Announcement Date
14 November 2024
Link to Announcement
New telco industry rules for major outages | ACMA
Problem Being Addressed
The Optus outage of 8 November 2023 exposed the importance of customer communication during and in relation to outages. The outage had a significant impact on a wide range of Australians, affecting emergency services, government services, businesses and vulnerable people. Customers experienced delays in receiving advice or a detailed explanation about the cause and impact of the outage, or timeframes for rectification.
There are currently no mandatory requirements for the way in which telecommunications providers communicate with customers in relation to outages. In August 2024, the Minister for Communications, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP, directed ACMA to determine a standard under subsection 125AA(1) of the Telecommunications Act 1997 that deals with information to be provided or made available by carriers and carriage service providers (CSPs) relating to major outages that impact a telecommunications network used to supply carriage services to end-users.
Proposal
The Impact Analysis (IA) considers the following four options.
Option 1: Status quo. Under this option the government retains the status quo, refraining from introducing new regulation and relying on the current Industry Guideline.
Option 2: Direct regulation (Industry Standard). The Minister’s Direction provides the legal authority for ACMA to make a new industry standard under section 125AA of the Telecommunications Act 1997. Under the Direction, the Standard must require carriers and CSPs to ensure that communications with end-users during or in relation to a major outage will be timely, up-to-date, and accessible through a mix of public and direct communication channels.
Option 3: Direct regulation (amend the Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2019. Under this option instead of an Industry Standard (Option 2), ACMA could develop a determination requiring carriers to communicate specific information to customers during and about outages.
Option 4: Co-regulation (Industry Code). Under this option, the ACMA could request the Communications Alliance to develop a code that places obligations on carriers and CSPs in relation to customer communications during major outages.
Based on the analysis outlined in the IA, Option 2 has the highest overall net benefit and is in line with the Minister’s Direction.
Assessed Impact Analysis Outcome
Good practice
Assessment Comments
The Office of Impact Analysis (OIA) assessed the quality of the IA is good practice. The IA addresses the seven IA questions and follows an appropriate policy development process commensurate with the significance of the problem and magnitude of the proposed intervention. In particular, the IA includes a clear articulation of the rationale for government intervention and detailed consideration of the preferred option.
Regulatory Burden
The ACMA estimates regulatory costs for Option 2 is in the order of $14.78 million per year over the next 10 years for substantive compliance costs that fall to carriers and CSPs.