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• Public Comment on ACA Report

Consumers may be at risk of unwittingly incurring high bills because they do not understand the costs, terms and conditions of telecommunications services. Consumers should take particular care to ensure they understand their rights and responsibilities in relation to new services and premium rate services, such as competition entries and mobile phone ringtones.

As surprise bills are not limited to bills for any particular type of telecommunications service, the Government has acted to address this issue across the entire telecommunications industry.

In August 2005, the Minister wrote to each major service provider to make it clear that the Government expects the industry to develop an effective registered code of practice dealing with consumer credit management issues without delay, or more direct action would be considered by the Government.

In January 2006, the then Australian Communications Industry Forum (ACIF) (now known as Communications Alliance) released a revised Credit Management code. It addressed the key concerns identified in the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) report Preventing Unexpectedly High Bills: Credit Management in Telecommunications.

ACMA registered the code on 13 April 2006. In order to register the code, ACMA assessed whether the code provides adequate community safeguards. Once a code is registered, ACMA may direct service providers to comply with the rules of a code.

The code sets credit management procedures standards for service providers, including those used to impose penalties for the late payment of accounts. Providers must have a financial hardship policy to help manage a customer's individual circumstances with appropriately trained staff. Providers must also offer customers ways to manage their spending, such as usage caps, call barring, or prepaid facilities, though they may assess the credit worthiness of customers in certain circumstances. Customers must also be given access to up to date information on the balance of their account, and all credit management procedures must be followed before reporting a customer to a credit reporting agency. The code can be viewed on the Communications Alliance website.

While the Government and the industry are acting to protect consumers, it is important that consumers do what they can to protect themselves. They should be aware that they can request the barring of individual calls to premium rate numbers, or the barring of all calls to these numbers. If a consumer receives an unexpected high bill, he or she should immediately contact their service provider.

Consumers should also be aware that the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) can investigate complaints about the billing of services and breaches of industry codes that have been registered with the regulator. The TIO is a free and independent dispute resolution scheme for residential and small business consumers of telecommunications services who have been unable to resolve their concerns with their service provider. The TIO can be contacted on 1800 062 058 and via its website, www.tio.com.au.

• Document ID: 3500 |
• Last modified: 6 February 2008, 12:18pm