Telecommunications (Consumer Complaints) Record-Keeping Rules Amendment 2025 (No. 1) (Cth)

Telecommunications (Consumer Complaints) Record-Keeping Rules Amendment 2025 (No. 1)

The Australian Communications and Media Authority makes the following Rules under section 529 of the Telecommunications Act 1997.

Dated: 18 September 2025

Samantha Yorke

[signed]

Member

Elizabeth Quinn

[signed]

Acting General Manager

Australian Communications and Media Authority

1Name

This instrument is the Telecommunications (Consumer Complaints) Record-Keeping Rules Amendment 2025 (No. 1).

2Commencement

This instrument commences on 1 December 2025.

3Authority

This instrument is made under section 529 of the Telecommunications Act 1997.

4Amendments

The instrument that is specified in Schedule 1 is amended as set out in the applicable items in that Schedule.

Schedule 1—Amendments

Telecommunications (Consumer Complaints) Record-Keeping Rules 2018 (Registration No. F2018L00721)

1

Section 5 (after definition of active service)

Insert:

advocate means a person nominated on behalf of a consumer to deal with a carriage service provider on the consumer’s behalf, but does not include an authorised representative or a person who has authority to access the consumer’s account information from the carriage service provider.

authorised representative means a person who has authority from a consumer to deal with a carriage service provider on behalf of that consumer as their authorised agent.

2

Section 5 (definition of complaint)

Repeal the definition, substitute:

complaint means:

1. (a)

   an expression of dissatisfaction made to a carriage service provider by a consumer in relation to its telecommunications products, the application of its complaints handling process or its network outage complaints handling process, where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected by the consumer; or

2. (b)

   a network outage complaint.

It does not include an initial call to request information or support or to report a fault or service difficulty, unless a consumer advises that they want that call treated as a complaint, nor an issue that is the subject of legal action.

Note: An initial call from a consumer indicating that they cannot establish or maintain connection with a carriage service is a service outage report.

3 Section 5 (after definition of complaint type)

Insert:

Note: One category of complaint type must be a network outage complaint.

4

Section 5 (definition of consumer)

Omit “$20,000”, substitute “$40,000”.

5

Section 5 (at the end of the definition of consumer)

Insert:

A reference to a consumer includes a reference to the consumer’s representative.

6

Section 5 (after definition of consumer contract)

Insert:

default resolution has the same meaning as in section 5 of the Telecommunications (Consumer Complaints Handling) Industry Standard 2018.

7

Section 5 (after definition of NBN voice service)

Insert:

network outage has the same meaning as in section 5 of the Telecommunications (Consumer Complaints Handling) Industry Standard 2018.

network outage complaint has the same meaning as in section 5 of the Telecommunications (Consumer Complaints Handling) Industry Standard 2018.

network outage complaints handling process means a network consumer complaints handling process established by a carriage service provider pursuant to section 10A of the Telecommunications (Consumer Complaints Handling) Industry Standard 2018.

8

Section 5 (after definition of record-keeping period)

Insert:

representative means an advocate or an authorised representative.

9

Section 5 (after definition of service in operation)

Repeal the note, substitute:

Note: A service in operation can be pre-paid or post-paid, and it can be the subject of a contract of fixed duration or can be a service without a minimum term.

service outage report has the same meaning as in section 5 of the Telecommunications (Consumer Complaints Handling) Industry Standard 2018.

10

Section 5 (note to the section)

Omit “(e) public mobile telephone service;”, substitute “(e) public mobile telecommunications service;”.

11

Paragraph 6(b)

After “in force” insert “or existing”.

12

Paragraph 9(1)(a)

After “excluding Ombudsman referred complaints” insert “and network outage complaints”.

13

Paragraph 9(1)(b)

After “the total number of Ombudsman referred complaints” insert “, excluding complaints referred to in paragraph 9A(b),”.

14

Paragraph 9(1)(c)

After “excluding Ombudsman referred complaints” insert “and network outage complaints”.

15

Paragraph 9(1)(d)

After “excluding Ombudsman referred complaints” insert “and network outage complaints”.

16

Subsection 9(2)

After “excluding Ombudsman referred complaints” insert “and network outage complaints”.

17

Subsection 9(3)

After “excluding Ombudsman referred complaints” insert “and network outage complaints”.

18

Subsection 9(4)

After “excluding Ombudsman referred complaints” insert “and network outage complaints”.

19

After section 9

Insert:

9ARecords relating to network outage complaints received

Inrelation to the services in operation referred to in subsection 8(1), for each record-keeping period, a qualifying retail carriage service provider must keep records of:

1. (a)

   the total number of network outage complaints received by the provider during the record-keeping period;

2. (b)

   the total number of Ombudsman referred complaints, that relate to network outage complaints, referred by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman during the record-keeping period;

3. (c)

   the average number of days taken for the default resolution of a network outage complaint to be implemented during the record-keeping period;

4. (d)

   the number of network outages that occurred which resulted in one or more network outage complaints.

20

After paragraph 14(6)(d)

Repeal the note, substitute:

Note: Section 16 sets out requirements relating to the provision of audit reports to the ACMA.

21

Clause 3 of Schedule 1

Omit “section 9” substitute “sections 9 and 9A”.