An iTWire publication www.itwire.com Editor: Stan Beer Monday 2 March 2020

ACMA STEPS UP AGAINST MOBILE NUMBER FRAUD

CommsWire (ISSN 2202-4549) is published by iTWire Pty Ltd. 18 Lansdown St, Hampton, Vic, 3188 CommsWire/Telecommunications Editor: Stan Beer Staff writers: Peter Dinham, Alex Zaharov-Reutt, Sam Varghese. Columnist: John de Ridder Advertising: CEO and Editor in Chief, Andrew Matler: [email protected] • Tel: 0412 390 000 ACMA STEPS UP ITS FIGHT AGAINST MOBILE NUMBER FRAUD A new standard to mandate stronger identity verification processes before mobile numbers can be ported is being introduced in Australia as the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) steps up its fight against mobile number fraud. The new Mobile Number Pre-porting Additional Identify Verification) Industry Standard 2020 requires telcos to add an additional identity verification when transferring customers’ phone numbers from one telco to another. Mobile number fraud is a form of identity theft where scammers steal a person’s personal details to gain control of their mobile phone number. ACMA Authority member Fiona Cameron said mobile number fraud is a serious issue that can cause significant harm to victims. “The process will now require multifactor authentication, where a consumer must respond to the telco to confirm they have authorised the transfer. “Mobile number fraud can be devastating. Victims in Australia lose on average more than ten thousand dollars. “Mobile phones contain a lot of personal information so once a scammer has control of your number, they can hijack a lot of personal services, like online banking. “This new standard is a strong step forward in the battle against criminals who scam mobile phone users and will significantly reduce the prevalence of mobile fraud. “The new rules commence on 30 April 2020 and the ACMA will be actively monitoring compliance so that consumers can continue to use their mobile phones with confidence,” Cameron said. The action by the ACMA comes at the direction of the Australian Government which issued a formal direction to the Authority to make and introduce the new rules as part of measures to clamp down on the practice of mobile identity fraud. An industry standard is an enforceable legislative instrument with enforcement options under the Telecommunications Act 1997 including remedial directions and civil penalties of up to $250,000. “Mobile providers will have until 30 April 2020 to comply with the ACMA’s new standard designed to protect Australians from fraud and identity theft,” Minister for communications Paul Fletcher said. “The ACMA will actively monitor compliance with the industry standard and has enforcement powers to issue formal warnings or civil penalties of up to $250,000 to non- compliant mobile providers. The ACMA will have my full support in pursuing non-compliant mobile providers to ensure Australians are kept safe from scammers. “I thank the mobile providers that have already put these measures in place and I make it very clear that I expect the others to comply with the standard by the end of April.”

Monday 2 March 2020 No: 200302 iTWire Pty Ltd www.itwire.com page 2 The ACMA says it is working actively to combat scams over Australian telecommunications networks, and in November it released the Combating Scams Action Plan which announced the commencement of trials for scam-reduction initiatives. The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has welcomed the announcement of additional identity checks as a “positive step” towards protecting mobile phone users against scammers. “This is a serious issue that causes significant harm to people all across Australia,” said ACCAN CEO, Teresa Corbin. “The ACMA’s action is a much-needed first step towards stopping scammers and protecting mobile phone users. “The risk of up to $250,000 in fines should act as a deterrent to any telco who may have weak identity verification practices.” Corbin said that while ACCAN is broadly supportive of the Standard, there are still further opportunities to strengthen porting processes. “Requiring all telcos to use multifactor authentication before they port a mobile number is a good idea, however, it’s important that this two-step process is secure. SMS messages aren’t secure enough to prevent fraudulent mobile number porting,” Corbin said. “We’d like to see the ACMA require telcos to use highly secure forms of verification such as hardware or software authentication tokens which are generated with a mobile app. We’ve already seen some government services adopt this approach through the development of the myGov Code Generator app.” The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Judi Jones said the new Telecommunications (Mobile Number Pre-porting Additional Identify Verification) Industry Standard 2020 will safeguard consumers from potential threats such as identity theft or having their bank accounts drained. Jones said the TIO had raised potential consumer harms associated with mobile number theft in its systemic investigation report on "Reducing fruadsters' theft of mobile numbers", published in February 2019. “We are pleased to see our systemic investigation work informing this regulatory action. The telecommunications industry has worked hard over the last year to address the security risks associated with mobile number theft,” said Jones. “When fraud happens the impact on consumers is significant. It is important identity verification procedures keep up with evolving technological risks and strike the right balance between accessibility and security. The ACMA’s new Standard is a welcome layer of consumer protection to combat telco fraud.” Peter Dinham

Monday 2 March 2020 No: 200302 iTWire Pty Ltd www.itwire.com page 3 OPTUS LAUNCHES DUAL BAND 5G PRODUCTION NETWORK Optus has announced the launch of what it claims is a ‘world-first’ 2300MHz and 3500MHz spectrum 5G dual-band production network in partnership with Ericsson and Samsung, which it says could increase 5G capacity and coverage to customers. The dual band network was launched in Sydney last week, with Melbourne to follow in the coming weeks, and tested on the new flagship 5G devices.

Optus - Australia’s second largest telco - says that with access to both 2300MHz and 3500MHz spectrum in Australian capital cities, it’s announcement marks yet another milestone in its push to provide Australians with a “world leading 5G network”.

“As we push ahead with the roll out of our 5G network we are also continuing to test and implement new ways of enhancing our 5G network. Initial findings from our dual band testing have shown that the use of these two spectrum bands delivered increased 5G capacity and coverage which if deployed will ultimately benefit our customers,” said Kent Wu, Optus Head of Network Access Planning and Quality.

“Our 5G customers are already enjoying higher average speeds, quicker time to download content and a consistent high definition video experience. The implementation of a dual- band 5G network will enhance these elements to ensure experiences are more reliable, particularly during peak usage times.”

Optus says it is the first operator to launch dual band 5G in Australia - with the network developed with Ericsson’s “innovative” 2300MHz and 3500MHz 5G Radio System equipment.

“Having achieved interoperability milestones in all main 5G frequency bands, our teams at Ericsson are well positioned to support Optus in this dual-band network launch in Australia,” said Martin Wiktorin, Head of Ericsson Singapore, Brunei and Philippines and Global Customer Unit Singtel.

“As a global technology leader, we will continue to enable all our customers to deploy 5G and to utilise their valuable spectrum assets in the fastest and most efficient way.”

Garry McGregor, Vice President, IT and Mobile, Australia said “The Galaxy S20 range delivers the best in Samsung device performance. It is optimised to power our customers with the latest network capability around Australia.”

“This announcement builds on many years of working with Optus to optimise Samsung devices for their latest network developments. This includes the launch of 5G mobile services in 2019, and now, device support for dual band 5G 2300MHz and 3500MHz frequencies.”

Peter Dinham

Monday 2 March 2020 No: 200302 iTWire Pty Ltd www.itwire.com page 4 DEVELOPING OWN SEARCH ENGINE FOR MOBILE DEVICES Giant Chinese telecommunications equipment vendor Huawei Technologies has started developing its own search engine, a report says, with this being the final step in becoming independent of other mobile operating systems.

American columnist Zak Doffman sounded a rather xenophobic note in Forbes, with his piece about the new search engine headlined "This Is Huawei’s Alarming New Surprise For : Here’s Why You Should Be Concerned". The latest Huawei have the company's own app store, which is slowly building its own trove of apps. The search engine APK is not yet in the Huawei store but it can be downloaded here. Huawei has built the operating system that it intends to use as a replacement for Google's Android using the open-source version of Android. As CommsWire reported in January, the company has licensed navigation technology from the Dutch company TomTom. Doffman described the emergence of Huawei's search engine as representing "an even greater risk to Google from the ongoing technology split, east versus west." "...it also raises some significant questions around who curates and filters our news. Huawei is the second largest supplier of smartphones worldwide, its global audience stretches way beyond China’s borders," he added. A post on the xda-developers site said the search results from the Huawei engine could not be mapped to results from Google, Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex, Ask, or AOL. It appears that the service is being operated from Aspiegel, Huawei's subsidiary in Ireland. One needs a Huawei ID to test the search engine. Huawei was locked out from using any of Google's proprietary applications such as Maps, Gmail, YouTube and PlayStore in May last year when the US placed it on a so-called Entity List which prevents it from using technology that has 25% of American content. The Chinese giant released one last year, the Mate 30, using the open-source version of Android, without these apps. Huawei has developed its own operating system known as HarmonyOS, though the system has not been used on any devices available to the public as yet. Doffman said he had "commented before on the unintended consequences of the US blacklist — Google and the US losing their global influence on mobile standards, the launch of a third-way competitor to full-fat Android and iOS, the potential for Huawei to carve itself a hugely dominant position controlling that new alternative. It has not yet been reported this way, but this search news could be the most alarming aspect yet.” Sam Varghese

Monday 2 March 2020 No: 200302 iTWire Pty Ltd www.itwire.com page 5 5G DEVICE WILL BE THE ONE TO BEAT: ANALYST FIRM The 5G smartphone, the Chinese company's flagship model launched last Monday in a number of countries — though not in Australia — is likely to shape the competitive 5G landscape this year, the tech analyst firm Counterpoint Research claims.

In a blog post, the company pointed out that realme — a company set up by a former vice- president of — had first taken aim at the lowest segment of the market, gradually moved to the mid-range and was now taking aim at the premium segment which is dominated by OnePlus, Apple and Samsung.

Last year premium smartphone shipments hit a record high and grew 29% year-on-year.

The X50 Pro 5G retails for the equivalent of US$525 (A$810 or ₹37,900) and was first released in India given that its focus is India-first.

The device has a 90Hz refresh rate, a Snapdragon 865 chip and a 4200mAh battery with support for 65W fast charging.

Counterpoint said that the realme pricing for this model was quite aggressive compared to similar models from other companies: in the US the Samsung Galaxy S20 5G cost US$999 while the OnePlus 7T Pro 5G is sold for US$899.

And, comparing the X50 Pro 5G pricing to a OnePlus 7T LTE, there was a difference of just $26 – the OnePlus model costs US$499.

"For that extra $25, you get the latest chipset, 5G, faster charging speeds and higher resolution cameras," Counterpoint said.

Monday 2 March 2020 No: 200302 iTWire Pty Ltd www.itwire.com page 6 The company said realme had a market share of 1.7% in 2019, but hadn't been doing too well in China, its home market.

Research analyst Parv Sharma said: "We believe realme, with its X50 Pro 5G affordable premium smartphone, has an edge to capture early 5G consumers, in 5G ready European countries. “To accelerate the adoption of 5G smartphones, realme needs to partner with the operators in these markets. “The company should focus on delivering the premium 5G experience to create brand value.” Counterpoint's vice-president of Research, Neil Shah added: "Chinese smartphone brands are racing to launch 5G flagship devices in their portfolio, leveraging the latest 5G solutions from vendors such as Qualcomm. “Many of these brands have strong footprint in China, India and parts of Asia. “However, some of these brands will have different strategies for different markets." In China, brands such as realme, iQOO, OPPO, vivo and will have 5G as a default SKU for flagship models in the first half of 2020. “All the new models launched above US$300 this year will be 5G capable, considering Chinese operators are aggressively rolling out 5G networks this year with a target of 100 million 5G connections,” Shah said. Sam Varghese

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