Identification of the area where NBNCo does not intend to switch off DPBO
Dear NBN Co Limited,
On 17 Feb 2020 (in an email with "Charllick Rd" in the title), NBNCo stated the following:
"Mr Wilkinson lives in one of 15 premises on Charlick Rd, Crafers West, which have been allocated Sky Muster™ (satellite) as their nbn™ access technology.
These 15 premises have the option of maintaining an ADSL service beyond the completion of the NBN-ADSL co-existence period for this area. Typically, when co-existence concludes in an area, the Downstream Power Back-Off (DPBO) is switched off.
Mr Wilkinson’s observation that this change can result in interference to ADSL services within an area is valid. However, in the case of Charlick Rd, NBN Co has investigated options and found that there will not be a need to turn-off the DPBO, and therefore does not intend to do so.
This will ensure no interference to ADSL services in the area and will not affect the nbn™ access network’s ability to deliver stable broadband service which meet our mandated speed targets to fixed line services in the area."
I am requesting the following information:
1. Identification of the "area" where NBN Co does not intend to turn-off DPBO. (Suburb name(s) are sufficient)
2. The total number of "fixed line services in the area" affected by NBN Co's intention to not turn-off DPBO.
("Total number" means any premises that is already connected or can potentially connect to a NBNCo fixed line service in "the area".)
Yours faithfully,
Mr Wilkinson
Dear Mr Wilkinson
Thank you for your email to nbn's FOI Officer email address. I will respond to your request in due course.
Regards
Rohan Singh
Senior Legal Counsel │FOI, Privacy & Knowledge Management
Strategic Services │ Corporate Advisory and Systems Engineering & Operations Legal Team
Level 13/100 Mount Street, North Sydney NSW 2060
nbn acknowledges and pays respects to the traditional custodians of all the lands upon which we work.
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F202128
Dear Mr Wilkinson
Please see attached correspondence.
Regards
Rohan Singh
Senior Legal Counsel │FOI, Privacy & Knowledge Management
Strategic Services │ Corporate Advisory and Systems Engineering & Operations Legal Team
Level 13/100 Mount Street, North Sydney NSW 2060
nbn acknowledges and pays respects to the traditional custodians of all the lands upon which we work.
Notice to recipient: This e-mail is intended only to be read or used by the addressee. It is confidential and may contain information that is subject to legal professional privilege or protected by copyright. If you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for delivery of the message to that person), you may not copy or deliver this message to anyone, and you should destroy this message and kindly notify the sender by reply e-mail. Copyright, confidentiality and legal professional privilege are not waived or lost by reason of mistaken delivery to you. Emails to/from nbn co limited ABN 86 136 533 741 may undergo email filtering and virus scanning, including by third party contractors, however, nbn co limited does not guarantee that any email or any attachment is secure, error-free or free of viruses or other unwanted or unexpected inclusions. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of nbn co limited.
PLEASE CONSIDER OUR ENVIRONMENT BEFORE PRINTING
F202128
Dear Rohan Singh,
I would like to narrow the scope of my request to the following;
Identification of the "area" where NBN Co does not intend to turn-off DPBO. (Suburb name(s) are sufficient)
Further, I advise that any fees requested to process this request will cause me financial hardship and seek to have them waived. It is in the public interest that NBN be open and honest with the public by clearly identifying the area where NBN does not intend to switch off DPBO.
Even though their fixed line service may be capable of achieving higher speeds, by leaving DBPO switched on in this area, the end users of NBN's fixed line network are not guaranteed a Peak Information Rate (PIR) greater than 12/1 (as per NBN's WBA Section 3.2(c)) .
End-users in the affected area should be aware of this limitation on their service being imposed on them by NBN (which is solely due to no other factor than NBN's design of the NBN network in the area.)
Yours sincerely,
MG
NBN Classification - Commercial
Dear MG
Thank you for your email. I note that you have amended the scope of your request to the name of the suburb(s) where nbn does not intend to turn-off DPBO, i.e. the "area" as per the email referenced in your original request. I also note that you have requested a waiver of nbn's FOI processing fees.
I will consider your fee waiver request and respond in due course. Please let me know if you have any queries in the meantime.
Regards
Rohan Singh
Senior Legal Counsel │FOI, Privacy & Knowledge Management
Strategic Services │ Corporate Advisory and Systems Engineering & Operations Legal Team
Level 13/100 Mount Street, North Sydney NSW 2060
nbn acknowledges and pays respects to the traditional custodians of all the lands upon which we work.
Notice to recipient: This e-mail is intended only to be read or used by the addressee. It is confidential and may contain information that is subject to legal professional privilege or protected by copyright. If you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for delivery of the message to that person), you may not copy or deliver this message to anyone, and you should destroy this message and kindly notify the sender by reply e-mail. Copyright, confidentiality and legal professional privilege are not waived or lost by reason of mistaken delivery to you. Emails to/from nbn co limited ABN 86 136 533 741 may undergo email filtering and virus scanning, including by third party contractors, however, nbn co limited does not guarantee that any email or any attachment is secure, error-free or free of viruses or other unwanted or unexpected inclusions. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of nbn co limited.
PLEASE CONSIDER OUR ENVIRONMENT BEFORE PRINTING
F202128
NBN Classification - Commercial
Dear Mr Wilkinson
Please see attached charges decision.
Regards
Rohan Singh
Senior Legal Counsel │ FOI
Strategic Services │ Corporate Advisory and Systems Engineering &
Operations Legal Team
T[Phone Number Automatically Hidden]2 | E [1][email address]
Level 13/100 Mount Street, North Sydney NSW 2060
nbn acknowledges and pays respects to the traditional custodians of all
the lands upon which we work.
Notice to recipient: This e-mail is intended only to be read or used by
the addressee. It is confidential and may contain information that is
subject to legal professional privilege or protected by copyright. If you
are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for
delivery of the message to that person), you may not copy or deliver this
message to anyone, and you should destroy this message and kindly notify
the sender by reply e-mail. Copyright, confidentiality and legal
professional privilege are not waived or lost by reason of mistaken
delivery to you. Emails to/from nbn co limited ABN[Phone Number Automatically Hidden]41 may
undergo email filtering and virus scanning, including by third party
contractors, however, nbn co limited does not guarantee that any email or
any attachment is secure, error-free or free of viruses or other unwanted
or unexpected inclusions. Any views expressed in this message are those of
the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states them to
be the views of nbn co limited.
PLEASE CONSIDER OUR ENVIRONMENT BEFORE PRINTING
F[Phone Number Automatically Hidden]
Dear Rohan Singh,
I am requesting an Internal Review of the decision to impose a charge for the release of the requested information.
The assertion that as there was no media coverage relevant to my request recently, somehow diminishes the Public Interest Test in the information being requested and therefore the charges should not be waived is somewhat "circulus in probando"!
(There is no general public interest because the media hasn't reported on the requested information because the requested information is not currently available. We won't release the requested informaiton at no charge because there is no general public interest.)
Further, to justify the imposition of fees as the request is "not in the interest of a substantial section of the public, such as people outside the relevant area" is in my opinion, in error.
Just because NBNCo is not turning off DPBO in an area and that won't affect people (with an NBN fixed line service) outside the relevant area, does not diminish the quality of the public interest.
I refer NBNCo to the following:
"The interest of a section of the public is a public interest but the smallness of the section may affect the quantity or weight of the public interest so that it is outweighed by [another public interest]. It does not, however, affect the quality of that interest."
Sinclair v Mining Warden at Maryborough (1975) 132 CLR 473 (at p487) per Jacobs J
Lastly, in order to "convince" NBNCo that the fee will cause financial hardship, I am luckily still employed through this pandemic that has affected so many Australians. However, my financial situation means my pay is exhausted by the time the next pay comes around. I do not have capacity to pay the requested fees as a result. I will sign a Stauatory Declaration advising of this if that is what it wwould take to "convince" NBNCo. I am not prepared to disclose my finances any further.
Yours sincerely,
MG
Dear Mr Wilkinson
Thank you for your email below. Your email requests an internal review of
my charges decision and provides some further particulars in relation to
your request for a waiver of charges on the basis of financial hardship.
nbn will generally require applicants to provide reasons to substantiate
their fee waiver or reduction request. Some form of documentary evidence
may be required to substantiate these claims, or at least sufficient
particulars supporting the grounds claimed. Your request to waive
processing charges did not give any particulars or substantiation of your
request relating to financial hardship.
However, the particulars you have now provided suggest that payment of the
charges would leave you unable to pay for necessities. I will therefore
exercise my discretion to waive nbn’s processing fees on the basis of
financial hardship. On this occasion, I will not require the particulars
to be supported by statutory declaration as per your offer to do so.
Accordingly, I withdraw my charges decision and will proceed with the
processing of your FOI application. In the circumstances, an internal
review of the withdrawn decision is no longer applicable.
I will provide you with my access decision on or before 21 December 2020.
In the meantime, I am happy to discuss any queries regarding your
application an please feel free to call me on the number below.
Regards
Rohan Singh
Senior Legal Counsel │ FOI
Strategic Services │ Corporate Advisory and Systems Engineering &
Operations Legal Team
T 02 9031 3022 | E [1][email address]
Level 13/100 Mount Street, North Sydney NSW 2060
nbn acknowledges and pays respects to the traditional custodians of all
the lands upon which we work.
Notice to recipient: This e-mail is intended only to be read or used by
the addressee. It is confidential and may contain information that is
subject to legal professional privilege or protected by copyright. If you
are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for
delivery of the message to that person), you may not copy or deliver this
message to anyone, and you should destroy this message and kindly notify
the sender by reply e-mail. Copyright, confidentiality and legal
professional privilege are not waived or lost by reason of mistaken
delivery to you. Emails to/from nbn co limited ABN 86 136 533 741 may
undergo email filtering and virus scanning, including by third party
contractors, however, nbn co limited does not guarantee that any email or
any attachment is secure, error-free or free of viruses or other unwanted
or unexpected inclusions. Any views expressed in this message are those of
the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states them to
be the views of nbn co limited.
PLEASE CONSIDER OUR ENVIRONMENT BEFORE PRINTING
F202128
NBN Classification - Commercial
Dear MG
Please see attached access decision. Please feel free to contact me on my
number below if you have any queries.
Regards
Rohan Singh
Senior Legal Counsel │ FOI
Strategic Services │ Corporate Advisory and Systems Engineering &
Operations Legal Team
T 02 9031 3022 | E [1][email address]
Level 13/100 Mount Street, North Sydney NSW 2060
nbn acknowledges and pays respects to the traditional custodians of all
the lands upon which we work.
Notice to recipient: This e-mail is intended only to be read or used by
the addressee. It is confidential and may contain information that is
subject to legal professional privilege or protected by copyright. If you
are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for
delivery of the message to that person), you may not copy or deliver this
message to anyone, and you should destroy this message and kindly notify
the sender by reply e-mail. Copyright, confidentiality and legal
professional privilege are not waived or lost by reason of mistaken
delivery to you. Emails to/from nbn co limited ABN 86 136 533 741 may
undergo email filtering and virus scanning, including by third party
contractors, however, nbn co limited does not guarantee that any email or
any attachment is secure, error-free or free of viruses or other unwanted
or unexpected inclusions. Any views expressed in this message are those of
the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states them to
be the views of nbn co limited.
PLEASE CONSIDER OUR ENVIRONMENT BEFORE PRINTING
F202128
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