NEW CO-REGULATORY PACKAGE A BOON FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES AND CONSUMERS

Sydney, 13 December 2023: Emergency call services and telecommunications infrastructure deployment in Australia will be further strengthened under an important package of industry-developed co-regulation approved this week by the Board of Communications Alliance.

The package of five new or revised Industry Guidelines has been developed by expert industry working groups under Communications Alliance and has been published and made available here and also listed below.

The broad-ranging suite of measures will, among other things:

• enable the caller-location information to be available to emergency services from emergency assistance call monitoring centres, when members of the public make a distress call;
• help ensure that new Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs) such as apartment buildings, are ‘fibre-ready’ when they are constructed, to ensure efficient pathways for connection to high-speed broadband services;
• create guidelines for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) interconnection to help Carriage Service Providers (CSPs) and Carriers connect to Australian telecommunications networks and thereby efficiently commence services to customers;
• improve the customer authorisation requirement process that is needed when customers want to transfer a service; and
• provide a framework for managed sharing of customer cabling to facilitate the roll-out of G.fast high-speed broadband technology in Australia.

Communications Alliance CEO, John Stanton, said the new and revised guidelines are a significant addition to the broad framework of industry co-regulation that enables the Australian telco sector to construct and manage networks that are efficient, modern and among the best-performing in the world.

“The improvements to emergency call location information are particularly important
as we move into the so-called ‘disaster season’ across Australia.”

“Although some stakeholders seem to operate under the impression that direct regulation is the best path to meet telco consumer needs, the strength of co- regulation is that it allows industry experts to meet regulatory objectives that are rooted in operational reality and can be efficiently implemented by service providers.”

“The working groups that created these guidelines have done an outstanding job and will continue to create and maintain the broad swathe of industry-initiated Standards, Codes and Guidelines that underpin the operation of telecommunications in our country.”

“The Communications Alliance Board recently also proposed to government and regulators a package of proposals for improvement to the co-regulatory framework (see attachment) that would streamline process and create a faster path for regulators to be able to enforce industry compliance with registered codes, including for consumer protection.”

“We look forward to receiving stakeholder feedback on these important proposed improvements.”

List of publications

G557.7:2023 Location Information for Emergency Calls – Part 7: International Emergency Assistance Call Monitoring Centres Industry Guideline https://commsalliance.com.au/Documents/all/guidelines/g557

G557.7:2023 specifies the requirements for International Originated Emergency Assistance Calls originating from International Emergency Assistance Call Monitoring Centres e.g. for eCall.

G651:2023 Customer Authorisation Industry Guideline
https://commsalliance.com.au/Documents/all/guidelines/G651

G651:2023 is designed to provide:

• common information to be provided to all telecommunications Customers before they agree to a Transfer; and
• information to be obtained from the customer or their Authorised Representative for the gaining Carriage Service Provider (CSP) to obtain a valid Customer Authorisation (CA).

 G670:2023 Fibre Ready MDUs for Real Estate Development Projects Industry Guideline
https://commsalliance.com.au/Documents/all/guidelines/g670

G670:2023 is designed to:

• outline the minimum standard for Telecommunications spaces within a Real Estate Multi Tenanted building Development Project to be considered a Fibre Ready Facility;
• describe recommended processes for the design and installation of Telecommunications facilities for use in the deployment of Optical Fibre Lines in a Real Estate Multi-Tenanted building Development Project; and
• describe the recommended materials used in the design and installation of facilities.

G671:2023 G.fast Deployment on Customer Cabling Industry Guideline
https://commsalliance.com.au/Documents/all/guidelines/g671

G671:2023 is intended to provide:

• A framework for managed sharing of customer cabling infrastructure within a premises or campus, while ensuring that all end users receive adequate G.fast data rates; and
• A technical basis for determination of whether sharing is viable in cases where G.fast Systems from one Distribution Point Unit (DPU) share customer cabling infrastructure with G.fast Systems originating from another DPU.

G672:2023 Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Interconnection Industry Guideline
https://commsalliance.com.au/Documents/all/guidelines/g672

G672:2023 is designed to:

• Assist a Carrier or Carriage Service Provider (CSP) seeking interconnection of services via Australian Telecommunications Networks;
• Guide on what to expect when implementing interconnection; and
• Help maintain the end-to-end integrity of Telecommunications Networks.