FIFA Women’s World Cup and for best fixed wireless. NBN Co won for Sky Muster Plus, Dodo Mobile as best VNO, Vodafone as best fixed broadband provider in the biggest upset of the day, Clayton Utz for best law firm and Ericsson for best vendor.

The awards are based on nominations evaluated by a panel of industry judges.

Over 25 companies nominated for the awards.

Best telecom marketing initiative: Optus for the FIFA Women’s World Cup
Best telecom law firm: Clayton Utz for its advice on key industry partnerships
Best network vendor: Ericsson for its 5G network equipment
Best cloud provider: Telstra for Cloud Sight, TPN and Purple
Best satellite provider: NBN Co for Sky Muster Plus
Best fixed wireless provider: Optus for 5G Home Broadband
Best virtual network provider: Dodo Mobile for its $5 plan
Best IOT company: Telstra for the scale of its networks
Best fixed broadband provider: Vodafone for its market momentum
Best mobile operator: Telstra for its network leadership

NBN Co will reduce headcount by 800 employees over the next five months as it moves past its volume build to more normal operations. And an extensive management shakeup will see its business silo abolished and head executive Paul Tyler leave the company next month.

The staff reductions have been long anticipated as the build winds down and are arguably shallower and later than might have been expected. “NBN Co currently employs around 6,300 employees and has managed the size of its external workforce of specialist contractors in line with requirements to complete the final stages of the initial build,” CEO Stephen Rue said in a statement.

NBN Co said it paused the majority of internal restructuring activities over the last six months to ensure the company remained well-resourced to complete the initial build as well as support network connection and rectification, amid the increased data and operational demands brought on by the COVID-19 crisis.

“As we transform for the future, NBN Co will become a smaller organisation, moving to an organisation of around 5,500 people by the end of this calendar year,” said Rue.

NBN Co is also streamlining its management silos.

Residential Sales and Marketing & Business Sales and Marketing will be integrated into one business unit to be known as Customer, Product and Marketing, which will be led by Brad Whitcomb as Chief Customer Officer.

Paul Tyler, Chief Customer Officer for Business will leave NBN Co in August.

A dedicated Networks, Engineering and Security business unit will be established to “further integrate technology, architecture, engineering and network functions, drawing closer alignment of NBN Co’s network strategy and solutions to heighten performance and future capability for customers.” This unit will be led by John Parkin, the current Chief Network Engineering Officer.

Network Planning and Deployment “will move to an agile model that will integrate the design, execution and governance of all work that drives service delivery from build through to a live service,” and will be led by Kathrine Dyer as Chief Operations Officer. NBN Co’s Strategy and Transformation function led by Will Irving, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, will be expanded to include the company’s Legal, Data and Analytics functions. This combined business unit will be known as Strategic Services. After more than ten years with NBN Co, Justin Forsell, Chief Legal Counsel and Security, has decided to leave the company later this year.

Chief Development Officer, Regional and Remote Gavin Williams, CFO Philip Knox, CIO Debbie Taylor, Chief People and Culture Officer Sally Kincaid and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Felicity Ross will continue in their current roles.

Communications minister Paul Fletcher has indicated that he will not restart the stalled spectrum reform process until he is satisfied that the proposed new regime will provide superior benefits to the system it replaces.

A new Radiocommunications Act has been some five years in the making but its progress stalled in the last parliament under former comms minister Mitch Fifield.

In an interview with CommsDay, Fletcher said that while he understands there is an “appetite” for change, he needs to be satisfied that the proposed new law delivers a “public policy prize” before he green lights it for introduction into parliament.

“I guess what I want to be satisfied of is, what are the benefits we’re going to get from the changes that are proposed? How material are the claimed deficiencies in the present regime? And is there a public policy prize for making changes,” he told CommsDay. “I certainly don’t doubt that proposition that there are opportunities to update and improve the regime. The question in my mind is how wholesale the changes need to be. But, look, I don’t have a concluded view on that yet. I’m just starting to get some of my initial briefings on it.”

Work to revamp the 1992 Radiocommunications Act first began in 2014 when then minister Malcolm Turnbull asked the department and the Australian Communications and Media Authority to undertake a review of spectrum management. The government agreed to their recommendations the following year and an exposure draft for a new act was released in May 2017. But after a consultation period elicited a substantial degree of stakeholder concern about the fine print of the proposed legislation, the process stalled in what one departmental insider described as the “Canberra version of Hollywood development hell.”

“It’s been quite a torturous process,” Fletcher acknowledged.

“Essentially, I want to be satisfying myself that the bill makes tangible improvements to the current arrangements, so that we are committed to a reform process in relation to spectrum,” he explained. “In particular, I guess, the way that spectrum is allocated, but I think it’s important to start from a premise that in the broad, we’ve got a system that has served us reasonably well.”

“I think we can have a level of confidence that people will keep coming up with applications where we can make use of spectrum for economic and social good. That really needs to be the underlying consideration. What is our process, as set out in the legislation, for allocating spectrum, and then, again, to come to a more practical or prosaic level, looking at the kinds of spectrum licenses we have now— the apparatus license, the class license, the spectrum license—is that fit for purpose? Do we need more flexibility? And if so, what might different mechanisms look like?”

Fletcher said he hadn’t decided yet whether to hold another formal review into the reforms, saying it “was too early to say. That is to be determined.”

FULL STEAM AHEAD FOR RBS: Fletcher, however, was less equivocal on the also stalled Regional Broadband Scheme legislation, which creates a $7 a month superfast broadband levy which will fund the rural loss making activities of the NBN. Legislation for this was also released in 2017 but has yet to be passed by the parliament.

“We’re intending to proceed with that,” Fletcher affirmed.

“A lot of work’s been done on that. The basic policy logic of a cross-subsidy from broadband service in metro areas to regional and remote areas, that’s a direction the government’s committed to, so yes, we will be proceeding with that. They’ll be very much continuing as we talked about.”

“The whole structure of the NBN has been underpinned by seeking to solve the policy challenge that the Universal Service Obligation in the voice world was designed to address. And in the broadband world, the way we’ve addressed it is, rather than placing a statutory obligation on an existing provider within a funding mechanism linked to that, we’ve built a taxpayer funded network.”

Fletcher also played down hopes of more changes to the Universal Service Obligation on Telstra.

“There was a fairly careful look at the USO throughout most of 2018, and there’s a number of elements of it which are locked in in terms of the contract between Telstra and the government. And a set of cash flows to Telstra. So that’s locked in for quite some years.”

SingTel executives have portrayed a rosy picture of Optus’ enterprise and consumer businesses at a major investor day held in Singapore’s St Regis Hotel last week.

The day-long session incorporated presentations from the heads of SingTel’s various operating units in Thailand, India, Indonesia, the Philippines as well as Optus from Australia, represented by CEO Allen Lew.

Lew told investors and analysts that the addition of 454,000 postpaid additional subscribers last FY was the highest ever in the company’s history, while its $2.5b in EBITDA for the consumer business was also a record.

He also pointed to external validation for the company, saying it had ranked first in data experience in the P3 mobile survey. It had also ranked first in Opensignal’s 2019 survey of 4G availability.

“In FY20 we will continue to differentiate through our four pillars,” Lew told the session. “We go further to connect customers with exceptional network, value and service.”

SingTel’s group enterprise head Bill Chang outlined just how dominant the combined SingTel/Optus enterprise group is in the APAC market.

The group is no 1 for market share in both the APAC international IPVPN and international leased circuit markets. In IPVPN it has 21% of the market, way ahead of China Telecom on 7% and Orange on 6% while in leased circuits it has a 16% market share, ahead of PCCW on 11% and PLDT on 7%.

Overall the revenue mix of the group was transforming from legacy telco to ICT markets where it had a different set of competitors including IBM and Accenture.

Chang said the group’s vision was to be a “key enabler of smart cities and digital enterprise with deep capabilities.”

Mitch Fifield racks up 1318 days as communications minister this morning, give or take the small period when he was technically resigned from the position during the August leadership transition last year. He has overseen most of the commercialisation of the NBN, with its activations growing from just over half a million to over five million on his watch. His tenure has also seen major media reforms, an expansion of “public interest” regulation over telcos and e-safety as well as the continued growth of mobile blackspot deployments. He agreed to this interview with CommsDay founder Grahame Lynch.

LYNCH: With the NBN entering the home straight in terms of design and construction, thoughts are beginning to turn to what comes next. Labor wants a review, if the Coalition is re-elected what will it do in terms of planning for the NBN post-completion era?

FIFIELD: The NBN has been a remarkable turnaround story. When the Coalition Government came into office in 2013, we inherited a failed project. Labor’s NBN rollout was in disarray. Contractors across the country had walked off the job and the NBN under Labor missed every rollout target it set for itself.

Under the Coalition, the NBN has connected more than 5.1 million premises at a rate of over 30,000 premises a week. The NBN is now available to more than 9 million homes and businesses. Whilst this progress has been nothing short of extraordinary, the next 12-18 months is a critical phase of the build. If the Coalition is re-elected, the priority in the first instance will be to continue to get the rollout delivered on time, on budget and above all, preserving customer experience.

NBN Co have been tasked with building the network within the peak funding envelope as a first and foremost priority. Incremental upgrades have always been part of the design of the multi-technology mix.

LYNCH: There have been some criticisms of overlapping or redundant regulation over NBN service standards. At the same time, RSPs are complaining that they have zero margins in reselling NBN. Are they two areas that deserve policy attention in the next parliament?

FIFIELD: The rollout of the NBN is a transformational undertaking that touches every home and business across the country. As a once in a hundred year transformation it is generating the biggest customer churn event, one that is recasting the telecommunications market in Australia.

It is important that consumers have a positive experience on the NBN, and the Government and industry recognise that a holistic and collaborative response is required. Over the past 18 months, the Government and the regulators have put in place comprehensive measures to ensure NBN customers get the level of service they expect from their retailers.

On 11 September 2018, the ACCC accepted a court enforceable undertaking from NBN Co to make changes to its wholesale service level requirements. The undertaking sets out changes to NBN Co’s standard contract with retailers, known as the wholesale broadband agreement, as well as specific reporting requirements.

As part of the undertaking, NBN Co will pay a $25 rebate to retailers for missed appointments (with customers) and where it fails to meet service standards for connections and repairs 100% of the time. Consistent with NBN Co’s undertaking, NBN Co has amended its wholesale broadband agreement to require retailers to take reasonable steps to pass on the fair value of the rebates to consumers.

Additionally, over the past 18 months, the Government and the regulators have put in place comprehensive measures to ensure NBN customers get the level of service they expect from their retailers.

The ACMA has introduced enforceable rules, backed by penalties, to address key consumer ‘challenge points’ on the NBN and is now undertaking a targeted program of monitoring to ensure industry compliance with the new requirements. According to its latest compliance report, released in early March, the ACMA has completed 38 investigations into compliance with the Complaints Handling Standard, and has issued warnings to 27 retailers and remedial directions to four.

The ACCC’s Measuring Broadband Australia program provides Australian consumers with accurate and independent information about broadband speeds. The fourth report of the program was released in February 2019 and for the first time, this latest report includes a breakdown of speed results by NBN technology. The report confirms that in 65% of tests undertaken, download speeds of above 90% of maximum plan speeds continue to be achieved across all technologies including FTTN.

The report also shows that broadband speeds did not slow significantly during busy evening hours (7-11pm) with average speeds reducing by less than two percentage points compared with the average.

Recent research by Alpha Beta confirms that Australia has one of the most affordable markets for broadband showing Australia is ranked 7th for affordability among 22 countries analysed. Alpha Beta looked not only at price, but affordability by looking at household capacity to pay – which is an important measure because it found that the median broadband price in Australia is equivalent to 1.4 per cent of of Australian per-capita income.

In addition, the ACCC’s Communications Market Report 2017-18 found that real retail prices for NBN plans dropped by 4% in the 2017-18 financial year, accounting for the rate of inflation in the rest of the economy.

NBN’s prices are not set in stone. The company is in an ongoing dialogue with retailers and has discounted its wholesale prices on multiple occasions. The cost of living matters to the Morrison Government. We’re rolling out the network as economically as possible. This is in sharp contrast to an all-fibre broadband policy which didn’t have any cost controls in place and was premised on people paying much higher prices for broadband.

The Coalition’s faster, more affordable NBN rollout is keeping your internet bills down and your taxes lower. Labor’s NBN would have pushed up a typical home internet bill by more than $500 a year.

LYNCH: One initiative under your watch was the establishment of a 5G council, the first time a comms minister has recognised the mobile sector in such a way. What needs to be done in the next parliament to continue that work and to bring 5G to reality?

FIFIELD: In October 2017, I released our strategy to support the timely rollout of 5G in Australia and announced the 5G Working Group. The Working Group is a platform for strategic dialogue with a mandate to seek out opportunities and emerging issues on 5G and consists of mobile carriers, equipment vendors, industry peak bodies, government representatives and subject matter experts.

The Working Group is a demonstration of this Government’s commitment to work with industry for the successful deployment of 5G in Australia, but that isn’t all we are doing.

Australians can’t enjoy 5G services and products unless the appropriate spectrum is made available to industry, so it is important that we enable early access to spectrum – which is why I reallocated the 3.6 GHz spectrum for 5G use and Australia’s first 5G spectrum auction was conducted in December last year. We are also supporting early consideration of the mmWave spectrum bands for 5G use in Australia.

We are actively engaging in international standardisation processes to ensure equipment and devices from the world’s leading vendors are suitable for use in Australia with minimal customisation, reducing purchase and deployment costs for Australian industry and consumers.

We are streamlining arrangements to allow mobile carriers to deploy infrastructure more quickly. In March 2018, we announced changes to carriers’ powers and immunities to reflect new technologies and deployment practices, and reduce the regulatory burden on telcos, and we will continue to work with telcos, property owner groups, public utilities, state and local governments and the TIO on proposed future reforms.

And finally, we are undertaking the most significant change to Australian spectrum management in the last 25 years. We are reviewing existing telecommunications regulatory arrangements to ensure they are fit-for-purpose for the 5G era. A clear, efficient and flexible regulatory framework governing spectrum access will be essential to support the timely deployment of 5G networks in Australia. Cutting red tape and removing barriers to rolling out new networks means Australians will benefit from faster and more affordable access to the benefits 5G will bring.

Industry stakeholders have made it clear to us that the proposed reforms should be progressed thoughtfully and with thorough consultation, and that this is much more important than the reforms being implemented quickly.

LYNCH: On a related note, there has been much talk about “broken concepts” and an overall regime that is not fit for the 21st century in the digital space. There’s been focused reviews on ACMA and the TIO and so on. Is there merit in something more holistic?

FIFIELD: The Government has pursued a comprehensive reform agenda. It’s ironic the Opposition has called for holistic reform when they opposed reform of 1980s media laws and opposed every effort to get their failed NBN rollout back on track. On both we succeeded despite Labor’s opposition. The ultimate vindication is that Labor have now adopted our NBN policy.

We are rolling out the NBN to completion by 2020 at 30 billion dollars less cost and six to eight years sooner than Labor’s plan, meaning Australians will save $500 per year on the internet bills; delivering a mobile black spot program that will provide greater mobile coverage in regional Australia; have reformed Australia’s media laws to better support our media against the global online giants; reforming copyright law to assist people with disabilities and educational institutions and better protect Australia’s creative industries; have established the world’s first eSafety commissioner and legislating take down regimes and penalties for kids cyberbullying and image based abuse; delivering real consumer benefits through the ACCC NBN speed monitoring regime and greater transparency in handling complaints through ACMA and a remorseless focus on improving NBN customer experience with retailers, and; laying the foundations for the rollout of 5G through an early spectrum auction, reformed carrier powers and immunities and a cross government/industry 5G working group.

We are putting in place a telecommunications Consumer Safeguards framework to make it a modern and flexible set of consumer protections that better respond to key issues of consumer concern, changing consumer expectations, advances in technology and evolving industry roles and responsibilities. The review is part of our broader agenda to modernise the telecommunications regulatory framework and ensure all Australians are well placed to thrive in the global digital economy.

We are revising Australia’s spectrum management legislation (as part of the broader package of spectrum framework reform) to simplify and streamline processes for spectrum allocation. These reforms will support transparent, efficient and flexible systems to more effectively respond to market demands and new technologies.

The Government delivered landmark media reforms that will allow Australia’s media sector to reorient their businesses to meet competition from digital platforms and global competitors. The package removed two control rules that failed to recognise new platforms and prevented Australian media companies from optimally structuring their businesses to compete in a global media environment. The package also implemented a significant and permanent ongoing financial injection into the broadcast industry through the abolition of licence fees.

The Government is committed to protecting Australia’s creative industries and the world-class content we produce each year, including through cracking down on online piracy. The Government’s Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Act 2018, which came into effect on 11 December 2018, will further strengthen the capacity of Australia’s creative industries to fight copyright infringement. The new laws enable the Federal Court to make injunctions that target a broader range of infringing websites, and provide a means to block pirate sites more quickly. The amendments also allow copyright owners to seek Federal Court orders requiring search engines to demote or remove search results for infringing sites. This strengthens the existing website blocking scheme introduced by the Government in 2015 which has been very successful in reducing online piracy, which deprives creative industries of their rightful income from legitimate purchases.

LYNCH: In recent months you have paid attention to the issues with social media and live streaming of violent acts. The ACCC has also been looking at digital players and their impact in Australian media markets. Do you think this will continue to be an increasing focus for communications regulation in the future?

FIFIELD: The Government is committed to ensuring digital players adapt to the changed expectations of the community and that we apply the same laws and standards in the online world as we do in the physical world.

The Government has been at the forefront of Online Safety regulation and has increased its investment in Online Safety each and every year in response to emerging issues and growing awareness. The funding for online safety through the Office of the eSafety Commissioner is now more than $100 million over the next four years. We have changed the law to give greater protection to law-abiding citizens and to punish the creeps and crooks that seek to do them harm.

The online world brings with it the ability to connect with people all over the world like never before. But with these opportunities comes new threats and challenges.

The Morrison Government is committed to a safer online environment for all Australians.

It is why we have taken a range of actions to crack down on online creeps and crooks as well as giving parents and carers the information and tools they need to ensure their children’s safety in the online world. And we have a comprehensive plan to do even more.

We understand that Australians expect the laws and standards of behaviour that apply in the physical world should equally apply in the online world. The internet should not be a lawless place in which creeps and crooks can flourish.

The safety of Australians is our first priority and we will continue to do what is necessary to ensure all Australians can communicate, work and learn online safely.

The Government acted to reflect the community’s view that the distribution of abhorrent violent material should not take place by bringing forward a focused piece of legislation that relates to a specific type of content.

It was the Government that commissioned the ACCC’s digital platforms inquiry, and we look forward to considering the ACCC’s findings and recommendations upon delivery of their final report.

LYNCH: Will communications be an important issue in this campaign? Do things like mobile blackspot funding and the NBN motivate people when it comes to choosing governments?

FIFIELD: Access to reliable and affordable telecommunications services will always be an important issue for the community. This Government recognises that a faster and more affordable rollout means better access to: online learning support for students, improved healthcare services for patients and doctors, and trade and job opportunities for people who want to connect and do business.

Labor acknowledge the network will be built by 2020 but they still fail to acknowledge their approach would have taken longer, cost more and seen Australians pay an average of $500 more on their annual household internet bills. The Coalition’s faster rollout of the NBN means Australians are being connected years earlier than they would have been under Labor.

Labor’s NBN policy is the final acknowledgement that the Coalition’s plan to use a range of technologies to see NBN completed 6 to 8 years sooner, and at $30 billion dollars less cost than Labor – has worked. Labor have finally accepted that doing what the rest of the world does, is the right answer.

The faster rollout means that many parts of regional and remote Australia are already accessing fast broadband for the very first time. In fact, because this Government took the approach to prioritise the most underserved areas of Australia, the NBN rollout in regional and remote Australia is close to complete.

With regards to mobile black spot funding, the Coalition Government recognises the importance of reliable mobile coverage to regional and rural Australia. That is why we have committed $380 million across six funding rounds of the Mobile Black Spot Program. Under the first three rounds of the program, 696 mobile base stations have been activated.

On 18 March 2019, the Coalition Government announced Round 4 of the program will deliver 180 new mobile base stations across Australia. This includes 73 new base stations that target coverage issues at Public Interest Premises, such as medical centres and tourist facilities.

With the Round 4 announcement, the Program is funding the delivery of 1047 new mobile base stations across the country.

To date, more than $760 million in total investment has been generated under the program. The investment made by the Coalition Government to incentivise the expansion of the commercial mobile networks is the most significant one-time increase in mobile network coverage to regional and remote Australia delivered by a single funding program in the history of mobile telecommunications.

Despite being in government for 6 years, Labor did not invest a single dollar into improving mobile coverage.

Editors note: CommsDay published an interview with shadow minister Michelle Rowland in our April 24 edition which is available online here: https://www.commsday.com/2019/04/23/interview-michelle-rowland/

Around 17 years ago, back in December of 2002, I was fortunate enough to jag a media visit to witness the launch of the New Skies NSS-6 satellite from Kourou in French Guiana. It’s where the European Space Agency has its spaceport and where Arianespace does most of its launches from. There are a few standout memories for me, notably that the sound and feel of the launch is just as impressive as the visual aspect, and that it afforded a trip to Devil’s Island, where I could see the actual cell that held “Papillon”, the famous escapee who went on to write a best selling autobiographical novel of his experiences in the French penal colony.

While much of the rest of the experience has faded into memory, I’m always reminded of that time through a model of a truck carrying a replica Arianespace rocket that I picked up in a gift shop in downtown Kourou. I’ve nurtured that rocket memento across four continents and out of the grasping hands of two small boys who are now large teenagers. It’s one of the very few items I’ve held on to during the intervening 17 years and I’ve often wondered why I was particularly sentimental about that truck and rocket combination, which others would have passed off as a child’s toy. But after reading Alice Gorman’s book on space archaeology – Dr Space Junk vs The Universe – I now realise the behaviour wasn’t a strange as I suspected. As she notes, from the start of the Cold War people have been moulding everything from food and drink to toys and playparks into rockets to mark our fascination with space. These items are all part of the world views shaped by space technology and are among a range of things that space archaeologists, like Dr Gorman, can investigate.

Many Space & Satellite AU readers will be familiar with Gorman and her work, but for those that aren’t she is a trained archaeologist, with enough dirt under the finger nails at dig sites to earn her chops in the field. How she came to be one of the foremost experts in the burgeoning field of space archaeology sets the scene early in the book. It’s a fascinating story in its own right, but the short version is she had an epiphany on the balcony of an old Queenslander while nursing a beer and looking up at the stars (and satellites). And we can be thankful she did otherwise she might never have got to writing this fascinating account of Australia’s early space history and why it’s important to preserve our space heritage, both down on earth and up in the skies.

I like to consider myself reasonably knowledgeable on Australia’s early space endeavours, particularly the activities at Woomera, our role in tracking a whole range of space missions, and the media event that was the re-entry of Skylab into outback Australia. But there’s so much more and Gorman tells it in a way that relays the history but also pushes her narrative of the importance of preserving these events and technologies so that others can make sense of them in the future.

For example, I had no idea about the Dust Detector Experiment, part of wider scientific experiment that had been conceived by Australian scientist Brian O’Brien when he was professor of space science at Rice University in Houston, Texas. It went on a number of Apollo missions to the Moon in the 1960s and was still providing data until 1977. That tiny device allowed O’Brien and his research assistants to learn the impacts of dust on the Moon and continues to provide evidence that can guide how humans might build infrastructure on the Moon as well as how they can protect lunar heritage sites abraded by dust storms.

Another eye-opening account covers the efforts of a group of “backyard” amateur scientists in Melbourne in the 1960s who built their own satellite – Australis Oscar 5 – which is still circling the Earth almost 50 years since it was launched in 1970. Not only did they build the satellite, they also built their own tracking station on the roof of the old physics building at Melbourne Uni using old car parts, second-hand electric motors and pieces of an air-conditioning plant.

“When it is possible to study orbital hardware from space, these home-made satellites will stand out from the thousands of slick commercial, military and scientific satellites by their appearance. Project OSCAR initiated a tradition of volunteer, international space co-operation that continues to this day,” she notes in the book

Of course the Oscar 5 is just part of a growing stream of old satellites and assorted space junk that is filling our skies and will be visible from central Queensland verandahs on a clear night over a cold beer. It’s an issue that is starting to occupy the minds of governments around the world and Gorman also devotes space to the topic in the book. Her position is, not surprisingly, informed by her archaeologist training and she would like to see some of the more significant satellites remain in space if there is no risk involved. As she notes, heritage management is now a routine part of any terrestrial industry or development and the space industry should be no different.

“If we’re going to make decisions about what to destroy, let’s do it from an informed position. We need to know which objects do have cultural significance in orbit, from local, national and global perspectives. And we need to understand how their changing orbits may relate to collision risks.”

I’ve only scratched the surface of  Dr Space Junk vs The Universe, but if it sounds appealing in this brief synopsis, rest assured it’s a riveting read that is both expertly written and entertaining. There’s also a great “Conversations” interview with Dr Gorman by the ABC’s Richard Fidler somewhere out there in podcast-land if you want an appetiser. The book itself is available for purchase online at NewSouth Books for $29.99.

Geoff Long (this appears in Space & Satellite AU)

If the opinion polls prove accurate, shadow communications minister Michelle Rowland will be in government within a month. She released her NBN policy at CommsDay Summit in Sydney two weeks ago, with a regional communications policy still to come. The former telecommunications lawyer at Gilbert & Tobin is highly respected in the sector and took time out from a busy campaign to answer questions from CommsDay founder Grahame Lynch on her agenda should Labor win office and her approach to an array of telecom issues.

LYNCH: Your NBN policy promises a sweeping review and also some very focused remedial action in areas such in-home wiring and small business service guarantees. It seems to have been well received everywhere except the Whirlpool fibre advocate crowd. Are you happy with the response and what do you have to say to those who wanted an immediate commitment to full fibre?

ROWLAND: What makes the NBN unique, in policy terms, is you cannot costlessly unscramble the mistake that is the multi-technology mix.

In 2013 our policy was to take fibre to 93 per cent of households. In 2016, that was reduced to 39 per cent. Come mid-2019, if Labor is elected, the remainder of the rollout will effectively be in construction.

As an Opposition our job is to examine the situation for what it is, and propose the best path forward.

The predominant feedback I have received from the public is they appreciate our honesty and understand there is no quick fix.

More than anything else they expect us to have a plan to make the NBN better – and unlike the government we actually have one. We have designed a responsible and well considered policy for the circumstances.

LYNCH: If you are elected, how quickly might we expect the planned review and is there any intention to pause NBN’s activities pending its outcome?

ROWLAND: I expect the review will commence fairly quickly, however, there is no intention to pause the rollout. We do not want to repeat the mistakes of the Coalition by pausing rollouts, rushing reviews and receiving poor quality advice.

The 2013 NBN Strategic Review was, and remains, an embarrassment. If elected, we will take the necessary time to ensure we are satisfied that we have good advice, and understand the costs and trade-offs of various options.

This won’t be a review for its own sake – it will be to inform direction.

LYNCH: You have highlighted a specific concern with SME experiences on the NBN. Is that a particular issue that came up in your NBN community forums last year?

ROWLAND: Yes, it has been a significant issue across the country and this is why small business experience is high priority for Labor. One of the key problems is that retail providers and NBNCo are not sufficiently responsive in escalating responses for small business faults.

It is simply unacceptable how long some faults continue without appropriate action by the responsible party, and in these instances, excessive downtime is not only stressful but also very costly.

If elected, Labor will be implementing the NBN Service Guarantee to offer stronger wholesale safeguards, and we will also be looking to strengthen data collection to inform other judgements in this area.

LYNCH: On other topics, there was quite a backlog of legislation from the last parliament, specifically the spectrum act. How much is this a priority for the next parliament?

ROWLAND: The Liberal Government has wasted years on piecemeal tinkering while the genuine reform agenda has piled up. We’re stuck debating yesterday’s policy problems as new issues demand focus.

Concluding processes that are underway but stalled is a priority for Labor in the communications portfolio, and may require some work to be rephased.

I would take advice from Government agencies, industry and consumer groups on how best to progress the reform agenda, in the immediate, medium and longer-term, building on work done to date.

LYNCH: We hear a lot about NBN but not so much around 5G. What is Labor’s vision for 5G and how would you approach it in office?

ROWLAND: Australia leads the world on mobile network speeds and smart phone adoption, and we’ll be among the first to commercially deploy 5G networks, but we’re falling behind in preparing the regulatory & stakeholder environment for the densification of the network necessary to deliver the transformational benefits 5G promises.  

5G is a nation-building proposition and we need a shared vision to coordinate and drive change if we are to retain our world-leading position. Labor’s 5G vision will be values-based, strategic and long-term and provide leadership to guide change across all portfolios and levels of government, but the approach on the ground must be immediate and practical.

The review of the 5G Working Group provides the opportunity for a reset and I’m keen for a dialogue on what tangible measures are helping advance 5G deployment in other jurisdictions as they forge ahead. There’s a bad joke about being smart about being dense in here, but I’m not going to make it.

LYNCH: And a related question, the government has sunk a lot of money into blackspots. How would Labor approach the same issue and what might you do differently?

ROWLAND: Labor will be outlining its regional communications policy in the near future.

LYNCH: Finally there has been a lot of talk about a communications roadmap and fixing “broken concepts” in communications regulation. How important a priority is that for you?

ROWLAND: Many overseas governments provide roadmaps and many of our domestic agencies are required to publish work plans. I think a roadmap is a useful way to provide transparency around the work of government, to inform policy development and to help create a shared vision for a sector undergoing rapid transformation.  

A number of stalled reform processes under this government have suffered from a lack of understanding around strategic direction and priorities, and that’s for processes involving the usual groups of stakeholders, let alone the new range of players we need to engage with on 5G.

The communications portfolio is too important and too valuable to be left with broken concepts and no clear vision, agenda and roadmap.

EDITORS NOTE: Communications minister Mitch Fifield has also been asked to conduct an interview with CommsDay and has indicated this should take place in the next few days.

Canadian national Nikos Katinakis may be virtually unknown in Australia, but his appointment at Telstra’s networks division comes after several years at the coalface of arguably the fastest operator deployment in history.

Katinakis was the networks EVP at Reliance Jio in India which, in less than two years, has signed 215 million subscribers (that is not a typo). It gained its first 50 million subscribers in a mere 80 days and added around 100 million more in the last 12 months.

Jio launched LTE service across India in the 850MHz, 1800MHz and 2600MHz bands with an aggressive pricing offer: free and unlimited voice calls across the country. Its flagship plan is priced at just under $4 per month.

Its success as a challenger is said to be the inspiration behind TPG’s proposed 4th network rollout in Australia.

Katinakis was with Jio from launch but left in mysterious circumstances a few weeks ago with Indian financial press reporting a departure of several expatriate executives from the company. There was speculation that this may have been due to cultural difficulties with the family-run nature of the Reliance business, as well as a change in the focus of the business to expand into fixed broadband.

He was hired from Canadian telco Rogers Communications where he held senior technology roles for five years. Rogers took him in-house from Ericsson Canada where he held a key technology and account role. In fact, during his time at Ericsson in the late 1990s, Katinakis was granted seven separate patents for cellular network technologies including a technique for emergency call handling, duplex communications between base stations and a simultaneous voice and data delivery protocol.

One of the fascinating aspects to his hire is not only his Ericsson ties but the fact that Reliance Jio is one of a few international customers for Samsung network equipment. Although Telstra is an Ericsson shop, CommsDay has previously reported that Huawei and ZTE had been shortlisted as potential bidders for its 5G network.

But with the prospect that both those companies may be prevented from supplying Australian 5G, this could remove the competitive tension from the tender. Katinakis’ deep familiarity and apparent comfort with Samsung as a supplier is a useful relationship to bring to Australia.

(This appeared in CommsDay 31 July)