The fourth edition of the Communications Law Centre's guide to Australian Telecommunications Regulation has been published, and at more than 600 pages is almost double the size of the previous edition, published in 2004.

A year after he launched the ACMA's 'Reconnecting the Customer' enquiry into customer service in the telecommunications industry, ACMA chairman, Chris Chapman, has signalled strongly that the outcome will be tougher regulation, as he continues to pan the industry's customer service standards.

The Australian Communications Consumers Action Network (ACCAN) has called for the current self-regulatory telecoms consumer protection regime to be replace with a mandatory system that would require telcos to adhere to 'high level principles'; industry body, Comms Alliance has been quick to oppose the idea.

Communications minister, senator Stephen Conroy, has released a discussion paper on proposals for the Universal Service Obligation reforms that will be needed if the agreement with Telstra over its role in the NBN is consummated.

With VHA making much of its new 'post paid plans with 'unlimited' on-net calling and with Virgin Mobile countering by pointing out that it has offered the same 'for years' it seems that Virgin's parent, Optus, it seems, couldn't resist getting in on the act by announcing new prepaid offerings that it claims are 'virtually unlimited'.

The International Telecommunication Union has given broad support to the Rudd Government's telecommunications policy of funding the NBN in parallel with a tightening of regulation, in a wide-ranging report looking at telecommunications regulatory reform worldwide.

Telstra's competitors are angry at the ACCC's decision to maintain the status quo on regulated prices for access to key Telstra wholesale services, claiming that the ACCC has reneged on long-promised reforms that would have seen prices come down significantly.

Failure of the telecoms reform bill to get through Parliament has given Telstra a window of opportunity to wring from the Government more favourable terms in return for its involvement in the NBN.

Telecom New Zealand has secured an extension the deadlines for separating its IT systems, required as part of the operational separation undertakings given to the New Zealand Government.

A 20-year veteran of the telecommunications industry has been appointed head of Ovum’s consulting business in Australia and New Zealand to manage what the firm says is “continued and consistent growth within this segment of the business.”