Conroy tightens measures to protect telecoms consumers

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 15 September 2009 13:03

IT Industry - Strategy

Consumer protection aspects of telecoms legislation - such as the standard telephone service, the provision of payphones and the customer service guarantee will be tightened considerably under the proposed new telecommunications legislation and much greater control given to the minister and the ACMA.

The current legislation leaves many details of the universal service obligation - which covers payphones and the provision of the standard telephone service - to the discretion of the USO provider, Telstra, and as the new legislation's explanatory memorandum notes, the requirements imposed on Telstra "are imprecise and difficult to enforce."

The proposed changes were welcomed by Allan Asher, head of the new telecomms consumer body ACCAN, who said that the consumer gains promised by the 1997 telecoms legislation had failed to materialise because those reforms were "half hearted and regulators were ill equipped for the task [of protecting consumers]... The past assumption that retail competition will guarantee high levels of customer service has proved false.'

He added: "The new provisions for minimum performance benchmarks and the powers which enable ACMA to issue infringement notices are overdue but welcome...The structural separation implicit in the government's proposals, plus improvements to the consumer protection regime may at last provide for vigorous competition in fair and informed markets."

The USO requires Telstra to provide the standard telephone service as defined by legislation. The amendments would give the minister power to determine the characteristics and performance standards of the standard telephone service. These would include maximum periods for new connections and fault rectification and reliability standards. There are also new provisions providing minimum performance benchmarks that the universal service provider must meet in fulfilling its responsibilities.

Although the USO covers the supply of payphones, Telstra's interpretation of this requirement (ie from what locations it chooses to remove payphones) has long been the source of much consumer unrest. The Bill gives the minister power to rule on the supply, installation, maintenance and location of payphones and will put in place new rules covering public consultation and notification of proposals to remove payphones. The ACMA will have new powers to direct Telstra not to remove payphones, and affected citizens wil be able to request the ACMA to apply these powers.

The legislation also gives the minister direct power over the customer service guarantee. This requires telephone companies to meet minimum performance standards or provide customers with financial compensation when these standards are not met. But, according to the Government, "compliance reporting undertaken by the ACMA indicates declining industry performance against the CSG requirements, which suggests the existing arrangements are not providing sufficient incentive for the industry to maintain or improve service quality."

The proposed legislation would enable the minister to establish minimum CSG performance benchmarks and make failure by a service provider to meet a CSG standard subject to a civil penalty under the Telecommunications Act.

Also, the minister would be able to establish new CSG timeframes for connections and repair that will apply to wholesale providers whose services under pin retail services that are subject to the CSG. At present a retail service provider must compensate a customer if it is unable to meet a CSG requirement, but may be unable to fulfil that requirement because of failure of a wholesale provider to deliver an underlying service, for example tardiness by Telstra in fixing a fault in the copper pair servicing the affected customer.