explanatory statement
Telecommunications Technical Standard (Voice frequency performance requirements for Customer Equipment - AS/ACIF S004:2006) 2006
Issued by the Authority of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)
Legislative provisions
This instrument is the Telecommunications Technical Standard (Voice frequency performance requirements for Customer Equipment - AS/ACIF S004:2006) 2006 (the Technical Standard). The Technical Standard makes it mandatory for manufacturers and importers of customer equipment to comply with the Australian Standard / Australian Communications Industry Forum Standard – Voice frequency performance requirements for Customer Equipment - AS/ACIF S004:2006.
Subsection 376 (1) of the Telecommunications Act 1997 (the Act) allows the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to make a technical standard relating to specified customer equipment (CE) and customer cabling (CC).
Background
The telecommunications regulatory arrangement for CE and CC requires each supplier to apply a compliance label to its product prior to supply to the market. Compliance is assessed against technical standards made under section 376 of the Act. The Telecommunications Labelling (Customer Equipment and Customer Cabling) Notice 2001 (‘the Labelling Notice’) made under section 407 of the Act specifies standards applicable to particular items of CE and CC.
Technical standards made under subsection 376(1) of the Act can only consist of such requirements as are necessary or convenient for:
- protecting the integrity of a telecommunications network or facility;
- protecting the health or safety of persons who may 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 further provides that in making a technical standard ACMA may apply, adopt or incorporate any matter contained in a standard proposed or approved by any other body or association. ACMA practice is to adopt in their entirety telecommunications technical standards developed by industry. This is consistent with the practice of the former Australian Communications Authority.
The Australian Communications and Industry Forum (ACIF)[1], now known as Communications Alliance, have accreditation as a standards making organisation from Standards Australia. ACMA currently has a Memorandum of Understanding with ACIF under which ACIF is responsible for the development and revision of industry telecommunications technical standards.
The Labelling Notice and the section 376 technical standards are major components of the telecommunications regulatory arrangements and help to ensure the integrity, safety and continued availability of telecommunications networks within Australia.
Intended impact and effect
This Technical Standard prescribes voice frequency performance requirements for customer equipment (CE) and is applicable to CE that provides a voice communication capability by way of connection to a telecommunications network.
The Technical Standard is a revision of Telecommunications Technical Standard (Voice Frequency Performance Requirements for Customer Equipment AS/ACIF S004:2004) 2004 (the old standard).
The objective of this revision is to update the Standard to include packet technologies including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and to align with international requirements where possible.
The new standard is required as the old standard is outdated. The old standard does not specifically address the newer packet-based technologies such as VoIP, having been written to accommodate traditional voice technologies.
The new standard will supersede the old standard at the expiration of a twenty four month overlap period commencing from the time the amendment to the Labelling Notice is registered. During the overlap period both the old and new standards are in force and a supplier may choose to declare compliance against either.
Consultation
Section 378 of the Act requires ACMA to ensure, so far as practicable, that interested persons have an opportunity to comment on a proposed technical standard and that due consideration be given to any comments before ACMA makes the standard. The Standard was prepared by the ACIF Customer Equipment and Cable Reference Panel (CECRP) Telephony Speech Performance Working Committee 17 CECRP/WC17, comprising of industry representatives including carriers, carriage service providers, equipment manufacturers and importers and test houses, consultants and independent members.
A draft of AS/ACIF S004:2006 was made available for public comment for a period of 70 days, from 13 December 2005 to 20 February 2006, which is sufficient for the purposes of section 378 of the Act. The draft AS/ACIF S004:2006 was promoted via an advertisement in a national newspaper, an electronic mail discussion list on telecommunications policy matters and directly to government, industry and consumer organisations. In addition, the draft AS/ACIF S004:2006 was available for free download from the ACIF website and copies of the standard were mailed to enquirers. Five sets of public comments were received by ACIF. All comments were minor in nature and addressed or resolved satisfactorily.
The Office of Regulation Review (ORR) has advised that the making of the technical standard does not impose a substantial additional regulatory burden on manufacturers and importers of customer equipment. As such a Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) is not required. The ORR RIS exemption ID number is 8757.
Other documents incorporated in this instrument by reference
The Technical Standard incorporates the Standards Australia/Australian Communications Industry Forum Standard – Voice frequency performance requirements for Customer Equipment - AS/ACIF S04:2006 by requiring the CE to which the technical standard applies to comply with it. The industry standard is available from ACIF at www.acif.org.au.
The Telecommunications Labelling (Customer Equipment and Customer Cabling) Notice 2001 is available from the ACMA website at www.acma.gov.au.
Detailed Description of the Amendment Instrument
Details of the Amendment Instrument are in Attachment 1.
ATTACHMENT 1
Notes on the instrument
Section 1—Name of Technical Standard
This section provides the name and citation for the Technical Standard as Voice frequency performance requirements for Customer Equipment – AS/ACIF S004:2006) 2006.
This section also provides for the technical standard to be cited as AS/ACIF S004-2006. As indicated in Note 1, AS/ACIF S004-2006 is the name usually used when referring to the Technical Standard.
Note 2, read in conjunction with the definition of AS/ACIF Standard given in section 4, explains that the Technical Standard adopts the May 2006 version of AS/ACIF S004:2006 and does not include any subsequent amendments
Section 2—Commencement
This section provides that the Technical Standard commences on the day after it is registered.
Section 3− Objects of Technical Standard
This section sets out the broad 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 Act.
Section 4—Definitions
This section provides definitions for the instrument. It defines “AS/ACIF standard” as the Australian Standard/Australian Communications Industry Forum Standard – Voice frequency performance requirements for Customer Equipment - AS/ACIF S004:2006 published in May 2006.
This section also provides a definition of ‘Act’; ‘facility’; and ‘telecommunications network’.
Section 5—Application of Technical Standard
This section identifies the scope of the standard. It applies to customer equipment that provides a voice communication capability by way of connection to a telecommunications network.
Section 6—Standard for customer equipment
This section provides that customer equipment referred to in section 5 must comply with the standard AS/ACIF S004:2006 as published in May 2006.
[1] ACIF is an industry owned, operated and resourced company established in 1997 by the telecommunications industry to implement and manage self-regulation within Australia. ACIF provides a neutral forum in which all participants and end-users in the Australian communications industry can work together to foster an efficient, competitive environment through self-regulatory processes, technical codes and standards. ACIF has recently changed its name to Communications Alliance following a merger with SPAN. For the purposes of technical standards submitted for mandatory adoption, all correspondence will continue to come from ACIF.