The summary below outlines ACCAN's activities from 1 March – 31 May 2017.

Read more: Quarter 4, FY16-17

SACOSS (South Australian Council of Social Service)

Grant Round: 2019

Amount: $99,112

Read more: Connectivity Costs II: Telecommunications Affordability and Waged Poor Households

Unwanted text messages can be incredibly annoying, especially when it feels like you can’t do anything to stop them. However, some text messages can be sent with the intent to cause harm and need to be treated with caution.

Scamwatch reports that Australians lost over $1.4 million to scam text messages in January alone. According to that report, text messages are now the most popular method for scammers to target people. While both the government and the telecommunications industry have announced that they’re looking into solutions for this problem, there are still a few things you can do to keep yourself safe.

Read more: Spotting Scam and Spam Text Messages

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) is proud to support Scams Awareness Week (7–11 November 2022).

Scams Awareness Week is an annual campaign hosted by the ACCC and the Scams Awareness Network, which raises awareness about common scams and offers tips on how people can protect themselves from scammers. This year Scams Awareness Week is about empowering people to learn how to spot a scam and encouraging them to take the time to check whether a communication or offer is real.

Read more: Empowering Aussies to Detect Scams

Tablet devices - Australian Capital Territory

Read more: Jasmine Opdam

ACCAN recently submitted to the ACCC’s Public Inquiry into the Declaration of the Domestic Transmission Capacity Service, Fixed Line Services and Domestic Mobile Terminating Access Service Draft Report.

ACCAN agrees with and supports the draft report’s recommendations to extend the declarations of:

Read more: ACCAN’s Submission to the ACCC Combined Declaration

What are captions?

Captions provide the dialogue and important background sounds in onscreen text for television viewers who are Deaf, hard of hearing or people watching television in noisy places, like the gym. Captions are displayed in text, usually at the bottom of the screen.

When are captions supposed to be provided on television?

All Australian free-to-air broadcasters must provide closed captions on programs shown between 6:00am and midnight on their primary channel (for example: Nine, Seven, Ten, ABC1 and SBS1). News and current affairs programs must have captions at all times.

Read more: Your rights: captions on television

This position statement has been issued by peak disability and consumer groups regarding the two proposed mobile emergency services for people who are Deaf, hearing-impaired or with speech impairment or complex communication needs (CCN). We stand together in calling for a simultaneous implementation of bothan SMS emergency service and an emergency service provided via a smartphone application.

Read more: Access for people with disability to emergency calls

In response to emerging concerns around issues such as illegal downloading, ACCAN believes consumers’ interests must be represented in relation to copyright policy. As the peak consumer body representing communications consumers, we think it is important that we clarify our position on these issues and explain how we arrived at it.

Read more: Copyright and Consumers

Download: The Great Enabler?3.01 MB

Download accessible version: The Great Enabler?64.5 KB

The impact of session rounding on mobile data costs

Mobile data is an important resource in our connected lives, but one that is challenging to estimate when selecting a mobile plan. Our mobile data use can vary significantly from month to month depending on many factors such as access to Wi-Fi when at home or work and use while commuting. Another factor that many do not consider is the impact of data session rounding.

Read more: Megacharge

The summary below outlines ACCAN's activities from 1 December 2016 to 28 February 2017.

Read more: Quarter 3, FY16-17

WEstjustice

Grant Round: 2019

Amount awarded: $50,000

Read more: Newly-Arrived Consumers Telecommunications Advocacy Project

According to the eSafety Commissioner, 26% of kids and 75% of teens are using Facebook, and 24% of kids and 70% of teens are on Instagram. The stats are similar across various other social media sites and digital platforms, particularly as we’re seeing social media become the main form of communication for young people. 

With more and more children using social media as their main form of communication, it’s important to consider what parents can do to keep them safe online. 

Read more: Protecting your Child on Social Media

In light of rapid increases to the cost of living, the peak body for communications consumers has welcomed new measures announced in this week’s federal budget to improve the affordability of communications services and boost digital inclusion across the nation. The announcements echo calls made by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) to establish a concessional broadband product for households on low incomes.

Read more: Affordability and digital inclusion measures welcomed by advocates

Read more: Amelia Radke

ACCAN recently submitted to the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts' consultation on extending telecommunications security reform instruments.

ACCAN supports extending the Telecommunications (Carrier License Conditions—Security Information) Declaration 2022 and the Telecommunications (Carriage Service Provider—Security Information) Determination 2022 for 18 months while the Australian Government consults on longer term telecommunications security arrangements.

Read more: Extending telecommunications security reform instruments

The mobile phone is arguably more important than the fixed phone line for personal and business communications in regional and remote Australia, but users without reliable mobile coverage are missing out on this communications revolution. ACCAN has advocated strongly on this issue for a number of years and believes that the Australian Government has a vital role to play in improving mobile coverage in regional and remote Australia.

Read more: Regional and remote mobile coverage

Download: Smartphone Nation - Autumn 20131.27 MB

There are many factors that affect the performance of broadband services that could inform consumer decision making, as shown in the ACCC broadband performance monitoring trial. At the same time, broadband literacy amongst consumers is low. This short survey sought to understand the basis on which consumers decide on broadband products, and provide insight into what information is useful in future decision making.

Read more: Broadband performance consumer decision making

The summary below outlines ACCAN's activities from 1 September 2016 to 30 November 2016.

Read more: Quarter 2, FY16-17

UTS Faculty of Law, UNE School of Law

Grant round: 2017-18

Amount: $50,603

Read more: Responsive Engagement: Involving Consumers and Citizens in Communications Industry Rule-making