Thursday the 5th of Febuary 2004
An increase in mobile phone customers has helped Australia's second biggest telecommunications company, Optus, increase its third-quarter profits by more than 500 per cent.
Optus reported a $126 million post-tax profit for the three months to the end of last year, compared with $22 million in the previous financial year. Revenue and customer numbers for the company's mobile division jumped 18 per cent, with strong results in the smaller medium business and cable Internet sectors.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1038576.htm
ABC 5-2-4
Australia's second largest telco, Optus, today reported a net profit of $126 million for the third quarter of the current financial year, up from $22 million in the previous corresponding period.
Parent company Singapore Telecommunications said the Optus net profit for the first nine months of the year was $316 million.
Optus' revenue for the quarter was up 14 per cent at $1.66 billion, while operational earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew 36 per cent to $488 million.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/05/1075853974588.html
The Age
On 30-9-3 I asked the following questions:
What prompted this block? In what way did we exceed any limit?
Why did the system block our outgoing e mail?
There must be some limits set in the system, for this to happen, what are they?
Was it trying to connect to the SMTP server, during those problems on Sunday night?
..............unasked for inbound traffic....... Any idea when it might be solved?
..............please inform me what triggered this problem.
Since I asked those questions there has been no communication from Optus about these problems! Great customer service!
Meanwhile they seem to have done something about the volume of ICMP traffic sent to our computer, it has dropped to about twenty times the level it was before the 18th of August. To be fair the interference with our access to the Optus servers has decreased markedly.
Optus prevented us from sending e mail on Tuesday 30-9-3. Apparently they have implemented a new system that identified us as possible SPAMers. That's right the system was set to cut people off before it was established that they were actually SPAMing.
I went over how much e mail we send with one of their customer service people and he could see no reason for us to be cut off. But apparently they do penalize people who have their own domain name and use that in e mail.
As we do not ' send hundreds of emails each hour or several times per day ' I have asked for an explanation of exactly why we were cut off. This is yet to come.
However I was sent an extract of the OptusNet Cable Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). Which basically says Optus can withdraw the supply of a service, even if that service has been paid for in advance. And Optus is never liable for anything.
I remember that we received a booklet, I think last year, with Optus' conditions of service. That booklet was too big for any sane person to sit down and read. And of course Optus reserves the right to alter these conditions whenever they want. I do wish there was another company's cable in the street. Optus has us caught in a monopoly.
On another issue the volume ICMP traffic sent to our computer has increased by approximately 105 times since the 18th of August. Thats right, we are getting 105 times more unasked for inbound traffic. As you can imagine this is interfering with our access to the Optus servers from time to time.
I wrote to Optus on the 20th of August hoping they could stop this traffic on their network. I received an automatic reply stating " OptusNet Cable Customer Service is committed to providing 24 hour* turnarounds to all customer queries. "
We are still getting that level of ICMP traffic. Of course I eventually received a reply that was to the point, on Tuesday the 1st of October. Getting an answer doesn't take long.
And the answer:
" Dear Stephen,
" Thank you for your email.
" It appears what you are experiencing may be related to the new WORMs (viruses) which are plaguing the Internet in recent times.
" The Nachi virus which soon followed the Blaster virus seeks out computers by sending ICMP Echo requests (aka Pings) to computers in it's IP range to see if any computers are online in order to propegate.
" With reference to your issue, this virus may be infecting people in your range of IPs and they are be 'pinging' your computer causing the activity light to flash constantly.
" The pings themselves are harmless under normal circumstance and most firewall applications stop your PC from replying to them.
" Our network management staff are investigating this issue. Obviously we could not for-see a problem of this nature, nor could we anticipate the impact that it has on our customers.
" Before implementing any strategy to stop this traffic, the network engineers must first anticipate any issues that may stem from any sudden changes to the network.
" Basically, we are aware of the issue and we are investigating the options open to us to prevent it from severely impacting our customers. "
In other words, we are thinking about doing something about it.
Optus are increasing some call costs from the 1st of October 2003
By Andrew West
17th of August 2003
Employees at a company owned by Australia's second-biggest telco say their bosses have ordered them to record the amount of time they spend in the toilet. Dee Goodall, 47, who recently resigned as a customer service representative at call centre RSL COM, said management had told staff to log their toilet breaks as "personal time".
Ms Goodall said 10 days ago staff received an email containing the instruction. "It said that all personal time had to be made up after work," she said. "When we got the email, I was just astounded, just dumbfounded, and I decided I couldn't work for a company that treated its employees like that." Ms Goodall resigned on Monday.
RSL COM, a mobile service provider, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Optus. A statement from RSL COM managing director Keir Preedy said the company gave its employees a one-hour lunch break and two 15-minute breaks. He said some staff had misinterpreted the email and "a clarification of the policy will be made".
The practice of logging employees' toilet time has drawn the ire of two leading urologists. Dr David Golovsky of the St Vincent's Clinic said the problem at RSL COM reminded him of the condition once known as "switchgirl's bladder", where receptionists were once restricted to their desks. "This led to their bladders becoming over-distended, so much so that they could not pass water," he said. "I would have thought this sort of thing was a thing of the past."
"Making people log on and off when they go to the toilet, so you can keep tabs on them, is not a good public health approach to the problem. "If these employees have a problem with frequency [of trips to the toilet], the company should be sending them to a doctor, not issuing these punitive edicts." Dr Ken Vaux, a consulting urologist at the Royal North Shore Hospital, said many call-centre employees were middle-aged women who suffered more urological conditions as they grew older.
He estimated that between 10 and 15 per cent of people suffered from overactive bladders, usually requiring six to 10 visits to the toilet each day. "It's a widespread problem," he said.
Ms Goodall said the call-centre workers were required to log seven hours' work - that is, seven hours of constant talking to customers each day, meaning many had to drink a lot of water, which added to the need for toilet breaks. "You have to keep your throat lubricated," she said, "and because we're in an air-conditioned office you can get dehydrated easily."
Alice Salomon, an organiser with the Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union, which has taken up the employees' plight, described such monitoring as "a step back to the 19th century" that denied employees their basic dignity.
This story was found at:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/16/1060936101893.html
SMH 17-8-3
8-8-3
Optus makes $100 million net profit for its first quarter.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/07/1060145802581.html
S.M.H. 8-8-3
27-5-3
Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman wants to investigate Optus' fees and charges.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/26/1053801328073.html
S.M.H. 27-5-3
22-5-3
Optus are increasing the line rental fee ( something that was free when we joined them ) to $22.00 on the 1st of July 2003. A ten percent increase in less than a year!
We were charged the $2.20 despite having jumped through their hoops.
We changed to an Optus phone and cable internet deal in about August 2001. Here is a list of some of the conditions then:
Unlimited download, changed about August 2002 to a 3,000 Mb limit.
No telephone line rental, changed about September 2002 to $18.18 a month.
STD calls and calls to mobiles capped to $3.00, cap removed about September 2002.
No fee for a statement of account for the cable internet, changed April 2003 to $2.20 a month ( per statement? ).
Calls to ‘13 ‘ numbers charged at $0.20, changed April 2003 to $0.25.
They are increasing their prices, changing the conditions. And we have no choice, they are a monopoly in our street!
They should offer the same deal to existing customers that they offer to new customers. Be warned they start to change the deal as soon as the contract period expires.