Telcos to be fined for tardy installations and repairs

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 09 August 2011 19:39

IT Policy - Regulation

The telco industry has got its first taste of tighter regulation, threatened by the ACMA as the result of its 'Reconnecting the Customer' enquiry into telecommunications customer service, with the introduction of a regime that will impose fines for failure to meet customer service timeframes.

Communications minister, senator Stephen Conroy has introduced a legislative instrument that he says will protect telecommunications users from poor customer service by enabling fines to be imposed on large service providers if they fail to meet the requirements of the Customer Service Guarantee Standard, which sets timeframes that all service providers must meet for the connection, fault repair, and keeping of appointments in relation to standard telephone services.

'Large Service Providers' are deemed those to have more than 100,000 standard telephone services nationwide. There are also separate thresholds for urban, rural and remote areas.

Conroy said: "If the CSPs don't meet the timeframes in 90 percent of cases, then the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) can fine them using the infringement notice powers provided by the Parliament at the end of 2010'¦

"Reporting by ACMA has shown the existing CSG Standard does not do enough to ensure service providers maintain or improve service quality, particularly in regional and remote areas. These new measures will promote consistency and provide incentives for service providers to improve performance, especially in rural and remote areas."

The new instrument is a draft for public consultation, but Conroy said: "The maximum penalty'¦ could be as high as approximately $2 million."

The instrument forms part of regulatory reforms and consumer safeguards made under the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Act 2010.

When he released the ACMA's draft report of the Reconnecting the Customer enquiry in June, ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said; "Under the RTC proposals, more than a thousand Australian telcos and ISPs will need to deliver on six major consumer protection measures, while coming under greater regulatory scrutiny to make sure they follow through'¦Further, more direct intervention by imposing industry standards and service provider determinations has been foreshadowed by the ACMA as the preferred approach for several of the proposals."

In their responses to the draft report industry players were almost unanimous in claiming that a revised Telecommunications Consumer Protection (TCP) Code would address the ACMA's concerns.