For the past three years DTS has offered rebates to industry partners for new business they refer to us, but for those of you who are not aware of the details, I will give a quick overview…

Concept: To provide a financial incentive to industry partners to refer business to DTS within Australia and New Zealand. Partners bring their clients to DTS because they know they will get better pricing, faster speeds and more proactive and personalised support from us, but we believe our partners should also be rewarded for acting in their clients best interests.

Who is the rebate aimed at: Any non-competing ICT related business that has clients with a need for a high speed, symmetrical, robust and well priced internet connection.

We define a referral as: A referral will be deemed to mean a signed proposal being handed over to DTS by a member of a channel partners staff for a new client, OR a DTS salesperson being introduced for the first time to an informed and receptive prospective client by a member of a channel partner’s staff and that meeting (or subsequent meetings) leading to a sale.

The Sales Process:

1. Channel Partner speaks to prospective client and ascertains interest.
2. Once Client is deemed to be interested, Channel Partner contacts DTS salesperson for required information on pricing, circuit speeds, availability, etc. Channel partner can request DTS prepares a proposal, or may format their own with information provided by DTS.
3. If more information is required due to complex network requirements, DTS sales and/or technical staff will be happy to attend further meetings to close sale.
4. Sales proposal is signed by Client and delivered to DTS.

Key rebate features:

• Rebates paid monthly.
• Rebates continue for the life of the clients business with DTS.
• As the value for the client increase/decreases, so to does the proportionate rebate total.
• Rebate equivalent to 5% of clients invoiced circuit and data charges.

We like to have partners using our services before they recommend us to others so that they can honestly attest to the benefits, both technically and financially, of connecting via DTS.

If you would like more detail on the rebate program, please email sales@dtsl.com.au.

Kind Regards,

Brendan Ritchie

We have a number of events keeping us busy over the next couple of months, many of which have to do with the UFB and NBN roll-outs, but as we often give those issues plenty of coverage, here are a couple of updates on other some other matters of interest (at least for us):

NTMS Changes

We are currently wrapping up a project that has looked into upgrade options for our traffic management platform. We are looking to incorporate some great new features in the upgraded version that will allow for new services to be added to our Internet plans. I can’t go into too much detail just yet but suffice to say, we are looking at deploying features not currently available in the Australian business/enterprise Internet space. The upgrade will also allow for an easier understanding of where traffic is being generated and what trends exist for your data profile.

DTS Speaking at APNIC33/APICOT2012

We have a number of staff off to a range of conferences in the coming weeks. Tim is off to NZNOG2012 tomorrow, Daniel is attending the IPv6 for Government workshop on the 23rd February, and I am off to India for APNIC33/APRICOT2012 that same day. Details on the session I am speaking in can be found here: http://www.apricot2012.net/program/ipv6

Topics I will cover at APRICOT:

- Key issues that decision-makers need to understand before deciding to deploy IPv6.
– Business and technical reasons for initiating an IPv6 transition plan from the perspective of ISPs, network access provider, etc.
– Issues related to network infrastructure, impact on services portfolio, and inter-team management of IPv6 deployment.

Hopefully we be able to post a video from the forum in March, but people can also watch the event remotely – check out the APNIC site for more details on that front.

Cheers,

Brendan Ritchie

We noted with interest the application made to ICANN by Dot Kiwi Limited for the .kiwi gTLD string. Dot Kiwi’s press release can be found here. We also noted, once it was pointed out to us by @kiwibrew, that Dot Kiwi looks to have a majority of it’s owners based overseas, which raises some concerns.

Any new entity holding rights for a gTLD will find it tough to win over Australian and New Zealand ICT communities that have been so well served by Internet NZ and .AUDA  for so long, these two organisations have operated with a level of integrity and transparency that would be hard to match, yet alone surpass. Our worry is that when you have a privately owned and overseas based company enter the market with the primary aim of recouping a substantial investment, and then turning a profit, how can we be sure that the standards set by Internet NZ and .AUDA will be maintained?

We currently enjoy transparency in operation and world leading shared registry services which allow guaranteed rights to transfer domains between registrars, but these systems were not developed overnight. Compared to international TLD’s like .com and .net, we currently operate in a far more efficient space, what safeguards or industry standards will exist to ensure that any new TLD’s operate in the same manner?

A more fundamental question is why are we creating these new TLD’s? Some believe that TLD’s such as .aussi or .kiwi serve no purpose other than to extort money out of existing .nz or .au name holders to protect their brands. These people would ask who the individual is that wants desperately to buy a .kiwi or .aussie domain but doesn’t otherwise own a .nz or .au equivalent? Personally, where a company has missed out on a .com name and operates in multiple countries, I can see some value, but these companies will be in the minority. Certain new TLD’s may also fit better within a brand structure and represent value, examples such as .internet for companies like DTS comes to mind.

How much will new TLD’s cost businesses?

Two factors will decide the cost this innovation has to your business:

• How big is your business?
• Where do you operate?

The bigger your business the higher profile your brand is likely to be, and the higher the profile, the more value your brand – and any associated domain including your brand – holds. Therefore, the bigger you are, the greater the likelihood of someone trying to acquire the domain and use it to either direct people to their site, or to sell to the highest bidder. But if your company really is of a sufficient size to make this scenario likely, then you will have no issue buying each domain as it becomes available, but of course this doesn’t take away from the fact that it is a still a new and unnecessary cost. The spate of .xxx domains brought up by universities and high profile brands is clear evidence of this phenomenon.

If you operate in a market that is big enough to create demand for a large number of domains to a point where acquiring the rights to those domain suffixes becomes profitable for a TLD registrar, then you will see a lot of variations enter the market. Australia will likely see a lot more domains suffixes appear than NZ will simply due to population and market size.

keen to hear everyone’s thoughts on this topic.

Brendan (with a lot of help from Tim).

DTS would like to inform customers that there will be an outage to Internet Services on this date.

Risk: High

Potential Services Affected: ADSL2 and Ethernet Services

Reason for Work: Planned Maintenance by upstream carrier

Impact Expected: No impact is expected, there may be slight packet loss during the outage window.

Work Start Date: 6/7/2011 00:01 AEST (12:01AM)

Work End Date: 6/7/2011 04:00 AEST (4:00AM)

Contact Email: support@dtsl.com.au

Contact Phone: 1300 054 331 or 07 5522 9726

At the close of this outage window we expect all services to resume as normal. If you find that any of your services are still affected after the close of the outage window please contact DTS support on 1300 054 331 or 07 5522 9726.

DTS would like to inform customers that there will be an outage to all ADSL Based Internet Services on this date.

Risk: High

Potential Services Affected: ADSL based Internet Circuits

Reason for Work: Planned Maintenance by upstream carrier

Impact Expected: ADSL circuit may experience a loss in data flow during the outage window.

Work Start Date: 21/3/2011 19:30 AEST (7:30PM)

Work End Date: 21/3/2011 21:30 AEST (9:30PM)

Contact Email: support@dtsl.com.au

Contact Phone: 1300 054 331 or 07 5522 9726

At the close of this outage window we expect all services to resume as normal. If you find that any of your services are still affected after the close of the outage window please contact DTS support on 1300 054 331 or 07 5522 9726.

Dear Customer,

Please be aware of the following outage that may affect your DTS provided internet circuit:

Date: 13th March 2011

Start time: 02:00 AEDT
Finish Time: 05:00 AEDT

Description: Due to planned network carrier maintenance, all DSL and DSL2 services may experience disruption with data flow during the specified window.

DTS expects that as at the close of the outage window, all services will resume as normal without user intervention. If you experience issues outside of the stipulations of this outage notification, please contact DTS support on support@dtsl.com.au or by phone on 1300 054 331.

Kind Regards,
DTS Technical Support Team

We have launched the resource centre section of our website!

Within this new section you have access to videos and PDF documents that will help you overcome common issues and/or get started with your DTS service.

If you have any new topics you would like covered, please don’t hesitate to contact us with your ideas.

Kind Regards,

The DTS Team

DTS would like to inform customers that there will be an outage to all ADSL Based Internet Services on this date.

Risk: High

Potential Services Affected: ADSL based Internet Circuits

Reason for Work: Planned Network Upgrade

Impact Expected: ADSL circuit may experience a loss in connectivity during the outage window.

Work Start Date: 31/10/2010 00:01 AEST (12:01AM)

Work End Date: 31/10/2010 07:00 AEST (7:00AM)

Contact Email: support@dtsl.com.au

Contact Phone: 1300 054 331 or 07 5522 9726

At the close of this outage window we expect all services to resume as normal. If you find that any of your services are still affected after the close of the outage window please contact DTS support on 1300 054 331 or 07 5522 9726.

Planned Network Maintenance at Sydney POP.

Date: 8th September 2010 – 11th Spetember 2010

Daily Start Time: 0000 (12:00AM) AEST
Daily Finish Time: 0500 (5:00AM) AEST

Possible Services Affected: Data + Voice + Telehoused services

Description: Whilst no interruption to customer services is expected, these works should be deemed by customers to be significantly hazardous due to the extensive nature of the upgrades being performed. In efforts to reduce risk as much as possible the upgrade works will be conducted between the hours of midnight and 5am on each evening.

If you notice any degradation of service outside of the outage window please contact DTS support on 1300 054 331 or via email on support@dtsl.com.au.

Kind Regards,
DTS Technical Support Team

Dear Opus International Consultants,

Please be advised of the following pending outage which will affect one of your services:

Date: 7th September 2010

Start Time: 03:00am AEST
Finish Time: 06:00am AEST

Service Affected: Chatswood

Impact: 2 hour period within the outage window of degraded internet performance

Description: DTS’ carrier has notified of network maintenance that will affect the Chatswood circuit. The carrier has specified “general network maintenance” for the outage.

DTS does not expect that you should experience any issues outside of the provided outage window. If you notice any degradation as at the close of the outage window please contact DTS support on 1300 054 331 or via email on support@dtsl.com.au.

Kind Regards,
DTS Technical Support Team