Action on telco consumer protections: April to June 2024

Protecting telco customers experiencing financial hardship

In February 2024, we made the Telecommunications (Financial Hardship) Industry Standard 2024 (Financial Hardship Standard). It commenced on 29 March 2024.

The new Financial Hardship Standard improves safeguards for telco customers in financial difficulty. It requires telcos to:

• establish and promote their financial hardship policies
• proactively identify customers experiencing financial hardship
• provide a stronger range of support options
• prioritise keeping customers connected to services. 

In the quarter, we did compliance audits of 48 telcos. We were checking they had updated their policy documents in line with the new standard. We found 10 telcos had not complied with this obligation. Given the nature of the breaches and prompt action taken by the telcos, we gave formal warnings to all 10 telcos.

We also continued to promote our consumer education campaign across digital and social media. The campaign aims to raise awareness of telco financial hardship programs and associated consumer protections to help Australians keep access to their telco services.

Supporting telco customers experiencing domestic and family violence

Telecommunications are central to everyday living. However, for people experiencing (or trying to escape) domestic and family violence these services can be a lifeline. 

Under the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code (TCP Code), telcos are required to ensure their sales representatives and staff who interact with consumers can interact with disadvantaged or vulnerable consumers appropriately. The TCP Code advises telcos to utilise the Communications Alliance guideline G660:2023 Assisting Customers Affected by Domestic and Family Violence.

We currently have 3 investigations into potential non-compliance with the TCP Code in this area. These are also informing our understanding of these issues. 

We continue to disrupt scam activities and protect Australians. Our quarterly Action on scams, spam and telemarketing report includes the measures we have taken as a result of our investigations.

We started 13 investigations into telco compliance. These included investigations into telco compliance with:

• TCP Code rules that require telcos to ensure their staff who interact with consumers are able to interact with disadvantaged or vulnerable consumers appropriately.
• Reducing Scam Calls and Scam SMs Industry Code (Scam Code) obligations on telcos to:
  • publish information to assist their customers to proactively manage and report SMS scams
  • share information about scam messages with other telcos
  • report identified scams to authorities.

We completed 13 investigations into telco compliance with:

• Financial Hardship Standard rules that require telcos to update their payment assistance policies and make these easy to find for their customers.
• Carrier licence conditions about managing unlisted (silent) numbers.
• Scam Code obligations to disrupt, report and share information on scam activity in Australia.

Our compliance and enforcement outcomes for the quarter included:

• The ACMA filing Federal Court proceedings against Optus Mobile Pty Ltd. We alleged that during a data breach that occurred between 17 to 20 September 2022, Optus failed to protect the confidentiality of its customers’ personal information from unauthorised interference or access.
• Telstra paying a $1,551,000 infringement notice and entering into a court-enforceable undertaking. It failed to use the required ID authentication processes for 168,000 high-risk customer interactions, such as for SIM-swap requests and password resets.
• Southern Phone Company paying a $244,140 infringement notice, and entering into a court-enforceable undertaking. It failed to meet minimum standards and timeframes when managing complaints on 77 occasions between April and June 2023. 
• Giving Telstra a remedial direction requiring it to take actions to support compliance with carrier licence obligations not to disclose or use customer information related to unlisted (silent) numbers. 
• Directing Symbio Networks Pty Ltd and Symbio Wholesale Pty Limited for failing to share information about scam calls and accurately report the number of scam calls they blocked in April to June 2023.
• Formally warning Bendigo Telco Ltd, Business Services Brokers Pty Ltd trading as TeleChoice, Dreamtilt Pty Ltd, Flip TV Pty Ltd, Nu Mobile Pty Ltd, Pennytel Australia Pty Ltd, Telco Pay Pty Ltd trading as Moose Mobile, TelcoPlus Pty Ltd, Telecom West Pty Ltd and Uniti Retail Pty Ltd for failing to update their policy documents on their websites to meet new Financial Hardship Standard rules.

We also monitored compliance with 10 court-enforceable undertakings during the quarter. These undertakings set out the actions telcos must take to improve their compliance with telco laws. No compliance issues were identified.

View our finalised investigations into telco providers. Please note that we do not generally publish ‘no breach’ findings or investigation reports before taking enforcement action.

We started 58 compliance assessments and completed 62 compliance assessments into telco compliance with a range of consumer safeguards.

We commenced a review of the Telecommunications Numbering Plan. This review will help us:

• promote effective and efficient numbering arrangements
• ensure the rules remain fit-for-purpose for the innovative and changing telecommunications environment. 

As part of the review, we published a discussion paper on 3 June 2024 outlining the key issues Australia’s new numbering plan proposes to consider. This includes incorporating technological innovations such as Voice over Internet Protocol and the Internet of Things, and changing rules for smartnumbers. Submissions to the consultation closed on 1 July 2024.

We released the March 2024 Telco complaints-handling performance data. The data shows that Australian telcos received less complaints compared to the March 2023 quarter. The 223,621 complaints marked a decrease of 7.1 per cent from the same quarter last year. This was also the lowest number of complaints in any recorded quarter.

However, telcos took longer on average to resolve consumer complaints. It took telcos on average 6.3 days to resolve complaints. This was an increase of 21.2 per cent from 5.2 days in the same period last year.

The Consumer Consultative Forum (CCF) allows consumer, industry and government stakeholders to meet and discuss telco issues affecting consumers. We also hold 2 online meetings each year for the consumer representatives to share information and set CCF meeting agendas. 

The consumer representatives met on 4 June 2024. We provided members with an update on:

• our telco financial hardship social media campaign
• the development of associated materials tailored to First Nations people.

Issues discussed included the TCP Code review. There was a presentation from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts on the Australian Government’s response to the Bean Review into the Optus outage and the 3G network closure. Members advised that handling of domestic and family violence customers and inappropriate selling practices continue to be of concern.

We once again welcomed a guest from the First Nations Digital Inclusion Advisory Group. They advised the group’s initial report to Minister Rowland was available on the Department’s website. Further insights are being sought on outcome 17 –  ensuring that First Nations people have access to services and information so that they can make informed decisions about their own lives. 

The next CCF meeting will be held in October. 

The Numbering Advisory Committee (NAC) provides advice on issues related to telephone numbers in Australia. 

The NAC met on 5 June 2024. Discussion included the review of the Telecommunications Numbering Plan 2015 and industry number porting codes. An update on our compliance priority work into scam reduction was also provided.