New Industry Codes
Telstra Awarded Tender
Draft Productivity Commission Report
Datacasting
One-Tel Placed in Administration
On October 26 2000 the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) registered the Billing Industry Code. This will apply to carriers, carriage service providers and content service providers. The code is designed to ensure that customers are given adequate information in invoices and provides a minimum set of standards for suppliers to meet when performing bill functions. Provisions on Goods and Services Tax information have not been included but should be when the code is reviewed.
On January 25 2001 the ACA registered the Credit Management Code. This code contains minimum standards on informing consumers of credit assessment and credit management processes.
On April 27 2001 the ACA registered the Call Charging and Billing Accuracy Code, replacing the January 1999 code of the same name. The aim of this code is to increase consumer confidence in the accuracy of call charging and billing systems, and to assist network operators to manage and control the overall accuracy of the increasingly complex charging and billing systems.
On May 23 2001 the ACA registered the Customer Transfer Code. This code will apply to carriers and carriage service providers, and is intended to reduce incidences of 'slamming', a practice that results in a customer transfer occurring without the customer's full knowledge or consent.
Telstra Awarded Tender
On February 14 2001 the government announced that Telstra has been selected as the preferred tenderer for the provision of untimed local calls and upgraded services in the extended zones of Australia. The tender provides $150 million for the infrastructure upgrade necessary to provide these services and is being funded from the proceeds of the second sale of shares in Telstra. Extended zones are located in the most sparsely populated areas in Australia covering about 80% of Australia's land mass and containing approximately 40,000 telephone services.
Draft Productivity Commission Report
On March 29 2001 the Productivity Commission released its draft report on telecommunications competition regulation. The main thrust of the report is that the commission considers that telecommunications-specific regulation of access terms and conditions in Part 11(c) of the Trade Practices Act 1974 is still required to maintain efficient competition in the medium term. The commission has advocated a number of reforms to the access arrangements to address identified shortcomings of slowness and the efficiency of the access terms and conditions. The commission's view is that the telecommunications-specific provisions for dealing with anti-competitive conduct in Part 11(b) of the Trade Practices Act are no longer warranted and should be repealed. The general anti-competitive provisions in Part 4 of the Trade Practices Act and the provisions for access in Part 11(c) are better suited for dealing with any competition issues that may arise.
On May 16 2001 the communications minister, Senator Richard Alston, cancelled the datacasting licence auction scheduled for May 21 2001 due to lack of interest. Datacasting services are a statutory creation of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, which requires that the radio communication spectrum for services providing programmes and information be regulated.
One-Tel Placed in Administration
On May 30 2001 it was announced that Australia's fourth largest telecommunications provider, One-Tel, was in administration and would cease trading on the Australian Stock Exchange. One-Tel has 2.6 million customers worldwide, with up to 1 million in Australia. The latest figures show it had 371,500 landline users and 171,800 internet users at the end of last December.
For further information on this topic please contact Jane Fogarty at Blake Dawson Waldron by telephone (+61 2 9258 6000) or by fax (+61 2 9258 6999) or by e-mail ([email protected]).
The materials contained on this web site are for general information purposes only and are subject to the disclaimer