Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has released a draft of a new scheme for controlling access to the Integrated public phone number database, along with a consultation paper.
In October 2006 the Government introduced the Telecommunications Amendment (Integrated Public Number Database) Bill 2006 to clarify arrangements for access to the IPND. The scheme now being introduced by the ACMA represents the means by which that legislation will be applied
The database is the master list of all phone numbers in Australia - public and private. It came into operation on 1 July 1998 and is maintained by Telstra under the Carrier Licence Conditions (Telstra Corporation Limited) Declaration 1997.
The database includes the telephone number itself; the name of the customer; address of the customer; the name of the carriage service provider (CSP); the purpose for which the telephone number is used (for example, government, business, charitable or private). It is used by telecoms service providers, and others to provide directory assistance services, operator services, to produce public number directories; and to operate location dependent carriage services.
Its use for other purposes is, with few exceptions, prohibited. However there have been allegations in the past that access has been gained to it, most notably during the 2004 federal election when the ALP alleged that Liberal party campaigners had gained access, because a number of people with unlisted numbers received calls. However, The ACA (predecessor the ACMA) found the allegations to be groundless.
The new scheme also enable the database to be accessed for research purposes, but only on ministerial authorisation where the research is judged to be in the public interest, such as health and medical research.
ACMA will conduct a series of public information sessions on the draft IPND Scheme. Sessions are planned for Sydney on 6 and 7 February 2007 and Melbourne on 12 and 13 February 2007.
David Bass
| ComOps, a leading Australian provider of business software products and services, has won a competitive tender to deploy its Salvus safety, r…
How to Make Business Discovery Work for Your Business
Business Discovery takes its cues from consumer apps. Like Google, it encourages us- ers to hunt for and explore data without worrying about or even noticing the underly- ing technology. Their entire experience is working within an intuitive interface to get real-time, self-service results with only minimal training. ...more
Try an easy-to-use set of web-enabled
tools for business-class productivity services. Office 365 provides
anywhere-access to email, important documents, contacts, and calendars
on almost any device.