Australia's Internet Industry Association winds self up

Australia's Internet Industry Association is handing its members and regulatory functions to the Communications Alliance and will be wound up.

The IIA has suffered erosion of its membership base over recent years, amid a flurry of mergers among Australia's tier-two telcos, and chairman Patric Fair has written to members to say that attempts to wort out its finances over the last year have “not been enough to maintain the financial viability of the organisation”.

Since 2010, the IIA has been administering the iCode, an agreement between major ISPs and the Australian government to combat botnets, as well as content codes, a code of conduct covering interactive gambling, a spam code, and the “family friendly” internet filtering code.

All of these activities will be taken over by the Communications Alliance.

The Alliance says it will also create an online security working group, and will “continue the work of the recently created National Online Security Council (NOSC)”.

Current IIA members will receive Communications Alliance membership for the unexpired portion of their membership. ®