Q2-2014 Design Contracts

jxeeno made this Freedom of Information request to NBN Co Limited

This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.

The request was refused by NBN Co Limited.

Dear FOI Officer,

I wish to obtain a document containing the number of Fibre Serving Area Modules (FSAMs) broken down by states as well as the expected approximate coverage localities covered by the FSAMs in each state where:

a) a contract instruction to commence "detailed design and field inspection work"

had been issued to NBN Co's delivery partners between 1st March 2014 - 30th June 2014.

Kind regards,
jxeeno

David Mesman, NBN Co Limited

6 Attachments

UNCLASSIFIED

Please find attached a letter in relation to your FOI request.

 

Best regards, DJM

 

David J Mesman

GM Legal – FOI & Knowledge Management

P +61 2 8918 8596 | E [1][email address]

Level 11, 100 Arthur Street, North Sydney NSW 2060

Level 40, 360 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

 

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David Mesman, NBN Co Limited

6 Attachments

UNCLASSIFIED

For reference – I understand that this went out on Friday. Apologies if
you have already received same.

 

Best regards, DJM

 

David J Mesman

GM Legal – FOI & Knowledge Management

P +61 2 8918 8596 | E [1][email address]

Level 11, 100 Arthur Street, North Sydney NSW 2060

Level 40, 360 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

 

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PLEASE CONSIDER OUR ENVIRONMENT BEFORE PRINTING

 

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Dear David,

Thank you for the response.

I would like to ask if NBN Co could consider waiving the changes for FOI1415/01 on the basis of public interest and in the hope to save NBN Co staff from having to process multiple FOI requests.

(1) FOI1415/01 (this FOI request) is similar to that of the FOI1314/47 which I made on 12th April 2014 (rescoped on 21st April 2014). The rescoped FOI1314/47 requested for the number of design contract instructions issued between Q4-2013 and Q1-2014. An access decision was made for the rescoped request on 9th May 2014 with the access charges waived.

(2) A subsequent FOI request (FOI1314/51) by Mr Josh Stewart on the Right to Know (RTK) website was made based on FOI1314/47. He requested the approximate coverage areas for the Victorian contracts described in FOI1314/47. An access decision was made for the request on 26th May 2014 with the access charges waived.

(3) Subsequently, at least 5 other FOI requests were made to NBN Co requesting for the approximate coverage areas described in FOI1314/47 for other states and territories in Australia. The requests that were made on the RTK website were: FOI1314/61 (NT), FOI1314/53 (WA), FOI 1314/60 (QLD), FOI 1314/54 (NSW/ACT), FOI 1314/58 (SA). Access decisions for these FOI requests were requests on or around 23rd June 2014 with the access charges waived.

(4) The 6 additional FOI requests made requesting for additional information (specifically the coverage areas of those contracts) indicated that were is substantial public interest in NBN Co’s issuance of design contracts. The current FOI request (FOI1415/01) includes the scope of FOI1314/47 and subsequent FOI requests relating to FOI1314/47.

(5) Given the substantial public interest, access charge waivers for all previous 7 FOI requests and the extreme likelihood of having to process separate FOI requests for each state as per the previous quarter [FOI1314/47 (Initial request), FOI1314/51 (VIC), FOI1314/61 (NT), FOI1314/53 (WA), FOI 1314/60 (QLD), FOI 1314/54 (NSW/ACT), FOI 1314/58 (SA)], NBN Co could waive the current charges in this current FOI request to avoid having to process at least 7 Freedom of Information requests relating to the same matter.

(6) I wish to make an additional supporting statement in relation to financial hardship. As a full time high school student (age 17), I do not currently have an income that would sufficiently assist in the payment of this Freedom of Information request. I note that NBN Co had contended in previous FOI requests that advertising revenue from my website mynbn.info may be considered a source of income – however, as demonstrated in my request for an Internal Review in FOI1316/26, the revenue acquired from advertising is a fixed fee that goes directly into hosting costs associated with running the website. In fact, it was stated that increased traffic would adversely affect my financial state due to an increased traffic cost without an adjusting income flow from ad revenue.

Please consider my request for the fee waiver as outlined above.

Kind regards,
jxeeno

Yvette Deerness, NBN Co Limited

1 Attachment

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr Tsang

 

Please find attached NBN Co’s FOI decision, in relation to your request
for information relating to FSAM Coverage in all States.

 

If you have any questions in relation to this FOI matter, please do not
hesitate to contact me on the numbers below.

 

Kind regards

 

 

Yvette Deerness

Acting GM Legal Counsel – FOI, Privacy & Knowledge Management

P +61 2 8918 5670 | M +61 408 547 325 | E [1][email address]

Level 11, 100 Arthur Street, North Sydney NSW 2060

Level 40, 360 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

 

References

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Dear NBN Co Limited,

(Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.)

I'm requesting for an Internal Review to the decision made for FOI1415/01. I also make the following observations:

A. "This FOI request" refers to FOI1415/01.

1. This FOI request relates to the release information regarding the issuance of design contract instructions which NBN Co issues to its construction partners on a regular basis and is part of the BAU (business as usual) operations of NBN Co.

2. The information as requested in this FOI request was previously publicly available (prior to September 2013) in a more detailed form of the Monthly Ready for Service Plan and was also publicly released by subsequent FOI requests after September 2013.

3. The scope of the information requested in this FOI request is identical (except for time frame) to that of the Freedom of Information requests: FOI1314/47 (contract instruction count), FOI1314/51 (VIC), FOI1314/61 (NT), FOI1314/53 (WA), FOI1314/60 (QLD), FOI1314/54 (NSW/ACT), FOI1314/58 (SA); which were made three months prior to this FOI request and were all released in full.

4. As stated in Point 20 of Decision FOI1415/04 (which is referred to in the decision of this FOI request), an issuance of a design contract instruction does not necessarily result in the issuance of a build contract instruction. It does not indicate that build issuance is imminent, and nor does it indicate the final technology to be employed by NBN Co. As such, this makes the reason outlined in Point 20 self-contradicting and irrelevant as it neither implies the designation of a certain technology nor the timeframe of a build contract instruction to Retail Service Providers nor end-user’s experience or take-up of NBN services.

5. The risk that the volume of design contract instructions will be revealed (as explained in Point 21 of Decision FOI1415/04) is minimal to that compared to the voluntarily release of Telstra remediation notice and build contract instructions by NBN Co on its own rollout map on a monthly basis. Not only is the value of build contract instructions greater in monetary value than that of design contract instructions, but there is no publicly known monetary value for design contract instructions on a per-contract level or on a per-premises level.

Kind regards,
Kenneth Tsang

N.B. A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/q...

FOIOfficer, NBN Co Limited

5 Attachments

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr Tsang

 

I am writing in relation to your request made under the Freedom of
Information Act, 1982 (FOI Act) to seek access to “A document containing
the number of Fibre Serving Area Modules (FSAMs) broken down by states as
well as the expected approximate coverage localities covered by the FSAMs
in each state where a contract instruction to commence "detailed design
and field inspection work" had been issued to NBN Co's delivery partners
between 1st March 2014 - 30th June 2014.”

 

On 27 August 2014, NBN Co issued you with an access decision relating to
your request explaining, amongst other things, that in the decision
maker’s opinion, the document sought:

 

·         fell within the commercial activities exemption; and

·         fell within the general exemption for commercially valuable
information.

 

As such, the document sought was deemed by the decision maker to be exempt
from release.

 

Based on your email below, we understand that you would like to make an
application for internal review of the access decision referred to above.
As required by section 54C, we will arrange for a person (other than the
person who made the original decision) to review the decision (Internal
Reviewer). For your reference, the Internal Reviewer will make a fresh
decision on behalf of NBN Co within 30 days after the day on which your
application was received by NBN Co, subject to an extension of the time
for deciding the decision being granted by the Information Commissioner. 
Subject to any such extension of the time, as your application for
internal review was received on 13 September 2014, the Internal Reviewer
must make a fresh decision on behalf of NBN Co by 14 October 2014.

 

If you have any questions or need to discuss your FOI application, please
feel free to contact me using the contact details below. For further
information about your review rights, please see the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner’s FOI Fact Sheet 12 – Your review
rights which may be found at the following [1]link.

 

Regards,

 

An Vo

[2]Associate Legal Counsel FOI, Privacy & Knowledge Mgmnt

P +61 2 8918 5655 | M + 61 408 253 295 | E [3][email address]

Level 11, 100 Arthur Street, North Sydney NSW 2060

 

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This e-mail is intended only to be read or used by the addressee. It is
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anyone, and you should destroy this message and kindly notify the sender
by reply e-mail. Copyright, confidentiality and legal
professional privilege are not waived or lost by reason of mistaken
delivery to you.    Emails to/from NBN Co Limited ACN 136 533 741 may
undergo email filtering and virus scanning, including by third party
contractors, however, NBN Co Limited does not guarantee that any email or
any attachment is secure, error-free or free of viruses or other unwanted
or unexpected inclusions.  Any views expressed in this message are those
of the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states them
to be the views of NBN Co Limited

PLEASE CONSIDER OUR ENVIRONMENT BEFORE PRINTING

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: jxeeno [[9]mailto:[FOI #664 email]]
Sent: Saturday, 13 September 2014 11:33 AM
To: FOIOfficer
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Q2-2014
Design Contracts

 

Dear NBN Co Limited,

 

(Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information
reviews.)

 

I'm requesting for an Internal Review to the decision made for
FOI1415/01.  I also make the following observations:

 

A. "This FOI request" refers to FOI1415/01.

 

1. This FOI request relates to the release information regarding the
issuance of design contract instructions which NBN Co issues to its
construction partners on a regular basis and is part of the BAU (business
as usual) operations of NBN Co.

 

2. The information as requested in this FOI request was previously
publicly available (prior to September 2013) in a more detailed form of
the Monthly Ready for Service Plan and was also publicly released by
subsequent FOI requests after September 2013.

 

3. The scope of the information requested in this FOI request is identical
(except for time frame) to that of the Freedom of Information requests:
FOI1314/47 (contract instruction count), FOI1314/51 (VIC), FOI1314/61
(NT), FOI1314/53 (WA), FOI1314/60 (QLD), FOI1314/54 (NSW/ACT), FOI1314/58
(SA); which were made three months prior to this FOI request and were all
released in full.

 

4. As stated in Point 20 of Decision FOI1415/04 (which is referred to in
the decision of this FOI request), an issuance of a design contract
instruction does not necessarily result in the issuance of a build
contract instruction.  It does not indicate that build issuance is
imminent, and nor does it indicate the final technology to be employed by
NBN Co.  As such, this makes the reason outlined in Point 20
self-contradicting and irrelevant as it neither implies the designation of
a certain technology nor the timeframe of a build contract instruction to
Retail Service Providers nor end-user’s experience or take-up of NBN
services.

 

5. The risk that the volume of design contract instructions will be
revealed (as explained in Point 21 of Decision FOI1415/04) is minimal to
that compared to the voluntarily release of Telstra remediation notice and
build contract instructions by NBN Co on its own rollout map on a monthly
basis.  Not only is the value of build contract instructions greater in
monetary value than that of design contract instructions, but there is no
publicly known monetary value for design contract instructions on a
per-contract level or on a per-premises level.

 

Kind regards,

Kenneth Tsang

 

N.B. A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available
on the Internet at this address:
[10]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/q...

 

 

 

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An Vo, NBN Co Limited

6 Attachments

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr Tsang,

 

Please find attached NBN Co’s decision in relation to your request for an
internal review under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth).

 

If you have any questions or need to discuss this matter, please contact
the decision maker, Adrian Fung on [1][email address]

 

Kind regards,

 

An Vo

[2]Associate Legal Counsel FOI, Privacy & Knowledge Mgmnt

P +61 2 8918 5655 | M + 61 408 253 295 | E [3][email address]

Level 11, 100 Arthur Street, North Sydney NSW 2060

 

[4]NBN Co Logo.jpg

 

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Notice to recipient:

This e-mail is intended only to be read or used by the addressee. It is
confidential and may contain information that is subject to legal
professional privilege or protected by copyright. If you are not the
addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for delivery of the
message to that person), you may not copy or deliver this message to
anyone, and you should destroy this message and kindly notify the sender
by reply e-mail. Copyright, confidentiality and legal
professional privilege are not waived or lost by reason of mistaken
delivery to you.    Emails to/from NBN Co Limited ACN 136 533 741 may
undergo email filtering and virus scanning, including by third party
contractors, however, NBN Co Limited does not guarantee that any email or
any attachment is secure, error-free or free of viruses or other unwanted
or unexpected inclusions.  Any views expressed in this message are those
of the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states them
to be the views of NBN Co Limited

PLEASE CONSIDER OUR ENVIRONMENT BEFORE PRINTING

 

References

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