Customers will be better protected during telco outages: ACMA

Customers will have more channels of communication during an outage.

New rules enforced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority means telco customers will be better informed during network outages.

During an outage, customers will be updated about when an outage occured, the locations impacted, the cause of the outage, the types of services impacted and an estimated timeframe for the issue to be resolved.

Other new obligations will require telcos to provide information about outages to police, fire and ambulance services, to report to the ACMA, and to improve general complaints handling processes.

These rules have been implemented after Optus suffered a major, nationwide outage in November 2023.

That outage resulted in Optus paying penalties totalling more than $12 million for breaches of emergency call rules following an investigation by the ACMA.

Samantha Yorke, ACMA member said the changes were a “vital step” in addressing the impact that outages can have on individuals and communities that rely on these services.

“When your phone or internet goes down it’s not just frustrating, it can cause significant issues, including disrupting businesses and impacting public safety,” she said.

“These new rules will make sure that telco customers are kept up to date about what is going on during local outages and informed about when their service might be restored.

“Telcos must also take extra efforts to keep consumers who are more at risk of harm connected during an outage.”

The rules will also provide greater certainty that calls to the Triple Zero emergency service will be carried where a telco network suffers an outage but an alternative telco network is available to carry the call.

“Improving industry accountability for the carriage of calls to Triple Zero will give Australians greater confidence that their safety is prioritised when networks are down,” Yorke explained.

The ACMA has already put in place rules that commenced in December 2024 that require telcos to prioritise customer communications in major outages impacting 100,000 or more services.

The new rules announced today now cover outages that affect 1,000 or more services in regional Australia (for more than 6 hours) and 250 or more services in remote Australia (for more than 3 hours).

The ACMA has a range of powers to enforce the new rules including financial penalties or commencing civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia.

Yorke explained these rules are a significant uplift in protections for Australian telco consumers.

“We will be closely monitoring compliance with the new obligations and will review the customer communications obligations 12 months from their introduction,” she ended.