The recent National Press Club debate between the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Christopher Pyne, and his Labor counterpart Kim Carr reinforced that both sides of government want to be seen as owning the innovation high ground. Unfortunately, neither has offered anything new to the voters on the subject.
Our ability to commercialise our innovations will really make a difference to the economy. Factors like research funding, forging links between businesses and a stable operating environment are all going to play their part.
However, another important factor that can’t be overlooked is access to reliable broadband. The National Broadband Network has been a controversial project and yet to deliver on its potential. Leaving the technology debate to one side, it’s imperative the NBN rollout is competed as quickly as possible.
Australia’s recent global ranking for average internet speeds has slipped from 30th three years ago to 60th this year, which bodes poorly for our international competitiveness.
Our dependence on digital networks is already high and it will only grow as new innovations in business, education and e-health come into play. Our ability to benefit from these and other developments cannot achieve their full potential unless all Australians have access to reliable, high-speed broadband.
Telstra’s woes over the past few months, with several major outages affecting significant portions of its customer base, have underscored the enormous cost of slow or unreliable network infrastructure.
The telco has some of the best people in the industry and operates a world-class network and its recent problems are most likely a function of the massive complexity and sophistication of that network, which inherently also includes more points of vulnerability.
Telecommunications networks have become dramatically more complex in recent years and today integrate a heterogeneous mix of products, platforms and operating systems requiring regular updates. While many network components have built-in fail-safes, increased sophistication does not always equate to a high level of reliability.
Ian Oppermann of ACS’s Telecommunications Board, says reliability is a key piece of the equation for providers as networks become more complex over time.
“It’s essential that network engineers be trained to manage this level of complexity, the consequences of prolonged outages are simply too high,” he says. “These issues also speak to how we design and implement complex networks — we cannot afford for network reliability to deteriorate because there are too many points of failure.”
The implication of the NBN on Telstra’s continued Universal Service Obligation (USO) is another consideration. With a Productivity Commission inquiry into the future direction of USO currently under way, we will need a plan of action to manage the changes in pricing and delivery models in an evolving telecommunications market.
Then there’s the need to ensure our emergency services agencies are reliably connected.
Emergency services are currently supported by dedicated, specialised networks, but some network operators argue this won’t be necessary once 5G is widely available.
However, as Dr Oppermann points out, given the essential nature of these services, we must ensure that whatever network emergency services agencies use, it must be extremely reliable and not subject to the kinds of failures and outages we’ve seen in recent months.
Of course, an increased reliance on digital networks also means more incentives for criminals and cyber terrorists to seek to gain access to sensitive or private information or compromise the integrity of critical systems.
In relation to cyber security, the ACS manifesto recommends the incoming federal government collaborates with key stakeholders to fast-track implementation of the new Cyber Security Strategy, giving priority to the areas of Cyber Smart Nation and Growth and Innovation.
These include measures to:
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• address the shortage of cyber security professionals through educational programs and by establishing university-based centres of cyber security excellence
• educate Australians to better protect themselves online
• establish a Cyber Security Growth Centre to encourage research and innovation. (I’m pleased to see a consultation process for this initiative began last week with the centre expected to be operational later this year.)
We all have an opportunity this weekend to influence Australia’s direction over the next three years and it’s critical the right strategies and policies are put in place. Choose well.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Anthony Wong
Quelle/Source: The Australian, 28.06.2016
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