The Australian Communications and Media Authority has moved to stop unsafe mobile phones and other illegal radio equipment getting into consumers’ hands with a new voluntary scheme aimed at online device sellers.
Announced amid growing scrutiny on mobile phone emergency call reliability – triggered by fatalities recent linked to triple zero call issues – the scheme invites online retailers take measures to block the sale of a range of “dodgy” radio communication devices, including grey market cellular handsets.
The scope of radio communication devices that the equipment safety pledge aims to capture is broad. It includes CBs, illegal transmission jamming devices, mobile phone boosters and cellular mobile signal repeaters.
However, it also includes “grey market mobile phones” which have started to enter the increasingly volatile debate over the integrity of Australia’s emergency calling ecosystem.
The grey market mobiles have been referred to in the most recent session of parliament’s triple zero inquiry into the September Optus outage as part of discussions around older models of Samsung handsets.
Signing the pledge obliges online retailers to take steps to detect the illegal or unsafe devices and take them out of their catalogues.
“Helping keep Australians safe from dodgy devices is a shared responsibility. These devices can interfere with emergency services like police, fire and ambulance, so sellers must step up to prevent these from being sold,” ACMA deputy chair Adam Suckling said.
“This pledge is an important step forward in protecting Australians from harmful communications equipment and ensure online marketplaces are not a gateway for illegal and non-compliant products.”
Online marketplace brands including eBay, Gumtree, Temu and Shein have already signed up for the scheme, and ACMA said that more retailers would be invited to apply over time.
ACMA has lately come under pressure from the federal government to address concerns about unsafe mobile handset behaviour during network outages, in particular their ability to switch reliably between network provider services to place emergency calls during outages. The process is known as 'camp on'.
The issue first started to gain momentum in October when Telstra and Optus announced plans to block 71 models of Samsung handsets found to have emergency call reliability problems.
The devices have firmware configurations that lock the the handsets on to TPG Telecom’s closed Vodafone-branded 3G network when the handsets’ home networks are unavailable.
That means that when Telstra’s network, and that of its commercial rival Optus’, are not available the devices are unable to correctly switch to TPG Telecom’s mobile network to place triple zero calls.
Of the 71 affected handset models, 60 can receive software updates to fix the problem. However, the remaining 10 cannot be updated and carriers have blocked them from their networks.
Samsung this week told the triple zero inquiry committee that 98,000 mobile handsets in need of the software updates remained active on Australian mobile networks.
ACMA’s pledge scheme and its approach to eliminating unsafe mobile devices from Australian cellular networks is at variance with what the Australia’s telecommunications sector prefers.
The sector has, through its lobby the Australian Telecommunications Alliance, requested instead that ACMA publish its list of handsets registered as compliant with mobile equipment standards under its Telecommunications Labelling Notice (TLN) regime.
The TLN regime is also a voluntary scheme. It requires handset manufacturers to make compliance declarations to the regulator, keep records of compliant devices and apply consumer compliance labels to them, ACMA has previously told iTnews.
Around mid-November the ATA told iTnews that carriers planned to establish a shared database of handsets known to have problems connecting to triple zero services.
“This technical information sharing will be undertaken with a view to developing an industry database for device issues and capabilities in relation to triple zero, to assist mobile network operators with their management of device capabilities,” ATA chief executive Luke Coleman told iTnews at the time.
At the time, the ATA said its shared database was not going to be made public. It’s understood that the alliance wanted to establish the information sharing process because ACMA had repeatedly rejected its recommendation that the regulator establish and maintain the list.
However, more recently, the ATA has reverted closer to its original policy position recommending in its submission to the government’s triple zero inquiry that ACMA take on the cost of maintaining the register and making it available to the public.
“This public register would establish a ‘single authoritative source’ that can be relied on by consumers, industry, and regulators to determine the compliance (and safety) of mobile devices in Australia,” it added.
The pledge scheme might provide ACMA with an arms-length means to take unsafe mobiles from the market.
However, publishing its compliant device register could prove awkward if it contains handset models that are subsequently found, through independent testing or otherwise, not to be safe.
As recently as yesterday, ACMA appeared to be admitting that the register might not be reliable.
In advice that ACMA posted on one of the web pages linked in press materials for the launch of the pledge, it wrote: “Even if there is an RCM (regulatory compliance mark), you should check with your telco that it will work on their network before buying a phone.”
The page then listed links to Telstra, TPG Telecom, Vodafone Australia and Optus’ homepages.
The carriers’ homepages did not appear to provide content to advise consumers how to check for handset compatibility in any obvious way, but did provide generic contact information.
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