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Oh, four, double seven, six, five, seven, six, five, seven.
Greg's on the line.
Good day, Greg.
How are you, Trevor?
Yeah, really good, mate.
We spoke before you went away.
I'm assuming if it was a trip, it must have been about travel and data and getting connected.
How'd you go?
Went excellent.
We, there was about five of us that joined up to the AeroLo app.
And we got basically just used for data, but had no issues at all other than
the code that you gave me and we marked up and didn't use that for the first time.
But anyway, got me head around that for the second time over there.
But yeah, we had no issues at all.
And it worked really great.
And five of you all used it on different phones or with an eSIM?
Yes, yes.
Were there options in Singapore?
Because it was Singapore and Hong Kong, wasn't it?
Some countries have options for calls and data.
Some are just data.
Was there options for you?
Or was it pretty much just pick this one and go?
Well, it was like pick this one because when we went to Singapore,
it actually allocated me a phone number.
So I could have made calls.
But when we got to Hong Kong, when I just did the same address,
it just allocated me the data.
Yeah, right.
Okay.
So then I looked at that and thought, oh, okay, was that me?
Or maybe that was what just the option was, you know?
But that was fine because we didn't really need to make phone calls.
So, yeah, basically just had the data for messages
and, you know, internet sort of thing.
And I was sending a lot of photos back home to mum.
And that was great.
Quite a marvelous.
Everybody...
It's easy to stay connected, mate.
It's easy to stay connected.
Where did you enjoy most, mate?
Look, Singapore is fantastic.
It's just bloody muggy, isn't it?
Just a beautiful city.
Oh, it is.
It is muggy.
Yeah, it was 28, you know, that 30 sort of mark.
The humidity.
But honestly, fantastic.
And I'll tell you what, their transport system is just out of the world.
The thing I remember about Singapore most is you're in the city
and you want to, you know, go to a shop or something.
It's not obvious the shops, because most of them are underground.
It's like these underground walkways between...
And the shopping centers are all underground and stuff
because it's air conditioned
and that's where people commute to
and walk through on the...
Because then you avoid the surface streets
where it's hot and humid.
But yeah, beautiful place.
Some stunning areas, wasn't there?
Yeah.
It's unbelievable.
Yeah, and their rail system's all underground too.
It's all air conditioned.
And basically you get off a train,
walk across to the next platform
and you wait about a minute and the next one turns up.
It leaves us for dead.
It is also a tiny, tiny place.
Imagine if we were all in one little place.
It'd probably be easier to make it all look like that, I guess.
I don't know, I'll still take Australia though.
I'll still take Australia.
Oh yeah, you can't be in Australia.
I'll definitely go back to Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
We had not air which wasn't enough,
but it was just out of this world, that place.
Nice.
Well, mate, glad you had a good trip.
Glad you got the air away working.
And mate, enjoy and remember it for next time.
We've all got it saved on our phones
and definitely we'll use it next time.
Good on you, mate.
Yeah, no worries, guys.
Thanks very much for giving us all the information.
That's all we're here for.
Good on you, buddy.
Cheers.
Thank you very much.
Cheers, mate.
No worries at all.
There you go.
So Singapore.
If you haven't been to Singapore, it's a beautiful place,
but it's tiny, right?
So yeah, of course everything kind of works
because it's a tiny place.
It's easy to kind of navigate.
The phone systems are great
because there's not that many towels required.
It's pretty easy.
But my god, it's hot and stinking hot
and sticky and humid.
And I guess that's what you get up there near the equator.
That's the deal.
AeroLo, A-I-R-A-L-O is the app.
And as I said, no commission to me.
I make nothing from it.
They're not an advertiser,
but they did set up a discount code
if you are setting up an eSIM.
Just punch in E-F-T-M when you're in the checkout.
Tech Cars.
Lifestyle.
This is the E-F-T-M podcast with Trevor Long.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for joining me.
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In 22 days,
at the time of recording,
tens of thousands of kids across Australia,
age 15 or less,
we'll have their Instagram,
TikTok and YouTube,
accounts blocked as the world leading
social media minimum age legislation
comes into force here in Australia.
And while the government and parliament
in general are responsible
for passing that law
and making the change,
the actual detail of the change
falls to Australia's e-safety commissioner,
Julie Innan-Grant.
I'm pleased to say
she joins me on the line now.
Commissioner, welcome.
Thank you for having me.
In simple terms,
what do we hope to achieve
with this legislation?
What do we hope to change?
Well, I think it's really important to underscore
that this is not a comprehensive
or omnibus safety bill.
It has a very specific purpose.
And this is about placing an obligation
on age restricted social media services
to take reasonable steps
to prevent children under the age of 16
from having or holding the social media accounts.
But instead of referring to it as a ban,
because it is not an absolute prohibition,
there are exclusions for messaging services,
for online gaming platforms,
for education and health applications
and even business applications.
We're referring to this as a delay.
And really it's like the campaign
around 36 months,
giving kids back those precious years
where they're developing
not only their identities,
but their impulse control,
their clear-cutting skills
between the ages of 13 and 16,
and to keep them away
from those harmful and deceptive design features
that are built into social media sites,
to keep them entrenched and entranced.
Do we think that in five years from now
there will be a measurable change
in a metric that will prove the success
or otherwise of this
in terms of, I don't know,
mental health or well-being of Aussie kids?
Well, we as eSafety are working now
with 11, sorry, let me start again.
We as eSafety have just undertaken
an independent evaluation
or review of the implementation
of this legislation,
and we're doing it with six Australian academics
and then another five globally
that specialize in technology, psychology,
the mental health and well-being of young people.
And this will be a longitudinal study,
so we'll look at everything from,
we'll be using ABS data,
we'll be looking at telco data,
we'll be looking at NAPLAN scores,
so are kids sleeping more?
Are they interacting more?
Are they actually getting out on the footy field
and touching grass?
And then what are some of the unintended consequences?
So we want to capture it all,
and this will be a longitudinal study.
And I guess I've said to a number of people
that in the first day or week
I think everybody is expecting
their children's social media accounts
to magically disappear overnight.
I don't think we want to set that expectation.
I think some companies will probably do it
really well and very effectively,
but there will be variability
from platform to platform.
But I think it's the most significant
normative change,
and there'll be significant change
in the early stages
because parents will no longer have to say,
not are you never going to be on social media,
but not yet,
and the government is backing us on this,
and you're not going to be excluded
from engaging with your friends on social media,
because if they're under 16 too,
they won't be on it.
But it's that generation alpha,
the babies today up to 12 years old,
I think this is where it will really impact
their developmental growth in positive ways
because they won't grow up with that expectation
that they're going to be on social media.
And we know that 84% of 8 to 12 year olds today
have a social media account.
So that's where I think the real change
will happen over time.
So you're saying that kids like mine,
who are aged 14 and 15,
may not simply lose access on December 10
or December 11,
it may come over a shorter period of time
or a period of time.
What will they see though?
Will they just see nothing
or do you have an expectation
of how the platforms will handle those kids
that are on but need to be off?
Yes.
So I'm sure you spent hours pouring
over our regulatory guidance.
Actually, it's pretty short and sweet.
It's, I think, about 55 pages.
But one thing we...
Well, you know, the OFCOM in the UK,
their regulatory guidance for the Online Safety Act
is something like 1700 pages.
So it is small by comparison.
But basically what we say in terms of the reasonable steps
and the first thing that the companies need to focus on
is deactivating or removing the under-16 accounts.
And what we've asked them to do
is to use kind and compassionate
and caring language to identify
and communicate with the under-16s
that they think are going to, you know,
lose their account on December 10.
And ideally, we're asking them to give kids a choice.
So deactivation means that it kind of just lies dormant.
They won't have access to it.
But when they turn 16, their accounts will turn back on
and their memories and images will be there.
And then, of course, removal is total deprecation
or total removal altogether,
which I also think companies are reticent to do
because they do want to find ways to keep them...
Yeah, they want them back, absolutely.
Of course. Absolutely.
My best understanding and what I've tried to explain
to people in great detail about this is
it doesn't lead directly to an ID.
We'll get to that in a minute.
But there's several steps.
There's the age estimation, which is the platform going,
we think you're 16 or we know you're 16 or under.
Then there's age assurance
and then comes age verification.
Can we talk about age assurance for a minute?
Because I did spend a lot of time
looking at the government's age assurance trials
and the results of that,
which appear to me to show that it's amazing.
And age assurance is, you know,
whether it's a biometric scan of your face
or something like that,
it's amazing for people over 21.
It's amazing for people under 10,
but it's pretty rubbish at working out
how old someone is when they're 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17.
So how's that going to work when a lot of kids,
a lot of kids are going to turn 16 and want it back?
And they're not going to look 16.
Julie, I've been to my kid's sport
and I think that kid looks 12,
but he's in under 16 and that kid looks 18
and he's in under 14.
How is that going to work?
Well, again, you would know this better than most people,
but the social media sites already know a lot about us
and concluding our age.
And so we talk about taking a layered safety approach
or a waterfall approach so that dependence upon ID
or even dependence on facial age estimation
or age verification won't be the only two factors.
In fact, most of the companies that are captured
by the age restricted social media definition
have been using age inference technologies for years.
So for instance, they'll use natural language processing.
They can look at grammar and acronyms and emojis
and they can tell the relative age of someone today
when they set up their account,
when they log in and when they log out
if it's before and after school, that tells them something.
13-year-olds tend to talk to other 13-year-olds.
There are a whole range of behavioral signals
that they have already picked up and are using.
So this is why we expect most of these platforms
will use a combination of measures,
the proprietary tools they've already been using for years
and then they may supplement that with say
a facial age estimation technology like YOT,
which has been used for years.
And every year, the accuracy of these technologies
is improving.
And so even between the 13 and 15-year-olds, and you're right,
there's going to be a lot of variability
in terms of adolescent development during those times.
They're going to keep getting better
and that's why one of the things we ask the platforms also to do
is to continue training their classifiers
in improving the technologies,
whether the third party or first party technologies.
But you've had a lot of support in the general press about this.
Do you worry that in the later part of December,
it's going to be a lot of negativity
because I can foreshadow the stories.
There's going to be 16- and two-month-year-olds
that can't verify their age without putting up an ID
and they don't have an ID.
There's going to be 15-year-olds who got on
and they shouldn't be on.
How do you manage that negativity that will come,
I think almost assuredly,
at the launch of this legislation's implementation?
Trevor, the negativity has already come.
There's already kind of the tearing down of the agency
and myself and the scheme and even the assessments.
As you pointed out at the beginning,
we can only use the tools that are given to us
by the government and the tools
that were voted on by the parliament.
So one of the challenges is that
we don't have specific declaratory powers.
But it wasn't clear in the definition
and the definition for determining
whether an age-restricted social media service is included
is based on their sole or significant purpose
and whether or not.
It's a seven-point checklist,
which I've been through a couple of times.
I find it fascinating that, essentially,
they get to say,
oh no, our sole purpose is not this.
That could also mean we end up with some court cases
that say, listen, we're a messaging platform.
They could argue the case, though it does feel like
they've conceded they're just going to push on
and implement age restriction.
In fact, some platforms commissioner,
it feels like they're thinking about implementing it
even though they're not included in it.
So maybe that's a second level of success.
Yeah.
I think all of that is true.
There has been a lot of really interesting
shape-shifting going on
and putting themselves in categories
that don't exist in the legislation.
So, for instance, at one point,
and this is what's interesting,
for the purposes of developing our industry codes,
companies like Snap and YouTube
identified themselves as social media sites
when this came along,
Snap was all of a sudden a camera app
and then a messaging app
and then YouTube was a messaging sharing platform.
But why it's taken a long time to do this analysis
for that very reason for court challenges and the like
and for clarity and to show that we're applying
all of this fairly inconsistently.
We're looking at, again,
deceptive and harmful design features
and the totality of features included
that stimulate online social interaction.
And we're also thinking about things like,
you know, people were concerned that Roblox is in there,
but I had to look at significant or sole purpose.
And I've got 13-year-old twins
who've been playing Roblox for years.
Of course, we have the chat functionality shut down.
But is the main or significant purpose,
is online gaming?
Would they use the chat and messaging functionality
if they didn't have the games there?
No, they would probably use WhatsApp
or they would use Snap.
The same thing with Snap.
Would they be using Snap's messaging functionality
if there wasn't the ephemerality
or the Snap streaks,
which is a game-of-fine way of keeping kids?
Yep.
They've got Snap maps.
They've got stories.
They've got Snap stars.
They've got all this content
that, say, platforms, messaging platforms,
like WhatsApp or Messenger,
doesn't have to keep you using that platform.
So we have to look at that online social interaction
in its totality.
To play Dev's advocate,
and I have done that a lot for my audience,
because, look, to be very clear,
I don't believe we need this legislation.
I believe we need better parenting
and better tools for parents.
And that's a very difficult thing
to approach from a national level.
But why do we need to put in place
this blanket ban slash delay
when parental controls exist on major platforms
and have done for some time
shouldn't we as parents be allowed to say,
no, I'm okay with my kids being on these platforms
because, and only because,
I'm managing their accounts
and I can see their activity.
I can manage their time.
I can manage so much about it.
And perhaps those parents
not willing to be that engaged,
their kids are the ones
that can't be on the platform until they engage.
Is that not a better way of approaching it
from a parental responsibility point of view?
Well, all of that has been done
by E-Safety for the past 10 years.
And that's why I describe this
as a very specific piece of legislation.
You know, we do have codes and standards
to deal with things and we're taking action
against chat roulette sites
and new defying sites and new defying apps.
And you'll see more from us targeting
AI chat bots and companions.
Those will be coming into force
in March of next year.
But it takes, we operate under
what we call the three piece model.
So prevention through education,
resources, research,
working from an evidence base,
protection through the systemic powers
and that includes transparency
around the platforms of what they are
and are not doing to make their platforms
safer by design.
But we also have complaint schemes
and some of the only ones
of their nature in this world.
So if a child has been sexting
and the intimate images are shared
without consent, this goes for adults as well.
And if it's deep, fake material,
they can report to us
and we have a 98% success rate
of taking this down.
Similarly with youth based cyber bullying
and adult cyber abuse.
But the area that is kind of missing
is that kind of proactive
and systemic change,
which is what we've been doing
with our safety by design initiative
and which the government will be taking forward
with the safety of care,
which is putting the onus again
back on the platforms
to build,
to assess the risks and the harms
and build those safety protections
in at the front end
rather than waiting for things to go wrong.
A lot of platforms will say,
well we build the parental controls
and parents don't use them
and to a certain degree that's true
because they're pretty complex.
So parenting
but in my experience
we've seen
there are various styles of parenting.
There's helicopter parents
and there are free range parents
and the ones we reach
are the ones that are already engaged
in their kids online lives.
So our challenge has been how do we reach those parents
that aren't engaged
or don't feel they understand text,
they just let their kids
do what they want online
and really don't know
how perilous it can be.
I did a TikTok on this a couple of weeks ago
maybe a month ago now
and I've got to be honest blown away by the response to it
and its reach in just Australia
when you look at the data, it was 95% Australian viewers
and a million people
looking at this video and most of them just have
questions and don't have answers.
Are we doing enough to educate
the public on what's about to happen?
I know you're running some TV ads and things
but I think we need to be on social media
talking about this, don't we?
We are on social media talking about this.
I guess this would be a great
service for your listeners.
We've got a social
media age restrictions hub
and we've got a vast
range of resources including
videos, some are voiced over by
young people.
We've got preparation
guides, scripts,
a whole range of tools
and I guess what I would say to parents right now
is now is the time to sit down
with your
kids, talk to them
about the apps they're on, particularly
if they're between the ages of
13 and 15
and prepare them
and get them to start tapering off their usage.
You can
also on our website
we show you basically how to
download archives
and images, they can
bookmark influencers they like
on their websites.
They can set up
WhatsApp group chats with their friends
when they're breaking for school, they're still in contact
and then we've done a lot of work
with Reach Out, Beyond Blue
Kids Helpline and Headspace to make sure
that they know
of a range of other help seeking
tools
that are out there for them because
this is going to be a really hard transition
for some kids, a really hard
transition.
We want to make sure that they're going
to the right place. The last thing I
noticed that we're giving free
webinars to parents and educators.
We've had about 2,000
people attend each one
that actually walks through how it works
and what you can do.
Mindful of your time but I can't let you
be here without addressing the
conspiracy in the room which I keep getting as well
but at the end of December we're all going to
upload ID to use Google.
This is a very different
thing but it is similarly protecting
kids online. I believe it's the internet
search engine services online
safety code but can we just
clarify here to use Google
to search the internet. You're not
required on December 27
to upload an ID are you?
Ding ding ding, you are right.
So
and these of course
are industry codes that were developed
by Google and Bing and
the search engines themselves and
really just kind of codifies
some of their safe search practices
already. So
if you are not
logged into an account and are
just opening a browser or a search engine
and searching
the internet what will happen
for everybody is if
the search engine comes across explicit
violence say like the Charlie
Kirk
assassination video
something that's deemed
very, very violent in something
you can't unsee or pornography
it will be blurred
and that is to
prevent people from seeing
things inadvertently
that they don't want to see and can't unsee.
If you are logged into a Google account
they know how old I am
is it the same age estimation
they're just going listen we know who you are
you've been on here for a while we're never going to ask you for ID
but if they don't know how old you are based
on any activity you've done
they may go through age assurance
all questions. Yes.
So if you're logged in to an account
to search and on many
home computers that are shared by multiple
users families will do that
so that they can set the age
appropriate settings at the right setting
and it hasn't been age verified
they will ask you to go through an age
verification process.
I also think the other positive
thing I want to point out about
the codes that are coming in at the end
of December is if somebody
is in the grips of crisis
and is seeking out
specific explicit instructions
of how to take their own lives
this will redirect them
to mental health services rather than
taking them directly to that information
and so I think
that's a really important
thing that we do as a society
so that we can help
people again in the grips of
extreme crisis get the help that they need.
Your role has been around for a long time
but it's never been more public
as the spotlight started to take its toll
I heard you on the ABC talking about
not thinking about renewing when you contract
ends there's been articles attacking you
you mentioned you've been doxxed and things like this
is this spotlight something you never
foreshadowed coming
to you because you didn't think the role was going to be
like it is and the government's created this
whole new world for the e-safety commissioner
it's a difficult role
and probably a very difficult one to fill if you
choose not to continue.
Yeah I mean
I'm one of a handful of people in this world
that have been working
on online safety
for more than 30 years both
inside technology
industry and as a regulator
it's really a relatively new field
but yes I've experienced
for a fairly extended time
what we call the 3Ds
of online abuse
death threats
doxxing including doxxing of my children
and deep fakes
made of me so
it does
take its toll and I also
worry about the toll it takes on
a number of my staff
it's the type
of job that is an
absolute privilege to do
and it's an honor and if
I can make some changes
in people's lives for the better
and in their online lives
you know that is
a success to me but it's also the kind of job
where you're either doing too much or not enough
and you're never going to make
everyone happy and we've got a very
vocal minority of people I mean
if you look at the YouGov polls the vast majority
particularly of
parents but of adults
want to see this monumental
change around the social media delay
they want their platforms
to be safer
online and unfortunately
we're in a situation now
where companies are actually
severely cutting their trust
and safety personnel and rolling back
their content moderation policies
so it's getting worse and the job
is getting harder for online safety regulators
I wouldn't want your job let me
put it to you that way
and I also think with the greatest
respect I think too much of the focus
has been on you and the decisions
you make and frankly it should be politicians
making perhaps some of those decisions but I guess
they put their faith and trust in the
office of the eSafety Commissioner and they're
entitled to do that but it's the
people who have the world that worries me
and the digital ID haters
and all this kind of stuff that goes around that muddies
the waters of the general discussion that we
should be continuing to have
about just keeping our kids safe
keeping them happy and
I'm more excited about
the December 27 safe search
kind of regulations than I am about
the social media ban because I don't want my kids
to be exposed to pornography early
you know it wasn't easy for me as a kid
it shouldn't be easy for the kids today and I think
that's a more important code
than anything else at this point in time
but that's just you know a personal opinion I guess
but look I respect the
work you're doing I don't agree
with everything that happens but I do want
parents to be informed because it's going to be
a challenging few weeks
ahead when this all happens especially
through the school holidays for the parents that are
having their kids work out what the heck
they do now on their phones maybe
just send them to e-safety.gov.au
look for
social media minimum age and we've got
a huge repository of resources
and thanks Trevor
for giving us the opportunity
to talk to you
and share with your
listeners. Commissioner thank you so much
thank you
the EFTM podcast
thanks to SWAN home security
to connect, detect
and protect
great to have you company would love to hear from you
if you've got a tech question on any topic
you want to brag about something you bought you're worried about something
you're using or you want ideas
about what to buy or you need my help choosing
something happy to help
and Robert's on the line today Robert
Oh good morning and how are you Trevor? Yeah really good
what can I do for you?
What I'm ringing about is I've got
fiber to the premise
oh yeah
and it's on Telstra and Telstra tell me
it's all installed, everything's sweet
but I can't get any more than
54 on the wi-fi
oh my goodness
that's 54 out of 500
now so I was just going to say
so you've got fiber to the premise is the technology at your home
you're with Telstra but what plan have you signed up for
the 500 meg plan is that it?
Oh yes that's right yes
yep yep alright so it was the
100 you got boosted up to 500
beautiful
and where is the modem
because fiber to the premises
there's probably a little box
an nbn box somewhere
oh yes well the nbn box
sorry is in the garage
but the modem is in the centre of the house
so we have a direct cable that goes
from the garage to the
centre of the house
and what modem is the Telstra modem?
it is the Telstra modem
okay so
I talk to people
there you go
now what I say is I talk to people
and they all say it's the modem
get a new modem you know
but then you go and talk to people like
Harvey Norman if I can say that
and they come out and show me something that's
$900, $1100
and say this will fix it
but I can't afford $1100
Gotcha okay so
there's a bunch of things I could recommend to you
from $200 up to $4000
but let's not spend any money until we know what the problem is
so have you
what devices do you own?
have you got a laptop that has an ethernet cord
you know the ethernet port though?
No I don't
but I do have a thing that's called
Sam knows
I don't know if you're aware of it
it's about a firm in England
that actually check your internet
all through the month
so they're the first thing that I plug into the modem
but where's that? that's plugged into the modem
that's right
that's no good to us
I'm getting $500
oh sorry okay that's very good to us
okay so let's start again here
I'm drawing my own little map of your home
I've got a garage and there's an NBN
I've got a wiggly line
which is a cable you've obviously had plumbed in
by an electrician to the middle of the house
and there's a Telstra modem there
the black box is it the black one or the white one?
the black one
and then in the back of that
through the land port
you've got the Sam knows
that's reporting
500 megabits per second
that's correct
what numbers is it actually saying
it doesn't say 502, 505
291
it says 521
you should be getting more
that's actually a really good point
if you are hard cabled
plumbed into the back of the NBN
you should actually be getting a little more than what you're paying for
so that's good to know
so what this tells us is
it tells us the NBN to your house is fine
it tells us that little wiggly cable
from the NBN box to the modem is fine
it tells us that the modems
ethernet ports are fine as well
but we seem to have a problem
with the wifi
now
I haven't actually tested the Telstra smart modem
on a faster plan
but have you had any conversations
with Telstra about it?
I've had numerous conversations
but is that the stage where I
have lost faith in Telstra?
I'm still with them
but they're no help
you talk to a woman in Brisbane
the next day I talk to a woman in Hobart
and they tell me
turn it off and pull out the plugs
turn it off and pull out the plugs
and one woman tells me
it's your iPad
that's not an iPad
I'm on a phone
I've got a computer sitting next to it
I've got an iPad
and that's the critical thing
you've basically got an issue with the wifi
now
it depends
how nerdy and deep you want to get into it
but there are some things you could do to that modem
if you're able to log in
to the back end of it
I don't know how hard that is to do it
but changing the wifi channel
may be
to wifi channels they range from 1-30
oh right
sorry
it's a very deep in the back end thing
not your network
and your network 5G
that's a different deal
that's the SSID
deep in the back end of this thing
there may be the option to change the wifi channel
and often
there is congestion in your area
you might have neighbours that are using the exact same channel
and that could cause some conflict
with your wifi network
it's honestly
I don't think you'd be seeing the diminished speeds that you're seeing
that sounds
challenging to me
I'm somewhat disappointed by what Telstra has said
and done for you
and I'll give you this one upsell
do you know how much you pay every month
for the 500 megabits per second?
$108
straight off the bat
let me tell you that Aussie Broadband charges
$95
now $95 isn't
a huge saving but it's $13
$13 a month
that is saved if you
don't tell me but I've got to buy an
Erie or Eero
if you switch to Aussie Broadband
yes
that's what they recommend for the modem
correct the cheapest one of those is $180
that they sell directly
now
how big is the house just broadly speaking
is it a small home or a bit
no it's an arch home
that's why I've got the modem right in the middle
so that it can go
those tests you're doing
are you standing next to the modem
I'm sitting right next to it
so that's good because wifi degrades over distance
right so I'd expect you to
get $50 in the backyard
but I'd expect you to get on wifi
I'd expect you to get $270
or $340
I'd expect you to see triple digits
sitting next to the modem basically
the problem is
the Telstra smart modem
is an old device
it doesn't have the capability to do
500 megabits per second I don't know
but here's what I want to do
before we go spending any money
on your behalf
I want to see if we can get a little bit of
escalated support for you
from Telstra
so I want to see whether my contacts at Telstra
can hook you up with
an individual who you can have one or two conversations
we don't want to drive him baddie
but we want to have one or two conversations
to say listen we've worked this out
crap okay it's the router
and as soon as you tell them that you've measured
the internet speed at the router
at the modem
at 500 megabits per second
but the wifi speed is poor
that should be an instant sign
that there's a need for something else
now the only other thing that I'd like you to do
before I arrange that
is I'd like you to try if you can
and locate pretty much every
wifi connected device you have
and turn them on
alright okay now I can do that
because I plug everything else
into Samnose
so Samnose gets the first
feed
I've actually done this
I've actually turned them all off
and turned the box off in the garage
and turned the modem off
and then done it in reverse
the reason I want you to turn off the wifi devices
it's the wifi devices we're worried about
so all the ethernet ones doesn't matter
all good
so let's say you've got a phone
a tablet maybe there's a TV
in the back room whatever it is
turn them all off at the power point
so that they are not connected to your
wifi network
because here's the weird thing
and this doesn't really apply much anymore
but it absolutely does on older
wifi technology
if you have 10 devices connected
and 9 of them are capable of
the latest wifi 500 megabits per second
and they get 500
and the 10th one is old
doesn't have the latest technology
and it connects
and it's only getting 25 or 50
the whole network
slows to 2550
so the slow
it used to be and I'm saying this is not
generally the case now but it used to be
that your wifi was only as fast
as the slowest device connected to it
so what I want you to do
is turn off all the wifi devices
and then turn them on one by one
so on your mobile phone
which is probably the most modern thing you own
sit next to the
next to the router turn it on
and go right here let's connect and let's do a speed test
and if you only get 25
turn it off go to another device
do the same thing
once you've done 3 devices if they're all getting
2550 then don't worry
forget the test it's the wifi network
but we need to eliminate
our device on your network
as being the cause of the speed
being diminished
okay good I will be honest with you
but all the devices we've got
are one laptop
and three telephones
and three ipads
so they're all pretty modern
but I can do that
that's easy that's easy
this is that whole thing of you know what
you want to be able to say to the support person
when they ring you you want to be able to say
yes I have done that and this was the outcome
so like when you said the sandbox
you immediately were able to dismiss
all a bunch of other questions I was about to have
so there's a level of
level of knowledge that comes with it
so I want you to test that forming
in the coming days send us a text back
and let us know how it went and then we'll start
referring you to a senior tech at Telstra
and see if we can get you any additional support
and frankly if that doesn't work
then I do think you should switch telcos
and I think you should look for somebody that has better support
and I believe Aussie have the best support
in the country
good all right very good good luck
okay well thank you very much for ringing me back
you'll let us know how you go
okay bye bye
good to hear from you thanks very much
look it's fascinating because that is a wealth
of information that Robert brings to that
he kind of knows exactly what's going on
there is some speed test that
accurately show the speed
is coming into the home
why is the Wi-Fi not working
why is the Wi-Fi diminished
frankly Telstra I think you should replace
really a loyal customer
replace the bike smart motor
and let's get it solved that's probably going to do the trick
this is the EFTM podcast
great to have you company
we'd love to hear from you if you've got a tech question
Ash is on the line can I ask
yeah good morning Trevor how are you
good mate what can I do for you
yeah I'm in a conundrum
so I've got the iPhone 17 pro
and love it and as you know
it's got three cameras
in the air I'm a fan of it
and I travel a bit for work
and I'm thinking do I invest in the air
do I wait
I can live with the one camera
but it's just so thin and
portable I think
can you really live with one camera
reading all the blogs
looking at it playing with it
at the Apple store zooming in and out
with the two times
I think I came from a travel point of view
the issue I'm going to face is
you know I don't want to get a second number
I want to keep my number that I've got
now it's an eSIM how hard
is it to transfer or use a phone
between two phones
with the same number using an eSIM
everything else is up in the cloud
you've lost me completely
you want to keep the 17 pro as well
yeah so you can't
you can't have two phones in one number
no
like it's ridiculous
because technically you'd argue
it's completely possible because
where you're thinking is you've got a phone
and an Apple watch that both have the same number
and they work independently yes it should work
but no in Australia
that is not a thing
I remember Jesus this is going back to the 90s
I'm pretty sure you can have a
a car phone and a portable phone
that had the same number and that works
but anyway for some reason
it's not supported it's not allowed probably the simple reason is
they want you to have another account
account that's right and
so mate that's just
physically not an option
so yeah not an option so I'd have to go
for the second number if I wanted the air
yep absolutely
so in your mind are you going to carry
only one around and just use the other one
no no no I would
still take the pro
but you know the simplicity
I thought it would be simple just to go from
okay I want to use the air or put the
upload the eSIM
and have that working and then go back
to the eSIM on the
on the pro when I wanted to use that
what's really annoying is eSIMs
broadly do operate that way so on my
on the phone I'm talking to you on now
I have
I think it's a physical sim for
Boost Mobile which I'm talking to you on
I have an eSIM for AT&T
in America
I have an eSIM for I think a
Vodafone in Europe
so basically right now
when I look into my settings it says
and you go mobile there's
you can see all three lines but
two of them are off they're just turned off
because I don't have writing or anything on them
and when I travel to America I just turn off the boost line
and turn on the AT&T
and turn on the other one and that's what I did
recently in China you know
I had a sim card for eSIM for China
and I've still got it in my phone
that's the question
but the issue is when you
so if you were to
what telco are you with
Telstra
so it's so easy with Telstra have you done it
where you just download the app and you go set up eSIM
done boom
in theory it's actually
if you said to me I wanted to change
week on week off
I'd say mate I don't know that there's a limit
to how often you can activate an eSIM
but it technically is very easy with Telstra
because you can just install
the my Telstra app on both phones
and then go yeah it's on this one now
but as soon as it's on
the other one
so as soon as it's on the pro
the air is no longer active
and it's actually not a valid eSIM
anymore so it needs to reinstall
on eSIM every time it'll probably add
to that list of sims
every single time
and basically
once you switch you can't switch it back on
so if I switch to my pro now
I can't then go turn it off
in the settings and then turn it on
because the other one is just not on the network anymore
they've deregistered it
so mate it doesn't work
probably that being a problem that's right
it'll probably get to like you said
maybe a couple of times or a few times
and then go hang on what's going on here
I worry so
a little known fact that
people outside of my industry probably wouldn't know
you can only install
log into Spotify on a certain
number of devices
and once up yes
I mean over time so once you've
once you get a new phone
you log into Spotify let's say for example
I get a new phone every
four weeks right so
about a year ago I hit this limit
I don't know what the limit was it might have been 30 or 40
and see for most people
that's 60 years because you get a new phone every
two years so they haven't even
thought about it but I had to email them and say listen I
review phones I can't log in
and so they had to kind of blank my account
so that it worked again so I worry that
people are going to go 10, 15, 20 weeks
and then Telstra's going to go hang on a minute
they might see it as like a fraud activity
you know because obviously sim cards
and scammers and stuff like that so they made
unfortunately and let me be clear
I'm still using the year
and for context
I've got all of them
I've got every iPhone 17
three of them are downstairs in a drawer
this one I love
and it worked out why I love it
because it is a big screen
Stephen and I often talk about how I hate big phones
I don't think it's the size of the phone
that I hate I think it's the weight of the phone
I will say
the air is so big
that I don't love having it in my front pocket
when I drive like it kind of pokes me
so I do take it out of my pocket whereas a smaller
standard 17 or even the 17 Pro
standard edition
they're just a smaller phone I don't find that
but dude this thing is so light it's so thin
and that's what I was attracted to
that's the peeling bit about it
once I started playing
and holding
and so on and going
I should have
do I miss the third camera
the second and third cameras
yeah I think I do
have I grabbed my wife's phone
and taken photos yeah I have
but has it made me
yeah it's hard to give up
it would be hard to give up those three cameras
but I think it's hard to give up the air
in the same way
the sacrifice is the thinness
and the lightness of the air
I think the reports of its battery life
are greatly exaggerated
look it's not the best battery at all
but when are you not near your desk on a wireless charger
when are you not in the car like seriously
let's be real here
we're not running marathons anymore
we're not trying to get through 17 hours
that's ridiculous and yeah I've had days
where I have been away from the office
I'm at 30% now
I've thrown in a low power mode and off we go
it's not rocket science
100% and again
it's not every day you've got to be on it
100% depending on what you're doing
I totally agree with that
I'm sad that we can't
get you in a dual operating
phone situation
but mate at this point
if you feel like you are going to miss those cameras
mate you're going to have to stick with the pro
yeah I think that's the only
way at the moment unfortunately
if I can't do that so
no thank you very much for that
no problem at all mate good luck
alright thank you
thanks for getting in touch
I thought that question was going to be about
switching from phone to phone
to actually get a new iPhone
but I haven't thought about that for a while
the idea of a sim card
working on multiple devices
and look I'll say this now
I had a conversation with someone
in the industry who sold
or was like a country manager
of a company that sold
cheap mobile phones
cheap phones not even smartphones
right and I said to them
the idea of a weekend phone
is so appealing to me
and I think it would work really well
for people that I don't know why the telcos
don't allow it like the second sim
on a just a dumb phone
so that I can have a weekend option
and that it just works
I don't have to switch sim cards
and take them out and all that kind of stuff
but I got the
sensor in there that was going to happen
but it never did so
maybe it's because they want our business
and they want more of our money
thank you so much for joining me today
thank you for listening, thank you for downloading
it's been a pleasure
and great to be wherever you are
walking, cycling, running, sleeping
sitting, working, however you listen
it's great for you to do so
and it's appreciated. Next week we're going to talk Amazon devices
with their country manager
for devices here, Jackie Corbett in Australia
we've got a bunch of calls
lined up because there's lots of people in the list
ready to go
so be one of them
you're getting in touch
we'll get you on the show
and it'll be great to have you company then
next week, here on the AFTM podcast
you
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