Communications Technology

The communications regulator is set to overhaul Australia’s telephone numbering system after noticing an increase in the use of internet-based phone calls, as well as general consumer apathy about the cost of calls.

Use of area codes, free-call numbers and special numbers set aside for satellite services and early-adaptors of internet telephony will be examined in an historical shake-up of the telephone numbering plan outlined in a discussion paper released by the Australian Communications and Media Authority this morning.

“The ACMA cannot predict exactly where [technology] developments are leading, but it is clear that they are leading away from consistency with the current numbering arrangements,” the ACMA’s paper said.

“Numbers have, in the past, served as a convenient and sensible means of achieving the communications policy objectives…However the pressures on numbering …. are causing difficulties in continuing to achieve these objectives.”

Geographic information inherent in fixed-line numbers was becoming less relevant as more calls were made over the internet, known as voice over internet protocol (VOIP), and as consumers paid less attention to call costs because of falling prices and the prevalence of mobile cap plans. The ACMA has asked whether geographic information such as area codes and pre-fixes would still be relevant in the future.

When the national broadband network is rolled out all connected households will be making phone calls over the broadband fibre connection, and based on current pricing would be charged the same for local as national calls.

“There is no technical obstacle to a number used in connection with a VOIP service being used in any place in Australia, challenging the traditional tying of geographic numbers to specific geographical areas,” the ACMA pointed out.

“Many of the provisions in the Numbering Plan, such as those relating to costs of calls to particular numbers, are built around an assumption that landline phones would be the dominant form of communication.”

Lower call costs from mobile phones have prompted the ACMA to ask whether there would need to be a distinction between mobile and fixed numbers in the future.

Free calls to 1800 and 13 numbers would also be reviewed because these calls were only free if made from a landline, and use of fixed line services was declining in favour of mobile services.

The ACMA has asked whether it should abandon number pre-fixes for VOIP calls, 0550, and satellite numbers, 014, 881 and 882, given they were rarely used and had been replaced by numbers more familiar to consumers.

The ACMA ruled out lengthening telephone numbers to increase availability, as they were in the early 1990s.

Submissions to the review will be accepted until December 3.

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Catching thieves red-handed is so 20th century.

High-tech strands of synthetic DNA, which glow bright blue under ultraviolet light, are being used to link criminals to crime scenes.

Unique sequences of synthesised DNA, sprayed as a mist during a crime, can confirm a suspect’s presence at the scene days or weeks later.

The DNA-laced mist resists washing and clings to clothes, and the chemical traces can leave a trail for police as a suspect contaminates a getaway car or their home. In some cases, the technology can release its telltale spray when an alarm is triggered that wirelessly alerts police.

The technology has so far received little attention in Australia, but the Bank of New Zealand has tested a DNA-infused aerosol made by Selectamark, a British company, and will install the security devices in all of its branches by the end of October.

Last year Selectamark offered another version of the technology to 1000 homes, schools and businesses in New Zealand. That used a liquid form of synthetic DNA that could be quickly swabbed across belongings such as computers, DVD players and cameras.

Eight months later, police in Manukau, south of Auckland, announced burglaries in the test area had declined by 61 per cent. A police spokeswoman, Ana-Mari Gates-Bowey, said few, if any, cases had gone to court, and it was probably publicity about the test that had deterred crimes.

Selectamark’s managing director, Andrew Knights, was in Sydney and Brisbane last week hoping to organise similar tests in Australia for early next year. He said forensic marking technology in Britain had resulted in ”hundreds of convictions”.

In NSW, Detective Superintendent Greig Newbery, Commander of State Crime Command, Property Crime Squad, said police, the financial industry and security firms were assessing DNA technologies. Of specific interest, he said, were ”crimes targeting automatic teller machines and cash-in-transit deliveries”.

In July, a would-be bandit, Nathan Brodbeck, died after being shot during an attempted hold-up of a money delivery van at the Dee Why RSL. In June, a Chubb security guard, Gary Allibon, was shot dead during an early morning delivery in the city.

A security consultant for the Australian Retailers Association, Mike Ramsay, said DNA technology has big potential as a deterrent against rising daytime crimes against shops.

As banks have become increasingly fortified against attacks with pop-up screens and security cameras, criminals were turning to softer targets. ”It’s certainly something we’re going to investigate, I can assure you of that,” Mr Ramsay said.

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Google cut its taxes by $US3.1 billion ($3.16 billion) in the last three years using a technique that moves most of its foreign profits through Ireland and the Netherlands to Bermuda.

Google’s income shifting - involving strategies known to lawyers as the “Double Irish” and the “Dutch Sandwich” - helped reduce its overseas tax rate to 2.4 per cent, the lowest of the top five US technology companies by market capitalisation, according to regulatory filings in six countries.

“It’s remarkable that Google’s effective rate is that low,” said Martin A. Sullivan, a tax economist who formerly worked for the US Treasury Department. “We know this company operates throughout the world mostly in high-tax countries where the average corporate rate is well over 20 per cent.”

The US corporate income-tax rate is 35 per cent. In the UK, Google’s second-biggest market by revenue, it’s 28 per cent.

Google, the owner of the world’s most popular search engine, uses a strategy that has gained favour among such companies as Facebook and Microsoft. The method takes advantage of Irish tax law to legally shuttle profits into and out of subsidiaries there, largely escaping the country’s 12.5 per cent income tax.

The earnings wind up in island havens that levy no corporate income taxes at all. Companies that use the Double Irish arrangement avoid taxes at home and abroad as the US government struggles to close a projected $US1.4 trillion budget gap and European Union countries face a collective projected deficit of 868 billion euros.

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