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The creator of Vodafail.com, Adam Brimo, has submitted a damning 30-page document to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) that summarises the experiences of 12,000 Vodafone customers in relation to poor 3G network coverage, customer service and complaint handling by the telco.

The report, Vodafone situation: yesterday, today and tomorrow, analyses thousands of similar stories from customers about hours spent on hold to Vodafone’s call centre trying to make a complaint about its 3G network issues, including frequent call dropouts and delayed receipt of voicemail and text messages.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has powers to request information from providers in the telecommunications market about telecommunications infrastructure. These powers are an important tool to inform the ACCC’s work. As an example, the ACCC could use these powers to request information about infrastructure like the mobile networks owned by Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.

The ACCC is consulting on improvements and revisions to the information it requests from telco infrastructure providers. ACCAN welcomes the proposed changes to these rules as they benefit competition in the telecommunications markets.

ACCAN, the national peak communications consumer organisation commends today’s Federal Government’s decision to make all government web sites compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 to its second highest AA level by 2015.

Google will be holding an interactive seniors workshop at ACCAN and Telstra's upcoming M-Enabling Australasia 2013 conference, being held on 14-15 August in Sydney. This is the perfect opportunity for seniors of all technical abilities to ask Google volunteers some questions and learn plenty of valuable new skills.

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As a member of the Broadband for the Bush Alliance (B4BA), ACCAN contributed to a response to the NT Government’s discussion paper, Towards a digital strategy for the NT. The paper clearly outlines many of the benefits of increased connectivity and ICT innovation for Territorians. However,  B4BA argues in its submission that in order to design and implement an effective digital strategy, current barriers to affordable, accessible, and reliable telecommunications services must be addressed.

Importantly, B4BA has recommended that the NT Government’s digital strategy should prioritise achieving basic levels of access for all Territorians. This would include providing reliable and affordable broadband internet in the 44 communities where it is not yet available, and mobile services in the 30 communities where there currently are none.

Media reports that Telstra will put in place an “app cap” to cut off smartphone users’ internet access once they’ve reached their data allowance limit are not yet a reality, according to consumer group ACCAN.

The telco giant is yet to decide whether or not they will allow their customers to nominate a maximum spend to help them avoid bill shock, says ACCAN.

A record 76 groups and individuals applied for a total of $250,000 in funding in the 2012 round of the ACCAN Grants Scheme, which closed on April 2.

ACCAN Research and Grants Officer Robin McNaughton said this year’s applications were of a very high standard and a great mix of projects targeting a diverse range of consumer issues.

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Recently, auDA, the body responsible for Australia’s domain name system agreed to introduce ‘direct registrations’. This is where your chosen internet domain name does not use the familiar “.com.au”, “.net.au”, “.org.au”, and new names will be simply “orgname.au”.

Many Australian not-for-profit organisations and businesses currently have domain names for their internet presences under the second level domains. For example: *.com.au and *.org.au. Domain names are used to find resources and services on the internet such as web pages (eg www.accan.org.au) and email addresses (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

On Thursday 6 May, the Australian Government released the long awaited report known as the National Broadband Network (NBN) Implementation Study.

Please go to the DBCDE website for a copy of the NBN Implementation Study.

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Annual complaints data released by the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman (TIO) reveals telco complaints remain at unacceptably high levels, according to peak communications consumer body, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN).

ACCAN recently provided feedback to the Digital Transformation Agency on the draft documents for the Trusted Digital Identity Framework.

The documents set out the rules (policies, standards, and requirements) for all organisations and agencies that want to take part in the Government’s digital identity project. When the project is complete, consumers will be able to create a single online identity called ‘Govpass’ to login into all services provided by the participating agencies and organisations.

It’s only six weeks til entries close for the Telstra-TJA Christopher Newell Prize for Telecommunications and Disability.

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Seven projects have been successful in the second round of the ACCAN Independent Grants Scheme.

ACCAN CEO Allan Asher today congratulated the diverse range of recipients including Able Australia Services, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Council on the Ageing WA, Danielle Notara, the Institute for Interactive Media and Learning (UTS), Novita Children’s Services, and a joint project between the Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Centre for Appropriate Technology, and Central Land Council.

ACCAN recently submitted to the Communications Alliance on its consultation paper, Industry Managed Numbering Arrangements. Communications Alliance is proposing to take over all responsibilities for the management of telecommunications numbering, which is currently undertaken by the ACMA, Communications Alliance, and Industry Number Management Systems Ltd.

Numbering is important as telephone numbers let consumers know what type of service is being called (i.e. a mobile, national, international, toll or free number) and how much a call is likely to cost. This has important accessibility and affordability implications.

The Australian Communication Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) says the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) report, Mobile capped plans, barely scratches the surface of the extent of problems Australian consumers are experiencing in relation to mobile phone bills.

The backlash by industry groups against long-overdue data breach reporting laws would be worrying if it wasn’t so predictable.

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5G mobile broadband services are expected to deliver many benefits and increased capacity services for consumers. The ACMA is examining the use of a spectrum band (3.6GHz) for this use in the near future.

New Galaxy research commissioned by ACCAN has found one in two telco customers have experienced a problem with their phone or internet service provider in the past year, with technical problems, customer service and complaint handling topping the list of complaints.

Registrations are now open for the M-Enabling Australasia 2013 conference and showcase being held in Sydney on 14th and 15th August. This international event will feature a stellar line up of speakers and showcase new products and services that enable people with disability and older people to make the most of mobile technologies.

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Since May 2016 nbn has been attempting to change the rules under which it operates in a document called the Special Access Undertaking (or SAU). These changes need to be approved by the ACCC. Primarily, this is to include other technologies (HFC, FTTN and FTTB) in the SAU. After the ACCC refused to accept its last proposed changes, nbn has revised the document again.

Millions of Australian households will remain protected from unwanted telemarketing calls, thanks to a proposed last minute change to the Do Not Call Register, ACCAN Australia’s peak communications consumer organisation said today.

The 2011 round of the ACCAN Grants Scheme opens today with $250,000 in funding to support consumer research, representation, or education projects related to communications in Australia.  The peak communications group says eligible community organisations, research bodies and individuals looking to fund communications projects can apply for funding of up to $60,000.

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The ACCC requires nbn to report quarterly on the number of services operating on its network. The data provides transparency about the types of service sold by nbn (for example, by technology and speed level) and which telecommunications providers are buying what. The ACCC releases some of the data collected to the public. (to understand why this data is so useful see our blog). The ACCC recently consulted about the usefulness of this reporting and if it should continue.

Peak communications consumer body ACCAN says the findings from the $25 million National Broadband Network (NBN) Implementation Study offers good news for Australians, who could pay prices comparable to today’s retail costs in exchange for higher speed broadband with higher download limits, provided there is vigorous competition in the retail market.

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