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Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) compiled a report outlining how the telecommunications industry's financial hardship policies and practices compare with those of the banking, energy and water industries. Through FCA's first-hand experiences of working with clients experiencing, or at risk of, financial hardship, as well as through discussions with consumer advocates, staff from industry hardship teams, government representatives and staff from external dispute resolution (EDR) schemes, a set of best practice recommendations was compiled.

The final report, with the recommendations, can be found on the ACCAN Grants Scheme webpage.

You should report all problems to your retail service provider in the first instance.

What if the service stops working?

You should report any service problems to your retail service provider, who will investigate the cause of the problem. Retail service providers should endeavour to repair all faults in a reasonable timeframe.

Who is responsible for services; nbn or the service provider?

The retail service provider is responsible for the service that they deliver to you under the contract that you agreed to.

What if I don’t get the speeds and performance that I was expecting?

There are a number of factors that may affect your service.

If you exceeded your data allowance then your retail service provider may slow your service, usually to 128kbps.

You should contact your retail service provider if the performance is below expectation. Outline the service issues that you are having and how it is not meeting your expectations. If they are unable to improve your service you can take your complaint to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (1800 062 058).

Is there equipment that I can purchase that will improve my experience of the service?

There are a number of products, such as specialised satellite boosters to routers, which claim to improve the performance of the service and reduce data consumption for satellite connections.

These can be very costly and may offer little to no improvement. You should check your performance with your retail service provider before making expensive purchases. There may be other solutions to improve performance issues you are experiencing.

What if the dish or wiring gets damaged?

The satellite dish and related equipment up to and including the modem remains the property of nbn. If damage occurs immediately contact your retail service provider. An nbn technician may visit your premises if any damages occur. If the damage was caused by you then you may have to pay for the repair. If damage is caused by weather events, then you might be able to recover the costs from your home and contents insurance. It is recommedned that the nbn equipment is listed on your insurance policy.

What are my consumer rights?

As a consumer you have a number of rights under the Australian Consumer Law. In particular your retail service provider must:

provide clear and accurate information in advertising, contracts and bills
give you help if you’re having problems paying bills and take steps before disconnecting your service
provide good service and deal quickly with complaints
provide a repair, replacement, refund, compensation or cancellation, depending on the circumstances.

If your retail service provider is unable to fix performance issues you can raise your complaint with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.

CHECK!

There may be costs associated with repairing damaged equipment. Ask your retail service provider what costs might apply.

Get Connected magazine cover

Download: ACCAN Magazine Issue 22 Summer 20173.93 MB (Note: reading order not accessible)

Download accessible version: ACCAN Summer 2017 Magazine - Accessible Version39.29 KB

Date: 11-12 September 2019
Venue: Aerial UTS Function Centre, Sydney

ACCAN is constantly striving for improved, consumer-friendly, telecommunications services for all Australians. This year we celebrate a decade of bringing the consumer voice to the telco table.

ACCANect 2019 will provide an opportunity for consumers to reflect on the last 10 years of change in telecommunications and to hear about the challenges and triumphs that consumers have faced. We will also look to the future and hear from our guest speakers about the current trends and increase in demand for telecommunications services towards 2030.

Read more: ACCANect 2019

A new report released today by Australia’s peak communications consumer organisation, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), shows that telco customer service representatives are being encouraged to focus on selling over service, potentially exposing consumers to questionable selling practices.

ACCAN believes that everyone must have equal, reliable and appropriate access to the emergency call service (Triple Zero) from a range of devices. Our position is that people should be able to use SIMless phones to genuinely contact Triple Zero as needed.

Proposals to reduce non-genuine calls to Triple Zero have included barring calls from SIMless devices. There are several situations when calls to Triple Zero appear to come from SIMless devices. ACCAN recommends more research into whether devices without SIMs represent a high proportion of all non-genuine calls made to Triple Zero.

Charles Sturt University

Telecommunications accounts cannot be held jointly by multiple parties. "Family Plans" are commonly promoted as an economic option for multiple users. These plans have multiple devices (with multiple users) contracted to one person as the 'Customer'. This project investigates the surveillance risks (including call, message and location monitoring) that Family Plans present during ongoing relationships, in particular those at risk of domestic violence.

The summary below outlines ACCAN's activities from 1 December 2021 – 28 February 2022