explanatory statement
Issued by the Australian Communications and Media Authority
Telecommunications Act 1997
Telecommunications Technical Standard (Requirements for DSL Customer Equipment for connection to the Public Switched Telephone Network – Part 1: General – AS/ACIF S041.1:2009) 2009
Purpose
The purpose of the Telecommunications Technical Standard (Requirements for Customer Equipment for connection to the Public Switched Telephone Network – Part 1: General – AS/ACIF S041.1:2009) 2009 (“the Standard”) is to mandate Part 1 of a revised industry telecommunications technical standard in relation to specified customer equipment.
The Standard adopts a industry telecommunications standard that prescribes the general technical requirements and test methods for Customer Equipment (CE), or the parts of CE that are designed or intended for connection to a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or broadband service that shares the metallic local loop with an analogue Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) two-wire service.
Legislative Provisions
This Standard is made under subsection 376(1) of the Telecommunications Act 1997 (“the Act”). Subsection 376(1) allows the Australian Communications and Media Authority (the ACMA) to make a technical standard relating to specified CE and Customer Cabling (CC). This Standard relates to specified CE.
Background
The telecommunications regulatory arrangements for CE and CC require each supplier to apply a compliance label to its product prior to supply to the market. Compliance is determined against technical standards made under section 376 of the Act which are referred to in the Telecommunications Labelling (Customer Equipment and Customer Cabling) Notice 2001 (“the Labelling Notice”).
The Labelling Notice makes it mandatory for a supplier of CE to comply with this Standard.
A technical standard made under section 376 can only consist of such requirements as are necessary or convenient for:
- protecting the integrity of a telecommunications network or facility;
- protecting the health and safety of persons who are likely to be affected by the operation of the network or facility to which the equipment or cabling is connected;
- ensuring equipment can be used to give access to an emergency call service;
- ensuring interoperability of equipment with a network facility used to provide the standard telephone service; or
- achieving an objective specified in the regulations (no regulations have been made to date).
The Act provides at section 377 that in making a technical standard, the ACMA may apply, adopt or incorporate any matter contained in a standard proposed or approved by any other body or association. The ACMA practice is to adopt, in their entirety, industry telecommunications technical standards developed by Communications Alliance.[1]
Communications Alliance has accreditation as a Standard Development Organisation from Standards Australia. The ACMA currently has a Memorandum of Understanding with Communications Alliance under which Communications Alliance is responsible for the development and revision of industry telecommunications technical standards.
The industry telecommunications technical standard adopted in this Standard is AS/ACIF S041.1:2009 Requirements for DSL Customer Equipment for connection to the Public Switched Telephone Network – Part 1: General (“the CA Standard”). It is one of three inter-related standards arising out of a revision of the existing Communications Alliance AS/ACIF S041 Standard (“AS/ACIF S041”).
The revision was undertaken primarily to incorporate the requirements currently specified in the Telstra RCIT.0004 ADSL Splitter Specification[2] to bring the CA Standard in line with the requirements for ADSL services being offered by Australian broadband service providers. This approach was in recognition that Telstra has specific requirements for filters and splitters which are necessary to minimise interference to the Australian telecommunications networks and therefore protect the integrity of the network.
In addition, further benefits were identified by restructuring AS/ACIF S041 into a three part standard to address the compliance and testing requirements of modems and filters separately.
Operation
The Standard gives effect to the CA Standard and through its inclusion in the Labelling Notice, will replace the existing ACMA technical standard Telecommunications Technical Standard (Requirements for DSL Customer Equipment for connection to the Public Switched Telephone Network – AS/ACIF S041:2005) 2005 (“the 2005 Standard”) following a 24 month overlap period.
During the overlap period both the Standard and the 2005 Standard will remain in force and a supplier may choose to declare compliance against either technical standard. After the overlap period is concluded the 2005 Standard will expire and a supplier will be required to declare compliance of new CE to the Standard.
Part 1 of the CA Standard contains only those requirements that are common to all aspects of DSL modems and filter/splitters and these requirements have been consolidated to make it more manageable and easier for suppliers and test laboratories to understand. These requirements have not substantially changed from the 2005 Standard.
Consultation
Section 378 of the Act requires the ACMA to ensure, so far as practicable, that interested persons have an adequate opportunity to make representations on a proposed technical standard and that due consideration be given to any representation before the ACMA makes the standard.
The CA Standard was prepared by the Communications Alliance ADSL Splitter/Filter revision Working Committee WC12. This working committee comprises a wide range of industry representatives and includes carriers, carriage service providers, equipment manufacturers and importers, consumer groups and test houses.
A draft version of the CA Standard was made available for public comment for a period of 80 days from 2 December 2008 to 20 February 2009, in compliance with the requirements for consultation under section 378 of the Act.
Copies of the draft CA Standard were made available for public comment free of charge by download from the Communications Alliance website during this period. In addition, copies of the CA Standard were also sent to interested parties such as members of Communications Alliance including its Customer Equipment and Cable Reference Panel, the Network Reference Panel and various working committees.
Public comment on the draft CA Standard was also promoted through The Australian newspaper and Standards Australia publications and committees.
During the public comment process, four representations were received in total. All representations referred to editorial corrections and improvements. The ACMA was also involved in the standards development process and submitted its comments during the public comment period.
The working committee agreed with these suggestions made in the representations and adopted accordingly.
As appropriate consultation was conducted by Communications Alliance on the CA Standard adopted by this Standard, the ACMA is satisfied, pursuant to paragraph 18(2)(e) of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003, that further consultation on the Standard is unnecessary.
Regulation Impact
The ACMA obtained advice from its Best Practice Regulation Coordinator that the Standard does not impose any substantial additional regulatory burden on manufacturers and importers of CE, or the economy. For these reasons, under the self-assessment regime administered by the Office of Best Practice Regulation, the ACMA has determined that there is no need to produce a Business Cost Calculator report or to prepare a Regulation Impact Statement (RIS). The ACMA RIS exemption identifier is ACMA 118.
Documents Incorporated in this Instrument by Reference
The Standard incorporates the CA Standard by reference. The CA Standard is available from the Communications Alliance website at
http://www.commsalliance.com.au/Documents/Technical-CE
Detailed Description of the Instrument
Details of the Standard are in Attachment A.
ATTACHMENT A
NOTES ON SECTIONS
Section 1 Name of Technical Standard
This section identifies the name of the technical standard as the Telecommunications Technical Standard (Requirements for DSL Customer Equipment for connection to the Public Switched Telephone Network – Part 1: General – AS/ACIF S041.1:2009) 2009.
This section also notes that the technical standard may be cited as AS/ACIF S041.1-2009.
Note 2 in this section, read in conjunction with the definition of the AS/ACIF Standard given in section 4, indicates that this instrument adopts AS/ACIF S041.1:2009 without any amendments.
Section 2 Commencement
This section provides for the technical standard to commence on the day after it is registered.
Section 3 Objects of Technical Standard
This section sets out the objects of the technical standard. These objects are consistent with matters that may be incorporated into a standard as provided by subsection 376(2) of the Telecommunications Act 1997.
Section 4 Definitions
This section defines the following terms used in the technical standard:
Act;
AS/ACIF Standard;
DSL;
facility;
metallic local loop;
public switched telephone network; and
telecommunications network.
Section 5 Application of Technical Standard
This section identifies the scope of application of the technical standard. It applies to customer equipment (CE), or the parts of the CE that are designed or intended for connection to a DSL service that shares the metallic local loop with an analogue Public Switched Telephone Network two-wire service.
Section 6 Standard for customer equipment
This section provides that customer equipment referred to in section 5 must comply with the standard AS/ACIF S041.1:2009 as published by Communications Alliance in 2009.
[1] Communications Alliance (formerly ACIF) is an industry owned, operated and resourced company established in 1997 by the telecommunications industry to implement and manage self-regulation within Australia. Communications Alliance provides a neutral forum in which all participants and end-users in the Australian communications industry can work together to foster an efficient and competitive environment through self-regulatory processes, technical codes and standards.
[2] Telstra and Optus maintain lists of certified filters/splitters to the Telstra RCIT.0004 specification (Technical Reference Document No: RCIT.0004 Splitter Specification for ADSL/POTS Spectrum Sharing Service, Retail ADSL & Wholesale ADSL Issue 3.1. 5 June, 2007). Suppliers who wish to be listed on these lists need to comply with the Telstra specification.