Telco customers will be better informed during network outages under new rules made by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
The rules will see telco customers updated during localised outages, including when an outage occurs, the locations affected, the likely cause of the outage, the types of services impacted and an estimated timeframe for the issue to be resolved.
ACMA member Samantha Yorke said the changes were a vital step in addressing the impact that outages can have on individuals and communities that rely on these services.
“When your phone or internet goes down it’s not just frustrating, it can cause significant issues, including disrupting businesses and impacting public safety,” Ms Yorke said.
“These new rules will make sure that telco customers are kept up to date about what is going on during local outages and informed about when their service might be restored.
“Telcos must also take extra efforts to keep consumers who are more at risk of harm connected during an outage.”
Other new obligations will require telcos to provide information about outages to police, fire and ambulance services, to report to the ACMA, and to improve general complaints handling processes.
The rules will also provide greater certainty that calls to the Triple Zero emergency service will be carried where a telco network suffers an outage but an alternative telco network is available to carry the call.
“Improving industry accountability for the carriage of calls to Triple Zero will give Australians greater confidence that their safety is prioritised when networks are down,” Ms Yorke said.
The ACMA has already put in place rules that commenced in December 2024 that require telcos to prioritise customer communications in major outages impacting 100,000 or more services. The new rules announced today now cover outages that affect 1,000 or more services in regional Australia (for more than 6 hours) and 250 or more services in remote Australia (for more than 3 hours).
The ACMA has a range of powers to enforce the new rules including financial penalties or commencing civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia.
“These rules are a significant uplift in protections for Australian telco consumers. We will be closely monitoring compliance with the new obligations and will review the customer communications obligations 12 months from their introduction,” Ms Yorke said.
These rules have been made following directions issued by the Minister for Communications, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP, addressing recommendations made in the review of the Optus nationwide network outage of 8 November 2023.
That outage resulted in Optus paying penalties totalling more than $12 million for breaches of emergency call rules following an investigation by the ACMA.
Background
On 30 April 2025 the Australian Communications and Media Authority made new rules to better support telco consumers during network outages.
Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard Variation 2025 (No.1) will commence on 30 June 2025.
Under these new rules, telcos will be required to prioritise customer communications during ‘significant local outages’ and to:
- communicate with end-users information about the outages that:
- is timely and up-to date
- is accessible and made through a mix of public and direct communication channels
- identifies, as appropriate, methods for end-users to seek a real-time or near real-time update or assistance
- informs end-users and the public about the status, scale, cause, and estimated timing for rectification of the outage
- provides prompt notification when services are restored
- carriers and CSPs share information about outages with each other and relevant stakeholders to enable effective communication with end-users affected by the outage
- carriers and CSPs make information about their process for communicating about outages publicly available and easily accessible.
Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Amendment Determination 2025 (No. 1) will commence on 1 November 2025.
These new rules impose requirements on providers to:
- ‘wilt’ a mobile base station in the event it loses connectivity to the core network and the carriage of emergency calls is impacted – wilting means to prevent the mobile base station from providing any connectivity to mobile phones via that base station, so that emergency calls can be carried on another mobile carrier network if available
- prevent the provider’s network from impeding their customers’ emergency calls being carried on another network during an outage (known as emergency camp-on)
- undertake testing to confirm that networks can carry calls to the emergency call person for 000 and 112
- share information relating to outages with relevant emergency service organisations (police, fire and ambulance)
- provide a written report to the ACMA and DITRDCA within 45 days of a major outage detailing the cause and a detailed plan of how the carrier will prevent similar outages occurring in the future.
Telecommunications (Consumer Complaints Handling) Industry Standard Amendment 2025 (No. 1) will commence on 30 June 2025.
Network outage complaints
- New rules are being introduced requiring telcos to handle complaints from consumers when their services stop working because of a network outage.
- These will apply during major outages impacting 100,000 service or more or significant local outages.
- Telcos will need to appropriately recognise, accept and handle the resolution of complaints about network outages and get their disconnected services restored promptly.
- The rules work together with other new rules in the Customer Communications for Outages Industry Standard to make sure that consumers receive information and updates about a network outage and when it has been fixed.
- Telcos are required to let consumers know what to do if their services don’t start working automatically when the network outage problem is fixed, or if they have other network-related complaints.
- There are added protections for consumers with urgent network outage complaints where their safety or health is put at risk by the effects of a network outage.
Other complaints handling rule changes
We have also reviewed the Complaints Handling Standard and are making changes so that the consumer safeguards it provides:
- meet current community standards
- are consumer focused
- will lead to complaints being resolved effectively and efficiently.
These include:
- making it easier for consumers to find their telco’s complaints handling process on their website
- making it easier for consumers to find the right contact information to make a complaint and then getting through to their telco to lodge their complaint
- improving accessibility to make a complaint, by increasing the methods that consumers can use to contact their telco, including via information about the National Relay Service for hearing-impaired consumers
- significantly reducing the timeframes that telcos have for resolving complaints
- requiring telcos to give clearer, better information to consumers about how the TIO can help them with a complaint if the telco is not dealing with it satisfactorily.
MR 09/2025