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COVID-19 Statistics till date:
Lately, Australia has witnessed rising cases of COVID-19 on a daily basis. As of AEDT 6.30 am, on 19 March 2020, Australian Government, Department of Health has reported 709 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country, 46 recovered and 6 deaths. On a global scale, the number of coronavirus confirmed cases has reached around 2,45,613, and 10,048 deaths has already taken place.
The Australian Government has released an advisory, wherein Australian natives have been asked to follow social distancing in the workplace, at school or any public place to prevent the spread of the deadly disease.
The Government has also released the plan to beat this deadly disease. As highlighted in the article published by the Australian Government, which provides an overview of the national approach and operational plan, below are a few guidelines to be followed in case of the COVID-19 outbreak:
- Examine & look for outbreaks as they occur.
- Identify & differentiate the nature of the virus along with the clinical seriousness of the disease.
- Study respiratory disease-specific managing plans.
- Respond quickly & efficiently to reduce the impact of COVID-19.
- Take on approaches to lessen the risk of more transmission of the virus.
- Provide support in the quick & confident revival of people, communities as well as services.
In case, any requirement of basic household stuff at home arises, the citizens have been recommended to ask someone to get it for them and leave it at their door.
Because of the steps and the advisory issued by the Government and instructions provided by the company, most of the companies, people have started working from home.
Major businesses belonging to the telecom sector are preparing to bring alterations in the data usage & traffic resulting from individuals who are doing work or learning from their home.
Recent Development in the Telecom Sector:
On Monday, 16 March 2020, the Morrison government along with the representatives from major telecommunication companies in Australia had a virtual round table conference to discuss coronavirus preparation, planning as well as continuity measures in place to support telecommunications services.
Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety & the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP had a discussion with the representatives of all key network operators along with the senior executives of NBN Co, Telstra Corporation, Optus, Vodafone, Vocus & TPG Telecom. He highlighted the fact related to COVID-19 and stated that the telecommunication companies are able to respond to the rising challenges due to the pandemic disease. They have business continuity plans where they would be able to deliver essential telecommunications services.
Paul Fletcher was also delighted by the strong positive reaction coming from the industry participants to his request & the telecom sector has agreed to work together to assist Aussies in their changing work pattern to reduce the public health risk due to coronavirus spread.
Paul Fletcher also praised the industry towards the step taken to work on the business continuity and supporting their employees and customers. It was agreed in the round table conference to determine a formation of special working group comprising of major telecommunication companies, which would be led by NBN Co. Relevant information would be shared with the group and discussion on evolving engineering, security or operational matters pertaining to COVID-19 would take place.
It was further agreed in the round table conference that there was a need for rules to guide communication between the technicians & the clients who are self-isolating, including guidance on private shielding equipment.
With this, now major Australian telecom companies are planning to change the data usage. NBN Co is improving its network in anticipations of increased network traffic during the daytime when more and more people start working from home. Further, NBN Co has experience in handling the period where the network traffic was extremely high.
Because of the increasing number of people working from home, NBN Co and other industry members are projecting a transformation in the traffic pattern during the daytime & rising activity in the suburbs versus business districts. All these aspects are being taken into deliberation with the retail service providers offering the network.
At present, NBN or National Broadband Network is 94 percent complete. From this week, it is estimated that the NBN rollout would exceed 11 million houses, and the businesses would be able to connect. With this, Australian natives across the nation would be able to enjoy high speed, reliable broadband.
On 18 March 2020, NBN Co announced it would waive charges for additional capacity of up to 40% to Retail Service Providers for three months so as to aid the Aussies as well as business nbn customers. The relief on further volume will be applied to all line and wireless (fixed ones) as well as satellite NBN technologies.
From 23 March 2020, NBN would offer retailers access to pricing relief for up to 40% more Connectivity Virtual Circuit (CVC) capacity in case of demand over time at no extra charges.
NBN Co highlighted that the announcement was released after thorough planning, as well as examination by its engineers based on the potential of the network to meet the growing demand for the Broadband, when people are preferring to spend more time at home either working, studying, shopping or doing any other activities from home.
NBN Co has confirmed that it would be introducing this offer from Monday 23 March 2020 and will also fix the CVC charges that were applied during Feb 2020 as the baseline. Any extra charges would be waived off over the next 3 months.
Source: Company’s Report
Another company from communication services space, Telstra Corporation Limited (ASX: TLS) on 17 March 2020 announced two new mobile sites that have been switched on as a part of Mobile Black Spot Program of the Federal Government. Thus, improving the coverage to Wilkur and Telopea Downs. By switching on these two mobile sites, two black spots have been removed at Wilkur and Telopea Downs. Therefore, Telstra would be able to enhance its mobile coverage in these regions. The new mobile sites would also improve the mobile network coverage in Victoria and South Australia border as well as North of the Western Highway & between Warracknabeal and Birchip.
