STRONGER INDUSTRY CODE AIMS TO BENEFIT AND BETTER PROTECT AUSTRALIA’S TELECOMMUNICATIONS CONSUMERS

Sydney, 14 December 2023: The Australian telecommunications sector has developed an extensive suite of stronger and enforceable consumer protections as part of an upgraded industry Code, scheduled to take effect in 2024.
Members of the Communications Alliance drafting group have met more than 70 times in recent months to produce the draft reform package, which was submitted to the industry regulator today, in advance of an accelerated regulatory deadline.

The planned improvements to the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code will benefit consumer and small business telco consumers across the breadth of their customer experience, including through:

• requirements for improved customer service;
• stronger protections against poor selling practices;
• better safeguards for vulnerable customers and those at risk of domestic and family violence;
• greater flexibility around bill payment;
• improved credit assessment processes; and
• stronger reporting and risk management requirements on service providers.

The regulator - the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) - had brought forward, to 15 December, the timing for industry to come up with definitive agreed positions on how to further strengthen the TCP Code.

The Code in its various iterations has been in place since 2006, has been regularly revised by industry and through public consultation, and is registered and enforced by the ACMA. It has helped to significantly drive down the volume of customer complaints about the performance of service providers, particularly during recent years.

Communications Alliance today submitted to the ACMA a package of proposed reforms that draws on deep industry expertise and – most importantly – the inputs and suggestions received from a wide range of stakeholders, including government, regulators and the telco consumer representative group, ACCAN, that have been actively engaged in the revision process during the past year.

The package is publicly available here.

If the go-ahead for the next phase is received from the ACMA, the reform package will be fully developed into a revised draft TCP Code, that will be subject to a further public consultation process before being submitted to the ACMA for consideration for registration.

Communications Alliance CEO, John Stanton, paid tribute to the stakeholders that have helped shape the reforms and to the extraordinary efforts of the industry drafting committee that has pulled together the suite of improvements.

The revised TCP Code is also being restructured to provide a stronger and clearer focus on measurements of success and accessibility, Mr Stanton said.

“If the latest version of the Code comes into effect, following registration by the ACMA, it will generate even better outcomes for Australian telco consumers, which is also ultimately to the benefit of industry.”

Mr Stanton acknowledged that – as is usual at this stage of the code revision process
- there remain several issues where industry and stakeholders have not yet achieved full alignment.

“Industry looks forward to continuing to work with the public and with stakeholders in a collaborative and transparent way to close any remaining gaps before the finalised code takes effect.”