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Number Woman wants 13 & 1800 calls from mobiles to be affordable

Australia’s newest superhero, Number Woman, has today written to the chief executives of the big three network providers, Telstra, Optus and Vodafone, appealing to them to become a consumer superhero by ending expensive, per-minute timed calls from mobiles to the 13, 1300 and 1800 numbers used by hundreds of thousands of government services and businesses.

Once every three years the Department of Broadband, Communications & the Digital Economy (DBCDE) undertakes a Regional Telecommunications Review, which considers whether people in regional, rural and remote parts of Australia have equitable access to telecommunications.

If your organisation is based in regional Australia, or you live in regional Australia, we’d love to hear your views via this short survey by 4 November 2011.

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ACCAN has made a submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Facilities Access Code consultation.

The discussion paper asked whether improvements could be made to the code which provides a process for carriers to access each other’s infrastructure, co-locate equipment and co-build facilities in order to reduce the cost of providing services and protecting community amenity through duplication of infrastructure. The code also provides voluntary consultation and negotiation processes for carriers as well as a framework for dispute resolution in the event that they cannot agree on access arrangements.

Although the code has been largely successful in promoting co-location and reducing duplication, there are indications that in regional areas it has been less effective. There are also some indications that carriers may have incentives to preclude access or co-location where there are commercial advantages to doing so.

ACCAN made the following key points:

ACCAN says today marks a major step forward in important reforms to make calls from mobile phones to 1800/13 numbers free or the cost of a local call, as they currently are from landlines.

The Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) has today committed to amend the relevant regulation following further consultation and have industry implement the changes by January 2015.

ACCAN has made a submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Mobile Terminating Access Service (MTAS) declaration inquiry.

The review asked whether access to mobile networks should be 'declared' for the purpose of connecting calls.

'Declaring' a service allows a mobile call to be connected between two different providers at a fixed per-minute rate and on certain terms. For example, if your phone provider is Telstra it allows you to call a friend on Optus.

In this example MTAS makes sure that Telstra can connect a call on the Optus network at a rate which represents the cost of the call. Without declaration Optus would be free to charge well above cost to access its network and this high cost would probably be passed on to consumers.

ACCAN made the following key points:

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) and Media Access Australia (MAA) are calling on the major television networks to include comprehensive captioning on digital free-to-air multichannels after new research has found a high level of awareness and use of closed captions – even among those who aren’t hearing impaired.

A lively two-day event being held in Alice Springs this Thursday and Friday (26th-27th July) will focus on the unique communications needs of people living and working in remote Australia and how best to deliver them. The event will include representatives from Federal, state and territory governments, NBN Co, members of the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee, community organisations, researchers and technical specialists.

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The ACMA periodically reviews the Telecommunications (International Mobile Roaming) Industry Standard 2013 (IMR Standard) to ensure it continues to be effective in the changing telecommunications environment. ACCAN submitted to the current review and argued that whilst the IMR Standard continues to offer strong consumer protections, there are some areas for improvement:

  • Consumers must be notified when they switch between different roaming services such as daily roaming packs and traditional pay-as-you-go roaming

  • Consumers must be notified more regularly about how much they have spent on roaming, and at a minimum at $50 increments

  • Consumers must be notified prior to incurring extra charges (e.g. for data beyond what is included in their service). This notification should be provided with adequate time for consumers to turn off their roaming service if they wish to do so

  • Information about usage and charges relating to roaming must be current, and at a minimum no older than 2 hours, to ensure consumers are able to properly manage and control their usage and spending.

The global organisation representing consumer groups, Consumers International, is asking Australians to be part of their project aimed at holding internet service providers to account. You can help by taking part in the 10-minute online survey so we can see how Australia compares to the rest of the world for broadband services.

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Mobile carriers must come clean on exactly how their exorbitant global roaming fees are derived, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) says, as the federal government today announced a new international roaming standard that it is hoped will reduce the number of consumers suffering from global roaming bill shock.

The Federal Government is developing reforms to give consumers greater access and control over their data held by companies they do business with, like banks, energy companies and telcos. The Consumer Data Right will allow customers to transfer their data to different providers to see if those providers offer products that would be more suitable, at a better price.

For consumers, greater use and control of their data could provide significant benefits through helping them to find services they need at reduced prices.

In this consultation, The Treasury is asking for comments on the draft legislation that will underpin the consumer data right, before the legislation is introduced into Federal Parliament.

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.

We've been advocating for available, accessible and affordable communications in the lead up to the September election, discussing our current policy priority wish list with politicians from all major parties:

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The Federal Government is reviewing consumer protections in telecommunications. The aim is to ascertain whether existing arrangements will be fit for purpose in an environment where NBN is the underlying infrastructure provider, and consumer use of services has changed considerably since the existing framework was developed. The review is divided into three parts:

  • Part A – Redress and Complaints Handling - completed in 2018.
  • Part B – Reliability of Services - launched in November 2018 with submissions closing 18 January 2019.
  • Part C – Choice and Fairness - expected in the first half of 2019.

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.

The review of the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code has been underway since August 2017. The Code sets out rules for how retail service providers must deal with their customers. It covers sales, customer service, contracts, billing, credit and debt management, financial hardship, and transfers between providers.

The Code is reviewed periodically to ensure it reflects current market offers, trends and consumer needs. ACCAN is a part of the Working Committee (comprised of industry, consumer, government and regulatory representatives) for the review and has consulted widely with its members throughout this process.

A draft TCP Code was recently released for public comment. ACCAN’s submission to this consultation focused on the need to improve consumer protection by strengthening the requirements on providers in a range of key areas. In particular ACCAN would like to see better practices for:

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has called for new rules that require consumers to give their consent before receiving any kind of mobile premium service.

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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.

The Regional Telecommunications Review is conducted every three years and is an important forum for examining telecommunications issues and equity of services in regional, rural and remote Australia.

Since the last review in 2015 the rollout of the National Broadband Network in regional areas has almost been completed, and communities and consumers are starting to see the benefits of greater investment in regional and remote telecommunications services. However, for many people in regional and remote Australia the digital divide remains entrenched. There is a need for further investment in infrastructure, targeted affordability measures and digital literacy support programs to close this divide.

In our submission ACCAN has outlined emerging or persistent issues and recommended actions on how these might be addressed. These include:

The Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) have begun the exciting and challenging mission of  rebuilding their website www.acma.gov.au and they're looking for your help.

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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.

ACCAN recently submitted to the Department of Communications and the Arts consultation on Copyright Modernisation. The modernisation of copyright has the potential to bring significant benefits to consumers and ACCAN supports reforms to ensure that consumers are appropriate protected and can have confidence when interacting with the copyrighted material.

In our submission, we reiterated our support for reforms including:

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.  

After a year of community calls for action, including those made Fair Calls for All superhero, Number Woman, the telecommunications regulator, the Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA), has proposed changes so that 1800 numbers will be free and 13/1300 numbers will cost about 30 cents to call from a mobile phone, just as they currently do from landlines.

Now’s the time to take action! The ACMA wants to hear from interested parties by this Wednesday 30th November. So far we've had over 750 people make a submission, and we've made it easy for you to share your story.

Send a message to the ACMA to say that you want Fair Calls For All. It only takes a minute or two!

Further background on the Fair Calls campaign. 

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