NEW TELCO RULES FOCUS ON STRONGER INDUSTRY COOPERATION TO HELP CONSUMERS

Sydney, 7 June 2018 - Communications Alliance today welcomed the new complaints handling Standard for the telecommunications sector, published by the industry regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

The Standard is heavily based on the existing arrangements put in place by industry in its consumer protections Code but imposes some stronger timeframe requirements and an obligation on all players in the telco supply chain to work together to resolve customer complaints.

The ACMA also published a set of record-keeping rules that require service providers to furnish large volumes of additional data to the ACMA concerning complaints received by each company.

Communications Alliance CEO, John Stanton, said industry was grateful for the opportunity to consult productively with the ACMA in recent months on the development of the new instruments, in a bid to ensure that the rules help improve customer experience and are informed by operational practicality and commercial reality.

“We hope the net result of these and the other rules still under development by the ACMA will contribute to a better experience for customers migrating to NBN-based services – an outcome that will be welcomed right across Australia,” Mr Stanton said.

“The instruments released today take effect from 1 July – little more than three weeks away.

“It needs to be recognised that for telecommunications providers to put in place new business processes, make changes to IT systems and train front-line staff in order to be able to comply with new rules – all in the space of three weeks – is virtually impossible.

“We hope that the regulator recognises this reality and will exercise some understanding while service providers are racing to become compliant.”