The EFTM podcast – Unpacking Telstra’s Woes and the future of Triple Zero

EFTM Podcast

Episode: Unpacking Telstra’s Woes and the future of Triple Zero
Date: July 14, 2026
Host: Trevor Long
Guest: Grahame Lynch (Commsday)
Callers: Vicki, Adrian, Vaughan

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[00:01:06] Trevor: Lovely to be with you. Great to have your company. Uh, 14th of July, the day of recording and release, and, uh, we are really pumping through this year, aren't we, folks? I'm going to be in London next week with Samsung for their Unpacked event for, we assume, foldable devices. We never know, there might be more products, we don't know, but, um, certainly that time of year for folds, and they've been Even little Harry, my son's been telling me about their Instagram or their ads have been kind of showing things chopped off at the top. So that indicates the wide version of the Fold apparently. So it feels very, very clear that's what's coming, but we'll wait and see. We will have a show for you next week. So stand by for that. Don't you stress, I'll have you covered. This week, a bunch of your calls as always. We're gonna talk everything from laptops, iPad, Wi-Fi, and we've got someone with feedback on Pocket AI, that little portable listener, that little portable meter. Feeding genie, shall we call it, which was mentioned by another listener some time ago. But look, I'm gonna— I would— and whenever I've got an interview, I normally put it into the show. So I normally like to have a couple of calls first, then the interview, whatever. But we're going to kick it off this week talking Telstra, um, because it's the biggest story of the week without any question. And I like— it's just, it's, it's a fascinating story. And so I want to go to someone I really respect, that's Grahame Lynch from Comms does. So I'll bring you that chat in a moment. But also, I just want to reflect upon a TikTok I did this week talking about Vikki Brady. Vikki Brady is the CEO of Telstra, and there was— I was just scrolling, I shouldn't do it— I was scrolling through Facebook and there was a Daily Mail headline that basically just said something about the CEO of Telstra being on holidays while the world was crumbling. Well, she was on holidays, she was on annual leave.. And I found it frankly disgusting that that was even a topic of conversation. The, the person with the highest delegation, the highest authority at Telstra when this went down, stood up in front of the media very promptly afterwards and then several times to talk about this issue. And it became clear that Vikki was on holidays and overseas, and it also became clear it was a severity 1 incident for Telstra, and she made her way home as almost promptly as you could. She was home on Friday morning doing a press conference. That's 48 hours after the thing happened. It's a 24-hour flight just from New York, which I think she was around that area. She may have been there another hop from there. So my guess is she spent no more than 8 to 12 hours organizing and packing the return. That's a lot. Like, it's Tuesday and I'm freaking out that I haven't begun packing for a 4-day trip to London on Sunday. So yeah, I was pretty disgusted by that. And I'm kind of, it's a weird thing about content creation. You get really excited when a video does well. I was excited that that video did well because it meant that people were buying into what I was saying. And I think I saw a couple of negative comments, but 99% of the comments were overwhelmingly in support and positive of my comments about Vicki Brady and the ridiculous media pile-on of her. Now, If she stuffs up at all in the next week, we'll go after her, don't worry. But she hasn't, so let's just all calm down. But let's focus on the issue. What happened at Telstra? What needs to happen going forward? And what else can we learn from a man in the know? And that is Grahame Lynch from Commsday.

[00:04:41] VOICE OVER: This is the EFTM podcast.

[00:04:45] Trevor: Well, what a great day to be Vodafone.

[00:04:47] Trevor: I mean, touch wood, right?

Grahame Lynch — Telstra's outage and the future of Triple Zero

[00:04:47] Trevor: Touch wood for Iñaki at Vodafone. But right now Vodafone's just gold stars in terms of mobile networks. If you, you don't want to be Optus, you don't want to be Telstra right now. Um, and it's, it's fascinating to me that we've had just another monumental failure of a mobile network. But there's a couple of things I want to unpack. One of them is Triple Zero, the other one is what the hell happened. Uh, and of course, you know, Vicky Brady's not going to be willing to come and chat on a podcast about the ins and outs of the, the mobile network issue. But there's one man I respect most in the mobile and the telco space, and that's Grahame Lynch, the publisher of Communications Communications Day, which is a daily newsletter for people in the telco industry, which is the Bible. It's read by literally everyone, top to bottom, of the, of the telco industry. And he joins me now on the line. G'day, mate, how you doing?

[00:05:35] Grahame Lynch: I'm great, thanks for having me, Trevor, and thank you for that kind introduction.

[00:05:39] Trevor: Kind and genuine and honest, mate. Your, your edition today, which goes into the Triple Zero, I want to get to in a moment, but before we get to that The general concept of this major outage, which is absolutely what it is, although Telstra hasn't used— Telstra's used very simple words like part of or some, you know, they haven't made it seem like it's a very big outage, but it was massive. I'm going to tell you, for the last 12 hours doing radio spots, I've been describing this as a 2026 Y2K bug because that's essentially what it feels like. They've been very clear it's a software defect, but they haven't mentioned it was a result of software upgrade. So I feel like it was just a bug in the system.

[00:06:20] Grahame Lynch: Yeah, look, you're basically right there. Y2K is the best comparison for what went wrong. What effectively happened was that they use a, what they call a timing server. So it's sort of a GPS-linked server that tells the rest of their network what the exact time is, kind of like the atomic clock concept, if you like. Now they're using a model called a sync server. This is an old server, which actually goes back about 20 years when it first came out and was a mainstay for about 10 years and then was discontinued around 2016. And over that period, it was actually made by 3 different companies because the original manufacturer, Symmetricom, was sold to a company called Microsemi and then to Microchip Technology, which might give you a bit of a clue as to how much support it gets.

[00:07:13] Trevor: Yeah, well, and that's the thing, right? If this is a device that And again, in Y2K terms, you know, instead of clicking over from 1999 to 2000, which by the way was a real crisis and real people had to fix computers, okay? A lot of people think it wasn't real, but trust me, there was a lot of work went into everything from websites to infrastructure that needed to be fixed back then. That essentially what these systems that live on the Telstra network did was tick over and fail to tick to the next day, the next moment, and went back 20 years because I assume the software simply wasn't engineered to last this long. Now, What that does is it puts the whole network out of sync with itself, and therefore it kind of goes into a fail-safe mode. And here, herein, we have a problem on the Telstra network. And I guess the thing is, you could— and not, not to defend them, but you could excuse them in a way from thinking, well, you know, it's not the core network, it's not the, it's not the, the data that's processing, it's just a little box that tells the time, right? So it, it's been neglected, and that's going to be the focus of the how and the why of this really, isn't it? How did it get elected?

[00:08:19] Grahame Lynch: Well, that's what we don't know. This is the bit we don't know. Were they in the process of actually doing a failover process at the time? Because it's actually about the time of history when it is due for a reset. These things were configured to last, I think it was 1,024 weeks or maybe 19.7 years depending on what measure you use. So this is actually about the time from when those models first came out. That you needed the reset. What I suspect happened— I don't have any source on this, by the way. What I suspect is that they actually were trying to mitigate it. They were attempting some kind of process and they stuffed up. They stuffed up that process. And this reminds me a little bit of what happened with Optus last year where they remember they took Triple Zero offline for a little bit to put a firewall in. But some dude in Chennai forgot to log, log it properly. So the alert didn't go off and then the rest is history. Their network came down. So I suspect something similar has happened here. It's probably human error and not necessarily because of neglect. It's more just one of the consequences of what they call tech debt, where you've got all these accumulated old things in your tech stack and you don't replace them because you know that there's just something you've got to do once every 20 years to fix it up and they stuffed stop that process.

[00:09:44] Trevor: Ah, right. So you— so essentially this, this device being— even though it's old, probably does have quite a long life because it's so simple what it does. It doesn't need to be replaced, it just needed to have a process undertaken, and that may be where it went wrong. But in reality, the focus is going to be on, hey guys, you're a bazillion-dollar company, you could have spent a couple hundred million to replace all these things with brand new gear that is supported, which will be the focus here because it's Telstra, for Christ's sake.

[00:10:14] Grahame Lynch: Yeah, exactly. I mean, that's a legitimate criticism, but let's wait for the investigation to see what actually happened because at this stage it's just speculation. And if you really want to fix these problems in the long term, you've got to address them with the reality and not the speculation. So I'm a little loath to kick them too hard at the moment until I know exactly what went on there. I mean, you could also make the obvious point that if you replace all the old time servers with new ones, that in itself is a particular event that causes potential failure. When you take the old offline and put new online.

[00:10:49] Trevor: The risk makes it even more to stick with what you've got than it is to replace and re-engineer in some way. So the other part of this that's fascinated me has been, and I blame the media primarily for this, the triple zero hype, I'm going to call it. Now, yes, I want to be very clear that what I'm saying here does not diminish the concerns of people who had legitimate emergencies and couldn't get through. But in real terms, you know, we're talking 6 hours 600 calls. We don't know how many of those calls yet, and I don't know that we truly will, but we may find out at Senate later this week. We don't know how many of those calls were simple people going, 'Oh, does it work?' like the Shadow Communications Minister, um, you know, checking that 000 worked and just hanging up. We don't know how many people were not in need of emergency, but 600 calls were attempted and failed in some way, shape, or form, and welfare checks were undertaken. It's not quite as weirdly extreme though, is what happened to Optus, because in Optus's case, 000 was essentially disconnected from their network. But in reality, the 000 system was broadly still working, was it not, with Telstra? It's just that there was a lot of people hanging up or not camping on or not waiting for the camp on.

[00:12:05] Grahame Lynch: Yeah. And you've actually, you've kind of nailed it there, which is it's the camp on process. And by necessity, it takes a little longer to establish a call when it's camping onto another network than if you're going onto your host network. And people aren't used to that because people don't call 000 in a failure scenario all the time. So they're utterly unfamiliar with what happens to a call when that happens. And they clearly and obviously become quite impatient and they give up.

[00:12:37] Trevor: I struggled this week, Grahame, to script because I've done a piece on Triple M that's gone across the network this week to say Hey guys, everyone, Australia, when you need 000 in an emergency, it's going to sound crazy, but you need to be patient. Because if you're in an area where your phone says SOS, so just, you could just be outside of a service area, or your network is down, it's likely that your phone will take 60 to 90 seconds to connect. And in that time, nothing will happen. It will be blank. Your phone will just say calling, and your obvious desire is to hang up and try again, but you simply restart the clock at that time and you have to wait another the 90 seconds. So it's an education problem and process in that sense.

[00:13:20] Grahame Lynch: Yeah, that's right. And look, there are things that could be done as mitigations. For example, just like a phone gives you an alert when its battery is running down, it could give you an alert when it's camping on to another network that's going to take some time. That's possible. Now, will people read that when they're in a panic and they put the phone to their ear and they're not looking at it? Yeah, well, who's to know? But it could help in some situations. I mean, what you've got, people have gone overseas and connected their phone through an international roaming process will understand what's involved here because that's always slower than going on to your host. And it's actually effectively the same process. So your device has got to scan all the available bands, it's got to read the information from the system, it's got to work out which base station to connect to. And then there are timers which allow time for success or failure. 15 seconds for attach, 10 seconds after reject. So as you say, that can take up to 90 seconds extra. Typically, it takes about 45 seconds as a maximum to camp on. That's still way, way longer than a normal phone call.

[00:14:28] Trevor: When someone's bleeding in front of you, right?

[00:14:30] Grahame Lynch: Exactly.

[00:14:30] Trevor: And this is the thing, most of us, and someone should do the numbers, I'm sure the government could, but the percentage of people that have, Australians that have called 000 would be minuscule, very, very small.

[00:14:40] Grahame Lynch: That's right.

[00:14:41] Trevor: But the reason we call them is in a distinct emergency. And so my number one education out of this is to continue telling people that it takes time to camp on. I think we should normalise the term camp on because it's the best way of describing the, the process of using another network. Um, before I, before I ask you about the future of Triple Zero though, do you— ACAN was pretty strong this week, we should have domestic roaming. It's something that I, I supported when it went to the ACCC in 2017. Obviously the telcos, um, or Telstra don't support it. Would, would that have made— that would have made this better though, wouldn't it? Because you're not camping on, you're just roaming, and that's a a faster process?

[00:15:20] Grahame Lynch: Yeah, um, well, it's actually the same process. Um, when it's like international roaming, it's got to do all those things I just described in terms of scanning the bands and registering with the new network and allowing time for failure, um, which, which always adds to the process. But you know, you're right, eventually a lot more people would have been able to get on. The problem you have with domestic roaming is that in a crisis situation, you don't want to overload the network that you're roaming on to and then collapse that as well. That's always a possibility. So what I— the theory of domestic roaming is fine. And yes, normally it would appear to solve the problem, but you don't want to just then create a new problem. You've got to look at the utilization rates of the networks, the probability of which one is going to, you know, if it's CPG, for example, in the post—

[00:16:14] Grahame Lynch: suddenly, suddenly logging on to Telstra's calls.

[00:16:15] Grahame Lynch: Yeah.

[00:16:17] Grahame Lynch: Yeah, but if, say, it's Telstra failing and then they all go on to Optus, which is presumably a smaller network in terms of configuration, everything.

[00:16:27] Grahame Lynch: Yeah.

[00:16:27] Grahame Lynch: Yeah. And then it raises a whole lot of other questions as well about spectrum and all that kind of stuff. Right now, Telstra is only allowed to own 40% of the spectrum.

[00:16:35] Trevor: Right.

[00:16:36] Grahame Lynch: But if it's, if it's going to be the default network that everyone roams onto, maybe that needs to be relaxed. So there's actually kind of there's kind of quite a lot of policy issues that need to be sorted out, but also making sure that those networks are provisioned properly to handle all that new traffic, particularly. And I don't want to sound like a doomsayer here, but particularly in overt crisis situations, you know, let's say there's an earthquake in a city or, you know, like some sort of mass calamity which generates a lot of extra traffic. You don't want to bring down every network. Yeah, that's the potential issue of domestic roaming.

[00:17:11] Trevor: Yeah. Then let's, let's eyes to the future on triple 000 because something else I've been banging on about, but just generally talking about this week, is 000 was created in the '60s when we had landline phones and in some places still manual exchanges. So it's a weird thing because if you go back to the '60s, um, you know, 000 was, was harder to use because you had to be near a landline or a payphone. Um, so we're lucky now that we carry around a device that can call 000 from anywhere basically, but we need We don't need triple zero inquiries. We don't need the government, you know, whinging about what doesn't work. We need the government saying what next. And the word that I've heard many, many times in AI is multimodal. And now I've read it in Comms Day, and I think it's a great description of what we need. We need multimodal triple zero, which means triple zero might be accessible through everything from a phone call to a text message to a piece of data. And that might be a WhatsApp message or FaceTime, who knows. We also need Triple Zero on satellite, but there's so much regulation and legislation around who controls this, who runs this, that, mate, I'm really worried this is going to take years.

[00:18:27] Grahame Lynch: Oh, oh, look, I mean, there's been similar debates over the Universal Service Obligation for 10 or 11 years and it hasn't moved an inch. So I wouldn't be surprised if Triple Zero heads the same way. And the way, the way you've got it constructed right now is that the ACMA is nominally responsible for the enforcement of penalties and the regime around Triple Zero. But the Triple Zero custodian who's supposed to get everyone talking to each other is in the Department of Communications. And then all the regulations around the resilience of networks, you know, i.e., uptime, that kind of thing, that's in the Home Affairs Department.

[00:19:06] Grahame Lynch: Wow.

[00:19:06] Grahame Lynch: And then of course, when these situations occur with outages, the Senate gets involved and holds inquiries and you mentioned ACAN and there's a lot of people with voices here and it's not conducive to good long-term planning. There's a lot of people shouting at each other or siloised, you know, and there's not a collaborative view.

[00:19:27] Trevor: And people in organisations become protective of their position or, you know, what you want is you want a representative from each of the telcos with the smartest brain. You want someone from government, ACMA or whatever. You want them in a room with a whiteboard that goes, right, at this end there's a picture of a consumer. Consumer. At the other end is a picture of a call centre operator in the Triple O call centre. We need to bolster and ensure the call centre is in place and works. But everything in between is how do we get the message that I need help? And then simply list them all and go, which ones can be robust? Which ones can be executed? Which ones can be prioritised? Which ones can work? And also then that becomes the question of responsibility. And you mentioned this again in Comms Day, which fascinates me. It's like, Hang on, it's just all on the telcos right now when actually, you know, Apple and Samsung and Oppo and Motorola, you know, people that make devices are also partly responsible for the way their phone operates. And we've seen that through software update issues. So there's a lot to get through, but really we just need them in a room to go, guys, can we make sure that from 2030 we can send an SMS to 000 and someone will be back in touch or we'll know where your location— can we, can we use the satellite network? It's ridiculous that Telstra already has a deal with Elon Musk's Starlink to utilise that network and they're using it for bugger all. And that's probably, by my guess, basically because of the universal service obligation and 000. We'd be, we'd be using it for calls right now. They're doing it in America, but we're not doing it here because I bet it's related to how 000 is handled through that, that mechanism. We're just not thinking about the end user.

[00:21:05] Grahame Lynch: Yeah, that's right. I mean, 000 is put in its own little department when actually it's, it's part of a bigger issue. In many respects. And you look, you look at these services that Telstra and Apple, which offers its own— yes, satellite messaging service, which isn't even a telco now, they're already offering this. And half of the smartphones in Australia are Apple models. So these things are already significant that you can use an Apple satellite messaging service to text for roadside assistance. But the triple zero regime has absolutely zero concept that that even exists. Doesn't acknowledge it. Apple isn't included in the discussions from what I can see. They certainly didn't put a submission into the inquiry that the department's just held on Triple Zero. I was just looking through all the submissions yesterday. Nothing from Apple in there, nothing from Samsung. It's utterly ridiculous. You get a situation where people simply in the industry are not talking to each other properly, putting forward their views, even educating each other about capabilities. And then, as you say, The times have changed. Young people text, they use over-the-top applications like WhatsApp. Yeah, they don't— which, by the way, is an '80s thing, right?

[00:22:20] Trevor: Your mate who landed to Brisbane Airport— now let's, let's be disaster heads here and go, okay, they land at Brisbane Airport and then there's some mass casualty incident where he's first on the scene and someone's, you know, bloodied on the ground and you want to call triple zero, Telstra's down. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, who— like, whatever.

[00:22:39] Grahame Lynch: I don't—

[00:22:39] Trevor: I'm not determining which it is, but there's other mechanisms by which that could have worked, just simply when he was on the Wi-Fi.

[00:22:46] Grahame Lynch: That's right.

[00:22:47] Trevor: But yet, but yet, you know, it didn't work. And all the towers could have been down. Remember, all the mobile networks could be down in that situation, especially in a terror event, you know. So we're not thinking about it from any other perspective. And that— I don't— mate, I'll tell you, I've sat through enough Senate estimates hearings to know that's not where the problem is going to be solved. You know, that is a headline-grabbing, Instagram Reel-creating environment that doesn't solve problems. It just—

[00:23:13] Grahame Lynch: no.

[00:23:13] Trevor: It just gets nowhere and it's embarrassing.

[00:23:15] Grahame Lynch: It's just, it's just people shouting at each other. That's all it is. It doesn't solve any issues. It's actually kind of harmful. And every time I hear that the opposition and the crossbenchers have got together to do a Senate inquiry or something to do with telecoms, I just sigh because I know it's not going to shine any light on anything. It's just going to create more noise and it's not conducive to good outcomes. That's the problem I see, because as you say, in the media, The media, the media wants to hype all this stuff up, not have sensible discussion about it. And that's okay. But that's how their incentives lie. They're trying to get eyeballs. Yeah, that's fine. Okay. But then you have the political senators who, who work in partnership with the media to get eyeballs on their messaging.

[00:23:57] Grahame Lynch: Yep.

[00:23:58] Grahame Lynch: And you just don't get anywhere in terms of genuine reform because they want a gotcha moment that they can put on Instagram, mate. Exactly. Exactly. When we should be using Instagram as a platform for good in terms of enabling it for messaging for these sorts of triple zero situations.

[00:24:15] Trevor: Here's where, here's my last point to everyone listening. Look, politicians are not fun, you know, people to engage with at the best of times. But if you've ever met your local member, sometimes you realize that they're actually just people who are there to try and represent you, right? So I know my local member and I'm going to write to him. And I think everyone should do that because see, your local member is there to represent you. And if you write to your local member, they're essentially obliged to read it and respond and pass on upwards through the chain. That's how it works. If we all write to our local members and say, "Listen, I don't think you're doing enough about 000. I don't think a simple inquiry is enough. I think this needs to be a roots-and-branch overhaul of the system with the consumer in mind and the objective of contacting 000 in mind and nothing else," then maybe, just maybe, some people power could rise up and push, you know, the parliament fully to actually make some moves. Because if Anthony Albanese stood up and said, "Listen, I don't want this to happen anymore, and I want this to be…" a legacy of mine, among many other things that I'm sure he's done, then he could get everyone in a room. Mate, you can get Apple into a Senate room to do an inquiry. I bet any money if the Prime Minister called for it, you could get him in a room to have a closed-door, off-the-record conversation about planning. And I just think that's what needs to happen next, Grahame.

[00:25:37] Grahame Lynch: Yeah, no, I absolutely agree. You know, as I just mentioned, there is an inquiry into Triple Zero being held by the department right now. Noticeable for the fact that even some of the biggest players in the ecosystem aren't contributing to it. Yeah, as of yet it has to be broader. It has to be not an inquiry but a working group.

[00:25:56] Trevor: That's it.

[00:25:56] Grahame Lynch: It has to be focused on action.

[00:25:58] Trevor: Sound like punishment. It sounds like planning.

[00:26:00] Grahame Lynch: Yeah, exactly. And they already do these things through Home Affairs in a more general way when it comes to critical infrastructure resilience. They, they kind of do wargaming simulations, that kind of thing. But it doesn't focus on these nitty-gritty issues. Is you just mentioned it, the delay in Campom. There needs to be education for customers that they need to have different expectations of a call in some of these situations. Yeah, that's the first thing you've got. You've got to reform the way you can contact 000, you widen the messaging mechanisms for doing so. That requires those particular companies, the measures and so on, to get involved. You're right, we need to put them all in a room. Bang some heads together and get away from this idea that we can solve the problems with a couple of Liberal and Green senators shouting at bureaucrats.

[00:26:50] Trevor: Yep, they all have government relations people, they all, they all have lobbyists, they all have the mechanisms, and they all have— especially your big Samsungs and Apples— they have global understanding, global knowledge of how these things can be done, are being done. Um, we could be a world leader in this space. We could, we could create a system that is world-leading, because we are certainly not world-leading today when it comes 000, and that's sad and dangerous in many ways. But yeah, let me look—

[00:27:18] Grahame Lynch: let me finish off with a little, little spot of hope for you.

[00:27:21] Trevor: Okay, love it.

[00:27:22] Grahame Lynch: There's a testing— there's a testing facility at the University of Technology in Sydney run by a former Nokia guy called Dr. Ray Owen, and they test all the handsets for how they work for Campon and that kind of thing. And apparently the results of these handsets from these handset tests tests are being used globally to inform emergency calling regulation all around the world, and they've been really good at getting feedback to the handset manufacturers for how they can upgrade and update their code better. And so there are some positive things happening, and we should focus on that as well. There are some good things, um, underway right now that are making the system more robust more responsive to the needs of actual people.

[00:28:10] Trevor: That's a lovely way to end it, Grahame. Thank you, mate. Your insight, I genuinely mean it, mate. I respect every word that comes outta your mouth because you've got more connections in this industry than anyone I know. And I think people could hear that in the fact that you are willing to wait for the Telstra understanding of what went wrong before really going off here. It's important to be reasoned and responsible about that in the same way that I was very vocal about the way people were hammering Vicki Brady for no apparent reason last week just for having a holiday. But anyway, that's a—

[00:28:42] Grahame Lynch: yeah, and just, I just want to say, I just want to say well done on that. Um, it's really easy to sort of kick a CEO, you know, kick the man or the woman in this particular case, but it doesn't particularly solve the issue. She didn't make the actual mistake which led to this. Um, she delegated her authority to other capable executives like her CFO, who appeared to perform quite well, and Yeah, everyone's calling for the head of the CEO. They did it with Stephen Rue as well last year. Yeah, you might recall when he was doing a very transparent and good job. Yeah, it's counterproductive. And look, I know these individuals, they go through a lot of personal pain in these situations. The media is piling on them, the politicians are piling on them. It's very personal and they do feel bad about what's happened. Yeah, they're people, they have a conscience.. And they do feel bad about what's happened. And that's probably the biggest punishment of all, which is the pressure they're under. And this idea that you can solve all these problems just by doubling the fine or something is terribly naive. And ultimately what it leads to will be a lower quality of CEO because who would submit themselves?

[00:29:52] Trevor: Why would you want that job?

[00:29:54] Grahame Lynch: Exactly.

[00:29:55] Grahame Lynch: Yeah, exactly.

[00:29:55] Trevor: I think that's where we've ended with politicians. But anyway, that's a story for another day. Okay, mate.

[00:30:01] Adrian: Lovely to talk to you.

[00:30:01] Trevor: I really appreciate it. Chat it.

[00:30:02] Grahame Lynch: Okay, you take care.

[00:30:03] VOICE OVER: This is the EFTM podcast.

Vicki — Buying a new computer after 19 years

[00:30:07] Trevor: Great to have your company, and, uh, if you've got a tech question, you know how to get in touch: 0477 657657. Vicki's on the line.

[00:30:14] Trevor: G'day, Vicki, how are you?

[00:30:15] Vicki: I'm excellent. What can I do for you?

[00:30:18] Vicki: Well, I just wanted to ask some questions about what type or what sort of, um, new computer I should buy. I've always had an Apple Mac Mac, and I've got a 27-inch Apple Mac which I bought in around 2007.

[00:30:35] Trevor: Oh, they're like the iMac, the, the desktop computer?

[00:30:37] Vicki: The desktop.

[00:30:38] Trevor: Love that computer. When did you say, 2001?

[00:30:40] Vicki: 2007 I bought it.

[00:30:42] Trevor: Woof, it's got— it's had a life.

[00:30:44] Vicki: That's, uh, 19 years ago, and it still works perfectly well except I can't, um, update the operating system anymore. I wouldn't have Yeah, High Sierra was the last one, which was— it's like, this makes it— well, this would make sense to you— 10.13.6.

[00:31:05] Trevor: Yeah, so basically when you see new features, they can't be there. And what— but, but are you noticing that you need it? Like, what a lot—

[00:31:12] Vicki: yeah, some things that I research, like I do a lot of online shopping now. I'm retired and I still do, um, you know, look at stuff and documentaries and stuff. But just recently I was on my Gmail and it just, just said this browser version is no longer supported, please upgrade to a supported browser. So I'm assuming that's to do with the age of the computer, would that be?

[00:31:39] Trevor: Yes, yeah, basically everything from your browser to your mail software, everything's going to start being like, hang on a minute, I can't help you with this anymore because they just aren't updating, you know, software for for such old devices on such a small number of uses. You know, you might be one of, you might be one of 10,000 people using that computer still, but in the millions, it's not enough for them to justify the work. Absolutely. So, so yeah, that's the challenge. So what have you started looking at? Where's your mind at?

[00:32:08] Vicki: Well, I've done a little research. I printed out a few things. I guess I was looking at the iPad Pro, the MacBook Neo and the MacBook Air. Now I know that they're all, you know, you've got the 256 or 512.

[00:32:27] Trevor: You're happy to downsize that much because that's a big screen going down to a small screen. What you used to have is massive.

[00:32:32] Vicki: Yeah, well, since I've retired, I often sit in my lounge room and just do everything on my phone.

[00:32:38] Trevor: Oh, well, this has changed the game. So you're actually upsizing because you'll be sitting on the lounge or at the table or wherever you are, or you might go visiting someone and you take your device with you, then you've got it all and you're in your normal mode. Yeah, it's a compromise, but it's a good one.

[00:32:52] Vicki: Yeah. And I'm also just joining the SES and I did ask them, can you work remotely from home? So I want a computer that's going to handle that sort of their system.

[00:33:04] Trevor: Yeah, right. Okay. Do you know what their system is though? Have they got system requirements? It's probably all cloud-based, I would think.

[00:33:13] Vicki: Yeah, I only know what their program's called, which is—

[00:33:17] Trevor: So it's not web-based?

[00:33:19] Vicki: Beacon is their program. I don't think so. I don't know. I've only just sort of— I start training next Monday.

[00:33:27] Trevor: Okay. I look out of what you've said so far. I love the MacBook Neo.

[00:33:33] Vicki: I think, I think it's such a—

[00:33:36] Trevor: I'm still using it.

[00:33:38] Vicki: Oh really?

[00:33:39] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:33:39] Vicki: I thought it was a new thing. I thought it was a new one.

[00:33:42] Trevor: It's 3 months old.

[00:33:44] Vicki: Oh, okay.

[00:33:44] Trevor: But for me to still be using something after 3 weeks 6 is a lot. Yeah, because I've got 6 laptops here I could be using tomorrow. Um, so often I'm using them just, uh, just sporadically during a 2-week period to review them. But the one I put in my backpack, the one I take home, the one that I travel with, is the MacBook Neo. And just to be very clear, downstairs in my shelving for my— in my warehouse, there is a brand new MacBook Pro and a brand new MacBook Air unboxed. They've never been opened, um, because, you know, You know what, I don't need all that power. I've got that, I've got an unbelievable computer I'm sitting at my desk and that's where I do the most power-intensive things. But when I went to Channel 9 this morning, under my arm was my MacBook Neo. When I went to London a few weeks ago, under my arm was my MacBook Neo because it does everything. If you said to me you're doing video editing and all this kind of stuff, which I do on the MacBook Neo, I'd still say you probably want the Air or the Pro. But gee whiz, the Neo is so light, so portable, it does everything you need. I would challenge you to triple check with the SES that their software will work on a Mac, full stop. Because it may be Windows software. And that may be a deal breaker. You may need to get a Windows computer, which could be a huge game changer for you.

[00:35:02] Vicki: I don't want a Windows computer.

[00:35:03] Trevor: That's a lot to learn. That's a lot to learn. And the reason I would push you towards a MacBook, and we'll go there first, over the iPad. I love the iPad, they're great. Great for watching Netflix or Stan, or Amazon Prime, whatever you watch. But yeah, yeah, the— and you can get a keyboard for them and all that stuff. But I still find that a laptop on your lap is easy to use than an iPad on your lap. And the number of times you are just sitting there watching TV and doing something on your computer is, is more than most of us would admit. So I think a laptop is probably a better option for you given what you're doing with the SES among anything else. If you wanted to hedge your bets, then a MacBook Air is a really good middle-of-the-road option for you that allows you to do a couple of extra things. Firstly, you can get a bigger screen, so you could get a MacBook Air with a 15-inch screen, which is much bigger than the MacBook Neo is. And, and that's, that's a pretty big deal, and it's, it's much more powerful powerful. So if there are any intensive demands from that software, it certainly has the capabilities to deal with them. Now the MacBook Air, by the way though, at 15 inches is $2,500. At 13 inches it's $2,100. And the MacBook Neo is $1,050.

[00:36:33] Vicki: Yeah, yeah, I printed those prices out.

[00:36:36] Trevor: They went up this week, so So be cautious. So it's a big jump. It's a big jump to go from the Neo to the Air. But if you, if you, if financially you could do the $2,000, I think a MacBook Air is a good long-term stable everyday computer for you. You would not be unhappy with it.

[00:37:00] Vicki: Yeah.

[00:37:01] Trevor: So that'd be the middle ground I'd lean you towards. I think. But make that do not buy until you've had that conversation with the SES.

[00:37:08] Vicki: Yeah. So out of the— just on the MacBook Neo, it says like you can get your 256GB.

[00:37:17] Trevor: There's only two versions. There's a 256GB and a 512GB. The 512GB also comes with the fingerprint reader. Look, it's quicker to log on to and it's got more storage. I don't know that you're doing much storage, though. I don't think you need much storage.

[00:37:30] Vicki: Not really. All my photos now go up into the iCloud. Well played. Um, because when I worked at, uh, Wollongong Council before I retired, I was using my phone for their systems because I had to log into my aged care and health department to do reports. And when I left there, they actually accidentally locked me out of my phone and lost all my photos and everything on my phone and couldn't retrieve Yeah. So I've now got the cloud, which I never had before. Lesson learned.

[00:38:08] Trevor: Yeah. Yeah. No, it's not just a lesson learned. It is. It's a great solution because it means that you don't have to worry about where your photos are. They're always going to be there. Yeah.

[00:38:18] Vicki: My other quick question was I was writing down things about the MacBook Neo and on one of them it says, for example, 256GB – 8GB. What's the 8GB?

[00:38:30] Trevor: The 8GB is the RAM. So there's two types of memory on a computer. The one is the memory that you use to save your photos, and the other is its memory to think. And the 8 is its memory to think. So for example, in a 13-inch MacBook Air, you're going to get 16.

[00:38:51] Vicki: Right.

[00:38:52] Trevor: And what the thinking does, it means things will load faster and the software will run better. Not a really important thing when you're using the browser like Safari or Chrome to do things on the web because it doesn't need to think when doing the web, it just needs to show. But if you're running software like the SES stuff, might be better with a little bit of extra RAM. They call it unified memory, but it's RAM.

[00:39:14] Vicki: Okay, but the Neo doesn't have the extra, does it?

[00:39:18] Trevor: No, the Neo is pretty limited in that space, which again is why I would— if you can afford it, I'd push you towards the MacBook Air.

[00:39:26] Vicki: Yep, yep.

[00:39:28] Trevor: Okay, but let me be very clear. If, if the, the MacBook Neo is the one that fits your budget best, you will not be unhappy with it. I'm confident of that. I'm just saying that if you, you know, if you can push it, you, you'll love the Air.

[00:39:44] Vicki: Yep. Okay.

[00:39:46] Trevor: All right.

[00:39:46] Vicki: Yeah, I can.

[00:39:47] Trevor: And remember, you can't take it with you. I don't know if you've got kids or grandkids, but what I say to my mum is I don't need Eat it, spend it.

[00:39:56] Vicki: I've got grandkids, but they're a bit older now, although they cost me more now that they're older.

[00:40:01] Trevor: Yeah, well, you know what, put the MacBook Air in the wheel. Buy the more expensive one, put it in the wheel.

[00:40:06] Vicki: Will do. Look, they've got all the gadgets already.

[00:40:11] Trevor: Yeah, exactly. They're not interested anyway. All right, lovely to hear from you. Happy shopping and good luck with the work you're doing for the SES.

[00:40:19] Vicki: Thank you for your advice. Advice. Thank you very much. My pleasure.

[00:40:22] Trevor: Thank you. That's easy. Great, happy to help there. And as I said, the Neo's an unbelievable device. Disappointing with those price rises a couple weeks ago, but still good value. But just, it just pushes it into another space and those Air prices are up as well. So yeah, tough one.

[00:40:42] VOICE OVER: Join the conversation. Head to eftm.com and and click Ask Trev.

Adrian — Pocket AI recorder feedback

[00:40:48] Trevor: All right, Adrian's on the line. G'day, Adrian.

[00:40:50] Adrian: G'day, Trev, how you going, mate?

[00:40:51] Trevor: Mate, really good. What can I do for you?

[00:40:53] Adrian: Oh, I was listening a week or two ago where you, some fella rang up Pocket AI thing where you used to record stuff and you know the one I'm talking about?

[00:41:05] Trevor: Yeah, so I had a caller a while ago and then we had a follow-up from someone who bought a couple of them. I think his wife was in business or something. And so we're talking Pocket AI. It's a little credit card size thing. It's probably, what would you call it, maybe 3 credit cards stacked together. And you literally can keep it in your pocket. Yeah, press a button and it will record what you say. Now that could be you talking to it or it could be you in a meeting. How have you— so have you bought one?

[00:41:29] Adrian: Right, so when I first heard it, when you were chatting to— I think it was the first bloke that rang in, like you, my ears pricked up. And I know you said that you thought you jumped online and bought one straight away. If I wasn't driving driving, I would have done the same thing. I got home, I looked at it, I bought two— one for me, one for the missus. And mate, they are incredible. My wife does a ton of meetings. She goes through— she's going through an inventory at the moment, uh, an inventory. And, uh, she's just sitting there talking in this thing, going, two of these, one of these, three of those, going through a whole stack of things, uploading or syncing the thing to a phone and then telling AI, listen, put this in a spreadsheet that I can copy into Excel for an inventory, and bang, crazy, it's done. And it's so intuitive, obviously AI stuff, that it categorizes things, and it's just— it is really, yeah, very cool, very cool. She loves it.

[00:42:25] Trevor: What, um, and what are you using it for?

[00:42:30] Adrian: Oh, look, um, it's just like when I saw it and it was like, oh, if you too, you get the Sigma cheaper. And I'm just, I'm just one of these guys that I love me tech. Um, and you know, it's handy when, you know, you think of stuff when you're driving, or if you are talking to somebody and it's got, hang on a second, I want to make sure I got this right, or whatever. Bang, just press the button. And it's got that, it's got like, uh, you know, it can stick on the back of your phone if you've got MagSafe. Yep, sort of thing on your phone. Um, it could just sit on the back there. It's incredible. And it, like, the battery life lasts for, God, I don't know how long. Um, it is a very cool bit of kit. I think there's other things out there, I don't know how it stacks up, but I'm telling you, um, we haven't found anything wrong with it. That's bloody good.

[00:43:18] Trevor: Well, I'll tell you this, uh, and, and you've got them so you're happy, but I'll tell you, I am, I'm testing another one right now called Plaud, P-L-A-U-D. It's thinner, which to me is remarkable. Like, it is half the thickness of the Pocket AI. It's got a little screen on it so that you push the button, you can see its battery life, which I like. Uh, you push and hold the button, it buzzes, and then it's just recording, kind of like the other one. But I like that it is a kind of a display that tells me it's recording. Push and hold again to stop recording. But the rest of it is, is the same. It's just syncing up to an app. And the app, let's be clear. Let's be real with ourselves, we've probably overpaid for what, what it physically is. It's a little box with a battery, a microphone, and storage. It's, it's a Dictaphone, right? It's a modern Dictaphone, right? But what you're actually paying for is what the app can do, which is download all that, transcribe it, and then, you know, as you say, requested to do other things. Here's my problem. I'm thinking what I still want is I want it to link with other services. So, you know, I'm not— I use either ChatGPT or Claude for my AI. If I'm going to give— if I'm going to hold this thing in my pocket all the time and go, hey, don't forget to do this, or here's an idea for a video, here's an idea for content, or don't forget to write this article, whatever it is, I want it to frankly automatically be syncing with my phone. And then I want it to automatically, if I choose, sync all my notes to one of my my other AI agents because I think I'd get more benefit from it if it was doing that. That, that's, that's my only thing because if I, um, if I do something pretty cool like a long interview or something and then I've got the transcript and the meeting notes and actions and things, but if I take that and put it into Claude or ChatGPT, I can ask it to do so much more with it.

[00:45:10] Adrian: Yeah, yeah.

[00:45:11] Trevor: So that's my only— that's what I hope from them is that Mate, here's what I hope. They get acquired. Like, I hope Pocket AI gets acquired by ChatGPT and it becomes a, you know, part of their product cycle. But what we're seeing here, what we are, is we're a part of the future because, you know, there'll be these little pins that you can wear that are the same thing. And it's just kind of, you know, people freak out about people wearing Meta glasses and taking photos, but we're going to be having these things just constantly recording like police body cams.

[00:45:42] Adrian: Well, this is it. I think people, a lot of people get nervous over that sort of stuff. And like it even suggests this thing that you can sit it on the back of your phone and it'll pick up a phone call. Now I know there's a lot of, a lot of legal mumbo jumbo around recording telephones. That's true.

[00:45:58] Trevor: Yeah, that's actually, you know, which is a bit of a minefield.

[00:46:01] Adrian: But, but I suppose it always comes down to, you know, you can do all sorts of things, depends on how you choose to use it. And if you're stupid enough to use it in a way that you, you shouldn't, but I mean, if you're using it as prompt to remind you or something, or, you know, it's— yeah, but yeah, for, for the purposes, there probably is other stuff better, quicker, thinner, whatever. But I'll tell you, just for what we're using it for at the moment, um, yeah, this thing, this thing's gold. I didn't know these things were out there, and you know, this one that we're using, it's fantastic.

[00:46:32] Trevor: Massive. Well, what a glowing endorsement, mate. Well done. Excellent. Thank you for the feedback.

[00:46:36] Adrian: No worries.

[00:46:37] Trevor: Good on you, buddy. Great to chat as always.

[00:46:39] Adrian: Yeah, no worries.

[00:46:40] Trevor: Cheers, mate. No worries. Yeah, so I've been playing with this Plaud. So that's P— it's not Claude the AI agent. It's Plaud, P-L-A-U-D. And it is like, it's a better looking device. It's kind of got a nice design, little tiny screen on it. It's so thin, like it legit could go in your wallet. Whereas Pocket AI is a bit thicker. It's probably 4mm thick. This one wouldn't be 2mm. Crazy. I've just got I've got to become more habitual. I've got to put it, maybe I've got to keep it in my pocket more often so I can go, I've got that idea, write it down, you know, but instead of writing it down, take a note. So I probably need to put a bit more time into it, but you know, I'm doing my best. I'm getting there slowly but surely. But yeah, we'd love to hear your experiences with any products you've bought as a result of hearing someone talk about them right here on this show.

[00:47:16] VOICE OVER: Be part of the the show. Thanks to Vodafone, you can text 0477 657 657.

Vaughan — Telstra/NBN escalation and router advice

[00:47:28] Trevor: Get in touch anytime. Vaughan's on the line. G'day, Vaughan.

[00:47:41] Vaughan: G'day, Trev, how are you?

[00:47:42] Trevor: Hey, really good. What can I do for you?

[00:47:44] Vaughan: I'm just giving you a call because, um, I need to get some, um, router advice.

[00:47:50] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:47:50] Vaughan: Um, and also I'm wondering if you know anyone at Telstra who might be able to assist. My parents are 79 years of age and have been with Telstra for an eternity. And I must say show much more loyalty to telcos than I do.

[00:48:05] Trevor: Well, than anyone should, frankly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:48:09] Vaughan: Although I have got them over to Boost, which I know is now back with Telstra, but for their phones. But they've got a Bigpond email address, so they want to stay with Telstra so they don't lose that. But they're on a, on a 5G internet with a modem that didn't work and it's taken Telstra over a month and they still haven't got it working or offered a tangible Well, I shouldn't say they offered a tangible solution. They've, with some prompting and a complaint by me on my parents' behalf to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, it's been escalated at Telstra. The Phase 1 has expired and Telstra still haven't resolved it. We've asked for it to be escalated.

[00:48:54] Trevor: What do you believe should be the resolution?

[00:48:57] Vaughan: Well, they've been, they had a data service on this, on their account, which was $30 a month, which has never been used, and they have no knowledge of it or any recollection of signing up for it. So Telstra have said they'll look into that, but they'll probably refund that. And they've— Telstra should be refunding their charges for the time that they've been unable to properly use the internet.

[00:49:23] Trevor: Sure.

[00:49:23] Vaughan: And should be doing all they can to get them connected to the NBN. NBN and they got fibre to the premises available to them.

[00:49:29] Trevor: Oh really?

[00:49:31] Vaughan: Yeah. So I mean, it's a, it's really—

[00:49:34] Trevor: I mean, Telstra just needs to order it from the NBN.

[00:49:37] Vaughan: Well, precisely. There's a technician coming out on Thursday, but I've spent hours on the phone with the people that are supposed to—

[00:49:43] Trevor: I'm assuming the house has never had the NBN connected.

[00:49:46] Vaughan: I'm assuming so, yes.

[00:49:47] Trevor: So they were one of these, I'm, here's my guess, 5, 10 years ago, whenever it was that the NBN came into play. They were sent a new modem. It was a 5G modem with Telstra. They were put onto that plan. That was their new internet. It was probably the same rate as the—

[00:50:02] Vaughan: No, they're in Port Macquarie and they didn't have broadband where they were and they're on 4G. When they came to Australia, they went to— sorry, to Australia, it's almost Australia, but when they came to Sydney, they went to the Telstra shop and the Telstra employee didn't say, why aren't you going on the NBN when you live living in Northwest Sydney, they said, "Oh yes, you want a modem, we'll give you a 5G modem." And of course we all know the profit for Telstra is 100% absolute off a 5G modem. And my point is they have a positive obligation to sell a consumer the product that's best suited to their service. And so we've tried to get it escalated. The telecommunications ombudsman person, we've got a fellow who is refusing to move it up to his supervisor. If you were able to get it escalated to someone at Telstra, I'd be most grateful.

[00:50:53] Trevor: Look, we'll do that straight away. So what I need from you, and if you— do you have my email address?

[00:50:59] Vaughan: Yes, I do.

[00:50:59] Trevor: Okay. So what I want you to do is just send me a little email, which is, you know, not 16 chapters, but it's— it's just address, name, address, phone number, account number, TIO lodgement number, whatever numbers exist to track this down. And then, you know, 6 dot points about the issue. Because really, for me, the best thing to do in these solutions, these situations, to say, okay, here's what the problem is. Problem is the 5G modem doesn't work, we're not getting connectivity. Additionally, there's a $30 charge, we just don't know what it is. So solution is refund the $30 charge, refund the, the usage for the last 2 months that have not been available, and then connect the NBN pronto and provide them with a modem within the NBN that works and gives them connectivity. Done. Problem solved.

[00:51:49] Vaughan: And the account, it's about $300 because it's been going for over a year. But whatever it is, the amount's immaterial. But the other thing is the account is a mess. And I've asked Telstra to have a look at the account, work out whether they've been on a plan that was— because telcos often have people on plans that are more expensive and they bring out a cheaper plan and they don't tell them.

[00:52:13] Trevor: So they're rightly— they should rightly be to be on the front foot about this because Optus was hauled over the coals from the ACCC the way they handled and sold products in their retail stores, which is not Optus specifically, it was some franchise retailers. But yeah, I think that they'd be well within their desire to settle this quickly. So you email me everything you need and I will escalate it. My main contact is overseas at the moment, but he's back next week.

[00:52:40] Vaughan: That's okay.

[00:52:41] Trevor: But we'll see what we can do to get that resolved for you, mate.

[00:52:44] Vaughan: And I can tell you I had a wonderful experience. Anyone Anyone listening who's not a member of the Mancave, I hope you don't mind me giving the Mancave a free plug.

[00:52:52] Trevor: Not at all.

[00:52:53] Vaughan: Didn't think you would. Who's not a member of the Mancave should really jump on the Mancave because I put a message out there, a fellow called Patrick got in touch with me. Patrick's got his own independent telecommunications consultancy. Terrific bloke. He wasn't, and to be clear, he wasn't looking for business. He said, look, I'm happy to have a chat to you for free. Free, no problem. But I looked at his rates, they're very, very reasonable. And he, you know, he was just really knowledgeable and just a terrific bloke, happy to have a good chat.

[00:53:23] Trevor: And Patrick used to work in the telco industry and has literally just set up a consultancy for people. I mean, I'd go, I'd call it like a level above the old kind of gizmo, what it used to be called, gizmo and Geeks 2 U. Geeks 2 U. It's very much more personal.

[00:53:39] Vaughan: Yeah.

[00:53:39] Trevor: And he's very, very knowledgeable with regards to the telco industry. So yeah, I would second that.

[00:53:47] Vaughan: Lovely bloke. And finally, Trevor, what's your thought on— obviously you're sponsored by Netgear at the moment, but routers in small, you know, retirement village type situations.

[00:54:03] Trevor: How does that work? They are self-enclosed. It's not just a room. They've got their own—

[00:54:09] Vaughan: no, no, no. Retirement village, a 2-bedroom unit.

[00:54:11] Trevor: Yeah, right.

[00:54:12] Trevor: Okay.

[00:54:12] Vaughan: Yeah, 2-bedroom unit. So I think, I don't think you need anything special there.

[00:54:17] Trevor: You know, the most basic of frankly telco-provided modems should do the job there. Let's be real. Like, it's not—

[00:54:24] Vaughan: it's so small.

[00:54:25] Trevor: Yes, exactly. The telco, you know, the telco-provided modems should be fine.

[00:54:30] Vaughan: Yeah. I mean, it's the size of a 2-bedroom unit, an average 2-bedroom unit. But even for an average 2-bedroom unit, you know, you don't really need a mesh system.

[00:54:38] Trevor: No, no. I mean, I'd love to have people buying Nikky products for a start, but any—

[00:54:43] Trevor: I've always advocated for mesh systems.

[00:54:45] Trevor: But normally because they're home, family homes we're talking about, mate, I just think placement is critical. So if you can have any sway over where that NBN gets installed to, there may be some hurdles with the NBN being installed in that facility. So I don't know whether you can find out whether there's anything there that the facility can do to make sure that they're allowing the NBN in as easily as they should be or whatever.

[00:55:07] Vaughan: I'm pretty sure they are because other residents have got it installed.

[00:55:09] Trevor: Got no issues with it, right?

[00:55:10] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:55:10] Vaughan: I didn't sort of say, why don't you get permission? I thought, let's just put it in and ask for forgiveness later.

[00:55:15] Trevor: Provider.

[00:55:15] Trevor: No, 100%. It's just, you know, the physical— the physicality of getting a fiber to premises connection in may be more challenging. But more challenging. But yeah, I don't— honestly, my thought would be to just get Telstra to get this happening and get Telstra to provide a smart modem.

[00:55:31] Vaughan: Like, well, that's the thing, you know. And yeah, no, well, that's what I'm thinking, you know. So, you know, I appreciate you taking the time to have a chat, Trent.

[00:55:39] Trevor: No, always, Vaughan. Send me the email. I will talk to Telstra on your behalf and we'll try and get you voted quickly.

[00:55:44] Vaughan: No, that's fine. Appreciate it.

[00:55:46] Trevor: Legendary.

[00:55:47] Vaughan: Do you mind just coming back to me when you finish the call?

[00:55:49] Trevor: Absolutely, will do. All right, thanks, mate. Talk soon. And, and we'll, we'll see if we can get Vaughan's solution to you. My man's overseas till next week, but I'm sure they'll look into it as soon as they can.

[00:56:01] VOICE OVER: Tech, cars, lifestyle. This is the EFTM podcast with Trevor Long. You can text Trev now, thanks to Vodafone, on 0477 657 657.

[00:56:15] Trevor: Let's chat, whatever you want to talk about, save it in your phone, 0477 657 657. We will get you on the show. Producer Rob will be in touch. We'll, we'll talk to you soon. I'm away next week, but we'll have a show next week. But if you've got questions, don't hold back, send them through. We'll line you up for when I'm back. We're organized, we're planning, we put plans in place. So please don't hesitate to get in touch. I'd love to hear from you. It's my favorite thing of the week is talking to real people about real tech issues or questions or problems. And it doesn't have to be a problem. It can be simply you've got something new and you want to brag about it. I mean, that's what the— that's how the Pocket AI thing came about. And as I said, I've since been trialing another one, and I'll probably do my Plaud review in the next week and a half because they've now got ChatGPT integration, which was the one thing I wanted from Pocket AI. So, oh, tough one. Maybe it's the better one. That said, I'd love to hear from you anytime, any day. You can text, it won't wake me up, don't worry. Feel free to get in touch, folks. I'd love to hear from you.

[00:57:16] VOICE OVER: Tech, cars, lifestyle. This is the EFTM podcast with Trevor Long.