Do adjust your mindset ( The Age / Alan Kohler )
In this article Alan Kohler takes a look at some of the challenges facing the free to air TV stations in Australia. Audiences are in decline, costs are on the rise, and there are increasing challenges from other forms of entertainment. What does this mean for the industry, and what impact will technology like IPTV have?
Premium SMS scam from 19900025
A lot of Australian mobile phone users have been the recipient of a premium SMS scam from the number 19900025. The message received is a really bad Christmas joke which you are charged up to $3.50 for receiving. A lot of information on the source of these messages has been uncovered at the whirlpool forums, but if you have received this message you should contact your phone company immediately to report the scam and dispute the charge. Hopefully if enough people complain quickly the scammer will be shut off before too many more people are caught.
Update: I called the number Juz gave below and left my details. A refund cheque arrived in the mail just over a week later.
Australian VoIP services to get their own number range
ACMA proposes new number range for VoIP services (ACMA press release)
From the release: “ACMA is proposing to introduce a new service definition, ‘emerging communications service’, to accommodate VoIP and other emerging services. A new number range for emerging communications services (0550) is proposed. Emerging communications services may be fixed, somewhat nomadic or wholly nomadic but the numbers allocated to them will have no geographic significance.”
I see the creation of a dedicated number range for services which are not geographically fixed to be a good thing. Those of us who run our own VoIP switches or ATAs will be able to easily route this range to a particular destination without needing to guess what is VoIP and what is not. I’m not sure how the fixed line telcos will react to this from a pricing perspective. They may want to price PSTN to VoIP calls at a fairly high rate to try to discourage people from abandoning the legacy networks, but this could just as easily have the opposite effect as being the final straw in what people will put up with from the existing pricing models. Other people are speculating the cost of all fixed line calls will be coming down to a rate closer to what is being charged by VoIP providers. We will have to wait and see what eventuates.
The ACMA is accepting comments on their proposal until 14 February 2006.
Australia has the world’s most overpriced housing
House prices ‘world highest’ (The Age / Tim Colebatch and Jewel Topsfield)
From the article: “AUSTRALIA has by far the most overvalued houses in the Western world, with prices 52 per cent higher than justified by rental values, the OECD says.
In a new analysis of the housing boom sweeping developed nations, the OECD also says the price of housing relative to incomes is 50 per cent higher in Australia than in other countries as a group.”
It’s been pretty obvious to anyone looking to buy a house for a couple of years, but now the OECD has confirmed house prices in Australia are just plain nuts. As a renter looking to buy I’m hoping for a massive crash in the property market. Other than winning the lottery I don’t see any other way to be able to afford a house in the near future.
Australian Government to tackle VoIP regulations
VoIP rules on way, providers told (Australian IT / Andrew Colley)
From the article: “The federal Government said it would soon respond to industry calls to introduce measures to regulate low-cost voice-over-internet-protocol telephony services.
The announcement has been expected since last year when the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) co-operated with VoIP providers to develop a discussion paper on IP telephony for Senator Coonan.
“An announcement on the Government’s response to the ACMA report on VoIP is imminent,” a spokeswoman for Communications Minister Helen Coonan said.”
There are certainly a lot of regulatory issues that need to be examined with VoIP services. The main ones being emergency call handling and the portable nature of VoIP services. There is also some ambiguity currently as to whether a telecommunications licence is required to operate a VoIP service, or whether they are just considered to be part of an internet service which does not need to be provided by a licensed carrier.
The article also mentions a local VoIP industry group, the Australian Voice over IP Association. Their website says they have been operating since February 2005 however there is no information about what the organisation does or who the members are. Hopefully if they start getting a little publicity it will prompt them to publish some information on their site.
Whirlpool News - Telstra stalls on DSLAM migrations
Telstra stalls on DSLAM migrations (Whirlpool / Phil Sweeney)
The article above described some of the difficulties faced by ISPs when trying to move customers from Telstra Wholesale ADSL services over to their own DSLAMs. According to Simon Hackett of Internode Telstra have inflated the costs of performing the migrations and are not allowing ISPs to have their own technicians perform the work. The ACCC is looking into the issue.
Virgin’s super strong push (The Age / Simon Hoyle)
From the article: “Fund managers and financial planners could find their city offices and luxury cars at risk if Virgin Money succeeds in its plans to shake up the local superannuation industry.
Virgin yesterday said it had joined forces with Macquarie Funds Management, and service providers Superpartners and Trust, to launch a new superannuation product to be released on July 1, coinciding with the new choice of fund regime.”
Richard Branson likes to get stuck into market’s where there is very little competition, and he seems to do a great job of it. I’d certainly look at switching to Virgin if they offer a competitive package.
ACCC weighs up ISP regulation (ABC News)
From the article: “The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will monitor the activity of Internet service providers (ISPs) for the next three years as some smaller providers push for greater regulation.
The commission wants to assess how Internet providers connect with each other and whether the current fee system is fair to all providers.
[..]
It noted that “ISPs do not have formal contracts, do not know their traffic flows, and have great difficulty in specifying their revenues and costs”.”
While some of the above line is true, I think it is also a case of the ACCC being interested in data which the ISPs would not normally need in the day to day running of their businesses.
It’s official, Victorians are lousy drivers
Driven to despair (The Age / David Morley)
From the article: “There’s an old saying that there are two things you can’t tell an Australian bloke. One, that he’s no good in bed; and two, that he can’t drive well. While we’ll draw the line at any assessment of prowess in the boudoir, we’ve some bad news on the latter front.
Australian men (and women; let’s not be sexist) in general, and Victorians in particular, are some of the world’s worst drivers. Unskilled, uncharitable and just plain uninterested, they adopt a standard of driving that falls well short of the mark.
[..]
According to the survey, one in five drivers believed that aggression made them better drivers. Forty-five per cent admitted to making illegal U-turns and right-hand turns when they thought it was safe to do so.”
I’ve only been driving in Melbourne for a few years and I’m amazed at the lack of regard for the road rules that most drivers display. It seems to be impossible to make even a short trip without witnessing drivers:
* Tailgating.
* Speeding.
* Changing lanes without signalling.
* Failing to stop at stop signs.
The motivation for the above seems to be to get from point A to point B quicker, even at the expense of other road users safety. While speeding is regularly targeted by the police I have rarely seen any of the other road rules being enforced. Perhaps if they were people would think twice before choosing to drive like a maniac.
Fisichella wins Melbourne F1 Grand Prix
Renault’s dream start (Formula1.com)
It was a good day for the race in the end, and a fantastic result for Renault and closer competition in this year’s season.