MELBOURNE: The Australian telecommunications industry has urged the Government to clarify the cost of data retention before legislation is debated in Parliament.
The Government has variously indicated it will make a ‘reasonable’ or ‘substantial’ contribution to these costs — which might exceed $300 million.
The eleventh-hour letter comes amidst speculation that the bill could pass as early as next week. The latest developments come after the Government announced further amendments to the bill requiring warrants to access metadata identifying journalists’ sources — an attempt on the part of Prime Minister Tony Abbott to secure support of the bill from the Opposition.
The bill would force phone and internet companies to keep all of their customers’ data, such as the time, origin and destination of emails and phone calls – but not content – for at least two years. Mr Abbott has indicated that he wishes the bill be passed by Parliament before the end of March and that looks set to happen after Labor dropped its opposition last month.
Despite expectations for the swift passage of the legislation, 16 of the top telecommunications executives in Australia have lent their weight to calls for further details around costing for a data retention scheme. The signatories include Telstra CEO David Thodey, Optus Chairman Paul O’Sullivan, Vodafone CEO Iñaki Berroeta and iiNET CEO David Buckingham, as well as leaders of a number of large and midweight telcos and ISPs.
In the letter, the industry leaders express their “simple and reasonable” request that the Government provide certainty on how much it will contribute towards the upfront expenses required to implement a data retention scheme.
“We note that the Government has variously indicated it will make a ‘reasonable’ or ‘substantial’ contribution to these costs — which might exceed $300 million, according to estimates provided by the consultants commissioned by the Government,” the letter reads.
“The extent to which the Government’s contribution falls short of the total cost to industry will determine the quantum of additional costs to be absorbed by C/CSPs [carriers or carriage service providers] or passed on to Australian telecommunications users.”
