The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has undertaken a review of the captioning obligations in Part 9D of the Broadcasting Services Act (1992) as prescribed in the legislation. ACCAN participated in the consultation in a written submission. Our response to the review reiterates ACCAN’s long-held view that accurate and comprehensible captions on broadcast television are essential for full and equitable access to our foremost medium for news, information and entertainment for all those Australians who rely on captions when viewing television.
Read more: 2016 Review of the Captioning Obligations in the BSA
The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) came in five years ago to help protect consumers. It is now being reviewed to make sure it is up to date.
ACCAN made 11 recommendations to the ACL Review. We want to make sure the ACL keeps pace with a number of new issues affecting communications consumers. Technology is ever changing and can lead to many benefits for consumers, sometimes laws struggle to keep up with these changes. ACCAN’s submission calls for a closer look at some of these gaps in the law, especially around digital marketplaces and new hybrid goods and services provided as part of the Internet of Things (IoT).
In March 2016 the Department of Communications and the Arts released an options paper: ‘Communications Accessibility: 2016 and Beyond’. The paper proposed a number of options related to the ongoing sustainability of the National Relay Service. The use of the National Relay Service over the past couple of years has increased due to the significant improvements to the service through the introduction of a number of new relay services.
The administrator of the .au domain space, .au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA), established a Panel of stakeholders to review the major Australian domain name policies and invited interested stakeholders to submit on in April 2015. This submission is in response to the latest round of consultation on the Draft Recommendations of the Panel.
Read more: Should .au be open to direct registrations? Draft Recommendations
.au Domain Administration (auDA) invited comment on a public issues paper about the way .au domain names are allocated and used. The paper has been prepared by a Names Policy Panel consisting of nominated members of the Australian Internet community who have expressed interest in helping shape policy for the .au domain space.
The International Mobile Roaming Standard requires mobile service providers to warn consumers about usage costs and limits when they use their mobile phones overseas. Since the introduction of the Standard consumer complaints have dramatically reduced. However, industry has proposed to remove key aspects of the Standard.
The Federal Government (Department of Communications) is conducting a review of the communications regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Many changes have occurred in communications in the last 10 years, and this pace is set to continue. The review is focused on the objectives, functions, structure, governance and resourcing needed for a future communications regulator to remain relevant and fit for purpose.
Read more: Review of the Australian Communications and Media Authority
The ACCC proposes to publish some of the information it collects as part of its regulatory oversight of nbn and Telstra. The information would provide an insight into the wholesale market, such as the number of services active by provider, technology, area and speed.
Mixed experiences from consumers from the migration to NBN have led to the Department of Communication creating a Migration Assurance Plan. The plan sets out the framework for migration from legacy networks to the NBN in the fixed footprint (it does not apply to areas receiving fixed wireless and satellite). During the four stages; serviceability, product availability, end user awareness and management and installation and activation, the plan outlines the expected information sharing and roles and responsibilities for all the parties involved.
Infrastructure Australia is tasked with producing a 15 year national Infrastructure Plan. In order to produce this they first set out to conduct an audit report. The Audit identified the key challenges which need to be addressed in the plan. Telecommunications infrastructure was one element examined by the audit.
The first communities which switched to the NBN fixed network experienced a number of issues. One issue was that some consumers were disconnected from their existing network while waiting for an NBN service to be activated, leaving them without services. To resolve this, and prevent its recurrence in the next planned switch over areas, additional time before disconnection of existing connections has been proposed. The ACCC also asked whether the additional time should be applied more generally to other areas or for known 'hard to reach' premises with complications, such as those with alarms.
The Regional Telecommunications Review is the only review that examines horizontal, or geographic, equity in telecommunications services and so is of value to consumers.
The timing of the 2015 review creates its own challenges, as two large infrastructure projects, namely the Mobile Black Spots Programme and the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN), are still in motion. It is difficult to predict what gaps will still exist going forward. In our submission ACCAN has tried to outline issues that it sees are persistent. Furthermore we have made suggestions on how these might be addressed.