Action on telco consumer protections: July to September 2024

Protecting telco customers experiencing financial hardship

We are focusing on compliance with the new Telecommunications (Financial Hardship) Industry Standard 2024 (Financial Hardship Standard) made on 1 February 2024. The new rules came into effect on 29 March 2024.

The 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 started an audit of industry compliance with requirements in the Financial Hardship Standard relating to identifying and communicating with financial hardship customers, credit management and staff training. We issued 25 mandatory information-gathering notices to collect evidence to support the audit. We expect to complete the audit by the end of the year.

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 (DFV) these services can be a lifeline. 

Supporting telco customers experiencing DFV remains an ACMA compliance priority for 2024–25. 

On 30 September, the Minister for Communications, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP, advised she would direct us to make an industry standard to protect victim-survivors of DFV. We will work closely with the telecommunications industry and DFV experts to develop the new standard. 

Under the current Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code, telcos are required to make sure their sales representatives and public-facing staff can interact with disadvantaged or vulnerable customers (including customers affected by DFV) appropriately. We completed 3 investigations into potential non-compliance with the TCP Code in the quarter, which helped inform our understanding of these issues.

Combating scams

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 11 investigations into telco compliance. These included investigations into compliance with:

• legislation that requires telcos to join the TIO scheme
• Emergency Call Service Determination rules that require telcos to comply with Triple Zero (000) and 106 emergency number requirements
• rules that specify how telcos must store and protect data
• the 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 10 investigations into telco compliance with:

• legislation that requires telcos to comply with the TIO scheme
• TCP Code rules that set out requirements to support customers affected by DFV
• TCP Code rules that specify how telcos must keep records of notifications of a relevant change in circumstances of a customer, including the death of a customer 
• rules that specify how telcos must store and protect data
• Scam Code obligations to disrupt, report and share information on scam activity in Australia.

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.

Our compliance and enforcement outcomes for the quarter included:

• Formally warning Eureka Telecommunications Western Victoria Pty Ltd for failing to join the TIO scheme.
• Directing Telnetworks Pty Ltd for failing to pay its TIO annual membership fees and case fees for the ombudsman’s complaints resolution service.
• Directing bulk messaging telco SMSGlobal to comply with anti-scam rules for allowing SMS to be sent using message headers (shortened business names) without sufficient checks beforehand to ensure their use was legitimate.

We also started an audit to assess compliance with the complaints-monitoring and analysis obligations in the Complaints Handling Standard. Under the Standard, telcos must monitor and analyse complaints to identify systemic issues and problems and prevent their recurrence. We expect to complete the audit later this year. 

We monitored compliance with 8 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.

We started 55 compliance assessments and completed 17 compliance assessments into telco compliance with a range of consumer safeguards. 

Note: In the previous quarter, we finalised compliance audits of 48 telcos. We were checking they had updated their policy documents in line with the new Financial Hardship Standard.

We released the telco complaints report 2023–24. The report shows that while complaints have decreased, the time taken by telcos to resolve complaints has increased. 

In the last financial year, telcos received 899,691 complaints, down from more than a million in 2022–23. However, the time taken to resolve those complaints increased to an average of 6 days, up from 5.2 days the previous year.

Additionally, there has been a significant rise in complaints related to NBN services, particularly for Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) and satellite services.

We also announced that, starting from Q1 2024–25, we will begin publishing provider-specific complaint data under new legislative powers. This will offer clearer insights into the complaint-handling performance of individual telcos.

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

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

Following publication of the discussion paper, we met with telcos on several occasions via workshops and bi-lateral meetings to discuss the key issues outlined in submissions. This consultation helped inform the content of the draft Telecommunications Numbering Plan 2025.

In August 2024, we issued information-gathering notices to 18 telcos. The responses to these notices will help us form a preliminary view on a contested issue relating to the use of numbers.

Key stakeholder forums

The Consumer Consultative Forum (CCF) plays an important role in offering the ACMA advice and consumer perspectives on a range of policy and regulatory issues affecting telco consumers. It consists of both ongoing and set-term members.

In September 2024, the ACMA appointed 8 set-term members (3 new and 5 returning) for a 3-year term:

• New members:
  • Associate Professor Lyndon Ormond-Parker, co-chair of the First Nations Digital Inclusion Advisory Group 
  • Safe and Equal 
  • The Country Women’s Association of NSW representing the Rural, Regional and Remote Communications Coalition
• Returning members:
  • Consumer Action Law Centre
  • Consumer Policy Research Centre Ltd 
  • Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association of Australia Incorporated
  • NSW Business Chamber Limited
  • Western Community Legal Centre Limited.

The appointments were made following a call for expressions of interest in July 2024 via the ACMA website. The set-term members join ongoing members, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman and the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, to form a 10-strong committee of diverse and experienced consumer representatives.

The next CCF meeting is on 13 November 2024. 

Check the accessibility file for the information shown in the chart above. 

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Accessibility file: Action on telco consumer protections July to September 2024