INDUSTRY WELCOMES THE CONSUMER SAFEGUARDS REVIEW

Sydney, 17 April 2018 - Industry welcomes today’s announcement by the Minister for Communications and the Arts, Senator Mitch Fifield, of the commencement of a Consumer Safeguards Review in the telecommunications sector.

The review was originally flagged to commence in 2016, recognising that some of the existing protection instruments have been overtaken by time and by technological and industry structural developments, including the rollout of the NBN.

Communications Alliance Director Program Management, Christiane Gillespie-Jones commented: “The Review is overdue, and industry is keen to engage closely with relevant stakeholders on all parts of the review to produce an efficient and fit-for-purpose framework for consumer safeguards – including through the use of updated Industry Codes.”

“Of course, we are not satisfied with the high numbers of complaints that we are currently seeing, and industry recognises that more needs to be done to improve the overall customer experience.

“We also have to take into account the current once-in-a-generation transformation of communications delivery platforms, which bring transitional disruption along with long-term benefits to telecommunications users.

“Therefore, we need to ensure that any policy settings adopted now are effective in the long term while not creating unnecessary regulatory burden and costs for consumers after the rollout of the NBN has been completed.”

Industry is working with the ACMA on a Complaint Handling Standard and other measures directed at complaint handling performance and an improved NBN migration experience. Communications Alliance is confident that customer-centric measures devised through a concerted industry effort, including Government, regulators and consumer representatives, will have a positive impact on many areas of customer engagement and customer experience.

Communications Alliance and its members are also in the process of revising the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code in consultation with consumer advocates, both regulators and Government. It is anticipated that the revised Code will be submitted to the ACMA for registration and enforcement in spring this year.