Telecommunications contract and grant registers

Contract value: $2.4 million GST inclusive* 
The contract with Scyne Advisory is for the purpose of undertaking trials and providing analysis on the suitability of different technologies to deliver fixed voice services in rural and remote areas of Australia.

The terms of the contract require Scyne Advisory to:

• objectively assess LEOSats available outside the NBN fixed-line footprint for their suitability to support high-quality and reliable voice services
• trial voice services in a representative range of regional and remote areas across Australia, with different geographic, topographic and climatic characteristics
• provide robust analysis to assist in understanding reasons for any variability in performance of services over time.

* This value is the amount provided through public interest telecommunications funding through the Telecommunications Industry Levy (TIL). An additional allocation of funding has been made from the Better Connectivity Plan to assist with the delivery of this project.

Universal Service Obligation—standard telephone service (Module B)

Contract value: $253 million per annum (GST inclusive).

Telstra has a contractual obligation to supply the Standard Telephone Service (STS) so that voice services are reasonably accessible to all people in Australia on an equitable basis. This includes an offer to a customer to purchase or hire a handset. Telstra receives funding to operate and maintain its existing copper network to provide the STS in areas where the NBN fibre fixed line network will not be deployed.

Universal Service Obligation—payphones (Module C)

Contract value: $44 million per annum (GST inclusive).

Telstra has a contractual obligation to supply, install and maintain public payphones and supply payphone carriage services so that payphones are reasonably accessible to all people in Australia on an equitable basis.

Voice only Customer Migration (Module D)

Contract Value: A maximum amount of $165 million (GST inclusive) over 10 years (commenced on 1 July 2012).

During the fibre rollout, the Department reimburses Telstra for the costs it incurs in providing assistance to eligible voice-only customers to enable those customers to migrate their voice telephone service to the NBN fixed line network.

Emergency Call Service (Module E)

Current contract value: Up to $22 million per annum (GST inclusive).

Telstra has a contractual obligation to supply the Emergency Call Service in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements for up to 20 years.

In addition to annual payment for ongoing supply of the Emergency Call Service, the Department will also meet the reasonable costs of any major upgrades to Telstra's Emergency Call Service platforms and systems.

Estimate of total amount up to $22 million per annum (GST inclusive) to a maximum of $66 million (GST inclusive) from the commencement of service delivery after 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2022.

Description

The relay service provider must provide comparable access for users to an STS, as defined in the Telecommunications Consumer Protection and Service Standards Act 1999. Comparable access must be provided through any of the following services, for which the provider is required to do everything within its reasonable control and capability to ensure it is operated 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

The Services to be delivered by the Service Contractor are:

1. NRS Chat service, which must be available 24 hours per day, every day of the year, to allow users to communicate via the Internet to make and receive calls while a relay officer uses voice to communicate with the other party.
2. SMS Relay service available to users 24 hours per day, every day of the year.
3. Teletypewriter (TTY) service to be available 24 hours per day, every day of the year. This includes: 'type and read', 'speak and read' (voice carryover) and 'type and listen' (hearing carryover).
4. NRS Captions service, which must be available 24 hours per day, every day of the year, to allow users to make and receive calls using their voice to speak their side of the conversation and also listening to the other side of the conversation with a data connection which providing a text version of the other side of the conversation.
5. Video Relay Services in all Australian States and Territories, to allow people for whom Auslan is their preferred first language to make and receive calls, and be available from 7:00AM to 6:00PM Australian Eastern Standard Time [Monday to Friday with the exception of national public holidays].
6. Delivery of Voice Relay services which must be available 24 hours per day, every day of the year.
7. Development and delivery of an application available on mobile devices.
8. The maintenance of processes, systems and software to ensure that calls requesting 106 and 000 be handled by the Service Contractor with the highest priority [with the exception of calls to 000 through video relay services].
9. Consumer liaison, including handling enquiries, as well as collecting and receiving feedback and complaints from consumers and potential consumers of the Relay Services, which must be available from 8:00AM to 6:00PM Australian Eastern Standard Time [Monday to Friday with the exception of national public holidays].

Grant Value: $1,070,000 GST Inclusive

The Services to be delivered by the grant recipient:

The purpose of the grant is to provide ACCAN with the funding it requires to operate the Accessible Telecoms website and associated research and services. The website assists consumers, particularly older people and those with a disability, to access independent information about accessible technologies and services to access the Standard Telephone Service.

Terms and conditions to be met by the grant recipient:

The grantee is required to use the grant to operate the Accessible Telecoms website, including but not limited to website management, research into accessible telecommunications products and services and the provision of a help desk service. The grantee is required to provide reporting setting out activities undertaken and how the grant funds were used in accordance with the grant agreement.