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Peak communications consumer advocacy body ACCAN is celebrating a major step forward in its campaign for fair calls following an announcement today that the telco regulator, the Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) will put an end to the high cost of 1800 and 13 calls from mobiles.
The ACMA has plans to alter what’s known as the “Numbering Plan” so that calls from mobile phones to 1800 numbers will be free and 13 numbers will be a low fixed charge as they are from land lines and pay phones. At present these calls are charged rates of up to $1.78 per minute from mobiles, with the business or organisation at the other end also paying telcos for the cost of the calls.
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Peak telecommunications consumer advocacy group the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network says regardless of which party wins the Federal Election on August 21, what consumers really want to know is how each party will deliver affordable, accessible broadband services that meet the requirements of Australians into the future.
Read more: ACCAN calls for affordable broadband for all Australians
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Peak communications consumer body ACCAN has welcomed the Government’s move to greatly improve media access for people who are Deaf, blind, or who have vision or hearing impairments, by improving television captioning and trialling an audio description television broadcast service.
Read more: ACCAN welcomes improved media access for people with disability
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Complaints up by 31% as customer service levels reach a new low
ACCAN says the record-high complaints figures released by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) today are the final piece of evidence the regulator, the Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA), needs to justify strong action to bring the self-regulated industry under control.
Figures released by the TIO report 60,000 new complaints from January to March this year – more than 20,000 per month – and up by 31% on the record-high in the previous quarter.
Read more: Record complaints spell the end of an era for Australia’s most-hated industry
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Peak telecommunications consumer body ACCAN body says the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) needs to be given greater powers, including the ability to charge telcos more to resolve complaints and the right to award compensation to customers when a telco breaches its consumer protection obligations, in order to bring about real change to the industry.
Read more: Telco ombudsman must hit telcos’ hip pockets to encourage real change
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The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) is writing to federal, state and territory disability ministers today along with state and territory premiers and chief ministers urging them to adopt six key actions from its report Communications for All: the Role of the National Disability Strategy.
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Consumer advocacy group ACCAN says telecommunication providers need to stop charging mobile customers expensive per-minute rates for 13, 1300, 1800 calls to essential services, government agencies and businesses.
ACCAN welcomes today’s announcement that the Government is providing funding to the telcos to make Lifeline a free call from any phone but says there are thousands of vital 13 and 1800 numbers that many Australians are finding too expensive to call from mobiles.
Read more: Government funds Lifeline calls but long-term 13/1800 solution needed
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Australia has the potential to be a leader in harnessing the technologies of the National Broadband Network to benefit consumers with disabilities, ACCAN Australia’s peak communications consumer organisation said today.
A new international study commissioned by ACCAN reports on 16 high-speed broadband applications that can provide enormous benefits to people with disabilities.
Read more: Australia can be a leader in the accessible use of broadband
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ACCAN has a new a chair, Sue Salthouse was elected to the position at a recent ACCAN board meeting at which Kate Locke was elected Deputy Chair, Len Bytheway, Treasurer and Nan Bosler, Secretary.
New Chair, Sue Salthouse has been a member of the ACCAN Board since its inception and was also a member of the working group that formed the organisation.
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ACCAN welcomes today’s release of the Australian Government Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy by the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner, and Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities, Bill Shorten.
The Strategy outlines the steps that need to be taken to ensure all government web sites are compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 to its second highest AA level by 2015.
Read more: ACCAN applauds government's commitment to accessible web sites
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ACCAN today welcomed five new members to its Board. Professor Michael Fraser, Dr Ross Kelso, Ms Heron Loban, Ms Kate Locke and Ms Su Robertson were elected at ACCAN’s Annual General Meeting yesterday.
“I am confident the new members of the Board will provide insightful direction and effective strategic guidance and stewardship in steering the organisation in its role of strong advocate for communications consumers,” Allan Asher, CEO of ACCAN said.
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Any agreement between Telstra and the NBN Co must be exposed to public scrutiny and doesn’t remove the need for the structural separation of Telstra, said ACCAN, Australia’s peak communications consumer organisation.
ACCAN CEO Allan Asher said the whole country had a stake in the future of the broadband network.
“The community has lost its confidence in Telstra, so an agreement that isn’t explicit, that doesn’t tie Telstra into definite time frames and that doesn’t have a clear schedule for reducing Telstra market dominance, won’t be accepted by the community.