Minister for Communications directs ACMA to make enforceable industry standards.
The Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages Industry Standards) Direction 2024 announced today requires the ACMA to make new rules to ensure that customers are kept informed and updated about major outages, for example, through website and email updates, on social media, and through radio and television news bulletins.
The ACMA will also make rules relating to customer communications about significant local outages that are smaller in scale than major outages.
When a significant local outage happens, for example, in a regional or remote community, the loss of connection can be very distressing and even dangerous, particularly where alternative connectivity options are limited. Ensuring consumers consistently have access to information and that they are kept updated is particularly important.
The Telecommunications (Complaints Handling Industry Standard Amendment) Direction 2024, also announced today, requires the ACMA to undertake a review of the existing Complaints Handling Industry Standard.
The ACMA will make any appropriate amendments to ensure consumers are adequately supported through their telco's complaints process, and ensure complaints processes are effective for consumers in the context of network outages.
This work stems from the Post-Incident Review of the Optus outage of 8 November 2023 (the Review), led by Mr Richard Bean.
The recommendations outlined in the Review set out a framework to help reduce the impact of future outages on the Australian community, including improving communication with customers regarding outages and managing customer complaints.