ACMA ponders exemptions from new outage register rules

The federal government may exempt some telcos from rules requiring them to maintain service outage registers, as ordered by communications minister Anika Wells late last year.

Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is seeking views from industry on whether to provide the exemptions via a consultation paper.

Wells' direction required ACMA to draft changes to the Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard 2024 that would give effect to the outage registers.

The changes set out rules applying to all carriers and carriage service providers (CSPs) for publishing and maintain the registers, which are expected to be hosted on telcos' websites in accordance with strict accessibility standards.

However, ACMA now appears to be leaving a door ajar to allow in the possibility of loosening the rules to let some telcos off the hook.

Specifically, the regulator wants to know whether it should have the flexibility to split certain carriers and carriage service providers into different classes, with the aim of freeing some from the obligation to maintain the public registers.

“Are there any additional matters aligned to the objectives (of the amendments) that should be included in the draft instrument, including whether the flexibility to treat different classes of carriers or CSPs differently or exempt certain classes should be applied?” the regulator asked of industry stakeholders.

The paper’s release is in part a response to the ministerial direction late last year requiring telcos to establish the public registers by amending the Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard 2024 which has been in place since December 2024.

However, it’s also a response to a broader review of how new triple zero service rules introduce following a review of the November 8 Optus outage.

Those rules have been in operation since before the standard for communicating outages to customers commenced in 2024, and ACMA committed to reviewing their first year of performance early in 2025.

The industry responses will help ACMA form views for a broader review to take place later this year, the regulator said.

Accordingly, ACMA has asked telcos whether the rules for keeping outage information relevant – which are aligned with the 2024 standard – are workable.

The current standard requires telcos o update the outage register every six hours for the first 24 hours, then once during each subsequent 24-hour period.

“This approach was adopted to create efficiencies for carriers and CSPs while maintaining clarity through standalone rules,” the ACMA said in its consultation paper.

However, now it appears to be having doubts about how effectively the approach has worked in practice.  

The draft changes also set out detailed rules for information that the online registers will be required to maintain, including about the type of outage, its duration, and geographical and the number and nature of services it affects.

That includes detailed rules about the nature of the online locations that the telcos must use to make the outage information available to the public.

Under the draft proposal, carriers are required to make the register available on their own site or, if that option is not available, an alternative website such as a carrier’s site or “another website that the carrier considers is suitable for the purposes of inspection”.  

However, ACMA has asked telcos and other industry stakeholders whether the obligation to supply a link to the outage register should be changed.

“Should the obligation for CSPs to display a link to the outage register apply only to CSPs who are not carriers (as currently drafted to reflect the outages register direction), or should it also apply to carriers that act as CSPs to ensure transparency for consumers?

We are interested in whether this might be a gap and what approach would best meet the objectives of the outages register direction,” ACMA asked in its consultation paper.

Under Wells’ ministerial direction the amendments to the outage communications standard are scheduled to commence from the end of March this year, with registers required to be operational no later than June 30.

However, ACMA has asked telcos when telcos could realistically comply with the mandates.

Anika Wells’ decision to direct telco to establish the registers appeased consumer advocates, including the Australian Communications Consumers Action Network (ACCAN), which called for their establishment last October.

However, telcos have argued that the registers are unnecessary.

Industry lobby, the Australian Telecommunications Alliance (ATA), said that current regulations requiring telcos to keep customers and regulators informed about network outages were already sufficient.

“When an outage occurs, customers want to know what's happening and when they can expect to get back online – existing regulations already provide this," ATA chief Luke Coleman said.

Telcos and other industry stakeholders have been given until February 18 to lodge their views on the consultation paper with ACMA.