Pre-selection

Pre-selection is a legislated requirement under section 349 of the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Tel Act), which enables any retail consumer with a standard telephone service (STS) to choose a service provider (telephone company), other than the provider that supplies local calls, to supply national long-distance calls, international calls and calls to mobile phones.

Under the pre-selection arrangements a customer can pre-select (choose) an alternative fixed-line provider either by ongoing declaration or through the use of dialling codes (for example, 'dial 1 for Optus'). Mobile services are exempted from pre-selection; however, fixed and point-to-point wireless services are not exempt.

Section 349 of the Tel Act provides for the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to make a written determination requiring each carrier and carriage service provider who supplies an STS to provide pre-selection. A list of pre-selectable services is determined by the ACMA. Further information on pre-selection is available on the ACMA website.

Pre–selection obligations on carriers and carriage service providers fact sheet

Consultation on pre-selection

The government proposes to amend the pre-selection arrangements to support the efficient provision of services in some new developments, on the National Broadband Network (NBN), and on some fibre-optic networks.

The changes will be made through regulations made by the Governor-General under paragraph 6(1)(e) and section 160 of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999. The regulations will, in certain scenarios, redefine an STS for voice telephony for the purposes of the pre-selection requirements.

This consultation seeks stakeholders' views on the proposed changes. It follows up on a previous consultation in November 2011. The draft documents released for that are at the bottom of the page. In light of the feedback from that process and further consideration, the draft regulations were revised—including the addition of two new circumstances in relation to which it may be appropriate for carriers to be able to provide a STS by wireless without pre-selection.

The two purposes of the proposed regulations are to:

provide greater flexibility to supply wireless STSs in specified instances, particularly as interim services, by removing the technical requirement that such wireless services offer retail pre-selection
pending further review, allow service providers to avoid the investment cost required to provide retail-level pre-selection on wholesale-only fibre networks in light of the continuing decline in the use of this service on existing networks and the ready ability for customers to transfer between service providers on wholesale-only fibre networks.

The regulations are only intended to deal with retail pre-selection obligations as they pertain to STSs supplied over fixed-wireless and wholesale-only fibre networks and are not intended to alter retail pre-selection obligations on the existing copper network. The regulations are not intended to alter the provision of wholesale services to support retail competition on copper.

The department seeks comments on the revised exposure draft of the regulations.

Draft Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) (Characteristics for Standard Telephone Service) Regulation 20121 (PDF, 161 KB)

How to make a submission on the draft regulations

Please send feedback and submissions on the revised draft of the regulations by email to competitionpolicy@dbcde.gov.au or by post to:

The Manager
Competition Policy Section
Networks Regulation Branch
Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
GPO Box 2154
CANBERRA ACT 2601

Submissions are due by 5 pm AEDT on 27 March 2012.