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ACCAN's Community Consultation GuidepdfCommunity Consultation Guide5.36 MB

ACCAN has launched the 2nd Edition of the Community Consultation Guide, in time for Round 2 of the Federal Government's Mobile Black Spot Programme. The Guide is designed to help communities address issues with mobile coverage in their areas.

Mobile coverage is a key issue for consumers, particularly those in regional, rural and remote Australia. Achieving improvements in mobile coverage is a priority focus of ACCAN's work. The Mobile Black Spot Programme will deliver improvements to mobile coverage, but the demand for these improvements will far outstrip supply.

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Image of ACCAN Magazine cover, Issue 14 Summer 2015

Download: pdfACCAN Magazine - Issue 14 Summer 2015.pdf1.37 MB (Note: reading order not accessible)

Download accessible version: docxAccessible ACCAN Mag - Issue 14 Summer 2015.docx44.97 KB

 

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Credit reporting tipsheet coverDownload: docCredit Reporting72.5 KB

Download: pdfCredit Reporting817.83 KB

What is credit reporting?

Credit reporting is used by organisations to help decide whether or not they are willing to lend money to a particular person. Credit providers and credit reporting agencies are the main organisations involved in credit reporting. Credit providers are businesses such as banks, car loan  companies and telecommunications service providers that lend money or provide credit to their customers.

Credit providers send information about your debts to private companies called credit reporting agencies (CRAs). There are three main CRAs in Australia:

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The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), the peak body for communications consumers in Australia, has opposed costs being worn by consumers should a data retention bill be passed by Parliament.

In a submission on the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014 to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, ACCAN recognised that in many cases access to communications data by criminal law-enforcement agencies is legitimate and necessary. However, robust and independent oversight mechanisms are crucial to ensure the privacy of Australian citizens is not compromised unduly.

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The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014 was introduced into Parliament on 30 October 2014 and is currently being reviewed by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.

The Bill will require telecommunications service providers to retain telecommunications data (also commonly referred to as metadata) for two years. Metadata is information about communications (e.g. the time a phone call was made and its duration), information about the parties to the communication (e.g. the sender and the receiver) including account and location information, and the device used. It does not require that service providers retain the content or substance of a communication, but metadata can still reveal a lot of information about an individual and those they interact with. For example, revealing who a person is in contact with, how often and where, can help to paint a picture of that person's private political opinions, sexual habits, religion or medical conditions.

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ACCAN has released the 2015 ACCAN Grants Guidelines ahead of the Scheme's opening on Monday 16th February 2015. The Scheme will be accepting applications for six weeks: from 16th February until 31st March 2015.

The ACCAN Grants Scheme funds projects that work towards a telecommunications market that is fair and inclusive for all – a market which is available, accessible and affordable. Projects focus on developing research, representation, or educational tools that address issues for telecommunications consumers in Australia.

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The Department of Communications has consulted on an update to the 2011 Fibre in New Developments Policy. The consultation document sets out proposed arrangements for the delivery of broadband in new housing developments and the charges NBN Co can levy on developers and owners. This is part of a package of Government responses to the recommendations of the 2014 Vertigan review and cost benefit analysis. The update aims to promote competition among infrastructure providers, and new arrangements are to be in place by 1st March 2015. One significant change is that developers and owners will now have to meet some of the costs that NBN Co has carried until now (fibre roll out and connection).

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How consumers are migrated from Telstra to NBN Co is set out in procedures in a Migration Plan. These were initially put in place in 2011 when the Government's NBN plan was to rollout fibre to the premises (FTTP). Since then the National Broadband Network (NBN) model has changed to be delivered using a Multi Technology Mix (MTM), using technologies such as fibre to the node (FTTN), fibre to the basement (FTTB) and HFC. The new range of technologies requires a revised Migration Plan. The Department of Communications ran a consultation over the Christmas/New Year period on principles to be used in the new Migration Plan, and ACCAN has submitted identifying some consumer issues to be taken into account.

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The Australian Communications Consumer Action network (ACCAN), the peak body for communications consumers in Australia, congratulates the Federal Government on its inclusion of 'accessibility' in the current Request For Tender (RFT) of ICT Hardware and other Services.

Acknowledging 'desirability' of products and services to meet international best practice standards of accessibility will help ensure that digital information and services provided by government agencies will be accessible to Australians with disability.

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The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), the peak body representing communications consumers in Australia, has launched its Community Consultation Guide, which is designed to help communities address issues with mobile coverage in their areas.

Mobile coverage is a key issue for consumers, particularly those in regional, rural and remote Australia. Achieving improvements in mobile coverage is a priority focus of ACCAN's work. Earlier this month, we welcomed the release of the guidelines for the Federal Government's Mobile Black Spot Programme, but know that even with the improvements the Programme will deliver, demand for improved network coverage will far outstrip supply.

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The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), the peak body for communications consumers in Australia, has launched an online Hardship Portal – a set of resources to assist people through tough times.

The Portal is designed for financial counsellors as well as consumers experiencing financial hardship. It provides links to the hardship policies of Telstra, Optus and Vodafone and outlines how to get help and the different options available.

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Telecommunications access and affordability among people experiencing financial hardship

Anglicare Victoria looked at over 300 of its low-income clients to investigate how they accessed telecommunications and whether they considered these services affordable.

The overwhelming conclusion was that telecommunications are not universally accessible. This is because 49% of those in the survey did not have home internet, and 56% didn't have mobile internet – such as a smartphone or a dongle. Two-thirds of mobile phone users had difficulty paying their phone bills and a similar number of people ran out of credit on their pre-paid mobile service sooner than they expected.

The full report is available on the ACCAN website.

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