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Consumers, government, regulators and industry are all stakeholders in a radically shifting communications environment. Together we are responsible for shaping a competitive, efficient and fair communications market that deliver all the potential benefits of affordable, available and accessible communications services to end users.

The 2010 ACCAN National Conference and Consumer Summit asks participants to think about the opportunities and challenges that we face in the provision of essential communications services in a digital age. We’ll explore opportunities to make the market work better for consumers, with a strong emphasis on actively ensuring no-one is left behind.

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This Roundtable will hear about current cyber security issues from leading advocates in the disability sector, as well as discussing industry and government initiatives designed to create a safer online experience. The Roundtable will identify what people with disabilities need to protect themselves online.

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A complaint sent by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) today (7 June) details six separate examples of telecommunications advertising that the consumer group believes breach the Trade Practices Act because they are misleading, deceptive or unfair – and sometimes all three.

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Learning how to use and monitor your download usage effectively is the best protection against high bills. This ACCAN Consumer Meeting will provide information about how to avoid bill shock as well as assistance for case workers advising consumers about how to get redress for any complaints related to download bill shock.

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Australian Communications Consumer Action Network held an afternoon seminar on 4 November, looking at responsive regulation and effective policy making, and how engagement with consumers can be enhanced to get better results. This forum looked beyond the current, sterile stand-off between consumers on one side and policy makers and regulators on the other to meeting each other’s needs.

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Queensland Remote Aboriginal Media (QRAM)

Grant round: 2015

Grant: $49,600

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Smartphone, tablet, laptop and headphonesLast week, ACCAN's Disability Policy Advisor, Wayne Hawkins, presented at the NDIS New World Conference 2015 in Brisbane. The theme for the Conference was: Disability in the 21st century.

The event featured speakers from a range of organisations including Apple, National Disability Services, Ernst and Young and the National Disability Insurance Agency.

Wayne sat on the panel of the Universal Accessibility session, facilitated by Sean Fitzgerald, Director C3 Solutions. Other panellists included James Thurston from G3ictr, Daniel Hubbell from Microsoft and Dr Scott Hollier from Media Access Australia.

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The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has formed an alliance of organisations representing the interests of Australians who are Deaf, hearing impaired and those who rely on captions for information, to bring attention to the growing issue of inaccessibility of online audio/visual content being posted to websites. Specifically, there are concerns around the amount of video content that is being auto-captioned on YouTube as the vast majority of these videos are not being reviewed for accuracy or readability.

An ad hoc survey of Australian Government websites found a range of problems with video captions, including videos with no captions, video captions with minor misspellings and videos with completely incomprehensible captions. Go to ACCAN's Facebook page to view a photo album containing examples of incomprehensible captioning. The websites of many Australian politicians, political parties and Government agencies feature these inaccessible videos.

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shutterstock 196784018 - smallAll across Australia Schoolies celebrations are about to begin for many year 12 students. While travelling for Schoolies, or celebrating at parties, young people will undoubtedly have their smartphones with them along the way.

Below we've put together some tips for young people to ensure they use their smartphones safely.

Avoid risky behaviours

What happens at Schoolies doesn't always stay at Schoolies - especially if it's recorded in an image or video on a smartphone.

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The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) congratulates the telcos involved in the TIO and Communications Alliance quarterly Complaints in Context report for their efforts in reducing the number of complaints for the April-June 2015 quarter. The latest report shows that Vodafone, Telstra, Optus, amaysim and Pivotel had 6.5 TIO complaints per 10,000 services in operation (SIO) for the quarter, a decrease of 9.7 per cent on the previous quarter, and a 14.5 per cent drop when compared to April-June 2014.

Three out of the five telcos recorded lower complaints when compared to the previous quarter. This is a great result and is good for consumers. It's also positive to see smaller provider, Pivotel joining the Complaints in Context reporting.

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The summary below outlines ACCAN's activities from 1 June to 31 August 2015.

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The Universal Service Obligation (USO), which guarantees every premises access to a voice service, is outdated. Ensuring that the obligation is updated and that data and voice services are available to all is a key area of work for ACCAN.

Following our event in February, Rethinking the USO, and the findings of the Regional Telecommunications Review 2015, there was a need for further examination of options for the USO that delivers better for consumers. As such, ACCAN contracted John de Ridder, telecommunication economist, to prepare an Occasional Paper for ACCAN on the future of the USO to feed into our work and provide new perspectives.

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