Good afternoon.
My name is Adam Suckling, I am a Member of the Australian Communications and Media Authority. I am an Associate Member of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. I am also the ACMA Authority’s Spectrum Lead.
I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today, the Ngunnawal people. I pay my respects to elders past and present. I would also like to acknowledge any First Nations attendees who may be here with us today.
Thank you to Communications Day for asking me to speak today. I know publishing is tough. But it is critical for society. You do a tremendous job in keeping the sector, and wider world, informed of all that is important in telecommunications.
That Australia is a very big country is known to us all.
This is reflected in our literature, like Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet, and Alison Lester’s Are We There Yet? As well as our movies such as George Miller’s Mad Max films.
Our vastness is known by the companies and extraordinary Australians who install and maintain networks across this country, and who respond to outages driven by fires, cyclones and floods. What we seem today to call, ‘weather events.’
It is also well known by the 4,000 stakeholders from across the country who took part in last year’s Regional Telecommunications Review.
The respondents to this review overwhelmingly highlighted the critical role of telecommunications in regional, rural and remote communities.
Recommendations from the Regional Telecommunications Review
The Review Committee made 14 recommendations to Government. The Government is currently considering these recommendations.
As many of you will know, the recommendations cover measures to improve mobile coverage, modernise the USO, support First Nations’ digital inclusion, embed community Wi-Fi, as well as measures to improve consumer protections.
On consumer protection, the Committee recommends strengthening consumer protections. It also supports the ongoing TCP review.
I will talk about our work on consumer protections, including our compliance and enforcement work.
Further, I will talk about the huge amount of work being undertaken by government, regulators, industry and consumer groups to modernise these consumer protections.
This work is aimed at answering yes to some of the questions that people care most deeply about.
Questions like, am I being treated fairly? Am I getting the service I am paying for? Does the smartphone, which I rely on for almost everything in my life, work the way I was told it would? Will I be able to get through to triple zero in an emergency? I’ve fallen on hard times; will this be taken into account by my telco? Is someone stopping scams?
I will then talk, as outlined in the program, about spectrum.
Spectrum is about many things. But at its most relatable, it plays a critical role in making sure your phone, television, radio and any number of other devices, work.
One of our jobs is to make sure we manage spectrum so that, to put it loosely, everything works everywhere all at once.
So, I will provide an outline of spectrum decisions we’ve made that are relevant to improving telecommunications services in regional, rural and remote communities.
Competition and consumer protection
In relation to the ACMA’s consumer protection work, it is worth saying at the outset that competition and consumer protections are not somehow in opposition to each other.
They work together.
Effective competition is a powerful force in driving companies to focus on providing products and services that meet consumer needs.
It is also a force for innovation and the efficient use of capital.
But competition works better where there is a high level of trust between buyers and sellers, as it facilitates transactions and pushes out the demand curve.
So, consumer safeguards not only, quite rightly, protect Australian consumers, they also build trust, which is a component of effective competition.
I should add, it is also important to have in place an effective competition law framework.
To put it all another way, sport is competitive. But it needs rules and an umpire to work.
ACMA enforcement actions aims to protect millions of customers
In terms of our compliance and enforcement work, between September 2023 and September 2024, the ACMA undertook 23 formal enforcement actions against telcos in support of Australian consumers.
This included accepting around $7 million in penalties under Infringement Notices from companies such as Telstra, Symbio and Southern Phone Company.
Most recently, Optus also paid a $12 million infringement notice issued by the ACMA in response to Optus failures related to its 8 November 2023 network outage.
We also commenced court proceedings in regard to the Optus 2022 data breach which affected nearly 10 million current and former Optus customers.
These enforcement actions and the court proceedings respond to non-compliance across a wide set of regulatory areas.
These actions were aimed, among other things, at protecting consumers from scams, making sure consumers get the help they deserve when they fall on hard times, and making sure Australians can get through to triple zero when they need it.
This work complements other work we do for consumers, such as the public reports we now issue that ranks how well telcos have performed in dealing with customer complains. We issued the first of these reports in December 2024.
We welcome the Minister’s approach to strengthening the regime
This compliance and enforcement work has been undertaken under existing law, standards and codes.
However, technology is driving rapid changes and consumers’ expectations continue to evolve, so it is important that the regulatory regime evolves accordingly.
And there is a very significant amount of work going on to ensure that the consumer protection regime evolves to meet the current environment.
For instance, the Honourable Michelle Rowland, the Minister for Communications, recently introduced a Bill into the Parliament to strengthen the telecommunications consumer code enforcement framework.
We strongly welcome the Bill. We note industry is urging bi-partisan support for the Bill’s passage through Parliament. ACCAN also publicly supported the Bill.
The Bill, if passed, will streamline the ACMA’s enforcement process. It would also significantly increase the maximum general penalty for breaches of industry codes and standards. These increase from $250,000 to around $10 million.
The Bill also creates a carrier and CSP registration scheme. CSPs will not be able to provide listed carriage services unless they are registered with the ACMA. We, and I know others, have advocated for such a scheme for a good while.
As many of you will know, Communications Alliance is also currently consulting on the TCP Code and will submit it to the ACMA for possible registration.
The ACMA has already picked up some key matters covered by the current TCP code and included them a standard.
For instance, the Minister directed the ACMA to develop a standard to protect consumers experiencing financial hardship. We have developed this standard.
The Minister has also directed us to develop a standard covering customers experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence. We have released the consultation documents today. Following this consultation, we will make a standard.
Like I said, there is a huge amount of work being done in this space. But there is more.
The Minister has also overseen a complete review of how emergency services work as a system. She’s tasked the ACMA and industry with ensuring it works better to protect public safety. It is important work that is about helping save lives.
We are currently consulting on new rules aimed at improving telcos’ communications with their customers when there is an outage.
There is also important work being done in government and with industry and consumer groups on lessons we can learn from the 3G network shut down.
I know this is long list of activity – but it’s because there is a lot going on.
We also welcome Parliament’s passage of the legislation that establishes a Scams Prevention Framework, which is aimed at stopping scams before they hit Australians.
We all know scams are a huge problem. As The Economist recently pointed out, scams are a $500 billion global scourge. In Australia, Scam Watch data released last year indicates that Australians lost $2.7 billion to scams over the preceding year.
Scammers attack people going about their daily lives, from criminally run scam factories, which are the dark satanic mills of our times.
Finally, on consumer matters, we recently appointed new members to our Consumer Consultative Forum that is chaired by the Authority’s Consumer Lead, Sam Yorke.
We know there is more work to do to in continuing to listen to consumers and to find more effective ways of informing them of their rights under regulatory arrangements. We will continue to work on this over coming months.
So, it’s a lot. What I think you would call a very full dance card.
Spectrum and consumers in regional and remote Australia
I turn now to spectrum management and decisions that the ACMA has made that have had a positive bearing on regional and remote communications.
Flexible spectrum licensing conditions facilitates expanded regional coverage
One of the more important decisions the ACMA has made was to adopt a flexible approach to mobile spectrum licensing.
This decision was made years ago when we first started allocating mobile spectrum licences. We are seeing the benefits of this approach flow through today.
Under this flexible approach, the holders of spectrum licences can trade these licences or authorise third parties to use their licensed spectrum.
What this has meant in practice is that when Optus and TPG were looking to share their network and spectrum to expand coverage, the spectrum licensing regime allowed them to seamlessly and efficiently share spectrum without ACMA approval processes.
In deciding not to oppose this agreement, the ACCC said that the agreement will likely enhance TPG’s ability to compete for regional customers.
The ACCC also said the agreement is likely to support Optus 5G rollout, particularly through access to TPG’s spectrum.
My point here is that the ACMA’s spectrum licensing arrangements helped facilitate Optus access to TPG spectrum and the overall agreement.
Flexible light touch approach to direct to devices facilitates expanded coverage
As you know, LEO sats can connect calls to your regular mobile device. This means you will be able to use your phone outside of terrestrial mobile coverage areas.
The MNO’s networks cover around 30 per cent of the Australian landmass, which is where most people live. But that leaves a huge part of the country uncovered.
Now, the ACMA had to make a decision on whether mobile network operators could use their existing spectrum to connect calls to their customers via LEO sats.
We have recently confirmed that the answer to this question is: yes. We are one of the first countries in the world to allow this flexibility.
Our approach means that MNOs can come to arrangements with LEO sat operators, and, using their national holdings, provide services outside their terrestrial footprint.
As Communications Day put it, ‘What is noticeable about the (ACMA’s) final decision is that it eliminates any form of red tape when it comes to satellite to mobile’.
Telstra, and Optus have agreements with LEO sat operators for direct to device services. I understand Vocus and TPG also have agreements with LEO sat operators.
Today, the Minister has announced a Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation which will oblige mobile carriers to provide access to mobile voice and SMS almost everywhere across Australia. This will be achieved via LEO sats, mobile spectrum and D2D.
We welcome the Minister’s announcement.
LEO sat services are also being used today to provide a fixed broadband service to households or businesses in regional and remote Australia.
Innovative licensing drives innovation in remote and regional Australia
We have also recently allocated a large number of Area Wide Licences or AWLs in regional, rural and remote parts of the country to support innovative use cases.
The ACMA developed these licences in response to industry’s need for licensing that could support highly sophisticated communications over a discrete area.
The licence type can support a wide variety of private ‘campus-style’ broadband networks to service industrial precincts, hospitals, mines and farms.
The innovation here is that the AWL is a mostly service and technology agnostic apparatus licence, which have historically been service specific.
It also drives industry innovation and contributes to enhancing productivity.
Over the last two years, we have allocated close to 100 such licences in regional and remote areas to support mining, industry and agriculture in areas like the Pilbara in Western Australia, Gladstone in Queensland and Muswellbrook in NSW.
Expiring spectrum licences
Finally, I would like to make some comments on expiring spectrum licences.
Expiring spectrum licences refer to licences held by mobile operators, who use it for wireless broadband to provide services across the country.
They are also held by media companies, who use it for electronic news gathering. And they are held by state rail corporations, who use it for network signalling.
These licences start expiring between 2028 and 2032. The ACMA must come to a view on whether to renew, partially renew or not renew these licences.
We have been consulting with stakeholders to understand whether they use all of this spectrum, to assist us in the decision we must make.
We must come to a view on the value of the spectrum. It’s a valuable public resource. In the last auction we conducted, the MNOs and NBN Co paid $720m for spectrum.
MNOs are saying that there should be a discount on what they pay for ESL. They are saying this ahead of any release of our preliminary views on spectrum values.
There are many critical matters still to be worked through in relation to usage, valuation and what the MNO pay for new licensing rights.
Conclusion
I started with a reference to the children’s book Are We There Yet? When it comes to consumer protections and regional, rural and remote communications the answer to this question is ‘not yet’. There is much work that is being done to get us closer.
And the ACMA’s effective spectrum management and consumer protection work is helping us on our journey.
Thank you for listening.