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Peak telecommunications consumer body ACCAN is calling on the federal government to ban Telstra's $36 a year Silent Line fee, which landline customers currently have to pay if they want to keep their phone number private.

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ACCAN congratulates Dr Will Tibben and Gunela Astbrink, winners of this year's 2013 Telstra-TJA Christopher Newell prize for their paper 'The Role of Public Procurement in Accessibility to ICT'. The annual prize is awarded to the best paper offered for publication to the Telecommunications Journal of Australia (TJA) that demonstrates the benefits of telecommunications for people with disability.

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Peak telecommunications consumer body ACCAN is calling on the ACCC to take action on apps that advertise as free but aggressively encourage or require in-app purchases to keep playing.

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Many organisations are building very large collections of information about their consumers — shopping habits, locations, web browsing history, telephone and energy usage, traffic, weather, stock market information, and so on. "Big data" refers to these large collections of data.

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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.

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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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ACCAN argued that work on NBN performance standards is urgently required at the NBN Joint Committee hearing on Friday 19th April in Sydney. The NBN Joint Committee comes together every six months to inquire into the NBN rollout and is comprised of 16 parliamentary members including Rob Oakeshott MP, Malcolm Turnbull MP and Senator Scott Ludlam, among others.

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In ACCAN's submission to the latest NBN Joint Parliamentary Committee hearings, we outlined our engagement on various issues relating to the NBN including the importance of quality voice services and service reporting.

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Most Australian consumers must currently pay a monthly fee of $2.93 or more for a “Silent Line” to make sure that their phone number will not be published in the White Pages. The fee effectively charges people for their privacy and is a particular problem for low-income consumers and victims of crime, harassment or violence. While Telstra has recently proposed an exemption to the Silent Line for customers facing security threats, ACCAN's position remains that the fee should be removed for all consumers.

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Cover of Broadband Continuity Plan tipsheet

docDownload: Broadband Continuity Plan74 KB

pdfDownload: Broadband Continuity Plan252.67 KB

Your broadband service can be a critical business asset. If your broadband service failed, could your business continue to operate effectively?

To minimise the risk you are advised to:

a) Perform a risk assessment for your business use of broadband

b) Obtain the most resilient broadband service that you can afford – to match the level of risk.

c) Write an action plan of what you would do if you broadband failed (outage)

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Cover image of the business continuity plan tipsheetdocDownload: Business Continuity Plan61 KB

pdfDownload: Business Continuity Plan310.03 KB

What is a 'Business Continuity Plan' (BCP)?

It is a fact of life that emergencies will happen, and computer and communications systems will fail. To minimise the problems for your business it is advisable to have a business continuity plan which:

  • Outlines what you have done in advance to prevent interruptions to vital services

  • Lists the steps you and staff will take during an interruption to continue operations

  • Lists the steps you will take to fully restore services after an interruption

  • Sets up a Post Incident Review (PIR) after an interruption has occurred

Sample BCPs are available on the internet where you will also find sites that have extensive instructions on their construction and implementation.

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Infographic showing results of ACCAN 2016: small business survey. 96% of small businesses have trouble with at least one telecommunications services

Australian small businesses provide employment for around 4.8 million people. As most small businesses rely on telecommunications services to be able to do business, it is essential these services be available, reliable and affordable. When a small business cannot access a broadband connection or make phone calls, business proceses can become difficult. When a small business operator waits in a call centre queue or is transferred between different customer service representatives trying to have a fault resolved, they are not only losing time, but money. This impact on productivity and turnover affects not only the small business owner, but its employees and customers.

ACCAN has produced guides that will provide small business consumers with the tools to assist them to:

  • Understand their rights as a phone and internet consumer

  • Be aware of the important features of telecommunications services and products to help them to choose products that best suit their business needs.

  • Understand available complaint mechanisms

  • Learn ways to get the most out of communications services they rely on

Research Reports:

 

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